Justice, Love, Salvation

Sometimes you have to take a chance on love.

Sounds like a song lyric, doesn’t it? But it is just the honest truth about God, and creation, and being LGBTQ+ and reality. Love defines us, and if we aren’t willing to take a chance on love then we risk the purgatory of that vacuum dimension where love never is. When we take that chance, when we give just a little bit of love, it comes back a thousand-fold, and we thrive in what the scriptures call heaven on earth, otherwise known as your real life.

God, who is love, always helps us, even if we try just a liitle bit, God helps us to sure footing on God’s foundation of loving-kindness. God is always with us, we are most in God’s grace when we seek to walk in love. The point is, take that chance, let down your wall, love, and you will receive grace a thousand-fold.

When approaching scripture it is always important to understand that it is intended as a form of revelation, and neither as history or as instructions. The story [1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49] about David slaying Goliath in the midst of a pretty unpleasant battle is intended to be revealing because—wait for it: because David who walks on the fundament of the love of God always wins over the vacuum dimension absent love.

The Psalmist [Psalm 9:9-20 Confitebor tibi] sings of God, who is love, whose love is known as justice.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth [2 Corinthians 6:1-13]: that today, now, this moment, with every breath, is the day of salvation. Salvation is now. If we can accept it. If we can walk in love. We must live with wide open hearts, as the hearts of children, open to joy and love.

I remember well my first days in seminary. We were all extremely spiritually hyped up. After all, here we were beginning the real journey to the priesthood. We ate together and worshipped together and learned together and lived together (albeit in our own apartments in the close). A couple of days in I was going to get my mail when I ran into a couple of people from my class. They said “I saw you were out until 8:30 last night then your lights were on” and I was sort of shocked. It suddenly became apparent to me that living in community meant living fully in community.

If you are LGBTQ+ you probably, like I did that day, recoil at the idea of living “in community” because that means living in the prying eyes of judgmental people. So, that was a challenge for me, to accept the love of my new friends and to stop being afraid of their love.

At a couples workshop the leader asked us to introduce ourselves to the group. My husband was sitting on the floor between my legs, and I patted him on the head and introduced him as my puppy, which was a tenderness between us. You should have seen the shocked looks on the faces of all of the heterosexuals in the group. They were stunned I could be so rude; and yet, I thought (and he thought) that I had been perfectly loving. So you see, living a life of love is always a challenge. It isn’t as easy as just having happy thoughts and saying “I love you” or even just “thank you” all the time.

Love is tough work. We who are God’s LGBTQ+ people are, indeed, just folks some of the time, but we also are the real loving people God created us and called us to be, and our lives take shapes that are different from those of other folks. We live integrated into the community, sort of, but also we live in our own ways of loving of which we should be proud and for which we should demand the justice of acceptance.

Love is tough work but it is worth it because love is the only path to salvation.

In Mark’s Gospel [4:35-41] exhausted Jesus gets in the boat with his disciples to escape the crowd by crossing to the other side; he falls asleep even as a storm comes up. They panic, awaken him, and forgetting all about love because they have given themselves over to fear, they reproach him. Weary, but understanding, and loving, he stops the wind. Then he reprimands them gently: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” As Mark tells it, the disciples miss the point, that it was their fear that opened the door to the vacuum of the absence of love.

Faith is trust that the power of love in action fills the void and wipes out that vacuum. Love is the power that saves. Love is the power that brings salvation now. Love is the power known in God’s justice.

We have that very power in the love we share, the love we experience, the joy we bring to each other and to those around us and by extension to the whole of creation. We are called to have pride in our LGTBQ+ lives and the love that defines them.

For Pride 2024 The Episcopal Church has unveiled a new pride shield (https://www.episcopalchurch.org/publicaffairs/episcopal-church-unveils-new-pride-shield-in-celebration-of-lgbtq-inclusion/ ). The shield is an attempt to integrate and celebrate the power of God’s LGBTQ+ people and of God’s love lived out as justice.

The design retains the upper-left blue corner of The Episcopal Church’s shield logo and incorporates elements of the traditional Pride flag as well as the Progress Pride flag and Philadelphia Pride flag. In their use of black, brown, pink, and light-blue diagonal lines, the latter two flags represent intersectional progress in acknowledging people who are often overlooked by the mainstream LGBTQ+ movement: communities of color; the transgender community; and the many thousands harmed by anti-LGBTQ+ policy—from those who lost their lives in the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ‘90s, to those still disproportionately impacted today.

