Trial-and-Error Faith

It rained Friday. It wasn’t supposed to. But, I kept praying “please rain.” And then, to help it along, I got the car washed.

But it rained. It hadn’t rained in 21 days and no rain was forecast for any time soon. And then there it was all night and all day about ½” which is really terrific for my arugula and basil and zinnias and lettuces not to mention the roses which are blooming in abundance.

And there’s another thing: I had heard all my life how impossible it was to have roses, and then I went to a friend’s house about 10 years ago and WHOA! the whole yard was filled with giant rose bushes taller than me and all blooming and blooming … so I got a couple just to see; this was when I was still back in the Midwest.

Then I moved here. Portland. It’s the “rose city,” right? So I planted roses, in pots and in the ground, and what do you know they actually enjoy being in my garden and they keep blooming and blooming.

I always have enjoyed them, but at first I wondered why they just bloomed once and quit.

Then a family crisis led to clipping roses every day to try to bring some joy; and what do you know, they kept blooming and blooming.

So now I clip the flowers and bring them in and we have beautiful vases of roses in our house. And in the gardens they keep on blooming, putting out new feelers and ever more clusters of blossoms.

It seems to me this is an example of faith, especially of the kind of faith that requires trial-and-error, and of course, it is an example of God’s faithfulness in creation.

In Genesis [12:1-9] we have this story about Abram (later he will be called Abraham) answering God’s call. It’s a long story but what I think is critical is that he just keeps going, he keeps trying one thing and then another, and especially at each step he keeps giving thanks. He “built an altar to the Lord” and then “he moved on” and then “he pitched his tent” and “built an altar to the Lord” and on and on he “journeyed on by stages.”

That’s the revelation of scripture about real life, isn’t it? We just journey on by stages. But what was the key for Abram? The key was gratitude, giving thanks, but more importantly being thankful; every time Abram pitched a tent he built an altar and gave thanks.

I’ve experienced a series of little miracles lately … I now laugh when they come because, of course, it gives me such joy, but also because I see how it works even if only in a mirror darkly (as Paul might have said). Some, if not most, have come from my singing praise without even thinking about it, not to mention healthy doses of trial-and-error. So trust me, don’t forget to give thanks and especially to sing your thanks as praise, as Augustine is said to have advised prayer sung is twice prayed.

Play the harp, the psaltery, the lyre, the trumpet, sing a new song, sound a fanfare … of loving kindness, which fills the whole of creation … [Psalm 33]

How funny, it is Paul here [Romans 4:13-25] who reminds us Abram was 100 years old when this story began! But the story is all about inheriting love through righteousness, which is walking in love. And it all rests on faith, which is the faith in knowing that love is the power of the universe, that love works, that love creates, that love gives, that loving creates more loving.

In Matthew 9 [9-13, 18-26] Jesus reminds the crowd that it is not about the establishment, but rather, it is about those who have fallen aside, those who are disconnected, those who need to heal, those who need healing. For Jesus, “healing” is not just about illness of the body, it is about being cast out of the body of Christ. He tells the woman with sores that her faith has made her well. He raises the daughter of the synagogue’s leader by offering love. He takes her by the hand to guide her back into the community.

And so Jesus takes us by the hand. It is a good moment for us to remember that it is we, God’s LGTBQ heirs, who are taken by Jesus’ hand and brought, in loving, into the community of all creation. It is in our pride in the loving selves God has made us in God’s own image, it is in our colorful diversity, it is in drag, in joy, in songs of praise, and indeed in our outcastness, our differentness, our oppression—it is in all these ways and uncounted others that Jesus takes us by the hand and shows us that healing is in the way of love.

Jesus takes us by the hand and reminds us that it is our faith, however trial-and-error it seems, it is our faith sung in songs of praise that makes us well. It is our faith that we are God’s LGBTQ heirs who are called to heal creation with the love that overflows in our hearts.

Proper 5 Year A 2023 RCL (Genesis 12:1-9; Psalm 33:1-12; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26)

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

The Majesty of Love

I think we are living in a critical time. I think this is one of those times in the history of creation that we can actually make a difference because the gates of heaven are open. Did you ever think what that might mean, that the gates of heaven might be open? It would mean that angels are moving among us, protecting us as they can, comforting us as they must, and moving us as necessary safely across boundaries. It also means that we can move into their realm. How do we do that? By learning to love.

We all know what it feels like to feel love; it’s kind of warm, it’s comforting, it’s tender. As wonderful as it is–and it is wonderful and should be rejoiced–it isn’t what God asks of us. What God asks of us is to give love, which is quite different. Giving love means many things. It means constant outward awareness not only of ourselves but of all around us—all of creation and especially all of God’s people. It means securing justice and maintaining righteousness. It also means thinking always of love, which means not giving yourself over to the absence of love. There should be security and comfort in the knowledge that love builds up, love persists, love grows into majestic beauty.

Do you think about majesty? I had almost forgotten what it meant until I returned to Oregon where I am surrounded by majestic beauty.

Majesty is the immensity of love realized in the eternality of promise and hope. Majesty is the healing power of love given.

Jacob, we are told, had such majestic love for Rachel that he worked and waited seven years to wed her and then apprenticed for seven years more in return for union with her (Genesis 29: 15-28). It is just one example in the Old Testament revelations of God’s manifestation in the world of the majesty of the dramatic power of love that persists above everything.

In return we are to give thanks by which we continue to give love back to creation. Psalm 105 reminds us to give thanks, sing praises, experience glory and rejoice—all ways in which we build up love to ever more majestic heights.

We have help when we need it, not just from those angels sweeping among us, but indeed from God. Paul reminds us (Romans 8:26-39) that God helps us when we are weak, that God’s Spirit intercedes between our cries “with sighs too deep for words” carrying our prayers to God, that God constantly searches our hearts.

Jesus’ string of parables of mustard seed, yeast and hidden treasure (Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52) reveal the same truth—that no matter how tiny a bit of love we manage to give, it will yield majestic results.

For we who are God’s LGBT children, created every one of us in God’s own image, our hearts searched constantly by God, for us the manifestation of love is the way we generate love that switches creation into new dimensions. Iconic author Armistead Maupin, a hero of the LGBT community, nailed it: “Sooner or later, though, no matter where in the world we live, we must join the diaspora, venturing beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us. We have to, if we are to live without squandering our lives” (Logical Family: A Memoir). It is in the living out of this search for and building up of our “logical families” with love pure and simple that we walk with angels through that gate into a new dimension of the possibility of the majesty of love.

 

Proper 12 Year A 2020 RCL (Genesis 29: 15-28; Psalm 105:1-11, 45b; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52)

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