Connectedness, Synchrony, Electricity

The sun is shining. That’s pretty unusual in an Oregon winter, so I am really grateful. I’m looking forward to some puttering and other simple things that bring pleasure, especially when they are contemplative (I know I’ve written about ironing—no ironing piled up for me today LOL). I seem always to be well connected when I can lose myself in something repetitive. It is one reason I discovered long ago the virtues for me of kataphatic prayer (like praying with a rosary). I suppose it is a matter of how we’re wired; I have many spiritual companions who prefer centering prayer. Diversity, of course, is part of the plan of creation. Sort of like how one of my best friends often reminds me the tall trees hold each other up. Whatever it takes to stay connected is good, is God given, is holy.

Which is why we pray to be “set us free … from the bondage of our sins” [collect for 5 Epiphany Book of Common Prayer 216]. Of course, it is not up to God to set us free. We have to free ourselves from disconnectedness. Think about it now, what is the opposite?—connectedness, synchrony, electricity! Then we can see that abundance of life that is available to us if only we will tap into it.

The second voice of the prophet Isaiah [40:21-31] sings of the mystery and magnificence of God “Have you not known? Have you not heard?…  Have you not understood …? The Creator of the ends of the earth … [whose] understanding is unsearchable … those who wait for [God] shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” Those who stay connected, are heirs of the power of creation.

The blessing of the Gospel is the revealed glory of life in the dimension of love as Jesus told us, as Paul learned the hard way [1 Corinthians 9:16-23].

Did you see that uproar about the homoerotic Spanish painting of Jesus? (“‘Gay Christ’ poster sparks outcry in Spain as some say depiction of Jesus looks ‘homoerotic’“). Here is the image, how does it look to you? Paul says he became all things to all people in order that he might share the Gospel. Why should the Jesus in our spiritual center not resonate with our own way of being in creation?

It is as though a “demon” had been set loose somehow. In Mark’s Gospel [1:29-39] Jesus, who has just called his first disciples, visits the home of Simon and Andrew along with James and John. All four were called from their boats as they fished at the shore; all four dropped everything to follow Christ. Now they find Simon’s mother-in-law is ill. The story says Jesus heals her. The key here is that Jesus “lifted her up.” This means he returned her to her place in the community; connected. This is why, in the story, she immediately gets up and serves lunch. In the society of Jesus’ time there was no worse “sin” or disconnection than that of being cast out from the love of others. Frequently people who were ill or in any sort of trouble were cast out. Jesus’ healing restores them to their right place in connection with their loved ones, in their societies, in their families, in their towns.  

The point of the Gospel then, the Good News of salvation, is that we are all connected through Christ. In the connection is normality, return, refreshment. Many years ago when I was becoming an Epsicopalian, when I was working with AIDS ministry, the motto of the church came from then Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning. It was: “There will be no outcasts.” (https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/pressreleases/there-will-be-no-outcasts-official-obituary-for-edmond-lee-browning/ ). It was the clarion call of the Gospel to those of us in the LGBTQ+ community in those days of oppression. It was, and remains, a blessing.

We all are called to remain connected in synchrony with Creation living fully into the LGBTQ+ lives with which we are created in God’s own image.

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Year B 2024 RCL (Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147:1-12, 21c; 1 Corinthians 9:16–23; Mark 1:29-39)

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

Ready to See

We are having a winter storm. It’s pretty humorous, now, for someone who grew up in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin … and literally walked a mile through 8 feet of snow to get to school. Yes, we really did that. I remember it as fun, comforting even, to walk through the corridors of nature gleaming white with the glory of God on each side of me as I traversed the path given to me in my birth.

So, we are hunkered down. Mainly because we live in Oregon, and there is a sheet of ice under the snow, so we don’t want to risk a fall, and … it will melt tomorrow.

But for today I have to say I give thanks to God and to God’s creation for this quiet day of peace and calm and reflection. (It’s a secret, but I really love the snow; it brings such quiet and such peace.)

I ironed. Yes, I ironed all the table linens from Halloween to the present. I love ironing, it is for me a time of reflection, a time to engage in a ritual action that frees my body from my mind and that frees my mind to be in touch with God. And when it’s all over I’ve got nicely ironed table linens, and some revelation as well.

Try it.

We have a lesson from 1 Samuel [3:1-10(11-20)]; it is, of course, critical to all clergy. I remember it was read at Morning Prayer the first day I was in seminary. Was that a coincidence?