In June 2023, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry issued a video message of encouragement to “all of my LGBTQ+ family members,” noting, “I believe deep in my soul that God is always seeking to create a world and a society where all are loved, where justice is done, and where the God-given equality of us all is honored in our relationships, in our social arrangements, and in law.”

Proper 7 Year B RCL 2024 (1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49; Psalm 9:9-20 Confitebor tibi; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; Mark 4:35-41)

©2024 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Justice as Love

We are all connected. We can see that this week from the drama about the spy balloon, about the jobs report, about the surprise decrease in COVID … we are all connected, unless we choose not to be. Choosing not to be connected is sin.

Do not ever let anyone tell you (wag their finger at you, quote the so-called “bible,” look again, it doesn’t really say what they say it does) that you are in “sin” if you are LGBTQ. You are not choosing to be disconnected from humanity just because God made you to be a lover of souls.

(You can see what they are trying to do, it is the oldest trick in the propaganda book—make you feel guilty because you are “different” from how they are. It is a form of reverse projection! They put this on us because they cannot tolerate how we could be different from them and still be human. It is what the Ten Commandments mean when they say “no other gods before me,” which is idolatry; I must be normal, therefore I am like God, therefore you are in sin if you are not like me ….)

But, when we bother to make friends, be friendly, be people together, in connection—go ahead, try it, just smile, that’s all it takes, and show up, like sit in the pew every Sunday in church, or say “hi” when you stop by their stall at the farmer’s market every week—when we make ourselves visible, it always is witness to the fact that we are, in fact, alike precisely because we are connected. There is no sin, no disconnectedness in being LGBTQ.

God’s prophecy through the writer known as second Isaiah (58: 6-12) is that God wants us to create justice and to celebrate it. God wants us to bring healing through joy. God wants us to remove the yoke of oppression put on us by those who want us to not be ourselves. God says “remove the yoke from among you … your light shall rise in the darkness.” It means that we who are God’s LGBTQ people, created in God’s own image, are called to live our LGBTQ lives with joy and pride, we are called to demand justice, we are called to celebrate connections and connectedness.

The Psalmist sings (112: 4) that righteousness, which is living in a dimension of justice “stands fast for ever.” It is the lamp light that shines in the darkness. We are created in God’s own LGBTQ image and we are charged to demand righteousness, which is justice, which is full connection, which is the absence of sin.

Paul carried the Gospel to the communities outside Israel. He was the greatest of evangelists. He was in pain and living with some sort of speech impediment caused by the stroke he had on the road to Damascus, from which God saved him by sending first Jesus to call him to righteousness and then others to bring him to healing. His love of God is not only genuine but it is part of his soul. He knows God’s wisdom, because he is a scholar of Hebrew texts, but he knows God’s love because he has experienced it at the point of personal tragedy. And he knows that all God wants from us, which turns out to be incredibly difficult for us, is that we should receive God’s Holy Spirit with loving arms and we should rejoice in the lives we have been given (1 Corinthians 2:1-16).

And thus, in Matthew’s Gospel (5:17-20), Jesus tells the crowds that he has come to point to the new dimension, the fulfillment not only of the prophecy but of God’s very will, that our righteousness should bring justice, which brings love, to every corner of creation. And Jesus tells the crowds that they will find the dimension of love when their justice exceeds that of those who oppress them.

It can be difficult to realize how much love demands justice. God is love, God has created us to love, God has made us the manifestation of love, and God wants us to live in a dimension of love. But to get there we have to find justice. Not only for ourselves, not just to “throw off the yoke” of our oppression. But as well to be just, to embody justice as part of the love we give. This is righteousness.

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Year A 2023 RCL (Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12); Psalm 112:1-9, (10); 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16); Matthew 5:13-20)

©2023 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Journey Along that Highway

It is that delicious time again. By which I mean, in Oregon, where it is dark by 4:30pm and the inky night sky seems like a protective blanket given by creation to hold in the beautiful rain. The rain fills the rivers and waters the magnificent trees and even our humble gardens and in the rain and the winter night we know that God is with us. And then, slowly as though mimicking the dawn the neighborhood lights up house by house until the lights in the darkness become a symbol for us of the forthcoming light in the darkness (John 1:1-9) and therein is bountiful grace and mercy

Love conquers all, and this is the wonderful season when we prepare to welcome love incarnate, a ritual holy day, yes of course, but also a real tangible reminder that the love we share with each other is not fleeting but is sustaining. The love we share is the highway into the dimension of God (Isaiah 35:1-10), the dimension of love, the dimension of eternal creation, where all things always are made new, where love is power and righteousness and justice (Psalm 146:4-9).

