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.