Pray. Love is Endemic.

Love surpasses all understanding. How is that? If you know the power of love; not sentimental warm feelings, but truth, justice, righteousness—the things that define God’s love–then you know that love surpasses all understanding. God pours love into our hearts so that we might give love out through our own love of life building it up until the whole of creation sings with joy.

As indeed it is doing right now. The rhododendrons are blooming gloriously, shortly it will be warm enough to plant vegetables for the summer, the peonies are swelling to blossom, after some dry spells the spring rain is gloriously back in Oregon giving us the opportunity for short drives in the rain, for in-between sunny day glimpses of Mount Hood glistening with new snow. Love is endemic.

There are two broad categories of prayer, or maybe I should say, approaches to prayer. Kataphatic prayer is the kind we find in liturgies, precise words repeated over and over in specific patterns. Apophatic prayer is the kind used in “centering” prayer, in which there is no content, only the job of being still and listening for what God brings (here is a tutorial).

I have always been more attracted to kataphatic prayer. Indeed, I find it apophatic in its repetitive nature. That is, as the prayer is recited over and over, consciousness shifts from the foreground to the back, where indeed there is silence, and room for God to enter in. But that’s just me I guess.

I thought of this when I saw this week’s story from Acts [10:44-48] where it says “While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.” LOL, his kataphatic voice lulled them into apophatic presence. They were lulled into a trance by Peter’s voice and in the trance the Holy Spirit occupied their hearts. The listeners were converted by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Fascinatingly, the story ends by telling us they invited Peter to stick around for awhile.

But there also is a story here about the spiritual welcoming of those were were outcast. The crowd Peter was preaching to was a mix of insiders and outcast; the insiders were “astounded” that the outcasts could get it, not just that they heard and understood but that they received the Holy Spirit.

It reminded me of church conventions, where of necessity everyone is together in one place and in worship the divisions must cease. It is in such arenas that LGBTQ+ people are at their most powerful just by their presence, especially their visible presence among the faithful. Sing a new song, indeed [Psalm 98]. This past week after decades of division our United Methodist kin, in convention, used the joy and love in their hearts to bring LGTBQ+ people into full membership. The insiders embraced the formerly outcast and all of the faithful received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

John’s first epistle of love [1 John 5:1-6] continues to explain how all of us who know God’s love must be (as there can be no other possibility) children of God. We know God’s love because we know love as we know gravity. We know love as we know rain and sun and hugs and tears. We know love because we are love because we are people of love.

In John’s Gospel [15:9-17] Jesus tells his disciples about the transcendence of love: “As [God] has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” Joy must be in us for us to make love complete. But God’s love brings us such joy that we have the capacity to make more love. Love builds up. If we love one another creation will bring everything we need.

Let us embrace the Holy Spirit, rejoice in inclusiveness, and pray however we can for peace in the Holy Land.

6 Easter Year B 2024 RCL (Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98 Cantate Domino; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17)

©2024 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

The Door to the Dimension of Love

I begin as often with a note about nature. In Oregon spring clearly is with us. Tulips have been beautiful but are about finished; azaleas are blooming radiantly, rhododendron are opening their glorious blossoms. Tree pollen has been like yellow snow for weeks but now seems to be giving way to the flurry of petals from cherry and apple trees. A few very warm very sunny days have been tantalizing but the reality is that spring has come too soon and we are very grateful now that the rains have returned. The rhythm of life here in the Pacific Northwest is that the temperate summers are dependent on the rainy winters. It is an ecosystem. It is the visual evidence of the action of the creative power of God, which is love, expressed in the totality of the environment. Nature breathes and so do we, nature smiles and so do we, nature relaxes and so do we. And as the ecosystem in synchrony builds and communicates love, wonder and joy increase as well.

So, it is critical to comprehend human enterprise not as singular but, rather, as part of this ecosystem of love from God. We are created in God’s own image as loving people, and the stewardship of nature we have been given consists primarily of maintaining our synchrony of love with creation. Stop and smell the flowers, but remember to prune judiciously so they will continue to thrive. And in this way responsibility evolves as loving action.

Indeed, the cosmos is everlasting, the cosmos brings light and movement and gravity and pull and push and ebb and flow, all possible because it is love filling what would otherwise be a void. Without love there is only the void. With love there is only life.