James 5:7 reminds us that patience is the essence of love, it made me laugh to re-read that because of course it is. How else do two men last 44 years in relationship, in marriage, in love? The bumps in the road become more like roller-coaster thrills, life over all is smoothed into one long journey of love. The journey, if love is patient, along that highway into God’s dimension.

It is the third Sunday in Advent, a traditional “rose” Sunday on which more color finds its way into the liturgical enactment of that journey along that highway through that lighted night into the dimension of God’s love. It is time to get our act together to be ready for Christmas. Trees and lights and cards and spiral hams notwithstanding, getting ready for Christmas means getting ready to reinforce that journey along that highway, where our companions are all of humanity and all of creation in harmony, in sync, where “even the least in the kingdom” (Matthew 11:11) are empowered by God’s love and “everlasting joy” (Isaiah 35:10) will be the gift we share.

So, get ready to love, get ready for love, get love ready.

3 Advent Year A 2022 RCL (Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:4-9; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11)

©2022 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

A Rainbow of Prophets

Prophets are God’s people who are chosen to demonstrate to all the rest of us the power of God’s love. Often prophets do this just by being whoever they already are. There are famous dramatic stories in the Old Testament about burning coals and voices in the tornado and even the sound of sheer silence (I might have made up that bit about the tornado, but you get my drift), but if you look at what prophets actually did, you will see that they walked around a lot (Isaiah walked naked for three years), they ate, they dropped in on people, they slept, and they gave their best advice about walking in love.

There are prophets among us always as well. People of my generation will recognize a few names, the most famous probably being Rosa Parks, who famously sat down. But what about Jim Obergefell, whose suit established the right to marriage equality in the US? What about recent Jeopardy! champions Amy Schneider, Mattea Roach, and Rowan? All they have done is smile and play a game—on television with millions watching! As I said, all they did was to do what they do, to be who they are, visibly. (I know, when I write about Jeopardy! it seems to unsettle people, but let’s face it, an average of 9.2 million viewers watch that show five days a week; and these viewers are everybody everywhere. Jeopardy! is so important that even way back when I was a hospital chaplain and set out to visit everyone scheduled for morning surgery, I was instructed by the senior chaplain to be sure I did not visit anybody during Jeopardy!).

Well, we have more prophets this week, and in their actions and beings we have more evidence of the ubiquity of God’s love. We have seen the work of hundreds of thousands of voters, acting and being and walking in love to bring forth greater domestic tranquility, less bullying, reinforced justice. And we saw what has been called a rainbow wave—“for the first time out LGBTQ candidates were on the ballot in all 50 states—as well as D.C., Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/11/lgbtq-midterms-2022-candidates/ ). Who are the prophets here? The candidates, the voters, all of us? Yes, indeed, to all three.

It is in these small ways we know we are walking in the dimension of love, that we can hold fast to hope, that God is always creating “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17), that we must not be “weary in doing what is right (2 Thessalonians 3: 13), that as we go God always will give us words and wisdom (Luke 21:15), and that we must always give thanks and rejoice (Canticle 9 Isaiah 12:4-5).

Of course the hard work has only begun, but that is how each day begins. There is always the hard work of remembering to walk in love even in the face of bullying and Injustice—especially in the face of bullying and injustice. Just do what you do, be who you are, emulate the prophets all around you, walk in love.

Proper 28 Year C 2022 RCL (Isaiah 65:17-25; Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6); 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19)

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

Holy, Holy, Holy

It isn’t quite summer yet, I guess the solstice is coming up in about a week. It’s still raining and we know better than to complain about it and just to rejoice that the water of life is coming now plentifully, at least in this part of Oregon. It is tempting to say it is a sign of renewal but the reality is that it is a sign of the continuity and timelessness of created space. The Spirit is always blowing, the winds of creation are always aloft, there always is the opportunity to move into the dimension of God’s love to experience it’s life-giving power.

