Pride for Pentecost

Today is the Feast of Pentecost, the celebration of the receipt and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the “first fruits” [Romans 8:23] of salvation.

We wait, as in all of life, with hope in our hearts, for the fulfillment of love [Romans 8:25].

In churches we wear red to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit, but also its power. We read the story from Acts 2:1-11 about the first Pentecost, we try to recreate it with singing and by reading in different languages. We focus on the “amazed and perplexed” [Acts 2:12] part of the story.

But, do we follow the signs all around us? Do we know when the Holy Spirit is with us?

We get carried away by the part about the wind and the fire; those are Old Testament cues for the presence of God’s Spirit. Let’s look at the story again.

“They were all together in one place,” in a house, it says, and they were sitting. They made a lot of noise, babble we might say, talking each in their own way, rather like an airport departure lounge, eh?

They were filled with the Holy Spirit, all of them, each according to their own ability, experiencing God’s deeds of power, rather like a wedding dinner, eh?

Or a parish supper? Or an LGBTQ+ community center potluck? A Pride festival?

The crowd was perplexed, some of them sneered.

Maybe like a Pride festival? In fact, if you want to experience pretty much the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a crowd of loving people gathered together in one place each experiencing God’s love according to their own ability, expressing their love aloud each talking in their own way … go to any Pride festival.

There you will see the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate [John 16:7], to dwell among those who believe in the promise of the power of God’s love, to empower those who live fully into their own created being, to uplift those who walk in love.

There you will see and hear the whole creation “groaning in labor pains” [Romans 8:22] in anticipation of salvation, which is the fulfillment of God’s love.

God’s Spirit resting in the hearts of those who love will indeed receive the “Spirit of truth …” and be guided into all truth [John 16:13], which is that glory is love and love is glory.

Amen.  

The Day Of Pentecost: Whitsunday 2024 Year B RCL (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)

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

Now is the Time

Today is the feast of the Pentecost, 50 days after resurrection, and 10 days after ascension … in Anglicanism it is often called “Whitsun,” which apparently comes from the tradition of baptisms taking place that day and people wearing white (“whit”) to symbolize the reception of the Holy Spirit in baptism.

It is a time of happiness, a time of embracing the Spirit, a time of joy, a time of celebration … and a time of being very busy. All over the world it is some sort of holiday. In the US it is Memorial Day (which is a three-day extravaganza of cookouts); it follows VIctoria Day in Canada (which was last weekend), but in Europe it is just whatever Pentecost is called in the various languages (Pfingsten in German, Pinkster in Dutch, etc.) and often referred to these days as “bank holiday.

So, isn’t that interesting, that even in places where Christianity barely still exists as a religion, it has become the cultural backdrop for everything? What does that tell us? Well, first and foremost that it isn’t about being the old stuck-up church (as Jesus kept saying), it is, rather, all about learning to love, and learning to make love a key part of all society—hence all those developed countries (and I do not include the US in that list) where health care is a right not a commodity, where the rights of all people (not just white heterosexual men, or at least those who pretend to be) are honored, where walking in love is the norm and not “a woke culture war.”

The feast of the Pentecost, of the Whitsun, is the feast of the receipt of the Holy Spirit. It is the day we recognize that we have all been given in birth—our own creation—the gifts of love that we need to transform creation. It is the day we remember that God has called us to use those gifts exactly in that way. It is none other than the way of eternal life that is the gift of walking in love in the hearts of all faithful people.

In churches the dramatic first lesson for Pentecost always is from Acts [2:1-11]. It says “they were all together in one place.” Remember “sheltering in place?” These were the least of society, they were the ragged followers of the crucified criminal Jesus. And they were in hiding, in fear.

Let me pause the narrative to remind us all that we, LGBTQ people, live exactly this life. That we live in fear, that we live in hiding, even when we think it is all ok and we are well integrated it turns out we still are in danger. Who could have imagined that in the year 2023, after Stonewall, after 50 years of Pride, after AIDS and its devastation, after the battle for marriage equality—that it all could be up for grabs again? But this has happened before, before WWII LGBTQ people had made huge gains for equality but persecution sent the entire community back into closets for half a century.