Thus, there is an ecosystem of love in which the entry into the dimension of love is the pathway to eternal life in joy. The ecosystem of love is available to every child of God who loves, who loves God, who loves the other children of God. Therefore, there can be no outcasts. Anyone who loves, has found the door into the dimension of love.

Love can take many forms, we have to be clear about this. When we talk about God and love we are not talking about warm fuzzy feelings; we are, instead, talking about justice, righteousness, equality, egalitarianism, peace, and the accompanying concepts of restraint, refrain, responsibility.

In the Acts of the Apostles [8:26-40] Philip is directed by God, fueled by the power of love. An angel sends him to the right spot, the Spirit directs him to where he encounters the official identified as a eunuch. After their interaction—their synchrony of love in action–the Spirit snatches Philip away and deposits him where he is next needed to preach the Gospel of love. God’s Spirit of love moves Philip across dimensions to build up the love needed to spread the good news of salvation.

The court official identified as a eunuch is an outcast from the religious community; because of his sexual difference he cannot be a part of the congregation. But his love of God overcomes his difference, his love of God compels his desire to know Jesus. This is his opening to the dimension of love. God, love, always rushes into the opening to fill the void.

Philip proclaims the Gospel of love, baptizes him and receives him into the household of God, and he goes on his way rejoicing, no longer outcast, now a full member of the community. Such is the power of love to bring everyone into the fold as a child of God through believing in Christ Jesus.

If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us [1 John 4:12].

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them [1 John 4:16].

John’s first epistle [1 John 4:7-21] continues the expression of the power of love. Love is the very force of life, life is God because love is God, God is love and therefore God is life. When we love each other God is alive within and among us thriving and building up more love.

In John’s Gospel [15:1-8] Jesus uses the metaphor of a vineyard to make his point about the ecosystem of love. God is the vinegrower, Jesus is the vine, the branches must be pruned to bear the best fruit, those branches that are pruned grow and bear much fruit.

God is love, Jesus is the Word of love, the vine is the dimension of love, the branches that bear even a little love bear much love, we are those branches, our job is to bear the fruit of love.

When we live in God’s loving ecosystem we thrive, love thrives, love builds up, whatever creates more love (joy) is part of the working of the ecosystem.

Of course, we who are LGBTQ+ people might identify with the outcast in Philip’s story, but also as the lovingly tended vine that bears much fruit in Jesus’ metaphor.

Remember, the purpose of scripture is not to serve like a cookbook or a legal repository, but rather, to reveal to us God’s purpose.

Here is a person who was outcast because of his sexual classification who, despite that, seeks understanding, finds God, and the Holy Spirit sends him an apostle and leads him to the waters of baptism. From there it is revealed that, like us, he has eternal life in Christ.

And Philip, the apostle, I love this story (not least because for several years I was rector of one of his churches), is shunted like the Jetsons from spot to spot from need to need by God’s Spirit of love. And the whole time Philip stands at the door to the dimension of love.

5 Easter Year B 2024 RCL (Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30 Deus, Deus meus; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8)

©2024 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Love in Truth and Action

In the fourth week of Eastertide the seasons everywhere remind us of the eternity of creation and of the power of God’s love. Here in Oregon the spring is at its peak; tulips are at their prime, as the cammellia’s finish their riot of late winter color the azaleas and rhododendrons begin their turn, the blooming cherry trees yield in turn to the apple trees, the vineyards are dressed one again in frocks of deep green.

The evidence of the eternal reliability of God’s love is all around us to see if we can slow down the pace of our daily lives long enough to appreciate it.

In our lives as LGBTQ+ people there is nothing more important than to hold on to the love that is the essential nature of our creation in God’s own image. We love because we must. We love because we are made of love. We love because love builds up—our love insures the active creative habitat around us as our love builds and spreads. It is to this that we have been called.

The scripture appointed for this Sunday is all focused on the concept of love in truth and action, as John writes in his first epistle [1 John 3:18].

In the scene from the Acts of the Apostles [4:5-12] Peter and John have been preaching and healing in Jesus’ name. Healing is restoring fullness of life and equality in community through the power of love.

