Called to Love

Hard work, hard work, hard work … I keep telling you this love stuff is hard work. Why do you think God appointed us, God’s LGBTQ+ people to do it? It’s not just a challenge, it takes guts to make the world work with love.

Our collect today (the opening prayer) asks God to increase in us “faith, hope and charity” because to “obtain [love]” God has to make us love loving [the prayer says “love what [God] command[s]!].”

These last few months the lectionary has had us following the generations of Abraham, and the journey of the Exodus. It is a story of a spiritual journey toward salvation, which God has made available to all of creation. It is a revelation, or a meditation if you will, about the challenge of living as humans in the world, about the challenge of living together in the world, about the challenge of being at once stewards and subjects of creation. The story ends today with Moses’ death [Deuteronomy 34:1-112] and the beginning of the period of Joshua as prophet. It is important that these leaders are called “prophets,” meaning they are neither autocrats nor monarchs, but rather, they stand in view of God and the people, translating as best they can, God’s law of love.

The liturgical response is Psalm 90 [1-6, 13-17], which reminds us that all time is all at once and already is. Time-space is a single continuum. Time and space bound the dimensions of love in which we live. Love indeed is all around us. When Jesus says “the kingdom has come near” he means “the next dimension over” … “can you get there?” The way to get there is through the action of love.

The testing of Jesus continues in Matthew’s Gospel [22:34-46]. Jesus resolves all questions into an equivalence: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

The revelation from scripture is that love is tough but love is the law in the dimension that God has prepared for all creation. But we have to choose love. We have to choose the prophetic action of standing tall in the face of challenges and remembering always to respond by continuing to walk in love.

It is about to be the feast of All Saints, in which we remember those who indeed walked in love. Is it just quirk of fate that All Hallows Eve comes first, in which an ancient tradition of warding off the absence of love has become a celebration of joy and childlike rejoicing? Is it an accident that LGBTQ+ people revel in the opportunity to express the love God created within us to share as we dress up and dance and rejoice?

It is our call from God, to be the visible prophets of love, to stand tall as the revelation of active love that works.

Proper 25 Year A 2023 RCL (Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Psalm 1; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22:34-46)

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

A Firewall of Grace

It’s a gloriously beautiful day in Oregon. The sun is shining, the temperature is warm, the air is crisp, people are enjoying thee outdoors, and we all are happy to have normal (standard) time back. The “blue” full moon on Halloween was stunningly beautiful with its companion bright red Mars nearby in the inky night sky. It is as though the worries of the real world have all faded away.

Well, almost. We face an “interesting” week ahead. COVID-19 infections are climbing across the country (as indeed all around the world it seems) and Tuesday will bring a long-awaited, much anticipated and for many of us anxiety-laden election day. Fingers are crossed, prayers are said and for many of us who voted long ago metaphorical breath will be held. We all are waiting eagerly for both COVID and the election to be part of our past.

The church celebrates All Saints today worldwide as Christians remember all those who have lived their faith by walking in love. It is a reminder to all of us that this is what God calls us to do. We are to embrace life as joyous in order that we might share the love God has given us and by so doing build up a firewall of grace. We are called to remember always that with every heartbeat we have the opportunity to love, or to turn our backs on love, which is the only possible sin.

It sounds easy enough to walk in love. But the reality is that it demands constant attention to keep ourselves from turning inward to self, which results in turning away from love and unity with God through unity with each other.

The first letter from John (1 John 3:1) begins with these amazing words: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” It is a point of entry, a gateway I think, for God’s LGBTQ children, to remember that even, especially, we are created in God’s image, each of us in full embrace of our diversity is in the likeness of God, which is the embodiment of love. We are called to love. And by loving we are living out our faith. By remembering to walk in love we are building up that firewall of grace.

In Matthew’s Gospel (5:1-12) a series of surprising blessings known as “the beatitudes” point to the dimension in which riches of a life of love are available to the children of God. The kingdom of heaven is that very dimension we are called to occupy by walking in love, where there is comfort and fulfillment and mercy and justice, especially justice. These statements of Jesus are not predictions, they are directions for building up that firewall of grace by walking in love, by remembering to embrace trust in God’s love, to turn from selfish pride, to give mercy, to create justice—these are the ways we walk in love, even now, even today. This is the gateway to the dimension that is the living and manifest kingdom of heaven.

All Saints Day Year A RCL (Revelation 7: 9-17; Psalm 34:1-10,22; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12)

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