Awe and Wonder

Miracles do happen. Usually, maybe even mostly, unexpectedly, they are pretty much under the radar, unnoticed kinds of things. Just “suddenly” one day you realize something has shifted. Of course, it didn’t shift suddenly, it shifted gradually as you moved into God’s dimension of love where synchrony can happen—what was “sudden” was your awareness. Most of us wander around in a fog (or at least, in a cloudy mist that seems to keep us from noticing the presence of God) most of the time.

That’s why people pray after a natural disaster—like “#*&! I forgot to pray before but please help me now.”

The good news about that is that God was paying attention all along. But the really good news is that once you are plugged in you can take off in a big way “lift off for the dimension of love!”

In the Acts of the Apostles [2:42-47] we learn of thousands who come for baptism and renewal. “Those who had been baptized devoted themselves ….” The main point is this: “Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done … day by day [God] added to their numbers.”

So, do you see the miracles in your life? Do you see every smile from someone in pain as a miracle? Do you understand that every morning when you awaken it is a miracle? Do you see the “signs and wonders” like, the tulips you planted in October are beautifully red and yellow and purple now? Do you see that each day you hug your honey and know that love in a real way is a gift, awe, wonder?

Love is the pathway into God’s dimension of love; active love, giving love, feeling love, being love, this is how we enter into the presence of God. Psalm 23: “you spread a table before me … my cup is running over.” All of this “in the presence those who trouble me [i.e., of everyday life].” That sounds about right, no?

Peter wants his disciples to take charge. (How ever must it have been for a disciple of Christ to wake up one day and be “in charge” of the new disciples? It must have been equal parts terrifying and humbling and catalyzing.) Peter says “It is a credit to you if… you endure pain while suffering .. to this you have been called.” So, this is our call as LGBTQ disciples, discerning the awe and wonder of life in the dimension of love. God has spread the table with its cup running over right here in the midst of everyday life. This is discipleship for us isnt’ it? We know we are the beloved LGBTQ children of God. And yetwe endure every day the pain of ostracism, of being persecuted, hidden, punished for being who we are created by God to be.

In John’s Gospel [10:1-10] Jesus tells this confusing story about sheep and gates; what he is trying to communicate in terms that were colloquial but also metaphorical in his own day was: there is only the path of love, pretending is not loving, only by walking in love do those who love know each other, there is only love and not love. Love is God because God is love, and Jesus is God, therefore Jesus is love, and love is the only gate into the dimension of love, into heaven, which is all around you and within you if only you can find it.

And there is our miracle, there is our awe and wonder, right here under our noses, in everyday life. That is the message of Eastertide.

4 Easter Year A 2023 RCL (Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10-1-10) ©2023 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Recognition is the Revelation of Resurrection

Faith … well, is hope, and trust, and loyalty, but most of all, it is love in action. The “eyes of our faith” are the eyes of our souls, open in even the most difficult moments to simple acts of love.

We have had a family crisis since the disappearance of Red Oval Farms Mini-Stoned Wheat Thins (go ahead and laugh, it’s supposed to be funny). We ran out sometime in the fall, and they aren’t being made any longer. And it isn’t just (like most complainers on the web) that we miss the big crackers (that, as reviewers notice, stopped breaking along that line several years ago when Nabisco acquired Red Oval Farms or some such and changed the recipe) but we were addicted specifically to the little ones, the minis, tiny squares, just the right size to fit in my Fiestaware ramekins …..

So, yesterday, after months of trying substitutes and searching online, we went to Trader Joe’s, because they supposedly had a good substitute. Trader Joe’s is always difficult, too busy, too small, too hard to navigate. But today it was really almost impossible … people were jumping in front of us to grab things, we couldn’t even get a good distance (for someone with my sightedness) from a shelf to see what was on it because people kept shoving us aside literally, and huffing loudly, to grab stuff all around us.

Btw, there was no such product in the store.

We left.

But … day before yesterday we went to our newest romantic place (LOL), the Market of Choice (a supermarket). There we didn’t need much and we gathered it quickly, but then I was struck almost literally dumb as I walked up to the checkout. There was a hot young fellow with a beard … normally I would just go for his lane … but right next to him, laughing and joking, was a really nice lady who has been taking care of us for months … oh no, I thought, what to do … fortunately my husband grabbed the cart while I was frozen in fear and headed for our lady friend’s aisle. And I’m glad, she is always so loving, and we love talking with her, and he made the right choice, even as I couldn’t.

See, I keep telling you, this walking in love stuff isn’t as easy as singing hymns and pretending you are pious at church where the Spirit has been whipped up and it seems like second nature.

In Acts 1 Peter preaches to immense crowds and at the end of the story we learn that 3000 were baptized at once! Because they welcomed his message of love.

The Psalmist asks (116: 10) what can we give God in return for the promise of love? The answer is faith, of course, which is walking in love, most easily expressed with a simple “thanks.”

In his first epistle Peter (1 Peter 1:22) reminds us that we purify our souls by “obedience to the truth so that [we] have genuine mutual love.” Love in action, always.

