I’ve been bringing Amy Schneider into my midrash every week lately. I’m fascinated by the phenomenon of a trans-woman making such an impact in such a regular kind of “normal” American venue. After all, Jeopardy! is watched by millions daily, but is very well-known to be the stomping ground of those who are, shall we say, “mature” (of which I must admit I am)? When I was training to be a hospital chaplain and we were being instructed to make rounds every evening (we were to visit anyone who was to have surgery the next morning) we were told to go eat supper during the 30 minutes Jeopardy! was on television—“nobody will want to talk to you if you interrupt Jeopardy!” we were told! It was true, even the nurses tried not to bother people then.
So it is pretty exciting that it is in this venue that a trans-woman is receiving acceptance, even being honored. Amy has now won over 1 million dollars and joined the exclusive club of long-term winners. Friday I was also a little bit startled (can you be a little bit startled?) to realize one of the other contestants (Sean Sweeney) was a gay man, which is not so unusual, but during the comment period was talking about his husband. Maybe “surprised” is a better word than “startled.” It reminded me (and I know I’ve told this story here someplace) of a time when I was hospitalized briefly (for a few hours, which made us all wonder what they were thinking!) and I had to go three rounds with a nurse about my husband. He had gone to get a cup of tea or something and when I asked her if she had seen him she said pointedly “your FRIEND” is sitting outside in the waiting room. I said “he’s my husband” and she said “your FRIEND” is probably more comfortable out there. And I said “look, we’re married, he’s my husband, it’s the law, get over it!” Interestingly, I didn’t see her again, another nurse took over until I got sprung.
Well, I guess my point is that I was pleasantly surprised to see on regular evening television both a trans-woman champion and a married gay man and nobody batted an eyelash. It made me think about the past centuries of phobia and oppression, the decades of striving for equality, the power summoned by the LGBTQ community to come out and stand up for ourselves insisting on our basic rights as citizens to life and love. And here is how it plays out in the end, on Jeopardy!.
(Another curious point is how little feedback I’ve been getting about Amy and her social witness. One might have expected a larger proportion of readers of t his blog to be excited about this amazing development.)
I’ve been fascinated watching Christmas deconstructed in my neighborhood the past ten days or so. Of course, we kept our outdoor lights on and decorations up until the Feast of the Epiphany, until the twelfth night of Christmas had passed. Many of our neighbors began to take things down the day after Christmas, most of them had everything gone by New Year’s Day. It led me to ponder the true meaning of Christmas, which is not a singular event but an eternity. That is, Christmas is not a one-off event that we remember each year. Rather, Christmas is the epiphany of the incarnation of God as human, it is the reminder to us that it is in every moment that God not only is but also is becoming with us, and that we are called by God’s covenant with us to manifest God’s presence among us through sharing the love God gave us in creation. Indeed, we are called to share the love God gave us by creating us as LGBTQ people of love in God’s own image. We are to celebrate us, and in doing so, build up love in the whole of creation.
God is love, in us God has created a powerhouse of love, through us God has honored our creation in God’s loving image. We are called to fuel that powerhouse of love by building up love, by sharing love, by celebrating love, eternally. We are called to lay aside the distractions of daily living and to embrace the Spirit of God’s love. We are called to walk in love, until we, like those assembled at the baptism of Christ, hear the transformative power of the voice of God saying “with you I am well pleased.”
1 Epiphany Year C 2022 RCL “The Baptism of Our Lord” (Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)
©2022 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 