But it was not to those well-dressed wealthy people that the Holy Spirit appeared—it was to the oppressed in hiding. The story tells us this in the reaction of those well-dressed wealthy, “who are these to speak?”—in other words “how dare they?”

And God’s answer is: these are my children of love.

And all were amazed and perplexed.

Paul writes to the Corinthians [1 Corinthians  m12:3b-13] that there are many gifts, but only one Spirit, and that the main point is that whatever the Spirit gives to each of us is intended for the whole. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And for we who are God’s LGBTQ children, it is clear, we are called for the common good to give witness to our presence, to our reality, to our love.

We are under attack all over the world. We are, not surprisingly given the agenda of the losers, under attack in the US. Drag queens and trans are being legislated back into their closets, pride items are withdrawn from Target stores, on and on I could go, a daily litany of each new attack.

Our job is to respond with love.

But I bet you don’t know what I mean by that.

I don’t mean smile and get trampled.

I mean, love, in your heart, as you fight back. Love life. Love love itself. Love your garden, your pet, your car, your Cuisinart … and of course your beloved … just love, fiercely love.

For this is what Jesus asks of us. In John [20:19-23] Jesus says “receive the Holy Spirit.” First he breathed on them … think about that. God’s love, the love we own, the love that is ours as LGBTQ people, it is in our very breath. Of course Jesus breathed on them first … here is the Spirit of God. But first he reminded them to pay attention: “receive!” Notice also in this story “the doors of the house where the disciples met were locked for fear.” These disciples of Jesus, like us, had to hide, had to think twice about being seen in public, had to look over their shoulders at the market.

God says “now is the time.” God says “the Holy Spirit has been given to you.” Receive God’s fierce love.

Now is the time.

The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday 2023 Year A RCL (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23)

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

The World Needs us Now

In Portland and vicinity it now is sunny off and on in between the rain. It finally is warm enough for my lemon trees to move outdoors. They had been sheltering indoors since October and they seem deliriously happy to be back outdoors in the sun if I may judge from the vibrance of their leaves and new shoots. Northwesterners know to gripe a little bit about the rain but secretly we love it, we find it soothing, calming, reassuring in a way. We know that with drought always just around the corner, every rain drop is a blessing.

It also is the Day of Pentecost in the church, the day we close the season of Easter as we celebrate the revelation of the Holy Spirit to God’s people. The latest COVID surge seems to have plateaued in Oregon, for what that’s worth. The war in Ukraine plods on. Mass shootings rage on in the US.

The glory of creation on the verge of summer is almost miraculous in its power to soothe and heal. The presence of love in the form of the Holy Spirit among us is as empowering as it is healing, indeed it the most powerful force of creation that we have in our grasp. The world needs us to embrace the power of love like never before.

In Acts 2 the Pentecost is described as being like a storm. Imagine love compared to a storm, a raging fire, a violent wind, a smoky mist, causing emotional overload like intoxication and yet flowing like a mighty river poured out upon all flesh. It recalls for me the fearsome wildfires of the US west, but also the stunning beauty of the blood red sea at sunset on the Aegean and the peaceful fog that rolls in over San Francisco or Monterey in California in the evening. Glory and comfort all mixed up together—that sounds like love to me.

In Romans 8 Paul reminds us that we who are led by God’s love are indeed God’s children, that love is absolutely the core of our inheritance, the entity that makes us heirs—heirs of a creation built of love. If we can embrace that love we can not only claim our inheritance but live up to it, indeed live into it as well, passing it along the timelessness of space.

In John 14 Jesus reminds his disciples that Jesus himself is God who is love incarnate, that love is in everything and everyone and everywhere, that love is the truth. Jesus reminds us that it is only our own intransigence that prevents the love that is our inheritance from revealing its power to us. We have only to turn to the dimension of love to reveal its power to build up, to bring peace, to sustain justice. And, if we can know love then we know also with confidence that we must not be troubled or afraid. Walking in love calls for boldness.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t pay attention to the world around us or be mindful of the challenges we face. If we are to build up a better tomorrow we cannot do it from fear or sorrow or even anger. We must build from the conviction that love can triumph.