Healing, especially in the New Testament sense of being made whole in community is something God’s L:GBTQ+ people understand. We are often on a roller-coaster ride of being cast out one day and brought back into community the next. More to the point, we are jostled by competing forces in the world. Last week Title IX protections (in education) were expanded to protect against any “sex-based harrassment” and especially to enhance protection of trans folks. This rolls back decisions made just four years ago by different political forces in the US. This is an act of healing. But, in the same week the conservative supreme court let an Idaho law stand that prohibits transgender care for minors. This is the crowd pushing back and preventing healing. We live and love on this roller coaster, as indeed, do all of God’s creatures.

Excoriated for healing Peter and John are arrested and confined by the authorities. They know this roller coaster too. Peter testifies, or preaches if you will, by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is love. It says Peter is “filled with the Holy Spirit.” It means he has pushed out the vacuum of the absence of love and filled it with loving action, which, of course, is how he has been able to pass along healing. Peter testifies before this crowd to the power of healing love.

Psalm 23 says that God is my shepherd, and in John’s Gospel [10:11-18] Jesus says “I am the good shepherd … I know my own and my own know me.”

John’s epistle reminds us that we know Jesus because we know his love, and we know this love because love has created and surrounded and suffused us. John, who was standing there arrested by the crowd with Peter when the spirit of love filled Peter and compelled him to preach the Gospel of love. John’s epistles are among the most beautiful testimonies to the love of God in Christ and its power to heal. Love in truth and action fills the void. Love enlightens creation.

Jesus reminds us that everyone is included. Everyone is known by the love of God. All we have to do to receive God’s love is to recognize God calling us by our own names.

God calls each of to be God’s loving LGBTQ+ people in truth and action in the world.

Alleluia!

4 Easter Year B 2021 RCL (Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23 Dominus regit me; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18)

©2024 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

That Our Joy May Be Complete

The great message of Easter, indeed, the great message of Christianity, is that sin is forgiven for those who have faith in Christ.

To understand this requires multiple levels of comprehension, indeed, even dimensions of reality.

Sin, is disconnection, from God. The main way humans sin—disconnect from God—is to disconnect from each other. The opposite of sin is love. When we have love for one another—the love which is God—then we cannot be disconnected.

Today I heard a commentator on radio say that the problem in the world arises when both sides in a conflict are too hurt to stop hurting. In other words, so long as both sides are too hurt, they are so absent of love that they cannot see their way to a human realization of a way out.

Hurt is hurt; but let us remember the power of forgiveness. Forgiving is not forgetting, it is not forgoing justice, but it is the way to clear away the wall that prevents love. When that wall is raised there is no possibility of grace. The wall must be erased.

This is the essence of Christianity. Forgiveness is ours, by faith, by grace even, if only we can tear down those walls of sin that disconnect us.

Connection is God’s plan for creation. Not just connection, but synchrony, interconnection that is greater than the sum of its parts—otherwise known to us as “love builds up.” Connection, love, glory, blessing.

Both the epistle [1 John 1:1-2:2] and the Gospel reading [John 20:19-31] are from the author of John’s Gospel this week. The message is this: “what was from the beginning” “concerning the word of life,” that “our joy may be complete” when we walk in love. When we walk in love we understand that when sin occurs forgiveness is ours if we ask for it in faith. “Do not doubt but believe.”

Erasing the wall is the hard part. We who are created LGBTQ+  in God’s image learn to live with the powerful love in our souls even in the midst of oppression from all sides. We must erase the walls that separate us from each other—“Oh, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together in unity” [Psalm 133: 1]. If we can tear down those walls, we will see Christ among us and receive his peace.

2 Easter Year B 2024 RCL (Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 133 Ecce, quam bonum!; 1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31)

©2024 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

By Grace … Alleluia!

We have tulips. We have daffodils. We have sunshine. We have health. We have love. We have what God has intended for us.

And, we have joy. Joy is the outward expression of happiness, which is the inward expression of grace, which is God’s gift to those who remain connected, connected to each other most of all, which is how we remain connected to God.

Yes, of course, as Peter preaches: “God shows no partiality … anyone who … does what is right is acceptable.” And “everyone who believes in [Jesus Christ] receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” All of us are connected among us and with God through our faith in the one who taught us of the ultimate power of love.

God is love, and love is salvation, because love builds up, love creates, love heals, love sustains, love infuses, love is the greatest power God has given us. We sing [Psalm 118: 14-15] with exultation about our victory, we celebrate our righteousness—read that “right ness”—read that “walking in love.”

