Running with Alter Egos

I know it is almost Halloween, one of the gayest of holidays. I know it is (arguably more importantly) almost All Saint’s Day, when we hallow (!) all those who ever have learned to walk in love. Curiously, then, the scripture today points directly to the core of Christian life which is the hard work of walking in love.

Love is easy to say, and to write about love is easy, but to live love, to walk in love is not so simple. It is not warm fuzzies, although when everything is copacetic it can seem that way. It is not all laughter and joy, although it should be. Walking in love is work.

To love is to be constantly alert, to be constantly focused on loving. I know, I’ve been living with it, through it. When anxiety comes, you have to overcome it (you cannot let it go, I know this, you have to overcome it with some other sort of feelings) or it will overwhelm you.

The only thing that matters is love and loving and holding love foremost. If you can do that you will understand what Jesus was trying to teach us.

This is why our collect for today as God to “grant that we may run without stumbling.” This is why God in a prophecy from Habakkuk (2:4) says “Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.” This is why Paul writes to the Thessalonians (2 Thess. 1:3) that “we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing.” It is the moral of the parable of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:10) says “the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

It seems life is full enough of ghoulishness, perhaps we take Halloween the wrong way, perhaps we should embrace it as an opportunity to raise our own spirits with the joy of living into the some of the alter egos we usually suppress.

I am feeling blessed this year by the constance of love in my own life, surprisingly, not having been without challenges this year, but constant nonetheless, sometimes despite my distraction, my anxiety. I have learned to pray “I love …” in my soul around the clock.

Let us embrace our alter egos, let us celebrate our differences, let us raise the level of joy in creation. Let us run without stumbling.

Proper 26 Year C 2022 RCL (Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Psalm 119:137-144 Justus es, Domine; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12; Luke 19:1-10)

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

Prayer, Joy, Faith

We are on a prayer trajectory it seems. Last Sunday I wrote about sustaining, connecting, present prayer. This week the scripture again points us directly to prayer, but this time with an emphasis on the expression of faith.

Is your prayer “lead me, guide me?” This is the prayer God, creation, the universe, the power of love, is looking for. “Lead me, guide me.”

This week my husband and I drove up (okay, we drove to the east) the Columbia Gorge and back so he could have a fun outing and a good sandwich. It was great. Portland and environs were engulfed in smoke from a wildfire in Washington State, but the Gorge was clear, with marine winds sweeping up the river. The big water of the Columbia River is soothing all by itself in its power and majesty. My husband ate an enormous bratwurst. I bought a whole salmon from the good folks under the Bridge of the Gods. It was fun, but it also was tender for the love we shared in the quiet moments in the presence of nature. We loved each other even more as we were doing it and yet more still in the evening at home, basking in the joy of the day.

I think we all as LGBTQ people are feeling threatened, for good reason. Those of us who are old enough probably know that LGBTQ people had vast liberation in the early 20^th century but it was all pulled back by oppression from the right wing in the 1930s and that lasted until the 1970s. We all know it could easily happen again.

Whatever else we do in the political world, which is not my mandate here, we must follow the law of love that God gives us. We must have faith expressed in the love we share. Hope must persist in the plans we make. And charity is how we make sure that both faith and hope persist—we must remain in the aura of love, we must constantly “be glad and rejoice.”

LOL there is a lot of scripture this week about rain. Well I can tell you we had months of 100 degree heat, and then we had a week of air quality nightmares with yellow foggy skies, and then God’s rain began and now even my lawn that looked like hay after one night of rain is green again. Hallelujah!

The sky is blue and hope has returned to us in creation.

In Joel 2:23-32 the prophet is led by God to proclaim the relief of rain “[God] has given the early rain for your vindication, [God] has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the later rain, as before.” It is a sign that faith has been rewarded by equilibrium, it is the basis of hope for fertility and growth and of course for love. The psalmist (Psalm 65: 9, 11) responds “you visit the earth and water it abundantly; you make it very plenteous; the river of God is full of water … you drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges; with heavy rain you soften the ground and bless its increase.” At the close of his second letter to Timothy (4:6-8, 16-18) Paul stands firm on his own faith “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Luke 18:9-14 records a parable of Jesus comparing the prayer of the self-righteous to the prayer of a sinner.  Jesus reminds us “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, ….”

“Lead me, guide me” indeed. Pray. Have faith.

The rain will come, the earth will nourish all creation with love.

Above all else have joy. Because joy is the beginning of love, given, which is faith expressed.

Proper 25 Year C 2022 RCL (Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65 Te decet hymnus; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14)

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

Sustaining, Connecting, Present Prayer

We are asked to pray. In Luke 18:1-8 “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.”

We tend to think of prayer as “asking.” We forget, that prayer, really, is about “connecting.”

I remember one particularly sweet moment in my ordained life, after 15 years or so of regular prayer at specific times, after 3 years of seminary with prayer at regular specific times throughout the day, after my ordination as deacon and then as priest … I took a break.

You know, you get to have a break once in a while.

And one morning, I was sitting at my computer, it was a sunny day and I was looking out the window and there was suddenly a unitive moment.

