Give Thanks and be Transfigured

I had a miracle yesterday. I think.

You know, I’ve written here before that miracles are both more common than you think and probably happening under your radar. You have to pay attention to know when you have been visited by angels.

No point in going into the details; a bunch of things went wrong and then miraculously went right. At one point I stood up straighter than usual and just said to God “ok, I get it, but what just happened here?” And then I said to myself “just give thanks.”

And that is the message of transfiguration.

Love requires us to be focused on it, on love, and that means we cannot be focused on anything else. And that is the hardest part because we are built to be multi-tasking multi-focused individuals.

But if we want to “see” and “know” the transfiguring presence of love in our lives we have to shift our focus into the dimension of love.

Try thinking of it as a matrix or a maze in a matrix in three dimensions … you don’t walk a path so much as you navigate the points creating a pathway through.

LGBTQ people know this well. We spend our entire lives navigating a pathway through dimensions of oppression, of exclusion, of disenfranchisement, and we do it with love, for love, because God has created us in God’s own image as people of love. And at all of this we succeed because our lives are transfigured in creation by love. Give thanks for love; that is the message of transfiguration.

The presence of God is, of course, transfiguring. In the scripture [Exodus 34:29-35; Luke 9:28-36], the authors go to great lengths to tell us this. Of course, this transfiguration is not really so much visible as it is detectable. You know when you are in the presence of someone who knows the presence of God. How do you know? Good question. You just do. Right?

Sing, pray, rejoice, and give thanks constantly [Psalm 99]. Maybe this is another clue? Look for the hearts of those who sing, pray, rejoice and give thanks.

[2 Peter 1:13-21] The message of love is, you must love actively, deliberately, consciously. Start with loving yourself. Then move to loving the things around you that you love. Give thanks for what you love. And then move your love ever outward to the world around you.

Imagine the concentric circles of love overlapping and you can “see” as a lamp shining in a dark place, the power of love, which is as the dawning of a new day and the rising of a morning star in your heart.

The disciples tried to catch God on that mountaintop [Luke 9:28-36]. They wanted to build “booths” to keep God in. You know, sort of like I cage my tomato plants so they don’t grow crazy but stay where I want them and do what I want them to do (well, sort of). But, of course, it doesn’t work that way. God is in the breath, God is in the vitality, God is in the eternity. God is in creation. God, who is love, is in the love and in the loving.

Give thanks for love, and be transfigured.

The Feast of the Transfiguration 2023 (Exodus 34:29-35; Psalm 99; 2 Peter 1:13-21; Luke 9:28-36)

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

Awe and Wonder

Miracles do happen. Usually, maybe even mostly, unexpectedly, they are pretty much under the radar, unnoticed kinds of things. Just “suddenly” one day you realize something has shifted. Of course, it didn’t shift suddenly, it shifted gradually as you moved into God’s dimension of love where synchrony can happen—what was “sudden” was your awareness. Most of us wander around in a fog (or at least, in a cloudy mist that seems to keep us from noticing the presence of God) most of the time.

That’s why people pray after a natural disaster—like “#*&! I forgot to pray before but please help me now.”

The good news about that is that God was paying attention all along. But the really good news is that once you are plugged in you can take off in a big way “lift off for the dimension of love!”

In the Acts of the Apostles [2:42-47] we learn of thousands who come for baptism and renewal. “Those who had been baptized devoted themselves ….” The main point is this: “Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done … day by day [God] added to their numbers.”

So, do you see the miracles in your life? Do you see every smile from someone in pain as a miracle? Do you understand that every morning when you awaken it is a miracle? Do you see the “signs and wonders” like, the tulips you planted in October are beautifully red and yellow and purple now? Do you see that each day you hug your honey and know that love in a real way is a gift, awe, wonder?

Love is the pathway into God’s dimension of love; active love, giving love, feeling love, being love, this is how we enter into the presence of God. Psalm 23: “you spread a table before me … my cup is running over.” All of this “in the presence those who trouble me [i.e., of everyday life].” That sounds about right, no?

Peter wants his disciples to take charge. (How ever must it have been for a disciple of Christ to wake up one day and be “in charge” of the new disciples? It must have been equal parts terrifying and humbling and catalyzing.) Peter says “It is a credit to you if… you endure pain while suffering .. to this you have been called.” So, this is our call as LGBTQ disciples, discerning the awe and wonder of life in the dimension of love. God has spread the table with its cup running over right here in the midst of everyday life. This is discipleship for us isnt’ it? We know we are the beloved LGBTQ children of God. And yetwe endure every day the pain of ostracism, of being persecuted, hidden, punished for being who we are created by God to be.