By God’s grace Paul writes [1 Corinthians 15:1-11] “I am what I am.” All that we are and whatever we are, we are by God’s grace. Remember, God created us in God’s own image. Next time you look in the mirror remember, you reflect the image of God. LGBTQ+ people, by grace, we are who we are, created LGBTQ+ in the image of God. Amen.

Of, course, today is Easter. Today is the Feast of the Resurrection. Today is the celebration of God’s promise to us—wait, even more, it is the celebration of our faith in God’s promise to us—of eternal life in the dimension of love. All we have to do is get it.

In John’s Gospel [20:1-18] it is early Saturday morning, before sunrise the day after the crucifixion, when Mary Magdalene gets up and goes to the tomb. She is ashamed for not having gone earlier to perform ablutions and tend to the body of Jesus. She is consumed with guilt and her own bad feelings. She therefore does not understand when she arrives to find the tombstone rolled away.

She is shocked. She runs to the disciples; note it is Peter and “the one Jesus loved” who come running. It literally says she ran, and then they ran. It says they ran together–connection. Peter and the disciple Jesus loved see that Jesus is gone. The one Jesus loved is first to believe. Love builds up. Love triumphs. Love conquers all.

But Mary Magdalene stood there weeping. Suddenly two angels appeared to ask her why she was weeping, then Jesus himself asks her.

She does not recognize him.

She thinks he’s a groundskeeper.

But when he calls her by name she shifts dimensions, her emotions fall away, and now she sees, now she knows, now she believes. By grace, she is who she is, in God’s image.

For us, as for Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the disciple Jesus loved, salvation comes in the most difficult moments when we are the most confused. All it asks of us is faith, faith in love. If we love enough, we will enter the dimension where love prevails. This is the message of Easter.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Easter Day Year B RCL 2024 (Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:14-29 Confitemini Domino; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 20:1-18)

©2024 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Synchrony

Time is a curious concept; I was going to say it was a curious “quantity,” because I think most of us think of it that way, but we know from Einstein that time is simply a human psychological imperative … that is, all time is already all at once, but we choose for our own benefit to see time as sequential and therefore as ordinal.

So, when I complain (as I did yesterday in the hot sun bent over my gardens) that I have had to plant vegetable starts and move lemon trees and avocado trees and olive trees outdoors from their winter garage greenhouse and start regular watering rituals as though it were August … and it’s only mid-May … it is a way of measuring time over and against the real experience of life, which is that it’s hot and it isn’t raining. But, then again, I don’t have to worry about the little trees in the garage anymore, and I get to garden in the warm sun, and already we are enjoying food from our little garden. The earth responds to stewardship and collaboration and creation thrives in synchrony.

So, what does that tell us about faith, and joy, and grace and the realization of God’s reality among us? It tells us, that we are not in charge of time … things do not happen on our command … I had a priest mentor many years ago who used to say to me over and over (and over, I never did quite get it) that things happened “in God’s time.”

So this week in scripture we have Jesus telling his disciples on the verge of his ascension that “it is not for you to know the times … but you will receive power … when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses.” [Acts 1:6-14]. So you see, it is not up to us to decide when it is time, it is only up to us to be bearers of the Spirit of Love and to be witnesses to the power of walking in the dimension of love.

Curiously, after the ascension, the disciples went back up to that upper room … I made a note three years ago that they had “sheltered in place.” Back then, in 2020, we all were terrified of COVID-19, and we all were locked down in place, sheltering to stay alive. But now this scripture has additional meaning. It reminds us that part of witness is rest, nourishment, hospitality, centeredness … all of those things that “home” mean to us (even when home is just a momentary shelter).

Curious note from Acts: the disciples “were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women.” Clearly the women were somehow outliers, probably as we know from our own LGBTQ experience not in reality as much as in the cultural necessity for the author of Acts to use that odd formulation in order to include them. That was a complicated sentence (sorry!) to express a complex reality, which is that although we are outwardly oppressed—just look at all of the vile coming our way under the cause of fighting “culture wars” or “wokeness”—the reality is that we are essential, we are created and called by God to be part of the synchrony of the dimension of love.

So let’s remember that we are called to give thanks, to rejoice, even in adversity, to be “merry and joyful” and to “be glad and rejoice” [Psalm  68]. We are to “sing to God … sing praises.”  Because, as Peter says in his epistle [1 Peter 4, 5], “do not be surprised,” and “rejoice” and “discipline yourselves, keep alert” and “be steadfast in your faith” which is love.

