Ahhh, Lent …. Well, year after year I wonder what am I supposed to say. Maybe something like “eat beans and choke on them? Give up sex and chocolate for Jesus?” (Btw, I’m a lifelong vegetarian, I love beans.)
Well, no. That’s not what Lent is about.
For one thing, it isn’t a season of punishment, it is a season of penitence, which means “thinking about things.”
And then there is the part about giving something up, which is by no means a requirement of Christianity despite what anybody tells you. It is a custom born of attempts to simplify the explanation of the Christ event (including, on this point, the 40 days in the wilderness). But, these days I am sick and tired of people “simplifying” for me. Which is short-hand for saying I am sick and tired of being talked down to just because I’m over 30 (way over as it turns out but hey!). But, I digress, the point of “giving something up” isn’t to give something up, but rather to create a daily, recurrent remembrance that you are walking symbolically, metaphorically, and in reality in your own life, with Christ through the 40 days in the wilderness. There are a zillion ways to do that without giving up anything essential. And, you shouldn’t give up something that’s bad for you, because, hey, you should give that up anyway, doing it now has nothing to do with walking with Christ.
It has been a difficult week for LGBTQ people in the US. Drag queens are being vilified by fearful people. This is a pretty old story too. And we have to keep standing up to them. Over and over and over, because someone has to teach them that God loves people loving people. Just look at all of our same-sex marriages, strong and loving, nourishing and nurturing, like bedrock. My own a lifetime of love realized in every moment.
What does that tell us about love? That it isn’t easy, that it takes perspicacity, that it takes walking the walk, that it takes time, and patience, and swallowing your pride because your love is more important. And these are the lessons Jesus is constantly trying to teach to his disciples. These are the lessons we must grasp to walk in love, to walk with Christ, in love.
Massah and Meribah (“ordeal” and “contention”) are what Moses calls the place where the folks keep testing God by constantly complaining [Exodus 17:1-7]–fearful people stirring up the absence of love. Complaining is easy enough to do, and it feels good. But it is destructive. Simple enough: choose love, not fear or spite, and you will receive love in return.
God’s love is already within us, we were born with it as a seed in our hearts; when we first look at our birthgiver and cry we are expressing that love [Romans 5:1-11]. And this is the love that we grow up with, live with, learn to extend to God’s creatures who come across our path. And this is our justification, by faith, our peace, our grace, our glory.
Glory is in the heart, in the soul, in the darkness of the lonely nights, in the times when we choose hope instead of fear, in the moments when we choose to reach out with a smile even when it hurts. Glory is ours, because we are God’s [John 4:5-42].
AND NOW MY FRIENDS IT IS TIME ONCE AGAIN for us to stand up for ourselves. We cannot let homophobia or fearful people end the freedom that we have worked for decades to bring to our trans siblings, we cannot let anger and fear of self end the liberty and love God has called us to bring to the world through our own self-expression. We cannot let backward fear turn our LGBTQ lives into a new Massah and Meribah, ordeal and contention. We cannot test God in this way.
What could be more innocent than Drag story hour? And why should we be vilified for refining an art form and showing children how to love?
So, give love. Smile; really, in your heart.
And with that smile on your lips and in your heart fight back any way you can.
Now Is The Time. What else could God ask of us in Lent?.
1 Come, let us sing to the LORD; * let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. [Psalm 95]
3 Lent Year A 2023 RCL (Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95 Venite, exultemus; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42)
©2023 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 