Lydia, the deacon of purple cloth*

The essence of Salvation is vision. The reason we belong to church is to celebrate our Salvation, and the way to do celebrate Salvation is to receive it fully. To do that you have to see it, you have to see God’s love, which is all around you. So the essence of receiving Salvation is having the vision to see what is right in front of you, but we humans are really bad at vision. Often we see what we want to see, and not what we ought to see.

For instance, last week when I was driving up Lake Michigan along Lincoln Memorial Drive, the water was crystal blue in the spring sun, it was shimmering together with the sky, the glory of God was clearly visible in God’s amazing creation. And yet, when that SUV passed me on the right going 75 (the speed limit there is 30) with no hands on the wheel, I had a really hard time seeing that driver as a loving child of God. I really did.

Cats, you know, see motion better than still. The human version of that is that we see the things that get us excited, and we just pay no attention to everything else (a good explanation for both Trump and Sanders campaigns, as it happens.) Now, excitement, there is another spiritual thing. Being excited is just about like being all wrapped up in the Holy Spirit. New ventures especially are always exciting, because they are shiny and new and like a journey at its beginning they are full of hope and promise. Part of why it is so exciting is because there always is risk, risk always makes your heart pump, takes your breath away.

I remember lots of exciting risks in my life. Setting out for college for example. It seemed like the culmination of everything before. But at the same time it seemed like the very risky first step of a long journey. It required me to leave everything behind, and yet instead of loss that became an opportunity for growth. But I remember clearly packing my steamer trunk, and my folks driving me to the airport, and climbing up those stairs (yes, this was pretty much before jetways … ) and turning around at the top to wave bye! Then after that, I do not remember much else. I do not remember the non-exciting part. That part that must have included roommates and classrooms and books and all the rest. I don’t remember any of that because, after the first glimmer of excitement, everything else just fell into place like normal.

When that happens, we risk missing the vision of our own Salvation. Sometimes I think we fail to see that the new beginnings, the exciting risky pieces, are the essence of normal. I know I love regularity and sameness. But God’s idea is that we always should be on a journey of discovery. God intends us always to be moving forward, always to be undertaking new beginnings.

We have a story from the Acts of the Apostles about the founding of a church. It begins with a vision—Paul has a dream in which he hears someone begging him to get up and travel to a new place. So off they went, travelling for a couple of days over sea and land until they got to where Paul thought he had been called. It says the stayed there    for “some days.” That means after the excitement wore off there was a lot of boring stuff.

On the Sabbath they went out to the river to worship in the clearing by the flowing water. There they spoke with a crowd gathered and among them was a woman named Lydia. Now Lydia was about to have an exciting experience. We do not know how it was that Lydia was called to that place at that time. All we know is that she was there, and that she was open to hearing about God. (The story does tell us that she sold purple cloth.) The next thing we know is that she caused the creation of a church. Her “household” were all converted in a blink of God’s eye. You see, “household” would have meant all of her relatives, and their relatives and everyone else living in or working in the compound. They all were baptized, probably dozens at least, and then it says, she made her house a house of welcome, a place of refuge. It says she urged the apostle and his party to move in.

It seems to me Lydia was an evangelist. Lydia was the person with the vision to see God’s love all around her. Lydia had the vision to see that loving God fully was the way to extend God’s love. It also seems to me Lydia was a deacon,      a woman ordained by prayer and the laying on of hands by an apostle in the presence of the waters of baptism. Deacon Lydia immediately caused her household to become a church and opened its doors to the blessings of the apostles. And we read in Phillipians how that church thrived, and it is still there today. Now that was exciting. That was vision.

So, was Lydia a lesbian? It doesn’t go there, we can’t assume that. But we can see that no matter who Lydia was, once the Holy Spirit was upon her she was able to make miracles happen. LGBT people everywhere should look to this vision. All you have to do is receive the Salvation God has already prepared for you. And you do that by loving each other. Even those *#*#*** driving 70 in the right lane with no hands on the wheel while talking on a cell phone. Especially love them.

Just wait for next week, when Paul’s jailer founds a church too!

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

*6 Easter (Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67 Deus misereatur; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29)

Come … and help us*

Acts 16:9-15: “During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.'” Now there is a story of evangelism. Paul has a dream. But the best part is that the man in the dream says “Help us.” It reminds me of that time in New York City 20 years ago when I went to the gay community center for an event about the Bible. They had set out 50 chairs but easily 250 people showed up. The place was packed. Now, I was in seminary at the time, so I recognized that the presentation was unsophisticated at best, although nothing incorrect was said much of the nuance was missing. Still, people were moved. There were lots of the usual questions about spilling seed and lying with a man, but eventually an older gentleman, by his own admission 85 or so, weeping, said “Do you mean I can be a child of God too?”

It tore me to pieces. Mainly because, although the Episcopal Church has mostly a very accepting approach to the Gospel, we just are lousy at letting people know. You see, these older gay people have been so abused by so-called “Christians” their whole lives that they just do not easily believe that somehow, suddenly, all has changed. So if we want to reach them, we have to literally reach them. But here was a gentleman asking, just like in Paul’s dream, “help.”

Paul had to sail, and travel  by donkey or on foot. And then he had to scope out the town and figure out where it was safe to preach. And when he got there it wasn’t an audience of the town’s best and there was no honorarium. It was a patch outside of the gate by a river, sitting on a rock, and talking to a working woman. But she heard the Gospel and invited them in.

That has been my experience as an evangelist in the gay community. The “church” itself looks down on my work, because it isn’t in a stone building with a pipe organ, but is on the streets and in bars and in community centers, and yes, sometimes on a rock by a stream. And I don’t talk to the “movers and shakers,” rather I talk to those who seek Christ, whoever they might be. I talk to those who ask in some way for me to  “come … and help us.”

So to all who read this blog I say that this is God’s mission for us, to say to God’s created glbt people that the good news of salvation is for you too. And all it requires is that you believe. In John 14 Jesus says “those who love me will keep my word.” And he means to love one another. So you see there is no special gay approach. But, the one thing we must do as gay people is to be as ready and open as that Macedonian woman, after a hard day’s work, by the river. We have to be open to receive the gift that God wants to give us.

That means we have to be fully who we are. There has been lots of hype this week about the professional basketball player who came out. But there is rejoicing in heaven every time any one of God’s children recognizes his created gay self and comes out. God wants you to be who God made you to be. And in that createdness you will find the openness to receive the good news of salvation. God loves you, gay as you are, God wants you, gay as you are, to be a lover of souls too.

6 Easter (Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5; John 14:23-29)

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