June is also Pride month, at least in the US, where the celebration evolved from the remembrance of the June 28, 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. LGBTQIA pride will be celebrated around the world all summer, providing our community many opportunities to showcase the love that God has given us in creation. We must step proudly in love with confidence and, yes pride in the lives we have been given. We must embrace the Holy Spirit of love. The world needs us now.

The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday Year C 2022 RCL (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; Romans 8:14-17; John 14:8-17, (25-27))

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

LGBT Families for the Common Good

Happy Pentecost. This is the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the feast that ends the mystery of Eastertide and returns the church to what is sometimes called “normal” time. We have to ask ourselves this year whether we don’t treasure the concept of normal time!

In the Church, Pentecost used to be a time of great celebration. There was special music, there were baptisms, processions, special vestments, and various approaches to acting out the sound of the disciples of Christ speaking in many languages all at once.

Today our celebration must still be virtual. Who could have imagined that the church, born of this fellowship of the Holy Spirit, might become the site where the slightest hug or song sung together might lead to disease or death?

The Episcopal Church is to be congratulated for having embraced virtual technology immediately at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic—as the Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Michael Curry, has pointed out, our church never closed, only our buildings. Our fellowship in Christ and of the Holy Spirit is intact and strong. As I have written here over the past few weeks (and as theologians everywhere point out) these times for us are not too different from the very first days of Christianity or, indeed, the first centuries of the church, as faithful people worship at home in private in small family groups—the meaning of “family” left to each gathering to define.

In the Acts of the Apostles the story (2:1-11) begins in “the entire house where they were sitting” because “they were all together in one place.” The arrival of God was “like the rush of a violent wind” and had the appearance of “divided tongues, as of fire.” In 1 Corinthians (12:3b-13) Paul writes about “varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” because “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” In John’s Gospel (20:19-23) it was when “the doors of the house … were locked” that “Jesus came and stood among them.”

It is in our lgbt family-ness that we are blessed this Pentecost. We as lgbt families, constituted more often from love than by genetics, gather in faith in our homes where we are sheltered in place, with the doors locked to preserve the pandemic bubbles that preserve our very lives and loves, to celebrate the Holy Spirit. It is in our lgbt families that we realize, indeed, prove, the varieties of gifts given by the manifestation of the Spirit which is given to each individually just as God’s own image is given to each of us individually in creation. It is in the formation and longevity of our lgbt families of love that we experience the arrival of God in the form of love like a violent wind and tongue of fire that turns our hearts into eternal flames. It is in not just the preservation but the celebration of our lgbt families that the Spirit is manifest “for the common good” of Christ’s fellowship. Our blessed presence is the evidence of the reality of God’s promise of salvation. We are blessed as lgbt people to “receive the Holy Spirit.” We are blessed as lgbt people to be sent, by Christ, saying to us “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” We the lgbt people of God speak in as many languages as we can muster but with one voice: “Peace be with you.”

 

The Day Of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23)

©2020 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

An organic whole*

Creation is an organic whole. I’m sure that comes as no surprise to anyone. I read this week that the ozone layer has begun to recover, more than two decades after we stopped using ozone-depleting chemicals. The Milwaukee paper today has a cover story about algae blooms in Lake Erie; they’re a problem in all of the Great Lakes, and problems in the lakes signal problems in the environment and presage problems in life all around those lakes, not to mention reverberations worldwide from changes in the socio-economics of the region. It’s a bit like chaos theory, which most of us learned about in Jurassic Park. Everything is connected.

If everything is connected then it follows that a disturbance in one place can lead to a domino-effect of disturbances along the line. This is the reasoning glbt liberators have used for decades to encourage coming out. People who do not come out harm themselves for sure, by not reaching personal fulfillment. But they also harm those around them, entering into relationships based on false pretenses, as well as bringing harm to the rest of us who are gay who are seen as somehow odd for having come out. When all glbt people stand up in society for just whom God has made us to be, there will be no room for oppression or suppression. Paul writes to the Romans (14:7) “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.” Paul’s focus in this passage is on unity with God, living into life with God. But lest we live fully into life with each other we cannot be one with God.

