Ladders Angels Dreams Seeds and Love

Here we are at the end of July. Pride is past. Curiously, maybe because I was accustomed to Philadelphia Pride taking place on the Sunday of Pentecost, I have the sense that once “pride” is behind us it becomes time for reality, time for real life in normal time, weather, war and politics notwithstanding.

Jacob dreams about a ladder [Genesis 28:10-19a], and on this ladder angels are ascending and descending, and they speak to him in words given them by God. It is a metaphor of a metaphor of a metaphor. In the Old Testament and in the Gospels, dreams are means by which God speaks to humans. But, have you ever had that experience? I have not and I’m pretty … let’s just say mature. Not to say God has never spoken to me, only that it has not been in dreams. What should we make of this? Is it a literary mechanism from the people who wrote down these stories millenia ago? We cannot know, of course.

But we can know that God does speak to us, regularly even. And when we are paying attention we hear what God is trying to tell us. What God tells Jacob is revelatory for all humanity in all time: God is with us wherever we go … and God’s presence is awe-some (not like the colloquial misuse of the word, but meaning it fills your soul with the significance of the presence of the divine).

The Psalmist knows all of this, of course [Psalm 139:1-11, 22-23]. God knows us even in our creaking and groaning (that’s pretty much a description of how I sit down and rise up!). For God, night and day are one, it is all the same because it is all real God time, in which God is with us in our being.

In Romans 8 [12-25] Paul makes clear to us with LGBTQ eyes and ears what has so often been so clearly misused by power-seeking oppressors. Paul is saying that we all are children of God, and thus we all are heirs of God’s kingdom, which is the reality of love. When Paul makes a distinction between “body” or “flesh” and spirit, he means, can you override your innate animal defense mechanisms that shut you off from love?

And, hope, of course, hope.

Jesus’ journey continues in Matthew’s Gospel [13:24-30, 36-43] recording more preaching for crowds. Jesus is again telling truth to power “Let anyone with ears listen!” God is the gardner, God sows good seeds. In the end, the good seeds prosper.

I have had for three summers now a wonderful farm-garden. Three years ago when life was very much on the edge, I bought a small raised bed metal box. I bought some soil that I poured in it. Then I went to the nursery and bought tomatoes and peppers and zucchini and some lettuces. I planted them all in that little box. And I nursed them and nurtured them. Somewhat miraculously I harvested cucumbers and tomatoes and zucchini and salad greens and I was amazed at the abundance God had provided.

And when weeds popped up I pulled them out. But I get it, sometimes, they are imbedded with the real plant, and if you want the plant to flourish you have to let the weed grow too.

After all, some weeds, turn into things like mint or blackberries, which as it happens are quite good.

In another part of our garden I have planted dahlias every summer and every summer the lawn people dig them up or mow them down and I feel like giving up. But what do you know, last week I looked out at that garden and there where it shouldn’t be is a volunteer dahlia. Obviously left from last summer and growing just like it belongs there. And it does, belong there I mean.

Sometimes it is all about perception. And sometimes it is all about love and the abundance of love.

And about paying attention to the myriad ways in which God talks to you. In your loved one’s smile, in the flowers that bloom in your garden, in the little surprises of life.

In our responsibility as God’s LGBTQ heirs to listen to God speaking to us, to realize those angels are climbing ladders right beside us every day, to understand that, of course, we are the good seeds of God’s creation.

Proper 11 Year A RCL 2023 (Genesis 28:10-19a; Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23; Romans 8: 12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

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

Dreams

“In your dreams honey.”

It’s a common enough phrase, a hallmark of a cynical interaction. It means, “whatever it is you think is coming your way has no basis in reality.”

Curious isn’t it; because this Christmastide is the season of dreams. I know, I’m all grown up, and I’ve been through a lot in life. But still, at this time of year, I bop along thinking there is good reason to expect the best. And that expectation in the back of my mind turns to hope in my heart, and that turns to “Merry Christmas” on my lips. And I think that’s how this season is supposed to work.

So what about dreams? Dreams are real enough, even though what we dream often is not. The science of dreams is uncertain about many things, including where they come from and why they take the forms they do. But we do know that they are vital to our survival as humans. Dreams come during the deepest part of sleep, the part that heals the body and fortifies it for the next day. Likely, dreams come during the time when the body is completely in “reboot” mode—so the psyche takes a little reboot time too.

But what about this business of expectations? If we are really grown up people—especially if we are grown-up gay and lesbian people—we have a mixed bag of expectations at this time of year. We look forward to sweet moments with our loved ones. We dread those interactions with family where our sexuality might (will) be challenged. But still we hope, still we dream, that there might be acceptance, that there might be more than acceptance, that there might be actual affirming love, in those interactions.

If you want to have a look at the scripture appointed for today, go ahead and do that; you can find it at the Lectionary Page. You will see a reading from Isaiah, in which God cannot get Ahaz to believe. And finally God says “okay, I’m sending you a sign anyway.” And the sign? A young woman will bear a son and name him Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”  In the letter to the Romans, Paul asserts boldly the facts as he knows them in his soul—Jesus was promised, delivered, and exists in flesh and Spirit as the Son of God and the Lord Christ. If ever a dream was fulfilled, that was it. And in the Gospel, Matthew recounts the story of how the angel came to Joseph in a dream, and told him Mary was with child from the Holy Spirit.

Well, we don’t know what Joseph was thinking. We don’t know what this dream looked like or felt like. But we do know that this was the sign God had promised, that a young woman would bear the Son of God, who was, and is, Jesus—Immanuel—God with us.

And by all of this we know that God is with us, now and always. And that is the promise, the expectation, of this season. Presents? Good cheer? Light in the darkness? Yes, of course—that’s the promise God’s creation brings to us in this season. But the real promise is the promise of a lifetime of love—being loved, being created in love, being created to love. That is why God has put us here. That is what God expects of us. That is what we can expect of God.

Okay so have a look at today’s prayer (the “collect”—that’s an old word from English worship meaning literally a prayer that “collects” the spirit of the congregation together). It says we should clean house, so when Jesus comes he will find a mansion within each of our souls. I’d say it means be true to whom God has made you to be, clean out the cobwebs, let Christmastide open your heart and your soul to the promise of being made constantly new. Get ready my friends to let Jesus in.

© 2010 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Fourth Sunday in Advent Year A 2010 (Isaiah 7:10-16, Psalm 80: 1-7, 16-18, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25)