Three times God calls Samuel. Three times Samuel tries to convince himself it isn’t God calling him. Then finally Samuel gets it after Eli tells him to pay better attention. And now Samuel is fully afraid, but also knowing who is calling he is actually ready, now fully available to God.

I just watched the last episode of The Crown the other night. Wasn’t that about “being ready?” Philip says to the Queen “you were born ready.”

Well, I tossed and turned all night after that because, it is my story too. I was born to be a priest. I knew it from the earliest moment. My grandmother knew It too and nurtured it in me, but unlike Eli she didn’t push, she just nurtured. After all, she was the daughter of a pastor. She recognized the signs, she knew the truth, she knew I would hear the call eventually, as did Samuel. She knew, that like Samuel, God would be with me and “let none of [my] words fall to the ground”

Psalm 139 begins “God, you have searched me out and known me.” God is within us, God is all around us, God is us, we are in God … and this is how we know that all thoughts are known by God. And this is how we know we must learn to control our thoughts. God has given us the gift of free will. I remember my Grandmother sitting me down one day after church when I was about 4, and she said, “God gave you the gift of free will, don’t ever forget that.” Wow, 68 years ago, and I remember it now. God, Grandma, searched me out and knew me, and knew my thoughts, and discerned my rising up from afar. God’s works are wonderful and I know it well.

In John’s Gospel [John 1:43-51] Jesus, just baptized, has gone to Galilee, to those working the fishing boats. To those whose hearts were open to God he said “Follow me.” Then Jesus used “snowballing” a research sampling method we use today. Once he had engaged Phillip, he asked Phillip to bring his friends. Nathaniel was next. And when Nathaniel questioned the call, Philip said simply “Come, and See.”

This is the essence of evangelism, that we invite people to come and see. Come and see Jesus working in your life. See what it means to be person who loves. See what it means to be ready for God to be in you.

2 Epiphany Year B RCL 2024 (1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20); Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 Page 794, BCP Domine, probasti; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51)

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

The Wind, the Dove, the Holy Spirit

Just like that we are back to work. With a theological snap of the fingers time shifts. With a secular roar the uproar we were living through just a few weeks ago comes streaming back. Winter is really here along with atrocious news and astonishing behavior. At least the days are longer now, teasing us with daylight a tiny bit at a time.

Just before Christmas we rejoiced at the advance toward marriage equality (okay, a baby step) taken by the Roman church leader. This week (of course) we learn of “backlash” in various parts of the world. Fortify yourselves my LGBTQ+ readers, we are in for another round it seems. Let me refer to this post from October 2009 (near the date that year of National Coming Out Day in the US and in Philadelphia the date of the OutFest): https://rpsplus.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/jesus-said-feed-my-sheep/

Then again, what better fortification might we hope for than the blessing of “a wind from God” sweeping over the face of creation?

Metaphors are a hallmark of oral culture. In our literate age we have the ability to store and retrieve anything whenever we want it, and so we don’t need to remember it or even to find it remarkable. But in oral culture history relies on the ability of listeners in community to remember and pass along the collective truth. Metaphor makes that more palpable, more operational. In Genesis the appearance of the Holy Spirit is described as “a wind from God” that “swept over the face of the waters” [1:1-5].

Echoed and sung in praise by the psalmist [Psalm 29]: the Holy Spirit is perceived in the powerful splendor of the voice of God that is like thunder on the mighty waters.

[Acts 19:1-7] Paul encounters some disciples in Ephesus. I love this line. What can it mean that Paul, passing through “interior regions” found” some disciples? Of course it is a sign of the universality of the new dimension of love, the door to which opened in the ministry of Jesus. Disciples, people of the good news of the power of God’s love are everywhere! In this story, these loving disciples have not heard about a Holy Spirit. Paul learns it is because they have become followers through the “baptism of John.” Paul lays hands on them in the name of Christ and they receive the Holy Spirit.

[Mark 1:4-11] John, as we see in Mark’s Gospel, proclaims a baptism of repentance “for the forgiveness of sins.” Repentance means literally to “think again.” A baptism of repentance is a formal way of anointing–with the very real water of the very real river–the action of remembering how people have disconnected from each other and therefore also from God.

Like the followers at Ephesus, people receiving “the baptism of John” are identified as having made a very real conscious decision to re-turn to God, to undergo a process of internal renewal to eject whatever within them has disconnected them.

Jesus is baptized by John in Mark’s Gospel, but also, he is in that moment connected directly with God as only he sees the “heavens torn apart” as “the Spirit descend[s] like a dove”—a metaphor for truth—and hears the very real loving voice of God.