The other side of this coin, to mush a metaphor, comes in Matthew’s Gospel (18-21-35) where we hear Jesus repeatedly telling his disciples that they must forgive and forgive and forgive and then forgive some more and it must come from the heart. Without the opening to God created by the flow of love among people there can be no space for justice. Without forgiveness there can be no room for everything, which is interconnected, to thrive. Forgiveness must come from the heart and must flow among us, but of course, it does not mean we must be doormats.

Yes, there must be marriage equality. Yes, our families must be respected as such. To that end we must continue to stand up for ourselves. A former mentor used to say repeatedly that the most important thing gay people did in the church was to show up and be visible, as a witness to their faith among the whole congregation. So, yes, we also must find a way to forgive, and with forgiveness in our hearts continue to show up and be visible. Creation is an organic whole.

*Proper 19 (Exodus 14:19-31; Psalm 114; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 18:21-35)

©2014 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Stormy weather*

I apologize for the long hiatus here …. I was traveling, and I was teaching, and although each week I pondered the scripture, I could not think of anything to add to the message in the scripture. So I guess, if you’re missing my voice, I would tell you to look at the Lectionary Page and just ponder the scripture here: http://www.lectionarypage.net/

On the other hand, I can tell you that I went to Montréal for the World Social Science Forum (http://www.wssf2013.org/) and although I was there to speak about a vision of the evolving future of virtual knowledge and virtual information institutions, I also had the opportunity to chair a panel with speakers from Nigeria and Korea whose papers about the social status of their own cultures was shocking and alarming and probably very enlightening for me to hear. It was sunny and warm when I arrived in mid-October and leaves were turning lovely colors. A week later when I left for Amsterdam and the International Universal Decimal Classification Symposium (which actually was in The Hague), it was cold and raining. While I was in Amsterdam Brad emailed me that there had been a huge windstorm in Milwaukee and all of my potted plants in the yard had blown over, blown out of the pots, and blown into neighbors’ yards. I guess he picked them up.

About two days later on Sunday evening October 27, there was some kind of news about a storm approaching southern England and maybe Dutch trains would be delayed the next day. Well, it was something like a hurricane without rain. I remember thinking at the time that it must have been the same storm Brad encountered, just now a few days later and half a world away. It started some time in the night and I could hear it whorling by outside; it did sound rather a lot like Hurricane Sandy had sounded a year before (I spent that night in bed too listening to the wind and hoping my house would be okay–it was). When I got up the wind had died down and it looked pretty much normal outside. I had my morning coffee, and as it was nearly the end of my time in Amsterdam I prepared to go to one of my favorite spots for a broodje (which is a kind of marvelous Dutch sandwich). I got there okay and picked up the morning paper to see that, in fact, there had been severe damage and even some loss of life. On my way back to my apartment I discovered the famous picture of a tree in the canal was a picture of my own little gracht (canal) just the other way than I had gone earlier. Oddly, I noticed my neighbors’ potted plants had blown over and the plants had blown out of the pots and blown up and down the gracht.

After that I went back to Montréal for the Association for Information Science and Technology, and also for Brad’s birthday–he is a graduate of McGill University and hadn’t been back since college, so I had him come up for the weekend for his birthday. He had a good time seeking out his favorite haunts from decades earlier and we had some terrific meals, although by then it was cold and wintery there and in Wisconsin.

Now as I write this I’m waiting for Brad’s flight to depart, we’re in between tornado warnings. As we were going out to the car we got the first warning and went to the basement instead. Then after that passed I drove him to the airport, and on the way home I drove through driving rain and hail. I hear planes overhead so the airport must be back in operation. But this is not November weather!

