Pride for Pentecost

Today is the Feast of Pentecost, the celebration of the receipt and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the “first fruits” [Romans 8:23] of salvation.

We wait, as in all of life, with hope in our hearts, for the fulfillment of love [Romans 8:25].

In churches we wear red to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit, but also its power. We read the story from Acts 2:1-11 about the first Pentecost, we try to recreate it with singing and by reading in different languages. We focus on the “amazed and perplexed” [Acts 2:12] part of the story.

But, do we follow the signs all around us? Do we know when the Holy Spirit is with us?

We get carried away by the part about the wind and the fire; those are Old Testament cues for the presence of God’s Spirit. Let’s look at the story again.

“They were all together in one place,” in a house, it says, and they were sitting. They made a lot of noise, babble we might say, talking each in their own way, rather like an airport departure lounge, eh?

They were filled with the Holy Spirit, all of them, each according to their own ability, experiencing God’s deeds of power, rather like a wedding dinner, eh?

Or a parish supper? Or an LGBTQ+ community center potluck? A Pride festival?

The crowd was perplexed, some of them sneered.

Maybe like a Pride festival? In fact, if you want to experience pretty much the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a crowd of loving people gathered together in one place each experiencing God’s love according to their own ability, expressing their love aloud each talking in their own way … go to any Pride festival.

There you will see the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit, the Advocate [John 16:7], to dwell among those who believe in the promise of the power of God’s love, to empower those who live fully into their own created being, to uplift those who walk in love.

There you will see and hear the whole creation “groaning in labor pains” [Romans 8:22] in anticipation of salvation, which is the fulfillment of God’s love.

God’s Spirit resting in the hearts of those who love will indeed receive the “Spirit of truth …” and be guided into all truth [John 16:13], which is that glory is love and love is glory.

Amen.  

The Day Of Pentecost: Whitsunday 2024 Year B RCL (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; Romans 8:22-27; John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)

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

Now is the Time

Today is the feast of the Pentecost, 50 days after resurrection, and 10 days after ascension … in Anglicanism it is often called “Whitsun,” which apparently comes from the tradition of baptisms taking place that day and people wearing white (“whit”) to symbolize the reception of the Holy Spirit in baptism.

It is a time of happiness, a time of embracing the Spirit, a time of joy, a time of celebration … and a time of being very busy. All over the world it is some sort of holiday. In the US it is Memorial Day (which is a three-day extravaganza of cookouts); it follows VIctoria Day in Canada (which was last weekend), but in Europe it is just whatever Pentecost is called in the various languages (Pfingsten in German, Pinkster in Dutch, etc.) and often referred to these days as “bank holiday.

So, isn’t that interesting, that even in places where Christianity barely still exists as a religion, it has become the cultural backdrop for everything? What does that tell us? Well, first and foremost that it isn’t about being the old stuck-up church (as Jesus kept saying), it is, rather, all about learning to love, and learning to make love a key part of all society—hence all those developed countries (and I do not include the US in that list) where health care is a right not a commodity, where the rights of all people (not just white heterosexual men, or at least those who pretend to be) are honored, where walking in love is the norm and not “a woke culture war.”

The feast of the Pentecost, of the Whitsun, is the feast of the receipt of the Holy Spirit. It is the day we recognize that we have all been given in birth—our own creation—the gifts of love that we need to transform creation. It is the day we remember that God has called us to use those gifts exactly in that way. It is none other than the way of eternal life that is the gift of walking in love in the hearts of all faithful people.

In churches the dramatic first lesson for Pentecost always is from Acts [2:1-11]. It says “they were all together in one place.” Remember “sheltering in place?” These were the least of society, they were the ragged followers of the crucified criminal Jesus. And they were in hiding, in fear.

Let me pause the narrative to remind us all that we, LGBTQ people, live exactly this life. That we live in fear, that we live in hiding, even when we think it is all ok and we are well integrated it turns out we still are in danger. Who could have imagined that in the year 2023, after Stonewall, after 50 years of Pride, after AIDS and its devastation, after the battle for marriage equality—that it all could be up for grabs again? But this has happened before, before WWII LGBTQ people had made huge gains for equality but persecution sent the entire community back into closets for half a century.

But it was not to those well-dressed wealthy people that the Holy Spirit appeared—it was to the oppressed in hiding. The story tells us this in the reaction of those well-dressed wealthy, “who are these to speak?”—in other words “how dare they?”

And God’s answer is: these are my children of love.

And all were amazed and perplexed.

Paul writes to the Corinthians [1 Corinthians  m12:3b-13] that there are many gifts, but only one Spirit, and that the main point is that whatever the Spirit gives to each of us is intended for the whole. “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And for we who are God’s LGBTQ children, it is clear, we are called for the common good to give witness to our presence, to our reality, to our love.

We are under attack all over the world. We are, not surprisingly given the agenda of the losers, under attack in the US. Drag queens and trans are being legislated back into their closets, pride items are withdrawn from Target stores, on and on I could go, a daily litany of each new attack.

Our job is to respond with love.

But I bet you don’t know what I mean by that.

I don’t mean smile and get trampled.

I mean, love, in your heart, as you fight back. Love life. Love love itself. Love your garden, your pet, your car, your Cuisinart … and of course your beloved … just love, fiercely love.

For this is what Jesus asks of us. In John [20:19-23] Jesus says “receive the Holy Spirit.” First he breathed on them … think about that. God’s love, the love we own, the love that is ours as LGBTQ people, it is in our very breath. Of course Jesus breathed on them first … here is the Spirit of God. But first he reminded them to pay attention: “receive!” Notice also in this story “the doors of the house where the disciples met were locked for fear.” These disciples of Jesus, like us, had to hide, had to think twice about being seen in public, had to look over their shoulders at the market.

