I am blessed to live in one of the most beautiful corners of creation. In fact, I consider myself doubly blessed because, having lived in Oregon as a college student many moons ago and then headed off to points east to make my way in the world, I have been called back to this magnificent cathedral of sky and forest and mountain and sea and powerful river. A favorite meditation pastime for me has become “what called me back,” and “why am I here again now?” There are, as you might guess, many answers to those questions. But I keep coming back over and over to the deep comprehension that there is holiness in the beauty of this creation. This very holiness moves my soul to deep expression of love. Indeed, all of my life I have had the charism of responding physically to the revelation of great beauty. Anything of immense beauty—from the chords of mighty music to the blood-red sunset on the Aegean to the vast fields of tulips in The Netherlands to the smiles from the hearts of those I love—any manifestation of beauty produces in me a dual physical and spiritual response of the outpouring of love from my soul. While it is entertaining to regale friends (and readers) with stories of having to pull over to the side of the road when I am reduced to tears of joy at the vision of Mount Hood, there is at the same time a powerful explanation. As a priest I am called to lift up holiness as both an offering and a sacrifice. It is crystal clear to me that this life I now lead in this splendiferous environment is intended to plug my soul into the Holy Spirit the better to allow me to serve as a conduit for love. The more love I experience the more love I can give, the more love I can give the more love there is in creation, the more love there is in creation the more love all of us can tune into for healing, and (of course) for love.
Part of the job of the calling to spiritual leadership is the job of discerning the presence of holiness in the mundane all around us. Like most people I experience this in the very simplest expressions of love—a grin, a sneeze, the flick of a wrist, a facial expression—all of those things that are the electricity of love between people. I know when I see a smile on the face of my beloved that God is with us.
I find it in nature too, of course, as I often convey in this blog. Sitting here writing this listening to music I have to chuckle at the way the sun keeps breaking through the cloudy gray skies each time my heart begins to sing. This is no accident, this is the revelation of God’s presence, which is always with us but which, unfortunately we too often forget to realize. It is only when we remember to walk in the dimension of love that we can see clearly that we are in the presence of holiness. It is exactly when we remember to walk in the dimension of love that we know we are in the presence of God, especially when we bask in a loved one’s smile.
Theophany is the theological term for the manifestation of the divine in human cognition. The word means roughly “the appearance of God” and it is a wonderful description of the surprise we encounter when we experience holiness. The surprise at the appearance is the wonderfully tender chuckle of the Holy Spirit at the simple beauty of the moment when any one of us remembers to walk in the dimension of love and “bingo” there is our theophany, there is a glimpse of sunlight in our hearts.
In Exodus (33:12-23) we see Moses bargaining yet again with God. God makes two promises, first that “my presence will go with you and I will give you rest” and then that “I will make all my goodness pass before you” and that, indeed, as Moses will see the retreating presence of God so will all of God’s faithful people know mercy and grace.
In 1 Thessalonians (1:1-10) Paul sums up what it means to respond to holiness by walking in the dimension of love. It is to give love as the very work of faith, it is to grow and expand the giving of love as the blessed labor of faith, and it is to be steadfast in hope. To be steadfast in hope is to be secure in the knowledge of love given and received and grown and expanded. To be steadfast in hope is to know in your heart the power of those simple grins and sneezes that are the signs of the presence of God’s love within and among us always.
What does it mean to see God? How can we see God? We can see God when we see glory pass across the smiling face of another. We can be steadfast in hope when we understand that it is in and through each of us that holiness becomes theophany in the simple expression of love.
In Matthew’s Gospel (22:15-22) Jesus tussles with his adversaries about what seems to be a coin for paying a tax to the emperor: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” In reality the challenge is to understand the power of temptation to draw us from the holiness of love. It is easy enough to become ensnared in the embrace of irrelevancies that seem too real, when the reality is in the giving of love, the reality for us must always be found walking in the dimension of love.
God gives us love, God asks us to walk in love and this is God’s due that we not only see the presence of God in and among us but that we maintain the realization of holiness by the constant giving of love. We give God God’s due when we look into the hearts of all of the children of God where we will, indeed, see God’s face.
So then where is theophany for LGBTQ people? In our hearts of course. We especially are called to the realization of the presence of God in and among us and in the love we share. We especially, who are created by God in God’s own image as people of love, are called to remember to walk in love.
LOL, the sun just came out again.
Proper 24 Year A 2020 RCL (Exodus 33:12-23; Psalm 99; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22)
©2020 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 