Today’s Gospel is from Luke 21. Here Jesus is giving his listener’s the keys to the universe and also the assurance of grace but all they can think about is worldly things.  I like it that Jesus, clever teacher that he is, never answers them directly. This is because he knows learning does not happen without interiorization. So to every question he responds with a puzzle. One hopes his disciples, now as then, will learn to think for themselves.

Where is the kingdom? It is here now. When is the kingdom? It is here now. How will we know? Well, it’s here now and you can’t see it, you’ll have to figure that out yourself. Maybe you’re too self-possessed to find a kingdom that requires a giving up of self ….

The reading from 2 Thessalonians 3 speaks to doing the work of the Gospel and particularly to evading idleness. “Do not be weary in doing what is right” it says. While I was on the road marriage equality came to New Jersey on the heals of Minnesota, and in the past few days Hawaii and Illinois have passed legislation. More than a third of the U.S. population now lives in places where what is right has been done. Let’s not forget that the good news of salvation in Christ is essentially the news that we all have been given equality and justice by God. What God has given it is our duty to preserve, nurture, and enable.

The Old Testament scripture today is from Isaiah 65 and opens with God saying through the prophet “I am about to create new heavens and a new earth.” That action of God is ongoing always. It is our job as children of God in Christ to see that we always are ready to move into God’s new dimensions of equality and justice and love.

©2103 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

*Proper 28 (Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12); 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19)

Running to obtain promises … to the max!*

In seminary I always laughed at this “running to obtain your promises” prayer appointed for this week …

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. [Book of Common Prayer, p. 234].

I was a runner then, 4 miles a day on the track at the YMCA, and I ran 4 miles a day until bursitis took over in 2010. Even after that I “jogged” on a treadmill 2-3 miles a day until I got to working so much ….

So running is pretty much about working your body to its max. It pushes every system and it feels so terrific. It causes a release of endorphins that relax the brain and the body. When I was teaching at Columbia University in the late 1980s my students were known to carry on about my brilliant lectures. Those were in my 4pm classes; Everyday at 2, I ran. I would lock myself in my office from noon to 2 to go over my notes, and then I would run, and as I ran I would let my mind wander and when I got back to teach at 4, there would be some excellent insights, which I would plop into those lectures. It was thrilling, frankly, to be on the edge like that.

There, metaphorically on the edge, is the intersection with God, who wants us to work at the max all the time. I know, it sounds tiring. But it really isn’t. It really is liberating, thrilling as I said above.

Now, if you are in the lgbt community, you should be lgbt to the max. Don’t ask me what I mean by that, just do it. Just do it your own way! It is what God wants you to do, because God wants you to work it out, to the max.

So we have some rich scripture this week, and some would tell you that it all is about giving up your riches. But that would not be a correct interpretation, precisely. The idea is not to give up what you have, but rather, to use what you have to the max. Are you rich? The use your riches to give to the max. Whatever you have, no matter how little or how much, use it to give to the max. That’s the point of the scripture. Jesus says in the end that the self-righteous have their laws and prophets, but God’s children have each other. It brings us full circle, we must be who we really are, to the max.

Give give give.

Love love love.

*Proper 21 (Jeremiah 32: 1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; 1 Timothy 6: 6-19; Luke 16:19-31)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

There is joy in heaven when we are*

I had a conversation the other day, as often happens, with someone who declared he was not interested in religion. But then, of course, he was interested enough to ask me about my faith. And so I said, as I often do, that it’s just too bad that so many people have been so brain-washed with false doctrine. I always begin by telling people that God is not a puppet-master running a marionnette show pulling all of the strings. That just is not how it works. And yet, that is what so many people have been taught.

The scripture this week is disturbingly full of an angry God who is ticked off at people who aren’t faithful, who forget God, who forget to be one with God, and who forget that God is the source of all life and light. It is a very irate (… dare I venture hurt?) God we see in Jeremiah 4 and also in Psalm 14. What are we to make of that? Well, I think we are to think of God as we think of our own selves—God is eternity, God is the source, God is the creation, and God is the creator of each one of us in God’s own image—but God needs tending to once in awhile. God wants us–God’s people–to be plugged in, and to stay plugged in. And this is a two way street. It is as important for God as it is for us.