Tomorrow is the 24^th anniversary of my ordination as a priest, a priest who was gay, which was a new thing in those days, but nonetheless was a sign of the continuity and timelessness of God’s love on trajectory to a dimension of righteousness and justice. Those who went before me were gay priests, I was a priest who was gay, it was an important step. Although I have to save my energy for the 25^th anniversary next year I can’t help taking a look at points along the way. Here I was in the moment after ordination and vesting:

Here I am blessing pets at Philly Pride at Penn’s Landing in the booth from the William Way LGBT Community Center; one might easily refer yet again to trajectories on God’s vector of justice as we learned how to celebrate LGBT families:

Here I am at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, where I had just blessed this blessed daughter of two lesbian Philadelphia police officers:

This is the first Sunday in Lent in 2017 at St. Paul’s Juneau Street in Milwaukee. It’s not just a “selfie,” itself a sign of movement along the timelessness of creation, but look at my wedding ring, as sure a symbol of holiness as my collar, uniting me and my husband and our love (we just celebrated our 44^th anniversary a couple of weeks ago) with the righteous justice of LGBT priests serving the whole community of God:

Today is Trinity Sunday in the church, the feast of the Holy Trinity, that perfect union of God the creator, Christ the Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies all. It is a reminder to all of us that the everyday things, the wedding rings, the puppies blessed, the burbling of babies, even selfies, are all signs of holiness. Wisdom is the perception of this holiness, wisdom is the voice in the stillness speaking in each of our souls, reminding us that all things in creation are holy. God’s love has been poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5) to empower us to keep our feet on the path of the dimension of love. All we have to do is look around, listen, breathe, hug, smile, laugh. All we have to do to experience the truth of the power of God’s love is to be awake to the love that has been poured into our lives.

1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
which wert and art and evermore shalt be.

3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.

4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth, and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

(https://hymnary.org/text/holy_holy_holy_lord_god_almighty_early).

Trinity Sunday Year C 2022 RCL (Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8 Domine, Dominus noster (or Canticle 13); Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15)

©2022 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Finding the Gate

What if we knew what love really was? Not warm fuzzy emotion, but the hard work of building up good in creation?

What if we knew that the old way—the way we were before we learned this hard lesson about love—had to pass away before the new way—the way of building up love, could take over?

What if we just tried to love out, not love in? Do you know what I mean by loving out? I mean have love in your heart, be happy, be joyous, be gracious, smile.

To “know” God is indeed the key to everlasting life. God is love, to know love is to have a full reciprocal relationship with love, which is God. To be in relationship with love is to embrace eternity. This is the gate into the dimension where love reigns and life, which is just love’s expression, must be eternal.

Finding this gate, walking forward on this path, requires first loving yourself. It is why it is so critical for LGBTQ people to be fully who they have been created in love’s image to be, by which I mean it is critical that we embrace our LGBTQ selves fully. It is crucial that we are empowered by our LGBTQ selves, that we take pride in who we are, that we demand not just social equality by justice, for justice is the manifestation of the power of love in community.

We give thanks and praise to God, who is love, who calls us to love, who has through love given us strength in our calling as God’s LGBTQ people. Hallelujah.

When we can turn to the dimension of love there we can live into the new heaven and the new earth intended for us, the old ones of misery and injustice and oppression can pass away.

In other words, it is all up to us to embrace love.

This is the eternal message—embrace love. Love is the beginning and the ending and the power and the glory of our eternal LGBTQ lives.

5 Easter Year C 2013 RCL (Acts 11:1-18; Psalm 148 Laudate Dominum; Revelation 21:1-6; John 13:31-35)

Expecting Grace

We are approaching the end of Lent, which, of course, means, we are approaching the Passion …

We usually walk through this in church in a kind of curious symmetry with the world around us. But, for the past few years we have walked the way of the Passion in real life. We have had to fear for our lives and to save our own lives, we have had to learn to fear contact with each other. We have had to forgo the love of those who love us the most for fear we might infect them and lose them. We have had to fear that we might lose them anyway.

And, now, as though it weren’t enough, we must fear the spread of war, because the war in Ukraine is clearly a war on the liberal world—by which I mean the world of reason.

