Palpable Real Joy

Beauty is everywhere in God’s creation. Beauty is the physical manifestation of the love that is God, that is the breath of God, that is the power and glory of God. Beauty is the love that made us and is within us and that propels us into loving synchrony with each other and with all of creation. Beauty is the power of love spinning the wheels and meshing the gears that move all of us constantly forward toward God’s dimension of love.

And Christmas is the annual celebration of this beauty, the ritual feast when we not only prepare for beauty but we express beauty in every way we can, from weird sweaters to fruit cakes to special cookies to the love expressed in every gift.

Thus, the message of Christmas is that God is inviting us to palpable real joy, the kind that comes with the reality of babies and immigrant journeys and meals and wonder and the joy of feeling warm and feeling loved. God is inviting us to feel loved.

God is inviting us to invite each other to feel loved. God is inviting us to love, to give love, to “build up the highway, clear it of stones” to make the way of love the way of joy and gladness.

God is inviting us to rejoice that we, too, are loved. God is inviting us to listen to the earth give thanks to God, God is inviting us to rejoice in the snow and the ice and the bitter cold and the relief that comes after in the gentle rain and the cool crisp air and in the beautiful colorful lights in the night.

God is reminding us that we are already, by our creation in God’s own image, heirs of God’s eternity.

Yes, all of us– gay men, trans folks, lesbian women, bisexual and queer and nonbinary and questioning people and all who wish they did not have the curse of being who they are in a society that is often oppressive in its homogeneity—yes, all of us: God is inviting us to rejoice in our creation in God’s own image. God is inviting us to rejoice in the persons we now are and always are becoming. We all, always, are becoming. That is the grace of the life God has given us.

“Do not be afraid.” To fear is to give yourself over to the absence of love with which God created you. When you can set aside fear you too will see the multitude of the heavenly host and you too will sing “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace.” And then, like the shepherds of yore, you must “go” to “see.” Because life is to be lived on a forward trajectory.

The message of Christmas again, is that God is inviting us to palpable real joy.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas 2 All Years RCL 2022 (Isaiah 62:6-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:(1-7)8-20; Psalm 97)

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

Hope

It seems to me that faith is about hope. Like many things in life, hope is at the same time really easy and really difficult. It is easy to hope that it will (or won’t) rain tomorrow. It is quite difficult to hope that, in the throes of a crisis, all will turn out the way you “hope” it will. We hope for what we want, we hope for better … we “hope.”

Jesus is looking for us to prepare a mansion for him, within us, meaning open space in our hearts not only for love, but for hope to thrive. God’s countenance. brilliant light, is a sign of unity with creation, which is the ultimate expression of hope. Apostleship means taking up the cross of Christ, which means learning to turn hope into action, which is love.

And the essence of Matthew’s version of the birth of Jesus is not the details of conception but rather that Joseph did what he was told by God, which was to have hope, and to name his child “Jesus,” which means both “Emmanuel” or God with us, and “God helps,” which is hope, for sure.

God is with us and God helps, except when we close the door.

We open the door with love.

This is the message of the coming of Christmas, that we must open our doors of love.

(4 Advent Year A 2022 RCL (Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80: 1-7, 16-18 Qui Regis Israel; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25)

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

Journey Along that Highway

It is that delicious time again. By which I mean, in Oregon, where it is dark by 4:30pm and the inky night sky seems like a protective blanket given by creation to hold in the beautiful rain. The rain fills the rivers and waters the magnificent trees and even our humble gardens and in the rain and the winter night we know that God is with us. And then, slowly as though mimicking the dawn the neighborhood lights up house by house until the lights in the darkness become a symbol for us of the forthcoming light in the darkness (John 1:1-9) and therein is bountiful grace and mercy

Love conquers all, and this is the wonderful season when we prepare to welcome love incarnate, a ritual holy day, yes of course, but also a real tangible reminder that the love we share with each other is not fleeting but is sustaining. The love we share is the highway into the dimension of God (Isaiah 35:1-10), the dimension of love, the dimension of eternal creation, where all things always are made new, where love is power and righteousness and justice (Psalm 146:4-9).

