Attacked by bunnies*

For three long decades in Center City Philadelphia I endured a constant stream of vandalism in the outdoor parts of my homes. In our first home, which had a small garden behind it along a tiny “alley” just barely wide enough for meter readers to get through, I eagerly dug out the weeds and planted azaleas and hydrangea and rhododendrons. I was rewarded one glorious spring morning with a palate of brilliant color. Joyously I went off to teach in New York all day at Columbia University. When I got home in the evening and went into the kitchen to start dinner, there was nothing but a big black hole where my garden had been, and lots of dirt on the paving stones—all gone. It continued over the years. At our last home in Queen Village I learned two things to keep ornamental shrubs by the front door. One was to wire their roots to cinder blocks inside their pots making them too heavy to haul off. The other was to make sure the pots had drainage holes on the bottom and no saucers. Because people brought their dogs to use my shrubs several times a day and I lost no end of small trees to lakes of urine. Oh, and I learned to use rock salt and cayenne on the sidewalk around them.

Eagerly on arrival in Wisconsin I marveled at the breadth of color and expanse of plantable space around my house. This year we’ve done better than last, and I managed to get pots of red pot-roses and others of red and white geraniums all along my front porch, to pep up the otherwise drab facade. They’ve done well, and with fairly constant attention they’re all still blooming. Yesterday I stuck my head out the front door to check on the mail and discovered one of the pots of geraniums all messed up, the dirt on the porch, the plants lying around it. It made no sense. I leapt to the immediate conclusion that it was vandals, just as in Philadelphia it would have been.

This morning’s newspaper had a gardening tip on how to keep rabbits, which are plentiful, from disrupting your garden. It’s true, we have rabbits all over the place, especially since we got rid of the source of a swamp in the rear of the house. I suspect my vandal was one of those cute bunnies.

It reminded me of Jesus’ disciples in that leaky boat on the sea of Galilee in that storm (Matthew 14: 22-33). They’ve been following him for a while now, they’ve seen him turn water into wine, feed thousands with two fish and two sticks of bread, heal lepers, and preach with divine inspiration. They know he is different and not the same old thing. But yet, even secure in the knowledge he is nearby, they become terrified on that boat and refuse to have faith. Peter’s lack of faith is notorious; he tries to walk to Jesus on the water but falls in. He just cannot wrap his head around the new. The old has too strong a grip.

It is the challenge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Good News is that salvation is already ours. The challenge is that we have to believe it. And in order to believe it, we also have to believe that God is always making everything new, in us. As Paul writes (Romans 10), your faith must be on your lips and in your heart, ready to burst forth into newness of life, rushing past the fear of old. Come to think of it, it’s not so different from the way some of us lgbt people continue to think of ourselves as downtrodden and barely tolerated, instead of realizing we are created by God to take our place at the table as a proud part of God’s kingdom.

So, I’ll plant some ornamental oregano around the geraniums, and continue to marvel at how delightful the bunnies and chipmunks and cardinals are in my little estate. My darling husband rented “Mamma Mia!” last night and we had such a feel-good evening. That’s the feeling to strive for. I will put away the past, and march toward the light, singing “Dancing Queen!”

*Proper 14 (Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Psalm 105, 1-6, 16-22, 45b; Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33)

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)

Lucy moments*

Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday … wow! Who’d a thunk it? (to quote “The Beave”). I am a major fan of Lucille Ball, and especially (of course) of “I Love Lucy.” As a kid I was called “little ricky” by my family; my cousins and I used to play “Lucy” in the basement; we would yell at each other in made-up Spanish “mia cosa …..” and have “Ethel” moments (usually by spilling something). When I grew up I began to see the stories from I Love Lucy in my daily life, and over time I have come to see them as carefully crafted morality plays. I have in the back of my head a book called “The Gospel According to I Love Lucy” and maybe some day I’ll find a publisher who’ll let me write it. But it is amazing how often I have a recollection from the series.

I doubt you could say that about much television writing these days; but in the 1950s those folks were not just writing funny jokes; they were making a point, they were teaching, using Lucy and Ricky and Ethel and Fred’s foibles, and their always very human reactions. And you know what, in those tightly wrapped 25 minute dramas, there is always redemption based in love. As there is, indeed, in reality. God is all about redemption. People stray; God redeems. That’s the whole story in a nutshell.

Paul writes with so much intensity in the letter to the Romans. I wonder how many true Christians understand that this letter is the heart of the Gospel. And the heart of the heart is this passage “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” and that, of course, is a quotation from Deuteronomy, that Paul (born Saul, the Jew) would have known. It is like waiting for a parent’s hug—a feeling in your soul that only can be realized by the actual touch, but you know it in your bones. And when your parents are gone on to God’s kingdom, still you feel their touch, and it brings alive this sensation of the word that is on your lips and in your heart.

We each know God in our own way. Many times we do not think we know God, when the reality is that we just are afraid to admit it. Or, perhaps we just don’t honor the ways in which we actually know God. Like Peter demanding a sign from Jesus, then, when walking on the water, letting go of his faith. This story is all about dishonoring the reality of God in our very daily lives. Jesus calms the storm, Jesus walks on water, Jesus gets in the boat with them to save them, and still the disciples are terrified, even when God incarnate is standing right there. If it was tough for them, how much tougher can it be for us? And yet, the truth is that God made us gay in God’s own image, and God has called us into this storm that is life, and God has sent Jesus to teach us to walk in love, even when we are afraid. The word is always near us, because it is always within us. Even in Lucy moments.

Proper 14 (Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28; Psalm 105, 1-6, 16-22, 45b; Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33)
©2011 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.