We who are God’s heirs, created in God’s own loving image as LGBTQ+ people, have felt the wind of love that sweeps over creation, we have sung the praises of the love God created us to realize, we have seen the dove of truth that tells us the truth that the love we share is God-given, and we eternally receive the Holy Spirit.

1 Epiphany Year B 2015 RCL “The Baptism of Our Lord” (Genesis 1:1-5; Psalm 29; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11)

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

Grace (and flying objects)

We pray, with our hearts and souls and minds, for all those who have experienced the earthquake and aftershocks in Turkey and Syria.

We wonder what the *#*$ is going on with “objects” that need to be shot down over North American airspace.

We marvel that this creation of God’s can deliver at once so much beauty alongside so much devastation. We pray, with our hearts and souls and minds, for everyone, everywhere.

We hope for grace.

Grace is that moment when, unprompted and yet in an instant moved by the Holy Spirit, you realize unity with God. Grace–those moments, those ultimate gifts of love unmitigated and yet just there—is always unexpected and yet joyfully welcomed. You see, we experience grace when we are fully open to the dimension of love.

Grace is unexpected because we fail to be aware of God with every breath, with every moment, in every heartbeat. We forget God. And then when we are troubled we ask God “why?” but the answer always is that God always is there for us, it is we who forget to be there for God. Because to be there for God means to be there for each other first. And so grace seems unexpected when we realize it because it always is there if only, if only we can reach out for it, by loving, with our hearts and souls and minds. And this is all that God asks of us, that we experience God’s love as a life-force, that we receive God’s love in equilibrium with how we give God’s love. As Moses said to God’s people “choose life” and the “land God swore to give” is ours, we already are there if only we can see it, in God’s dimension of love.

And then in those moments of unexpected grace we give thanks given as an utterance, as an ejaculation, the proverbial “OMG” moment–true gratitude when thanks is given with an “unfeigned heart” comes when we have arrived in the dimension of love.

Paul address the church at Corinth as “people of the flesh, as infants in Christ” because they have not yet found the open door into the dimension of love. They have had a glimpse in the fellowship, in the singing, in the joy. But yet, Paul needs to remind them that God has created them explicitly to be the field for planting, the building up of creation. We are the hope and future and past and foundation of God’s love which is creation. It is in us that God intends to manifest and realize the dimension of love.

Yes—in us. In we, who are God’s LGBTQ children, created in God’s own image, and imbued with God’s love, because we are the creatures in creation who are created specifically to be defined by the love we are created to share. We are the fertile ground, we are the concrete superstructure, we are the future and past and foundation of God’s love.

That warmth in your heart when you hug the one you love–that is the life power of the universe that God has given you.

Jesus wants us to give thanks freely “with an unfeigned heart” for which we must have a clean Spirit, and so in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells his listeners not to approach the dimension of love until they are free of anger and spite and any emotion of the “flesh” (as Paul would put it), until they are free to receive the love that is going to be the water and air and life stream of the dimension of love.

We approach Valentine’s Day, the annual celebration of love, in a world that is at war, reeling with famine, grieving lives lost in natural disaster, at fear of flying objects.

But one thing is certain—God’s grace, which is love.

6^th Sunday after the Epiphany Year A RCL 2023 (Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37).

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

Justice as Love

We are all connected. We can see that this week from the drama about the spy balloon, about the jobs report, about the surprise decrease in COVID … we are all connected, unless we choose not to be. Choosing not to be connected is sin.

Do not ever let anyone tell you (wag their finger at you, quote the so-called “bible,” look again, it doesn’t really say what they say it does) that you are in “sin” if you are LGBTQ. You are not choosing to be disconnected from humanity just because God made you to be a lover of souls.

(You can see what they are trying to do, it is the oldest trick in the propaganda book—make you feel guilty because you are “different” from how they are. It is a form of reverse projection! They put this on us because they cannot tolerate how we could be different from them and still be human. It is what the Ten Commandments mean when they say “no other gods before me,” which is idolatry; I must be normal, therefore I am like God, therefore you are in sin if you are not like me ….)

But, when we bother to make friends, be friendly, be people together, in connection—go ahead, try it, just smile, that’s all it takes, and show up, like sit in the pew every Sunday in church, or say “hi” when you stop by their stall at the farmer’s market every week—when we make ourselves visible, it always is witness to the fact that we are, in fact, alike precisely because we are connected. There is no sin, no disconnectedness in being LGBTQ.

