It was pretty cool all week. It even rained Friday night, a lovely surprise awaiting me when I awoke to puddles in the garden. My final (I promise!) raised bed arrived and got constructed and is waiting in the garden for plants to bless it (ordered online of course). We had typical Oregon weather the other evening for our first post-(okay still mid-)pandemic dinner party in the patio; it was delightfully warm all afternoon and through the first couple of courses, then as we got close to dessert the moon rose over the fir trees and the temperature dropped enough to justify using the fire pit. It was amazingly wonderful to spend time with friends again.
After dinner we cleaned up outside and gave our friends a tour of our house. We have lived here a little over two years now. It suits us well, and it has been a blessing during the pandemic for the way it has allowed us to live and walk and work in lock-down. It contains us and our lives pretty well.Solomon prayed (1 Kings 8:27) on the occasion of the consecration of the ark of the covenant in the new temple “Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.”
Solomon prayed (1 Kings 8:27) on the occasion of the consecration of the ark of the covenant in the new temple “Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built.”
The psalmist sang (84:1) “How dear to me is your dwelling, O Lord of hosts! My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord.“
We are reminded that we human creatures have a propensity for capturing things. We want to make sure they last. We want to be certain we have them just where we want them and just when we need them. And of course, we try our best to do the same thing with God. We set aside time to be sure God is in our homes and in our lives and then we declare God in God’s place while we forge ahead on our own. We forget that God who is love cannot be captured. Love is spirit, love is action, love is unceasing, love is eternal—love cannot be captured it must be lived.
Ephesians (6:10) tells us to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God,” which is love.
We forget that love is more than warm feelings, it is the very force of life that not only sustains us, but also protects us. It is the force that keeps creation always in forward motion.
Jesus said (John 6:63) “It is the spirit that gives life.”
He meant that to embrace God is to be filled with love, to be ever loving, to be forever giving and receiving love. Peter answered him (6:68) “you have the words of eternal life” because it is the Spirit, which is love, that gives life.
And it is love that defines us as LGBTQ heirs of the kingdom of love. It is the love we share when we build homes for our logical families that is the whole armor of God. It is the love we model for all of creation through the ways we create sustenance for our own communities that is the life-giving gift of the Spirit.
We must wear that armor with LGBTQ pride in the loving people we are. We must eternally demonstrate the triumph of the active unceasing love we share.
Proper 16 Year B 2021 RCL (1 Kings 8:[1, 6, 10-11], 22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84 Quam dilecta!; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69)
©2021 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 