Now, these are the moments when you “know” God is with you. Usually, they happen when you ask for them. Sometimes they happen when you are in a time of trial and God just wants to let you know you are not alone. But this was different, and as I pondered what God wanted I realized it was prayer time and I had not prayed in over a week. God missed me!

I laughed out loud. And then I said “thank you.” And then I learned at last to pray, not in “gimme-gimme” style, but rather in “I’m here” style.

This is what God wants—God wants us to be present not only with God but also with each other. In other words, love, always.

LGBTQ people are particularly good at this; it is our call after all, it is why God created us so we might be witnesses to love. And the best way we can be witnesses to love, which is God, is to live fully, at all times, into God, which is love.

In Jeremiah 31:33 God says “I will put my law [of love] within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” In Psalm 119:97 the psalmist responds “Oh, how I love your law!, all the day long it is in my mind.” In 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Paul preaches to “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed” and “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.”

In other words, pray always and do not lose heart.

On Thursday October 14 Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez (Bishop of Pennsylvania, where I am canonically resident) sent a message to the diocese about beauty asking “What did you see today that was beautiful? Or, what did you hear that was beautiful? Beauty has the power to change our hearts and the world. In that beauty, we find joy ….” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYq1vGxiS0A ). Seeking beauty, recognizing beauty, is itself a form of prayer. Sharing beauty—such as the beauty I see in my husband’s heart—is a form of active prayer, a sustaining, connecting, present prayer.

Proper 24 Year C 2022 RCL (Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119: 97-104 Quomodo dilexi!; 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8)

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

To Know is to Love

We “know”—knowledge is that firmament that is both within us and outside us to which we conform as a form of synergy. Creation requires knowledge, after all—we know that spacetime is one existentiality, all space exists and all time exists all at once, it is not on a line, there is no sequence except that derived from our perception.

So, if we perceive that we are outcast because we are of the LGBTQ communion, instead of perceiving that the oppressors are condemning themselves, then we accept a perception. If we perceive that one day is better than another then we accept a perception. But if we comprehend that all days are the same and all places are the same, therefore there can be no divisions among creatures or creation except those imposed as perception jealously to prevent love, then we can approximate understanding of the multi-dimensionality of love.

All love exists all the time.

We always are called to love. We always are called to walk in love. We always are called to walk away from those who cannot or do not or choose not to love. We are not called to complain. We are called to create, to build, to build up—Jesus says over and over “the kingdom has come near” and Paul says over and over “love builds up.” Put the two together and you see …

You see, and when you see, then you can walk in love.

In Jeremiah 29 God says to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you .. for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” It is in walking in love that peace and justice flourish and nourish creation. In the Second Letter to Timothy Paul says to “avoid wrangling over words” and “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by [God].” It is a New Testament paraphrase of God’s word from Jeremiah–it is love that counts and the good that love brings and only love counts. In Luke 17 we receive the story of Jesus’ healing of ten lepers. They called to him and they were healed but only one, “a Samaritan” “turned back, praising God with a loud voice … and thanked [Jesus].” It is this man cast out from society for his illness and cast out because he comes from a different culture, it is this man doubly an outcast who truly “sees” that healing is a sign of the kingdom of love and love is the only thing that brings salvation. It is only this newly healed disciple who sees and knows and grasps the truth, that all time and space are one and only love counts.

We who are God’s LGBTQ people in this world must see and know somehow that we inhabit a different universe than the one our str8 relatives, neighbors, etc., walk in. Parallel maybe, but different.

And that’s okay. That is how it is.

And all space and all time are the same and only love counts.

Does this seem too wifty to you? I suppose it might. But it is important for LGBTQ people now, living through this period of re-re-re-oppression—laws against simple books, laws against health care for trans people, laws against sex—it is important for us to see and know that only love counts.

Proper 23 Year C 2022 RCL (Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7; Psalm 66:1-11; 2 Timothy 2: 8-15; Luke 17:11-19)

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

Simple Glory

Lately I have felt like I was living in a psalm. You know: fire, pestilence and plague, family crises of health, loss of loved ones.

Except, then, now, comes the glory. Simple glory mind you, little things, like the day working out better than you could have hoped. Smiles and laughter and hugs when you least expect them. Sunshine and neighbors and friends and a fertile garden.

Now, then, comes the understanding. Now comes the re”connection” with God and with creation that is the absence of “sin.” Now I have glory, simple glory but glory nonetheless, in the long term and in the short. Lamentations 3:22 “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.”

For example, now I have flowers in the garden. My whole life I refrained from cutting flowers in the garden because “they should look good out there.” This year I’ve gone almost each day into the garden with my clippers and a basket and brought in flowers. We’ve saved a fortune since May on cut flowers. They’re really much more beautiful when you’ve nurtured them yourself. And, keeping them cut encourages new and continued growth. But I think the most important thing is how happy it makes me to make that little trip into the garden each day. It revives my soul and my connection to creation. And that joy stays with me as I go on about the rest of the day. There is, perhaps, no mystery about the glory now appearing in my life.

In Luke 17:5-10 Jesus tells his apostles “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would  obey you.”

Faith the size of a mustard seed begins in the small things, in the trips into the garden, in the joy in the discovery of flowers blooming, in the happiness spread through creation, in the nourishment of the gardener which also is the nurture of the garden.

Proper 22 Year C 2022 RCL (Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10)