God’s prophecy through the writer known as second Isaiah (58: 6-12) is that God wants us to create justice and to celebrate it. God wants us to bring healing through joy. God wants us to remove the yoke of oppression put on us by those who want us to not be ourselves. God says “remove the yoke from among you … your light shall rise in the darkness.” It means that we who are God’s LGBTQ people, created in God’s own image, are called to live our LGBTQ lives with joy and pride, we are called to demand justice, we are called to celebrate connections and connectedness.

The Psalmist sings (112: 4) that righteousness, which is living in a dimension of justice “stands fast for ever.” It is the lamp light that shines in the darkness. We are created in God’s own LGBTQ image and we are charged to demand righteousness, which is justice, which is full connection, which is the absence of sin.

Paul carried the Gospel to the communities outside Israel. He was the greatest of evangelists. He was in pain and living with some sort of speech impediment caused by the stroke he had on the road to Damascus, from which God saved him by sending first Jesus to call him to righteousness and then others to bring him to healing. His love of God is not only genuine but it is part of his soul. He knows God’s wisdom, because he is a scholar of Hebrew texts, but he knows God’s love because he has experienced it at the point of personal tragedy. And he knows that all God wants from us, which turns out to be incredibly difficult for us, is that we should receive God’s Holy Spirit with loving arms and we should rejoice in the lives we have been given (1 Corinthians 2:1-16).

And thus, in Matthew’s Gospel (5:17-20), Jesus tells the crowds that he has come to point to the new dimension, the fulfillment not only of the prophecy but of God’s very will, that our righteousness should bring justice, which brings love, to every corner of creation. And Jesus tells the crowds that they will find the dimension of love when their justice exceeds that of those who oppress them.

It can be difficult to realize how much love demands justice. God is love, God has created us to love, God has made us the manifestation of love, and God wants us to live in a dimension of love. But to get there we have to find justice. Not only for ourselves, not just to “throw off the yoke” of our oppression. But as well to be just, to embody justice as part of the love we give. This is righteousness.

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Year A 2023 RCL (Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12); Psalm 112:1-9, (10); 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16); Matthew 5:13-20)

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

Keep on

Time is, as Einstein pointed out, an illusion. All time is all time all at once. The dimension of love is always not past or future but always now. We must live in it always now.

And, therefore, we must always be one with God. God wants us like a lover. God wants us to be always one with God. We must let God know we are there for God.

The life God wants us to live is a life of love, a life of realizing joy, a life of giving joy.

God wants us to understand that the message of salvation is that it always is always ours. There are no conditions other than that we walk in love in the dimension where God is.

Jesus pronounced “blessings”—promises of acceptance already given—to those who were willing to walk in love. All he asked in return is that they should rejoice and be glad.

My husband gave me a CD called “ExtANNAganza” from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus singing songs from Abba. It is an amazing gift for a whole lot of reasons. Of course, because he knows the music makes me joyful. It is music that just makes you feel good. But it particularly seems to me to be the hymnary of the LGBTQ community.

There are two extraordinary spiritual experiences in my life. I’ve written about them before, I know. But here I go again. The first was at the consecration of The Right Reverend Barbara Harris, the first woman bishop in the church of God (ok, since Joan the Pope) in Boston in 1989. Wikipedia tells me I was one of 8,000 people there that day. The thing I remember the most clearly was the moment in the liturgy when the 8,000 all rose to sing the Nicene Creed in unison. I could never ever have expected such a moment of power to come from the repetition of an ancient rite, I could never had imagined such a diverse crowd of witnesses coming together in the one thing that we all shared. It was almost an overpowering moment.

The other was, at the closing ceremony of the Gay Games in Amsterdam in 1998. I had been ordained a priest two months at that point. My friends who had supported my decade-long journey to ordination had all chipped in to give me the gift of that trip. And it had been an amazing couple of weeks, learning about the Netherlands, experiencing the thing the Gay Games gives, which is the sense of belonging no matter what. And now here we all were at the final evening, under the warm summer sky. And as the ceremony opened the strains of “Dancing Queen” began. And 50,000 (count us, 50,000!) queers all rose at once to sing and dance along. I remember my own joy. But I also remember the tears streaming down the faces of those all around me as we all stood and sang and dance. What amazing joy. What amazing reality. What amazing participation in God’s dimension of love.

And here is the message for us now—we must always hang onto that love that we all share, that joy that we alone can bring. Because our joy can change the world.