We pray for grace, and we find grace, in simple things. Yesterday I took my car to the carwash, and there was a young man there who clearly was on his first day. He was doing a great job. I noticed the boss giving him instructions and moving him around from station to station, but really, he was doing a fine job, smiling and welcoming customers and working them through quickly. So, for me, there was grace in discovering a little bit of his story. I just hope, for him, there was grace in a job well done all day.

It is in the ways our hearts appreciate and absorb good feelings that we learn to walk in love.

It is so easy to lose synchrony in the middle of a complicated life. It is so easy to be distracted from grace. It is so easy to turn away from love. But it is always possible, even in the deepest depths, to return to love.

Today we read in Isaiah [43:19] God announcing: “I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Do we not perceive it? We err when we fail to understand that God offers us this change in every moment. We are called to joy, we are called to gladness, we are called to reap a harvest of joy. In fact. we are called [Philippians 3:14] to “press on” to joy, to press on “toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God.” Which, is love.

We are called, to expect grace, to be alert for every opportunity for a new thing. We are called to perceive the springing forth of grace in every part of life.

LGBTQ people live in what is called a “liberal” world. It is a world of reason, a world in which law promotes justice, the rights of individuals are guaranteed by law, righteousness inheres in the extension of the security of individuality, and all of it is powered by love, which is built up by more love, which is the source of grace.

We must be aware. We must perceive where grace reaches out to touch our lives. We must be alert to the operation of the passion in our everyday lives. We must not fear, even as we learn to cope. We must above all participate in the building up of the world of reason with the love God has given us.

5 Lent Year C RCL 2022: (Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126 In convertendo; Philippians 3:4b-14; John 12:1-8)

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

Loving our Way to Righteousness

Today is the last Sunday after the Epiphany, and the last festal Sunday before Lent, the church often refers to this Sunday as The Feast of the Transfiguration. The focus is on the transfiguration of the Christ from Jesus the human as an act of the loving God. The Old Testament story (Exodus 34:29-35) tells how Moses was transformed whenever in the presence of God by the shining of the skin of his face. The shining of Moses’ face so frightened people that he would wear a veil in their presence, which he removed in the presence of God. The Psalm (99) is a hymn of praise that presents God’s victory as one of justice, equity and righteousness. The Gospel (Luke 9:28-43) is the story of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain top. Jesus has taken Peter and John and James with him to pray. There they all witness a dialogue among Moses, Elijah and Jesus, and Jesus’ appearance is transfigured “the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white,” which the disciples appropriately understand as the manifestation of glory. The New Testament reading is from 2 Corinthians (3:12-4:2) in which Paul’s midrash on transfiguration hits the nail right on the head when he says “a veil lies over their minds,” but in the presence of God the veil is removed, there is freedom, and that all of us perceive glory as though reflected in a mirror, transforming us by degree from one glory to another.

Paul means that all of these stories of transfiguration point directly to the active embrace of love. It is love, that is God, that transfigures all of us, if only we can accept it by turning to it. It reminds me of the old concept of a knight in shining armor. Whatever that might mean to readers of classical fiction, it has meant for me over the course of my life the joy in the faces of the men I have loved. I have seen every man I ever have come to love as my knight in shining armor, whose very presence transfigures me with his love. When I recount the men in my life and their love and what it has meant to me it always manifests for me in the presence of joy and literally in smiles that transfigure not only me but the world we occupy. It is this love, shared, that opens the door to the dimension of the kingdom of heaven, which is a place we all can occupy if only we will.

As we approach Carnaval (Shrove Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday and Lent, we are living in a very complicated reality. After more than two years of pandemic many people around the world are beginning to embrace hope of a return to a life that includes socializing, not just Zooms but actual hugs and of course the warm smiles of love. And yet on the very verge of victory over disease we find ourselves living in a world where inconceivable war nonetheless is taking place. How do we embrace love as a paradigm when we face constant fear?

Well, how do we dare do anything else? We must all embrace love, we must love with every ounce of our being, we must tear away the veil that hides us from the pathway to God’s kingdom. We must love our way to justice and equity and righteousness, because this is the glory that transforms by degree “from one glory to another” from one moment of love to another.

Last Sunday after Epiphany Year C RCL 2022 (Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Cor 3:12-4:2; Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a])

©2022 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Making Room for Love

I now declare it officially Christmas; Advent has ended, the expectation is fulfilled. Go ahead, light up your lights, power up the Christmas tree, knock yourself out with Christmas music.