God is glorified in us, as we are glorified in God, because we all are glorified in each other—every person is God’s heir, and welcome to inherit the riches of the kingdom of love, if only we can keep alert. Love in every moment. Do not let yourself fall into criticism, or anger. Keep alert that you love more than you do not love. This, is how we live into the synchrony Jesus described for us [John 17: 10]: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.”

The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A RCL 2023 (Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11)

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

Abiding Love

Oh my goodness! What a curious time I’ve been having. Things seem kind of mixed up.

The garage door is reacting negatively to something, and our grocery deliveries have been getting mucked up. But then, all of a sudden the airfare I had been mulling dropped by half!

And that’s when you realize you must have tuned into the right frequency somehow.

Pour into your heart the idea that to have love in your heart is the way to see God’s creation deliver to you more than you even can desire!

Jesus said [John 14:15-21] that loving is keeping his commandment, and that is the way into the dimension where you will see that the Advocate, the Spirit, Love, is with you forever. “This Spirit of truth … you know … because [the Spirit] abides with you … and will be in you” And those who love will be loved. It is all about perception, about realizing that by loving we have opened the door to see that the Spirit of love is, indeed, abiding with us, guaranteeing a life full of love and loving action.

In Acts [17;22-31] Paul preaches to Athenians that although we “search for God and perhaps grope for [God] … indeed [God] is not far from each one of us. He adds that “since we are God’s offspring” we need to understand that God is not far off nor resident in an image, but rather, God is the love in which “we live and move and have our being.”

In his first epistle, Peter [1 Peter 3:13-22] reminds us that even those who suffer in the act of loving are blessed. He instructs us not to fear what those who oppress us fear, and not to be intimidated, but in our hearts to “sanctify Christ as Lord,” which means to sanctify love. Well, this message is for us, we who are God’s LGBTQ offspring, eh? We have to deal with being outcast because we love. But we also have to recognize that the oppression comes from fear, and that we must persist in walking in love.

What is our only recourse? It is, of course, to love. It is to love with heart and soul. And to open our hearts, to get on the frequency where we see that indeed, love abides with us.

6 Sunday of Easter Year A 2023 RCL (Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:7-18; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21)

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

A Season of Hope

What a world we live in! Spring has come to the Pacific Northwest, or at least every few days it is springlike. LOL, we even had a “thunderstorm” the other night. I kept thinking it was kind of cute (I am a veteran of decades in the midwestern US, where thunderstorms are violent and dangerous), a little bit of a rumble, then some rain in the front yard but not the back. Tulips are at their peak.

Yesterday my husband and I braved an hour in the garden to plant greens and herbs.

Jesus said “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” When the angels announced his birth they said to the shepherds “Fear not.” We tend to think this means “don’t be afraid of X.” But that is not Jesus’ message. Jesus (and the angels) means “fear will fill your heart and push out love” and “fear will attract that which you fear.”

Look closely at what Jesus said [John 14:1-14]: first “do not let your hearts be troubled” and then “Believe” and then “in [the dimension of love] there are many dwelling places,” i.e., there is room and there is a room for everyone who believes, there is room for everyone who loves. Peter’s epistle [1 Peter 2:2-10] reminds us that our love is part of the firmament of the dimension of love, we are the “living stones” that can be “built into a spiritual house.”

Do you think that is a reference to church? Yeah sure maybe; but more importantly it is a reference to the spiritual house of love that you build when you lead a life in the dimension of love. Think of family—not genetic family, but the families of love LGBTQ people build. What Armistead Maupin called “logical families” not biological families.

Did you think you were building family by accident? Or did you understand God had called you to build a logical family of love? Remember “there are many dwelling places,” there is a room for each of us, a spot for each of God’s LGBTQ heirs, created by God, in God’s LGBTQ image. We are called to live in the dimension of love; we are called, indeed, to be witnesses and to be witnessed as people of love.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Like living stones let your loving selves be built into a spiritual house.

And, then there is this tantalizing bit: “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

Have you tried?

Have you asked?

Is it time to try?

Eastertide is the season of hope. Try it.

5 Easter Year A 2023 RCL (Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14)

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

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.