James 5:7 reminds us that patience is the essence of love, it made me laugh to re-read that because of course it is. How else do two men last 44 years in relationship, in marriage, in love? The bumps in the road become more like roller-coaster thrills, life over all is smoothed into one long journey of love. The journey, if love is patient, along that highway into God’s dimension.

It is the third Sunday in Advent, a traditional “rose” Sunday on which more color finds its way into the liturgical enactment of that journey along that highway through that lighted night into the dimension of God’s love. It is time to get our act together to be ready for Christmas. Trees and lights and cards and spiral hams notwithstanding, getting ready for Christmas means getting ready to reinforce that journey along that highway, where our companions are all of humanity and all of creation in harmony, in sync, where “even the least in the kingdom” (Matthew 11:11) are empowered by God’s love and “everlasting joy” (Isaiah 35:10) will be the gift we share.

So, get ready to love, get ready for love, get love ready.

3 Advent Year A 2022 RCL (Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:4-9; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11)

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

The Earth is Full of the Knowledge of Love

Prophets are god’s messengers. This week I met a prophet, a young man who was good to me in a difficult situation … no preaching, just a smile and understanding for a gay elder … it was a perfect example of how God’s prophets are always everywhere among us, showing us the way. The form of repentance they bring is the reminder of what a difference a little smile can make. The way of salvation is the door into the dimension of love where the little smiles reign.

We are learning more and more from the heritage of our indigenous neighbors. I learned this week about how, for the Yurok people, condors “carry prayer to the heavens and across the world” (https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139971256/the-yurok-tribe-leads-conservation-efforts-to-reintroduce-the-california-condor ).

This week’s Old Testament prophecy, then, from Isaiah (11:1-10), tells how a “shoot shall come out from the stump.” I have been nursing an avocado tree for a couple of years now, I grew it from a seed, I have been trying this for years and never succeeded until now, but then given the vagaries of life I let it grow too tall and thin so that the tiny trunk could not support the few leaves at the top. I said a little prayer and cut it off near the “stump.” I held my breath for about two months until at last a shoot came out from the stump, and now, about 3 months later, I have a nicely variegated tree with lots of strong branches and leaves. Prophecy here is yet again about how God shows us in these simple and everyday life ways where to find the doors into the dimension of love. Something as simple as tending a tree has the power of the knowledge of God, of the growth of righteousness and faithfulness, “a signal to the peoples,” a prayer carried to the heavens and across the world.

Stewardship of this life, then, is the obligation to render prosperity in the tending of creation. Righteousness inheres in the right harmony with creation (Psalm 72:1-8).

Hope is that spiritual sense of justice and righteousness and the certain knowledge that not only is God with us but we also are with God (Romans 15:4-13). Hope fills us with joy and peace in our believing, which is our harmony with creation, with God and with each other, and that is another sign of the door to the dimension of salvation.

To repent is just to think again, to pay attention, to not just respond to the smile but to let it change your life (Matthew 3:1-12). Years ago in Philadelphia I knew a guy (our regular Saturday night waiter for almost 25 years!) and he was one of God’s prophets too. I remember how he always seemed frightened about the idea of Advent. Having been raised in the Roman tradition he remembered only that the Advent readings seemed to be always about horrors to come. He was good to me, an Episcopal priest, and he had a desire to be connected to his faith, which he managed to work out through our casual conversations. And he was a prophet in many ways, but in this one thing is where I really see it now, that like so many LGBTQ people he had been mistreated at the hands of seemingly religious people who were ill informed about the true faith. Not unlike the Pharisees and Sadducees in today’s Gospel reading who are scolded by John the Baptizer.

I don’t know whether I ever managed to convince my friend that these readings were not about a future, but rather aboutthe present reality in our own hearts. But he had already, long ago, successfully navigated his way into the dimension of love.

What else can I say? Repent? Yes, of course, always rethink, and always ask forgiveness when you fail to act in a loving way, and do not let your heart be darkened by oppressive thoughts.

The earth will be full of the knowledge of the love of God as the waters cover the sea, and the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal of how creation grows God’s love.

2 Advent Year A 2022 RCL (Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 Deus, judicium; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12)

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