Look what we have done in three decades since—two lesbian governors, a gay former presidential candidate now in the cabinet, a trans-person in the cabinet—gay and lesbian bishops of the church, even a Roman pope who admits it is wrong to persecute us.

Keep on loving, keep on dancing, keep on creating joy, keep on keeping on.

Fourth Sunday After Epiphany Year A 2023 RCL (Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12)

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

Think Again: and Live!

Our job, no matter how difficult, is to be joyful.

“Be joyful all you lands,” God says.

Have joy in your heart. Do what ever you have to do to have joy. Because joy is love manifest. And your job is to love. Your job is to proclaim the Good News, and that is to show joy.

(My husband, has so much joy in his heart, that just being near him makes me overflow with joy. See?)

Yes indeed, we—you and me—we all are those people who have walked in darkness and seen that great light, which is the light of hope, the light of love, the light of joy. We have “increased … joy … [we] rejoice before [God].”

Sing,

dance,

hug,

smile.

 “Sing and make music” however you must—bake cinnamon rolls? grow tulips? make hamburger stroganoff? fix your friend’s broken garage door? hug your beloved? say “thank you” and mean it?

Sing, dance, hug, smile, and make music however it is you do that.

Our job is not to proselytize, our job is not to teach, our job is not to lecture.

Our job is to PROCLAIM with joy. “For the message about the cross … is the power of God”

Jesus told the crowd “repent.” It means, “think again.” That means, “wow, just stop for a moment and think about it.” It means, think before you speak.

Yesterday I was walking up a rainy street in Portland, my knees hurt, I was trying to make sure my walking stick didn’t hit a slick patch. And a woman coming toward me was in my way, and I was irritated by her. She was walking toward me with a walker. And as our paths crossed she smiled at me and said “Hello.” And I was irritated. And I was frightened. And I was captivated by her smile. And I was enthralled by her joy in the small steps she could make and her encouragement for mine. And I “re-pented” and in a heartbeat I looked her in the eye and said “thank you” and “hello” and smiled. And I could feel the both of us stand taller and walk with greater assurity. Joy.

Jesus walked, Jesus called, Jesus saw, Jesus said … and Peter and Andrew and James and John “immediately” re-pented, they “thought again” and they followed him.

And what of us LGBTQ siblings under God? According to The Rev. William Barber II (https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/21/us/william-barber-christian-nationalism-blake-cec/index.html’) we—queers and fags!–we have the power to unseat those who deny us a living wage, who deny us equality, who deny us a seat at the table, who deny us healthcare. All we have to do is: stand up, be present, be visible, this is called “witness” in theology.

And then re-pent, think again: smile, bring joy, bring love.

Re-pent.

Think again. And live!

3 Sunday after the Epiphany Year A 2023 RCL (Isaiah 9:1-4; Psalm 27:1, 5-13 Dominus illuminatio; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; Matthew 4:12-23)

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

Called to See

Every now and again it strikes me how much every day is the same, every week is the same, everything is the same. I wait for it to be evening then I wait for it to be morning then before I know it’s Sunday again. I joke (maybe joke?) with my husband that my entire life consists of making dinner—I plan it in the night, I check the pantry when I get up, I thaw things through the day, as soon as the sun is low in the sky I’m in the kitchen cooking, then we have dinner, then I go to bed and start all over. Time is passing, it seems, but then again maybe as Einstein said, it is just an illusion (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=82388.0 ). But, of course, the science of Einstein’s perception is that the passing of time depends on the frame of reference.

One way to look at it is to think about how we live in a certain dimension in which our synchrony with creation, a kind of harmony, is an eternal reality. In that there is grace, God’s love freely given in the absolute reality of life.

But then it occurs to me that how we tell our stories to ourselves defines the dimension in which we reside. Do I live in a dimension of dinner? Or do I live in a dimension of love and care, one in which my whole being is oriented to my husband’s, and to the things we share. The moments of togetherness, sharing, indeed loving, are the sunrises of the dimension in which we live. The sun sets and the moon rises and our love carries us. The harmony, the synchrony of the two of us in creation is our own dimension of love.

We all are called to tell—to prophesy if you will—about the dimensions of love we create and inhabit. It is their cumulative overlapping stew that is the eternal dimension of God’s love.

Isaiah (theologians will call this “Second Isaiah” Isaiah 49:2ff.) said “[God] called me before I was born … made my mouth like a sharp sword … made me a polished arrow” and (49:6) “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” The Psalmist (40:10-11) “proclaimed righteousness … did not restrain my lips … I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance, I have not concealed your love.” Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1: 9) “God is faithful, by [God] you were called into the fellowship of … Jesus Christ.” John the Baptist (John 1:34) “I myself have seen and testified.”