I had my handyman try to install a rheostat on the dining room chandelier (that’s a very grand word for that horrid fixture—it was in the house when we bought it) and after lots of trial and error he had to give up. Interestingly, when the electrician came the next day, it turned out we’d actually got it right, but those damn CFL bulbs won’t work with a dimmer, which is why we got buzzing and flashing and thought we had failed. But the electrician calmly and methodically matched each wire to each other wire until he sorted out the circuits. And then everything was copascetic. Now, you see, this is how it works with us and with God. We have to stay plugged in and on the circuit. Sometimes we have to methodically sort out the connections and tend to each one fully and separately in order to make sure it all continues to work together. If we do, God who is fully empowered, fully empowers us.

So in the Gospel reading from Luke 15 we have two parables, one of tax collectors and another of the “widow’s mite”—the poor woman sweeping her house for a lost penny. She should have been here the other day. I dashed home from the supermarket because I had to turn around quickly and go to teach. As I set the groceries down the containers of blueberries fell to the floor and pretty soon I had an entire kitchen of blue dots. I got them swept up … and then when I came home from teaching and wanted to cook dinner I grabbed a bag of carrot chips from the crisper and pretty soon I had an entire kitchen full of orange dots. It was quite a day. I swept it all up. I achieved a clean floor. And eventually I achieved dinner. And I rejoiced. And I thanked God. Okay, I got carried away by the sweeping metaphor, but I think it wasn’t the mite that was important, it was the effort, the human attention and the honoring of the connection with God that was the woman’s blessing. This action, of getting and staying connected to God, is repentance.

Is there a gay message here? Only that we must be, and we must continue to be. We must be who we are. I met a man this week who was terrified of being found out to be gay. I was stunned. How can it be that in this year 2013 there still are men who are terrified of being who God has made them to be? How can it be that there still are people who cannot cope with God directly. God has asked us, gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered people to understand that we are one of God’s gifts to the whole community. It is our responsibility to love God and to love each other, and to stand up in public as God’s loving children. There is joy in heaven when we do.

*Proper 19 (Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

On the potter’s wheel*

I realize I have been missing for a few weeks. Right after my last post I traveled to Amsterdam. The new meds I’d been given had some horrid side effects and I really was out of it for about 10 days, which made the trip sort of a trial. Still, I did some of my favorite things and searched online to find out the side effects would ameliorate. Here is one of my favorite places to sit in Amsterdam on a nice afternoon watching the boats in the canal:

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the ducks? Aren’t they cute? They’re lots of fun to watch. I also got a lot of work done, as usual, in my quiet moments. The following Saturday I travelled to Copenhagen for my first visit to Denmark. It too is very quiet, calming, soothing even. On Sunday afternoon a friend of a friend invited me to visit the bohemian collective Christiania.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on Monday I attended a conference at the famous Royal School of Library and Information Science.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went back to Amsterdam then for a few days, to do more writing, and relax a bit before coming home to teach.

Since I returned to Milwaukee there have been a lot of things going on personally and professionally, and it was delightful the other day to enjoy the hibiscus on my balcony … the ones I tried to grow in Philadelphia never ever got this excited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scripture appointed for today begins with a reading from Jeremiah 18 in which God creates a metaphor of God the potter … God reworks a spoiled vessel in the potter’s hand, making it better. I have to say I feel sort of like that vessel, like the last six weeks or so have been a time of poking and prodding and reshaping me and indeed the whole of my life—make what you will of the metaphor of the vessel, the metaphor of God the potter is worth spending some time pondering.

In my experience as a person on a journey of faith I have discovered a sort of dichotomy, or maybe I should just say there are two ways to see everything. That is, we tend to think of ourselves first and then to perceive everything else as happening against the backdrop of “me.” So we think God is a potter shaping us, and that must be why it feels like things are spinning and shapes are constantly changing. But of course the other way to look at it is that we are part of God’s creation and not its centerpiece, and therefore when the wheel spins we should enjoy the ride and when the shape of life changes we should change with it and do our best to perceive what it is that God the excellent potter is doing with the world around us. And always, then, perceive the role into which God is calling us.

