“Wash and be Clean”

We are watching the inexorable march of fascism.

We have seen the near overthrow of our own government

            which is still on-going.

We have seen the self-righteous right take over

            the supreme court and turn the law into dust.

We have seen the right to body sovereignty

            removed.

We can only expect that we will be next,

            first they will re-outlaw our marriages

                        then they will re-outlaw our selves.

And intelligent people don’t have the erm [gumption? cojones?]

            to make their friends and relatives understand this isn’t about the price

            of gasoline

            this is about life and death.

Your girlfriend dead from a coat-hanger abortion.

Your sister dead from carrying a fetus too long until it killed her.

This is my cry.

“Wash and be clean.”

How much more clear could Elisha’s instructions to Naaman

            have been (2 Kings 5:13)?

Naaman wanted magic.

But the magic is within you.

The spirit of God is within you.

God is within you.

God is with you.

God is with gay you,

God is with lesbian you,

God is with transgender you,

God is with queer you,

God is with polyamorous you …

            and you know what,

                        all you have to do is look in the Bible,

            throw it back in their faces,

                        all of us are there in God’s own image.

“Wash and be clean.”

That’s all it takes.

Admit your self

            to your self

                        and be

                                    your own God-given self.

Do it all with love in your heart.

“You reap whatever you sow” (Galatians 6:7).

Have love in your heart in all that you do.

If you do not have love

            get some,

                        any way you can.

If you feel upset or angry or vengeful (as I clearly have been doing)

            think about someone you love

            think about some thing that you love

            think about love

                        get some love in you.

Then

            go out and “wash and be clean”—

            go out and be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer,

                        proudly, loudly, fiercely, boldly—

            remember,

                        you are made in God’s gay image

                        or you are made in God’s bisexual image

                        or you are made in God’s lesbian image

                        or you are made in God’s transgender image

                                    now how could that be? but it is,

                                                you are made in God’s own image

                                                            did you think God really was an old man?

                                                            did you never think God was intersectional?

And wherever you go say to them “the Kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:9, 11).

Because it has.

Because it is.

Because it is in us,

            the LGBTQ people made in God’s image,

                        we are the keepers of the kingdom of love.

Proper 9 Year C 2022 RCL (2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30 Exaltabo te, Domine; Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16; Luke 10:1-11,16-20)

©2022The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.