As I have written and preached many times, we who are seeking to comprehend how God calls us often don’t realize that we already are living the lives to which we have been called. We have been called to be God’s LGBTQ people, God created us LGBT&Q in God’s own image so we might be a light to the nations. We have been called to lead our LGBTQ lives in the light, as a witness to God’s faithfulness to us. We have been called to proclaim our pride in our God-given LGBTQ lives as a way of pointing to the highway of love into the dimension we create by living in and through our love.

There is a reason Jesus said (John 1:39), simply “Come, and see.”

2 Epiphany Year A 2023 (Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12 Expectans, expectavi; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42)

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

Love Propagated

What comes to me today is Julian of Norwich: All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well.

It is the first Sunday of the Epiphany, Christmas is past, the New Year has begun, even Congress has calmed down however briefly. The weather is typical for Oregon, some rain now and again, moderate temperatures. According to Farmer’s Almanac the brutally cold December of ice and freezing was the coldest part of this Oregon winter (I hope they’re right; they usually are somehow).

God’s prophecy in Isaiah 42 is that “former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.” The Psalmist sings (29) “God shall give strength to God’s people, God shall give God’s people the blessing of peace.” Peter proclaims (Acts 10) “God shows no partiality,” … and especially that “we are witnesses.” At Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan river (Matthew 3) “the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

The reality of the dimension of love into which God called us in our own creation, in God’s own LGBTQ image, is that all things always are being made new, that God shows no partiality, that we who are God’s LGBTQ heirs are witnesses to this constant renewal that God’s love, created in us so that it might be propagated through us in the love we share, makes the single constant in the dimension of love.

All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well.

1 Epiphany Year A 2023 RCL “The Baptism of Our Lord” (Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17)

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

Love Triumphant

Context is everything they say. It’s winter again in Oregon, rainy and cold and apparently going to be colder. Bulbs are up and looking like they want to bloom soon, but freezing nights are coming this week so we’ll see how that goes. It seems like I’ll have to bring my Meyer lemon tree into the garage for a few days after all. We are about to have some construction begin so things are a bit in an upheaval, but it will pass. What matters is the love we share, the hugs, the smiles, the laughter, the knowledge of love, that love surrounds us and strengthens us and nurtures us. I have never known love greater than the love I am experiencing now. Love triumphs.

Luke’s Gospel (6:27-38) continues Jesus’ discourse addressed to his disciples, but also to the crowd that has gathered. It is a discourse about love and action. The discourse is punctuated with action words, commands really: love, do good, bless, pray, give. It is the measure of love as the outward manifestation of God’s presence in each of us. It is the pathway to inherit the kingdom: “you will be children of the Most High.”

Of course, the context makes the message tougher. Jesus says to love your enemies, bless those who curse you. He means that we must be on guard not to let love lapse within us, not to let the absence of love overwhelm us. We must keep the love lighted in our hearts like a beacon under any circumstance. It is a kind of tough love after all that we are enjoined to embrace.

But the essence is the ultimate clause (6:38) “the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Love must be everything, always.

The other scripture appointed for today (the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany) provides yet more context. The story of Joseph’s triumphant discovery by his brothers (Genesis 45:3-11, 21-28) is the revelation of a common truth, that what is, is what was meant to be. It is an instruction yet again to embrace love , because love clears away the fog. Psalm 37 reminds us to be in love with love, to trust, to take delight, to commit and above all to be patient. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50) is Paul’s discourse on resurrection. As usual the concluding clause has the key “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” because flesh and blood are perishable. But love is imperishable. It is love that is the key to inherit the kingdom. Paul, of course, is using midrash on Jesus’ discourse.

Well the world out there is an amazing place, sometimes confusing, sometimes implacably beautiful, always fascinating, always presenting the possibility of grace to those of us who can learn to walk in love.

Often it is difficult to find a nonobvious way to relate the scripture to LGBTQ spirituality. The key must be that word “nonobvious,” because if there is an LGBTQ perspective on the message today it is the very normality of the lives we lead as people who love, as people whose love is powerful, as people whose love is triumphant.

7 Epiphany Year C 2022 RCL (Genesis 45:3-11, 15; Psalm 37: 3-12, 41-42 Noli aemulari; 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50; Luke 6:27-38)

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