The solstice is imminent, soon there will be more daylight than dusk in our days, soon love will blossom.

The Jeopardy professor’s tournament is over, Amy Schneider, trans-glorious champion will be back tomorrow.

Love will blossom this week, its power growing day by day until we reach Christmas Eve on Friday night and then Christmas itself on Saturday. We will sing “Joy to the World” and we will feast and we will hug and kiss. We will exchange gifts, because they are symbols of our love. My husband put all the ornaments on our enormous tree himself last weekend, and yesterday eagerly piled wrapped presents under it, his smile ebullient, his joy permeating the whole house. It made me love him even more, if you can imagine such a thing. Love builds up. We are so blessed.

It’s Christmas. Christmas is all about making room for love. God has prepared a mansion of love in which God has called us to dwell. God has prepared the path for love into our hearts and from our hearts into the world, a synergy of love building up joy and peace and righteousness and justice. Our souls proclaim God’s greatness and our spirits rejoice. In God’s love we are blessed, and with God’s love we bless each other.

The pandemic surges again, but this time we are prepared, we know how to take care of ourselves, we will not let even this suppress the love God has called us to live into, to share, to build up.

Go ahead, embrace joy.

4 Advent Year C 2021 RCL (Micah 5:2-5a; Canticle 15 Magnificat Luke 1:46-55; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45 (46-55))

©2021 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Essential Glory

What does it feel like to be gay?

I have been pondering that for decades. I know it feels like I feel. I am gay and this is how I feel so this must be what it feels like to be gay. I know it feels different in some ways from what it must feel like to be straight. I know there are obvious emotions concerning sexual attraction but I also know that those are not the most of it. I know that when I am in the physical presence of my beloved I don’t perceive gayness.

[I had better make it explicit that although I identify with the LGBTQ community I obviously only have the experience of being gay. I understand what it feels like to be LBTorQ only tangentially from my interactions with the community. On the other hand, of course, much of what all of us experience comes from the reality of being somehow “other.”]

I know that I am most aware of my sexuality in that sense when I am in an exclusively heterosexist environment. I know that decades ago when my closest friends had a baby girl and made jokes about how she was eyeing the baby boys in the nursery I was really angry that there was simply the assumption that everybody had to be heterosexual until proven otherwise. That time I felt gay. That was a sense of oppression.

I know that my first experience of the Gay Games in New York in 1994 was both humorous and joyous. I was only vaguely aware of the impending games when, early one morning, I hopped down to the corner near my Chelsea apartment to grab a newspaper and a bagel and I was shocked that everybody around me seemed to be gay. I laughed out loud (really!) as I had that realization “Oh, this must be what it feels like to be straight most of the time.” A friend promptly called and invited me to go with him to the opening ceremony and as we rode the subway up the west side all I could see anywhere were LGBT people. It was my first experience of feeling like I was in the majority, of feeling like I was not different in some way. It was glorious.

There you have it—glory is that sensation of love that comes from inside. Glory is love incarnated in our daily experience. The surprising red tomatoes in my garden are glory, my husband walking around the neighborhood each afternoon is glory, the rain chasing away the wildfire danger is glory. We make a mistake when we look for glory outside of ourselves instead of in our own hearts.

The love we experience is glory.

What does it feel like to be gay? Well, glorious, of course!

To remain in a state of glory requires that essential action of walking in love. It is too easy to challenge reality, to challenge love, to challenge God by being angry instead of remembering to walk in love. When we dwell in anger, even justified anger, we stop loving and become self-focused (Job 38:1-2). But when we remember to walk in love the anger dissipates and love fills life with joy. All creation shouts for joy when God’s creatures experience the glory of walking in love.

But what are we to do with those feelings that gave rise to anger, what are we to do with that feeling of oppression? This, too, requires essential action, to lovingly seek justice and righteousness. This requires wisdom that comes from a lifetime of walking in love (Psalm 104:25). This requires the wisdom that comes with sharing the cup of Christ (Mark 10:38), which is the baptism of walking in love. We must push through the anger, through the sadness, through even grieving until we reach the other dimension, where we see the glory of love shared.

What, then, does it feel like to be? To be a living member of creation sharing the power of the love that binds everything together is glorious.

Proper 24 Year B 2021 RCL (Job 38:1-7, (34-41); Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b Benedic, anima mea; Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45)

©2021 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.