In John’s Gospel [10:1-10] Jesus tells this confusing story about sheep and gates; what he is trying to communicate in terms that were colloquial but also metaphorical in his own day was: there is only the path of love, pretending is not loving, only by walking in love do those who love know each other, there is only love and not love. Love is God because God is love, and Jesus is God, therefore Jesus is love, and love is the only gate into the dimension of love, into heaven, which is all around you and within you if only you can find it.

And there is our miracle, there is our awe and wonder, right here under our noses, in everyday life. That is the message of Eastertide.

4 Easter Year A 2023 RCL (Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10-1-10) ©2023 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Laughter, Joy, Love and Everyday Miracles

Laughter is said to be the best medicine. I guess about now we want to take advantage of all the free medicine we can. I know that laughter is thought to reduce stress and increase immune response. But, of course, it also just feels good. I don’t laugh much during the course of a regular day; I spend most of my time at a computer with my brain metaphorically buried in manuscripts or statistics (but then, I love being a scholar, and I know that loving my work also affects low-stress and better immune response). I have a kind of dry wit sense of humor, which tends to lead more to the occasional chuckle than a good old-fashioned belly laugh. This is one reason I took up watching I Love Lucy a couple of years ago as a kind of discipline; every weeknight I watch at least one episode. It never fails to make me laugh out loud, and I admit it feels really good. I hope it has the desired effect.

The story of Sarah’s pregnancy, if you will, in Genesis (18:1-15, 21:1-7) seems to pivot around Sarah’s laughter. I think, like many people, Sarah starts laughing as a response to a shocking surprise. At first, hearing she was to become pregnant in old age, she laughed to herself. In the end, after the birth of her son, she understood better that “God has brought laughter for me” and “everyone who hears will laugh with me.” Laughter, after all, is contagious.

Of course, the surprise Sarah experienced, the surprise that made her laugh, was a visit by God. At first encounter “three men” appear at the entrance of Abraham’s tent. After he feeds them “one” of them speaks to Abraham, he even asks about Sarah’s laughter. At the end of the tale Sarah knows God has visited to bring her laughter, which is love.

God, as we know, is love. And God, as we also know, doesn’t really need to visit because God is always with us. Rather, it is we who need to learn to see that God is acting in our lives. This is why the visitor to Abraham and Sarah says “I will surely return to you in due season” meaning, “sooner or later you will let down your guard and know me again.” And it is the very laughter that is the opening of the gate, if you will, in Sarah’s consciousness that let’s her see and know that God is with her. “Is anything too wonderful for God?”

Well, laughter brings joy, and joy stirs up love, and love makes miracles happen. God’s “due season” is any time our laughter builds up enough joy to stir up enough love to realize not just the presence of God all around and within us but also the miracles of everyday life. Little things are God’s miracles—a recipe works, a rose blooms, a tree limb falls and doesn’t knock down the fence (just to name a few of my own)—a child is born as a sign of hope in a time of trial. God’s presence is made palpable by joy, by the sharing of love, by realizing in our hearts, with laughter or tears, the very miracle of the pure experience of love.

In the letter to the Romans (5:1-8) Paul writes that it is through the intermixture of the experience of life as faith that we see how God’s Holy Spirit has been given, is given eternally, to us. The Holy Spirit is always with us. Like the visitors to Abraham’s tent, we experience the “visit” of the Holy Spirit when we are able to experience the love that makes God’s presence palpable. We are justified by faith, by the love that does indeed make God’s presence known to us. This is the grace in which we stand, of which we boast, from which comes our hope, which enables us to endure. Hope is the joy given by the realization of the presence of God when we share God’s love.

In Matthew’s Gospel (9:35-10:8) we enter into the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as he begins to travel from village to village, summons his disciples, gives them authority, and then sends them out as well. Jesus’ instructions are all active verbs—go, proclaim, cure. “As you go, proclaim the good news.” The good news is this, that God’s love already is all around us. We stir it up by its proclamation. We stir up God’s love by the act of loving whether that means a good belly laugh or a soft chuckle or just a hug—remember hugs? Loving is action, not just feelings but the outpouring of feelings that makes God’s presence palpable. Going, doing, curing, proclaiming … these are the ways Jesus calls all disciples to stir up the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, which we endure in hope, which we realize in laughter, even the laughter of God’s surprising everyday miracles.

One more thing, Jesus sends his disciples to “go … to the lost sheep.” Who are the lost sheep? Why, we are of course. We are lost until we can pass through the gate of love into the dimension of God’s presence where we experience the very palpable companionship of God.

 

Proper 6 Year A 2020 RCL: Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7); Psalm 116:1, 10-17 Dilexi, quoniam; Romans 5:1-8; Matthew 9:35-10:8(9-23)

©2020 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.