Theologians argue about this passage from Luke [24:13-35], and indeed the other resurrection appearances in the Gospels, where the disciples don’t recognize Jesus. Is he so changed that they cannot recognize him? Are they so disabled that they cannot see God?

No, it is just that, we don’t expect that the person standing next to us, cold, sweating, naked, hungry, afraid, dirty, whatever … is our risen Savior. And yet, it is exactly the person standing next to you, always, whoever it is, who is exactly God incarnate, with you, recognizing you, offering love, your Redeemer.

We do not see God because we are so busy being us. Just look. Just pay attention. God is with you. God is all around you. Resurrection is with us, near us, always.

I do not know why or how it is that suddenly we, God’s LGBTQ children, are the subject of social and political struggle. I suppose we likely are in for a bit of turbulence as we remind the world that we too not only have a right to live, but that we too are created by God in God’s own image and we too are called by God to be loving heirs of the dimension of love.

It is worth remembering that witness works, that by being visible, by being recognized as loving siblings, neighbors, colleagues, co-workers, (LOL even shoppers), we remind everyone around us that in recognition is the revelation of resurrection, the doorway to the dimension of love.

3 Easter Year A 2023 RCL (Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35)

©2023 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

We all are Witnesses

Easter-tide, thank goodness, is a time of refreshment, rejuvenation, reorientation to life without holidays –a kind of opening of the way of normalcy. With any luck the weather will get better and soon spring sun will be the norm instead of a rare surprise. My tulips are beautiful on the rare occasion when there is enough sun for them to open up! This sense of return to normal is, I think, a major aspect of faith. It is easy enough to get whipped up by holiday hype, it is another thing to walk in love, to live the love that God asks us to live into. God asks us to understand in resurrection the idea that there is always renewal where there always is love in action. Resurrection is within us.

So it is that like Peter (Acts 2) and the other disciples, we are witnesses—[Acts 2:32] “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.”  Yes, Peter means that he and the disciples were witnesses of the risen Jesus. But he also means that all of us, you and me, if we have faith, if we live into our covenant with God that we love our neighbors as ourselves—we are witnesses of resurrection.

In this, then, is our joy. In the leaves popping out on stems that remind us spring is coming and life is abundant and that there is always renewal. This is our joy in the smiles and hugs of loved ones, in the greeting by the nice lady at the supermarket, in the sweet sound of a familiar voice—in a hundred moments in each day is the proof that resurrection is within us, that God has raised us up too, that our joy is complete in the fullness of the path God has pointed out for us, the doorway into the dimension of love [Psalm 16:11].

In his first epistle [1 Peter 1:3-9] Peter speaks of hope, of that sense of trust that is the essence of faith that our inheritance of love is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” It is this hope that is the catalyst for Easter joy, the sense of renewal, or if I may, of salvation, which is “more precious than gold” because like all of life it has been “tested by fire.” We know that resurrection is within us if we can keep our feet on the path into the dimension of love.

John’s Gospel account of the risen Jesus’ visit to the upper room [John 20:19-31] leads usually to the focus on Thomas, whose “doubt” is revealed not only as very human but also as very intimate. Whatever Thomas’ failings, however momentary, the love he shares with Jesus is so powerful that the risen Christ comes to him to say “Do not doubt but believe.”

Jesus ends the story with the pronouncement “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Thus belief completes the circle of faith, the route back to love, the sure way to the dimension of love.

And so even we, the LGBTQ Thomases of our own time, we who are oppressed and outcast and reviled and distrusted even in our own “enlightened” day, we still believe, because we know the power of the love we have been given in our creation in God’s own image as inheritors of God’s love, as gatekeepers of God’s dimension of love. We know that resurrection is within us because we experience it every day, every moment, in the love we share. We all are witnesses. We all are blessed.

Second Sunday of Easter Year A 2023 RCL (Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31)

©2023 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Happy Easter!

Friday night my husband colored Easter eggs. We have a sort of ritual about it. It came about mostly because as a working priest (meaning before the Pandemic) I was usually pretty busy until the night of Good Friday when I could, at last, collapse a little bit, before Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil, and the Big Bang of the church year—Easter itself. Hats and brass bands and egg hunts and a zillion communions (don’t get me wrong here, it is glorious!).

But that one quiet evening we could make colorful eggs, and know that in them we have a sort of investment in future deviled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, etc. And that in that beautiful bowl of colorful eggs we have a visual symbol of the symbiosis that is the love we share.

For both of us it is often this love that sustains us individually.

I give thanks for his love constantly, even as I grumble and complain. (That’s my right as a husband, to complain; right?)

Easter is about connection. Easter is all about learning that life is all about connection. The Easter collect prays “grant us so to die daily to sin.” Don’t let that word “sin” scare you or fool you, all it means is “disconnection.” If you are willing to stay plugged in, you will “evermore live in the joy of his resurrection” (as the collect also prays) because you will evermore live in the joy of your own eternal and constant resurrection.

