Spiritual charger*

God says “I have called you by name, you are mine.” It’s an awesome concept (to revist a badly misused term) that somehow everyone of us is called by name by God. I’ve always wondered whether cats really understand their names, or whether they just respond to a tone of voice used by their human companions. Several times over the course of my life I have met people whose name I just could not remember no matter what I tried. In a couple of cases I finally let myself memorize them by the phrase “A whose name is B” and that worked. I guess it works because it allows me to remember the key stuck in my brain and from there to connect to the actual name.

The scripture for today is all about the baptism of Jesus. As I wrote last year, it seems a little odd that the baby wise men were just visiting last Wednesday is now 30-some years old and wandering in the desert where he can come across John the Baptizer. But, that’s scripture for you. I like to take these occasions to remind us that sequential time is a human interpretation of God’s spacetime, which is a single continuum. Maybe last Wednesday really was thirty years ago! (Okay, I know better …. I’m just pondering things here.)

Two of my closest friends got engaged this week, Tuesday to be exact, and it got announced Thursday if I recall correctly. I enjoyed watching their Facebook feeds go berserk with congatulatory messages. Each message included their names. Names are important because calling someone by name is an acknowledgment of the power of God within. When we call someone directly by name we connect with the soul that was called by name by God.

As a priest I have presided at weddings and baptisms. The liturgies for these sacraments are lengthy and complex. But the key moments are the naming of the people and the invocation of Father-Son-And Holy Spirit. It is like connecting electrodes so the power can arc through the connection. For all the words I might have uttered at any of these events, the moments I remember are those electric moments when the power of naming a person baptized, or the power of naming two persons married sets the power of the Holy Spirit arcing about, connecting them and god and me and everyone present to all past and future in a heartbeat.

It is just one reason lgbt people can rejoice for full inclusion in the church as married individuals. It is one way of connecting the power from the moment of baptism with the power of the moment of marriage. It is one way of understanding the ontological shift—the change in being—that takes place when two become one literally in God’s sight and in the sight of God’s people.

I was crossing a street in downtown Toronto the other day when I passed a woman and two young men as the woman said “all the gay people are getting married now.” I chuckled a little bit. Of course we are, I thought. Now that we understand the power of entering into a sacrament together.

I can’t end of course without reminding us all that that’s the same power of entering the sacrament of the Eucharist together, which too few of us do often enough. It’s all a matter of plugging into God’s spiritual charger in order to remain always connected through the power of the Holy Spirit shared among us.

Peace be with you.

©2016 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

*1 Epiphany (Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22)

 

There is Power in Naming, Power in Saying*

Probably the easiest way to unsettle the person you are with in any moment is to say the wrong thing. And often we do that, just to gain a momentary upper hand, so wifty are human emotions. My husband has learned from me to huff out loud just to signal me that he is unhappy, even if only momentarily. He didn’t used to do that, but I do it all the time, and he has picked up on it, whether to mock me or join me I’m not sure, but either way it works.

Well, what does this have to do with anything? A lot! There is great power in what we say to each other. Just as there is great power in a smile, there also is great power in a word, and there especially is great power in a name. Victims of abuse learn that the first step on the road to recovery is the ability to name the abuse, whether it be alcoholism or spousal abuse or some other form. If you can say the word, you rob it of the power it had over you. Because if you can say the word, you can also negate the word. AA participants learn this at the outset; if you can say the word, you have gained a bit of power you did not have before.

So naming is very important. This is true in society of course. Let’s just try a couple of examples on for size. I bet you don’t know that there are many Christian churches that are catholic. The Anglican Communion, including all of the Episcopal Church, is catholic. Most churches with the name Lutheran, all Orthodox churches, and others, such as Old Catholics, also are catholic. Notice the small “c.” That word, catholic, just means “universal.” In the Episcopal Church, we always refer to that other big church with a bishop in Rome as “the Roman Church.” They call themselves, THE Catholic church. See? They use the word politically, as though it were alone their possession. We use the word politically too, by not acknowledging their usage.

Language is subtle, and subtly powerful. And that is always important. In fact, it is a fascinating area of study, to comprehend how we human animals manipulate each other with words. So there is no surprise that we commemorate God’s incarnation among with a feast day for the Holy Name of Jesus, a name that means “God rescues.” As the scripture notes, this name is given by the angel Gabriel even before the impregnation of Mary, Jesus’ mother.

There is power there to be sure. Angels always represent power. Gay people know, because in many ways we live despite our best efforts on the fringes of society. So angels visit us more openly, more easily, because we are more readily available to them. Which is one way of saying, our doors are more readily open to God, because we, as gay creatures, are closer to God who created us gay. We are less bound up in the strictures of “what is right.” And so, we are more open to the power of God. And, of course, we are more easily hurt by names slung about.

So let us begin this year with God’s blessing, given through Moses to Aaron: The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

And let us remember, each gay one of us, that God’s angel has given us our names before we were conceived in the womb. Naming, and especially calling each other by name, is a form of prophetic witness, of calling God into our midst by doing.

That my friends, is power.

*The Holy Name, January 1 (Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 8; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:15-21)
©2012 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.