Let anyone with ears listen*

What a week just past. Sometimes we should just stick with the scripture. To wit:

In Genesis 28 Jacob leaves. It says he left and went. It sounds rather like one of those critical moments in life, one of those things that presses on your soul, and then in the telling of the story it becomes simply “he left … and went.” But in leaving and going he found a place where God is and was. Of course, it was in his vulnerability, sleeping on the ground, exhausted on his journey, that he discovered God always is at hand. It was in his vulnerability that he discovered the very gate of heaven.

It is a metaphor, of course, for every life lived. For we who are lgbt people, it is a metaphor about how our lives are led in a constant state of coming out; we always are having to leave and go. And it is in the leaving and going and coming out that we find in our moment of vulnerability that God has opened the very gate of heaven to us, right where we are.

In Psalm 139 we are reminded by the psalmist that we are in relationship with God and that the relationship is mutual. God searches us out, God knows us, God discerns our thoughts, God traces our going out and lying down, God is everywhere, and the very gate of heaven is right where we are in every moment, God opens it to us. God knows our prayers, our needs, our very essence. Did you think free will meant your thoughts had no consequences? You may think what you will, but bear in mind your thoughts are universal and are always part of God’s very consciousness.

Our very being as lgbt children of God is embraced as part of God’s universal omniscient omnipotent consciousness. Open your hearts and thoughts to God with gladness; God rejoices in the searching out and knowing of you.

In Romans 8 we are reminded that in our adoption as children of God we are the first fruits of the Spirit, of the whole of creation that has been groaning in labor pains that we might be born as children of God, and in the realization of our childhood, in that moment in which we cry out “Abba! Father!” full in the knowledge of our salvation in the arms of our loving God—it is in that moment that we know truly that it is in hope that we are saved. “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?”

Paul focuses on the split between flesh and Spirit—he means that we must be aware that God is searching us out and knowing us, that God is with us on our journeys, that the gate of heaven always is opened to us, if we can get past our own selfishness. Lgbt people hold their breath when these passages come up because, as we know, so often we are falsely held out as “flesh” for our sexualities; but the thing to remember is that all of humanity is sexual, even heterosexuals[!]. For every human the question is how to remain constantly in awareness of our relationship with God so that we can find our salvation, in the hope known in God’s embrace. Yes, as we know, even lgbt people are children of God finding hope in God’s embrace.

In Matthew’s gospel chapter 13 Jesus tells a parable about sowing good seed in a field where an enemy later sows weeds. Of course Jesus is telling this parable to his followers to give them an example to internalize about good and evil. But the story is much richer than that after all. It says first and foremost that everything is always all mixed up. There is good seed among the weeds (which is the rather more optimistic version of the interpretation; but if you need a concrete example you should see my garden). The righteous, the good seeds, grow up and shine even among the weeds. Not even the enemy’s weeds can so choke out the righteous that God and God’s angels cannot find the children of God.

Certainly lgbt people know all about being mixed up in fields full of weeds, and other distractions from the fullness of life we yearn for. All of the scripture here tells us that God has, in fact, guaranteed our very salvation, our very hope, our very destiny as God’s own. Do not be obsessed about the weeds, instead leave and go, keep coming out, unto that place where you find the gate of heaven.

What a week just past—we began with a world obsessed with the World Cup, we end with a world in mourning at the tragic loss of life in an airliner shot down, and in the latest round of apparently constant war in Gaza. Everything is always all mixed up, indeed.

“But the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!” [Matt. 13:43]

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

God is holding you fast*

I think you’ve got to love the opening scripture for today (Genesis 32:24): “Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” The “man,” of course, is God; this lesson is about how Jacob fights with God all night long on the banks of a river, and how God kicks Jacob in the privates, and then eventually, at daylight, God blesses Jacob, bent over and sore and limping away.

It sounds a little bit like Congress right?

Well, really it sounds a lot like real life, all the time. And, of course, although this story is from the oral tradition of the Hebrew people, the reality is that whether it is true or not is irrelevant. The story is revelatory, because it explains to us something about life and God and the real world. It is always a struggle (life, that is), and the blessing comes in the dawn, after the fight, and often everybody gets wounded.

Well, that was uplifting!

A couple of my friends are on the cover of the local gay paper this week. They just got married in New York state. Finally equal, or at least, more equal than before. How’s that for a marathon struggle? Gay people actually have rights as humans in many countries—just not many in the United States. In many of those other countries, gay people can marry: 1998 Netherlands, 2003 Canada … it is old news. So it is in the U.S. where we supposedly have no established religion where the so-called “Christian” right keeps people of color and women and gay people oppressed. Inequality is all over–we have no health care to speak of, we have few rights, and the rights that we have are not accorded willingly to us. We have to fight for them over and over.

Just like Jacob fighting God all night at the Jabok.

So go read that whole story (Genesis 32: 22-31; yes, I know it says “hip-socket”—in the Old Testament, whenever it says hip socket or feet it means privates). It is a story of redemption. It is a story of, not a magical miracle, but of how it goes in real life. God is with us in our struggles. Do you think God is fighting Jacob? No my friends, Jacob is fighting, and God is holding him fast.

God is holding you fast.

Go, get married, enjoy your redemption.

Remember to sing Hallelujah!

*Proper 13 (Genesis 32: 22-31; Psalm 17: 1-7, 16; Romans 9: 1-5; Matthew 14:13-21)
©2011 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.