As far as God is concerned we all are God’s creatures, each one of us created in God’s own image. Peter [Acts 10:34-43] tells the crowd proudly how he was there through Jesus’ ministry and through the excruciating moments of the crucifixion and it’s true, he was there—but the point is, we all are there, always, if we just pay attention. We—you and me—are witnesses of God’s grace, of resurrection, of joy. Eat, drink, love, tend, nourish, listen, see.

And give thanks, always [Psalm 118:14-29]. Say thank you with every breath. Say thank you for every breath. Because it is breath that brings God’s Spirit into your biological envelope. Realize that in every moment in which you live God is acting in creation; rejoice, sing, be glad, give thanks.

Remember to remember; remember to think about love, remember when you are about to “dis” someone that that person’s heart breaks too [Colossians 3:1-4 “seek the things that are above”]. You know, it’s really hard work, I’m old and I still muck it up almost daily. But keep trying, that’s all God asks of us. Keep trying, because that means you are connected.

Last week I wrote about how the critical witnesses of the crucifixion were the outcasts; now here on the day of resurrection we see the same if we just take a moment to pay attention, in this story [John 20:1-18]. It isn’t Peter the leader who is first out of the gate, it is “the other disciple, the one Jesus loved” whose heart is broken, who leaps up and runs, it is “the other disciple” who outruns Peter, who reaches the empty tomb first, and yet doesn’t enter (because, as you and I know, we who are outcast are always aware that we are perhaps not welcome). But then the one Jesus loved comes back, reassured, reinvigorated by his love, and this time he looks in, and goes in, and sees, and believes.

And then here comes Mary Magdalene, the least of the least of the women in Jesus’ entourage. And there Jesus is, sitting on a stone talking to her and she thinks so little of herself that she cannot imagine a risen Jesus will speak with her, so she thinks he must be a grounds-keeper (I know it says “gardener”). Until he calls her by name.

As you and I know, in those long nights of the soul, Jesus, God, calls us by name. And in those moments we know we are truly with God.

That is the joy of Easter. That we know we are truly with God. That we experience in our souls the vitality of connection.

LGBTQ+, you name it, we are created in God’s own image. How else would the first disciple to witness resurrection be “the one Jesus loved”?

Happy Easter!

The Sunday Of The Resurrection, or Easter Sunday, Principal Service ear A 2023 RCL (Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118: 1-2. 14-24 Confitemini Domino; Colossians 3:1-4; John 20:1-18)

©2023 The Rev.Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

LGBTQ Army of the Cross of Christ

We have reached the Sunday of the Passion. Which is to say, the Sunday that ends Lent (well sort of, still no meat until after Good Friday!) and begins Holy Week. Where are we today, on the Sunday of the Passion?

I am in love with my husband, and in love with my life, and in love with our home.

My Oregon elderberry plants, which somehow made it through the winter, are now almost 3” tall. I think that’s a miracle. I can’t wait for ten years from now when they will have those lovely red berries all winter.

Darcelle XV, the famous Portland drag queen, passed last week. It was momentous for Portlandia, to whom she was really a folk idol; to the LGBTQ community she was a hero. Curiously,all Portland was celebrating her rich life just as our homophobic siblings in red states were trying to outlaw drag.

The tulip festival, which is a magnificent display of tulips in the shadows of Mounts Hood, St. Helens and Jefferson, is delayed (like my garden, where I have a few crocus and a single daffodil blooming, but I can see buds forming elsewhere) because it has been so cold and yipes!, it keeps snowing (albeit, it doesn’t stick here on the floor of the Willamette Valley; no telling what it’s like at the tulip farm, which is at a higher elevation).

Still, Easter is knocking at our doorstep. We have reached the Sunday of the Passion via a riotous journey. We have come through war, climate change, train derailments, eternal politics, attacks on trans people and drag queens, inflation … a pandemic even.

One might say we have come mercifully to the Sunday of the Passion.

When Jesus reached the outskirts of Jerusalem [Matthew 22:1-11] he sent his disciples to find a donkey he could ride into the city. They not only found him a donkey, they lined the streets with their cloaks and those of the crowd that gathered to honor Him.

The Psalmist [118:19-22, 28-29] gave thanks for the gates of righteousness, which always are open, for the opportunity to give thanks to God who always answers, for the opportunity to be the cornerstone of faith.

Like the followers of Isaiah [50:4-9a], we have heard the call of God: “Let us stand up together.” We, the queers of the world, must stand up to the fearful who would see us “erased.” We are not alone, most of God’s other children love us and support us. We need only stand up to be counted, to be victorious, to walk in the way of love and share in resurrection.

And we must share in the meal Jesus gave us to eat 2000 years ago [Matthew 26:26-27], and which we, like gazillions of God’s children, partake of daily ever since … give thanks, take, eat, give thanks, take, drink. This is God’s covenant with us, eternity is now.

And then have a look at the end of this story: who is gathered there at the foot of the cross [Matthew 26:54-57]? The centurion, terrified, many women,weeping, and a rich man from outland. Outcasts all, standing up together. These, like us, are the army of the cross of Christ.

We, indeed, are the LGBTQ army of the cross of Christ.

Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion) Year A RCL 2023: Liturgy of the Palms (Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29); The Liturgy of the Word (Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14- 27:66)

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