God says “now is the time.” God says “the Holy Spirit has been given to you.” Receive God’s fierce love.

Now is the time.

The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday 2023 Year A RCL (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23)

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

The World Needs us Now

In Portland and vicinity it now is sunny off and on in between the rain. It finally is warm enough for my lemon trees to move outdoors. They had been sheltering indoors since October and they seem deliriously happy to be back outdoors in the sun if I may judge from the vibrance of their leaves and new shoots. Northwesterners know to gripe a little bit about the rain but secretly we love it, we find it soothing, calming, reassuring in a way. We know that with drought always just around the corner, every rain drop is a blessing.

It also is the Day of Pentecost in the church, the day we close the season of Easter as we celebrate the revelation of the Holy Spirit to God’s people. The latest COVID surge seems to have plateaued in Oregon, for what that’s worth. The war in Ukraine plods on. Mass shootings rage on in the US.

The glory of creation on the verge of summer is almost miraculous in its power to soothe and heal. The presence of love in the form of the Holy Spirit among us is as empowering as it is healing, indeed it the most powerful force of creation that we have in our grasp. The world needs us to embrace the power of love like never before.

In Acts 2 the Pentecost is described as being like a storm. Imagine love compared to a storm, a raging fire, a violent wind, a smoky mist, causing emotional overload like intoxication and yet flowing like a mighty river poured out upon all flesh. It recalls for me the fearsome wildfires of the US west, but also the stunning beauty of the blood red sea at sunset on the Aegean and the peaceful fog that rolls in over San Francisco or Monterey in California in the evening. Glory and comfort all mixed up together—that sounds like love to me.

In Romans 8 Paul reminds us that we who are led by God’s love are indeed God’s children, that love is absolutely the core of our inheritance, the entity that makes us heirs—heirs of a creation built of love. If we can embrace that love we can not only claim our inheritance but live up to it, indeed live into it as well, passing it along the timelessness of space.

In John 14 Jesus reminds his disciples that Jesus himself is God who is love incarnate, that love is in everything and everyone and everywhere, that love is the truth. Jesus reminds us that it is only our own intransigence that prevents the love that is our inheritance from revealing its power to us. We have only to turn to the dimension of love to reveal its power to build up, to bring peace, to sustain justice. And, if we can know love then we know also with confidence that we must not be troubled or afraid. Walking in love calls for boldness.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t pay attention to the world around us or be mindful of the challenges we face. If we are to build up a better tomorrow we cannot do it from fear or sorrow or even anger. We must build from the conviction that love can triumph.

June is also Pride month, at least in the US, where the celebration evolved from the remembrance of the June 28, 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. LGBTQIA pride will be celebrated around the world all summer, providing our community many opportunities to showcase the love that God has given us in creation. We must step proudly in love with confidence and, yes pride in the lives we have been given. We must embrace the Holy Spirit of love. The world needs us now.

The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday Year C 2022 RCL (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-35, 37; Romans 8:14-17; John 14:8-17, (25-27))

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

LGBT Families for the Common Good

Happy Pentecost. This is the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the feast that ends the mystery of Eastertide and returns the church to what is sometimes called “normal” time. We have to ask ourselves this year whether we don’t treasure the concept of normal time!

In the Church, Pentecost used to be a time of great celebration. There was special music, there were baptisms, processions, special vestments, and various approaches to acting out the sound of the disciples of Christ speaking in many languages all at once.

Today our celebration must still be virtual. Who could have imagined that the church, born of this fellowship of the Holy Spirit, might become the site where the slightest hug or song sung together might lead to disease or death?

The Episcopal Church is to be congratulated for having embraced virtual technology immediately at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic—as the Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Michael Curry, has pointed out, our church never closed, only our buildings. Our fellowship in Christ and of the Holy Spirit is intact and strong. As I have written here over the past few weeks (and as theologians everywhere point out) these times for us are not too different from the very first days of Christianity or, indeed, the first centuries of the church, as faithful people worship at home in private in small family groups—the meaning of “family” left to each gathering to define.

In the Acts of the Apostles the story (2:1-11) begins in “the entire house where they were sitting” because “they were all together in one place.” The arrival of God was “like the rush of a violent wind” and had the appearance of “divided tongues, as of fire.” In 1 Corinthians (12:3b-13) Paul writes about “varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” because “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” In John’s Gospel (20:19-23) it was when “the doors of the house … were locked” that “Jesus came and stood among them.”

It is in our lgbt family-ness that we are blessed this Pentecost. We as lgbt families, constituted more often from love than by genetics, gather in faith in our homes where we are sheltered in place, with the doors locked to preserve the pandemic bubbles that preserve our very lives and loves, to celebrate the Holy Spirit. It is in our lgbt families that we realize, indeed, prove, the varieties of gifts given by the manifestation of the Spirit which is given to each individually just as God’s own image is given to each of us individually in creation. It is in the formation and longevity of our lgbt families of love that we experience the arrival of God in the form of love like a violent wind and tongue of fire that turns our hearts into eternal flames. It is in not just the preservation but the celebration of our lgbt families that the Spirit is manifest “for the common good” of Christ’s fellowship. Our blessed presence is the evidence of the reality of God’s promise of salvation. We are blessed as lgbt people to “receive the Holy Spirit.” We are blessed as lgbt people to be sent, by Christ, saying to us “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” We the lgbt people of God speak in as many languages as we can muster but with one voice: “Peace be with you.”

 

The Day Of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 104:25-37; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13; John 20:19-23)

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