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.

Exponential Love

There is a lot of talk lately about the mental health effects of the pandemic. I keep encountering the idea that the isolation is somehow underneath everything from road rage to political divisiveness. It is certainly the case that we miss our friends, and especially all the hugs we used to rely on. It also is true that just the absence of simple proximity—everything from chatting with the guy with whom you’re sharing picking potatoes from a bin to actual office (staff, faculty, whatever) meetings, to large otherwise seemingly impersonal gatherings like sports, concerts or movies—is underlying our increasing failure to understand that despite our differences we all are in the world together.

I think there is a good case to be made here. And I think it is one way of redefining the notion of sin. Sin is disconnectedness—being disconnected from God, which is what happens when we are disconnected from each other, and vice versa because when we are disconnected from each other we are essentially disconnected from God. I often have preached about sin by saying it has nothing to do per se with eating chocolate or physical intimacy or any of the other lists of things that are supposedly sinful. No particular thing in and of itself is sinful unless in takes place in the context of disconnection. And that disconnection is always the manifestation of the absence of love. As usual, love is the answer.

So we ask this week that we might be set free from disconnection. In fact, we pray that we might receive relief. The one thing we need the most is relief from the fear and anxiety caused by the pandemic. But a close second is that we need relief from the isolation and disconnectedness that are the collateral damage from the pandemic. Where might we get relief? I was pleasantly surprised this past week to discover relief coming at me from several directions. The one thing they all had in common was that I thanked someone who gave me good news. The relief, the connection, came when I gave thanks. Because giving thanks is manifesting love.

Isaiah 40: 26 reminds us that our connection with God is eternal “He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name … not one is missing.” It is a comfort, perhaps a relief, to remember (to try to remember) that God is eternally connected to each of us by the love that knows every atom in creation. It is up to us to keep that connection not only alive but to help it flourish by the constant flow of love among us.

Paul reminds us too (1 Corinthians 9:23) that the Gospel of Christ, the good news of salvation is all about love, love as a flowing stream, love as a two-way street, love as the greatest equalizing reward. We give each other love in order that we might build up greater love in which we all might share. We love so that we all might share in the blessing of loving.

In Mark’s Gospel (1:29-39) Jesus heals first Simon’s mother-in-law, then everyone from the city who was sick or possessed with demons and then went on to neighboring towns to proclaim the message there. It is an example of the building up of love exponentially by the manifestation of loving. Healing, especially in the Jesus narrative is not just about the absence of symptoms. Rather, it is about being able to rejoin the community, to once again become one with the community. What Jesus does is to remove the vacuum caused by the absence of love so that loving connectedness might be restored. And it is in this act that we see the recognition of God, who knows every atom in creation by name, who calls us eternally to restore and refresh and nourish the exponential power of love.

We in the LGBTQ community know this truth all too well. The simple reality of our social stance is that we are “diverse” or “different” from everyone else—a unique form of social isolation. The pandemic has contributed not only to the further deepening of chasms separating people but also to the loss of our own LGBTQ sense of community. Our “watering holes,” that in reality for decades or more have really been social centers, have disappeared along with parades and street fairs and even hot dogs on the beach. Yet it is we, those who are identified by the love we create and experience and share, it is we who are uniquely qualified to call creation back into the flow of love.

We are called, even in this time of pandemic isolation to continually reconnect, to remember that simply by thanking each other we manifest love. We are called to remember that it is up to everyone who is known intimately, everyone who is numbered and called by name by God, to manifest the blessings of exponential love.

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Year B 2021 RCL (Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147:1-12, 21c; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39)

©2021 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Great is our Faith

Staying connected during the pandemic has been an interesting challenge, one might even say it has been an interesting opportunity. Forced to “lock-down” or “quarantine” or “distance” we all have had to find ways to reach out for human contact. The need for human contact, of course, is more than social it is spiritual, because it is through our connections with each other that we manifest connection with God and with the energy we recognize as a universal life force (which, is God). It has been said more than a few times that introverts (like me and most of the people closest to me) have had a better time of it, given that we are already accustomed to the notion that it is by being most in touch with ourselves that we achieve close connection with God, which then allows or assists us in being in touch with other people. An interesting question might be how much inwardness during this time skates close to sin. Another way of asking the question might be to ask how much connectedness does godly life, the very definition of full connection, require of us?

Of course, we all are forced to pay attention to safety first, the very continuation of life requires that of us. Once certain of safety we then can turn our attention to the idea of healing in the community. I know that it was the duality of these two needs that had me calling almost everybody I ever knew in the first weeks of the first lock-down. It seemed everybody had the same idea judging from the number of calls and texts I received then. It was as though we all took a deep breath after locking the door and thought at once “how can we maintain a community of healing love in this time?” and the answer was “reach out however you can.”

Now we are months and months into this; we begin to hope for a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel but there is more difficult news every day, at least in the United States. Where, then, is connection and where is disconnection and how does any of it relate to sin?

In the story of Joseph’s revelation to his brothers (Genesis 45: 1-15), who we might recall sold him into servitude in Egypt, the surprise is that Joseph does not resent his brothers but rather forgives them because, as he says, “God sent me before you to preserve life … so it was not you who sent me here, but God.” It is one of those neat twists that make up good literature, I guess, except in this case it is the revelation of God’s work. Sometimes surprises in life are, in fact, intentional revelations of the action of God in the world. The upshot is that these twists, which sometimes unsettle us, are intended to increase the love and welfare of the whole of creation. Of course, that means that we will, in the end, see love and welfare increase for us as well. We receive when we give. We give when we follow in faith.

It all raises the question then, what if this time of indwelling was called by God for the benefit of creation, the increase of love, the end of sin?

In Romans 11:29 Paul writes “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” All of life is called by God, all of life is called into mercy which is the ultimate elimination of sin, therefore all of life is called into connectedness. We all are called into connectedness. We all are called into the increase of love and this is God’s mercy.

In Matthew’s Gospel (15:21-28) Jesus reminds us (warns us actually) that it is through our human actions—words mostly—that what is in our hearts is expressed. The words we speak come from our hearts; all of this connectedness through conversation during this time of trial is, indeed, increased love. It is love given freely by each of us, and each time we give love we increase the love that is available for everyone. Love builds up.

Later in the same passage Jesus is approached by a woman who is not Jewish whose daughter is tormented. She asks and asks and asks him for help. Although the human Jesus resists at first the godly Jesus sees her faith and heals her daughter by the words, which come directly from his human and godly heart. His words heal because they give love. His action heals because it overcomes social constrictions to acknowledge the universality of God’s promise of salvation.

It is yet another sign of the present times that we can find so much connection in this scripture to our own times. We are connected to each other, we build up love by our connection, we heal by building up love, and we know that our love reaches out past social constrictions. Certainly we who are God’s LGBTQ people know well enough what it is like to be from a social group that is “other.” And certainly we who are God’s LGBTQ people know the power of sharing love. Great is our faith.

 

Proper 15 Year A 2020 RCL (Genesis 45: 1-15; Psalm 133; Romans 11: 1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28)

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