In the reading from Luke 14 we see large crowds traveling with Jesus hanging on his every word and they are jubilant to have found him. They, of course, are perceiving themselves as at the center, gifted with his presence. He turns it inside out on them swiftly, telling nested parables about how unless we can give up everything we already perceive we cannot really be his disciples. (That’s my interpretation, of course—you can read the text yourself). The role of a disciple in the kingdom is to be the vessel of the grace and love that establish the kingdom. To do that we have to let grace and love be manifest in us. If grace and love are manifest in us then they will be manifest through us too.

I often have pondered this set of metaphors, or perceptions, with regard to life as a gay person. During my six weeks of sitting on the potter’s wheel the tax authorities have decided that those of us who are legally married ought to file tax returns as married people, regardless of whether the state in which we reside recognizes our marriages. Now that’s what I call reshaping the vessel! It will take us awhile to figure out what it means economically, or even just exactly what any couple among us has to do. But the fact is that this reshaped vessel now includes us as legitimately married people. Let’s hope our time in the kiln solidifies this new reality, which really is a manifestation of God’s own glory given to those of us who can make our faith—God’s grace and love within us and through us—manifest.

*Proper 18 (Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

“Do not be afraid, little flock

I had quite a week. Last week I was in Toronto, and I got home Saturday evening and Sunday I was just too lazy to post, I’m sorry. Monday morning we had a variety of appointments to keep at the local teaching hospital and had to get up early. I felt a bit dizzy, and I called my doctor at 9:30, but then didn’t get a call back all day, and in the evening got an email to keep taking the drugs that were making me dizzy. Still, we drove all over, Brad got his procedures done and I got mine. We had a nice dinner. Tuesday morning after my breakfast it was clear to me something was wrong and I got a special appointment with a doctor and sped out there, and was told I would need to be hospitalized to find the cause. Now, you need to know, I haven’t been in a hospital since I was 5, and my entire experience of hospitals as an adult is either dealing with my husband in the ICU or dashing there to give last rites, so I was, shall we say, frightened?

What can I say. I was there three days. It was weird. At the end I wasn’t entirely well, but I wasn’t entirely sick either. Many long stories in there for future sermons.

In Psalm 50 the psalmist sings this: “Consider this well, you who forget God, lest [God] rends you and there be none to deliver you. “ And in Hebrews 11 Paul’s disciple writes: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” I almost cried when I saw that line, because I have a pencil box given to me as a gift from my first congregation on my departure from among them, and they had exactly that verse inscribed on it. They did that because I spent a year among them as a deacon praying I would be priested, and they knew I was always scared about it. And yet, the whole time, I used that verse to teach them to hold on to their faith. How interwoven we all are in God’s world. Well, so there  I was in the hospital with the tubes and everything, and “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Two important moments happened in the time I was in the hospital. One was when a priest friend (ok, she’s my priest now) phoned. After we hung up, my vitals had all improved dramatically. The next morning the chaplain dropped by, and I said “does it tell you I’m a priest” and she said “no, tell me about it.” She sat down and we had a thorough spiritual moment. And when she left my vitals had improved again. God is great my friends, and faith is assurance, assurance, assurance.

I was not sure what would happen when a 61 year old gay priest showed up at a midwestern hospital with a husband. What happened was they brought him a bed so he could spend the night beside me. Which was dramatically important for reducing my anxiety. It seems being out and gay has made a difference in healthcare … hallelujah …

These lines are the keys to this week’s gospel reading from Luke: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Do not be afraid.

Pray.

Love.

The kingdom already is yours.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Love.

Love my gay and lesbian friends, for by loving you create love. And that is where your treasure is, in the loving you give.

Let’s all get back on track now. We don’t need to worry about the coming at an unexpected hour, for there we are, sleeping side by side, in love.

P.S. I’ve got the world’s best husband ever.

Amen.

*Proper 14 (Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 23-24 Deus deorum; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.