Alive in the Covenant of God’s Love

The Great Litany [Book of Common Prayer 148] begins:

O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth,
Have mercy upon us.
O God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy upon us.
O God the Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of the faithful,
Have mercy upon us.
O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God,
Have mercy upon us.

Remember not, Lord Christ, our offenses, nor the offenses of our forefathers; neither reward us according to our sins.
Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and by thy mercy preserve us, for ever.
Spare us, good Lord.

And, the collect for the First Sunday in Lent asks God to “Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations” [Book of Common Prayer 218].

Remember that old phrase “the quick and the dead”? Did you know the word “quick” doesn’t mean “hurry up”? It means, “alive” (OED: “living, endowed with life, animate). So, then, for what do we pray when we pray for God to “come quickly” to help us? We pray for God to continue to fulfill the lives God created for us to live. We are asking God to stand by us, to be our fortress in every storm. Because we know in our souls that we are created in God’s image, and that we are endowed with God’s love, and that all we need is to be “quick”—to be alive.

In the story of Noah’s ark and the rainbow covenant [Genesis 9:8-17], we see a reflection of our creation in God’s image as the story presents an almost human-like God interacting with Noah and with the creatures of all creation. God announces God’s covenant four times, over and over. But, that doesn’t distract from the promise God made, to set a bow in the clouds, that would be forever a reminder that all of creation is united in love.

This week we saw evidence of that: “Greece Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage in a First for an Orthodox Christian Country” (CNN, Elinda Labropoulu, Feb. 15. 2024).

Greece is alive, LGBTQ+ people in Greece are “quick,” the rainbow—the sign of God’s covenant—blesses creation.

Psalm 25[3-9] has us sing the truth that love is love, God is love, we who are created in God’s image, are love. Compassion, everlasting, faithfulness, all have to do with love. And this love is love in action, the love that creates, the love that saves, the love that rescues, the love that sustains.

Peter explains [1 Peter 3:18-22] that indeed, “God waited patiently in the days of Noah.” God gave us baptism, a washing clean from sin, in clear running water of the Holy Spirit, as a sign of the covenant God made with Noah’s people and the creatures of the ark, that forever more God would sustain creation. Jesus, God incarnate, had to be baptized to show us how to remain forever humble in creation.

Mark’s Gospel [1:9-13] continues, or if you prefer, begins, the narrative of God’s saving action in creation through the ministry of Jesus, which begins with his baptism by John in the Jordan river. God’s Spirit in one fell swoop announces Jesus’ divinity and then drives him out into “the wilderness” of temptation.

Of course, temptation is all around us. We tend to read this story and try to imagine what might have tempted Jesus (and in other Gospel narratives examples are supplied) but the primary temptation in creation is the urge to avoid love. We are tempted not to walk in love, because it is easier to go with the flow, it is easier to think only of our own interior needs and not to blind ourselves to the beauty of the “quick,” the alive, the glory, the evidence of God’s covenant visible when we walk in love.

The story also tells us that while Jesus was in the wilderness “the angels waited on him” and indeed, angels do wait upon us, even in our own self-imposed wilderness.

In Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock and Roll [PBS American Masters 6/2/2023] we meet one of the angels that accompanied Little Richard—Sir Lady Java, a trans activist, singer, and angel who befriended Little Richard for decades. Sir Lady Java’s insightfully holy comment in is: “Being yourself is the hardest thing to be.” All of us who are God’s LGBTQ+ children know this all too well. Indeed, we know the temptation all to well. But I bet we know who our angels are, too.

Jesus returns from his time in the wilderness “quick” alive “proclaiming the good news” and “saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.”

All we have to do to see it is to walk in love into the dimension where we all are alive in the covenant of God’s love.

First Sunday in Lent Year B 20242 RCL (Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-9 Ad te, Domine, levavi; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15)

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

Rejoice at the rainbows*

“I have set my bow in the clouds.”

When have you seen a rainbow? One of the reasons I love the Netherlands is that you see rainbows all the time there. That’s because it rains a lot, but also because the sun shines a lot. Sometimes when both happen at once, you get really dramatically pretty rainbows. One of the most dramatic I have seen was over Amsterdam’s Museumplein one afternoon—just an ordinary Tuesday afternoon I think—when coincidentally the Concergebouworkestr was rehearsing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. I had been waiting for the tram, and I heard the music, and wandered over there to see the orchestra in action. And just as they got to those amazing great gates of Kiev, here came the rainbow … the sun sparkled, and the whole plein erupted in applause and shouts.

Wow. What if every act of God could result in applause and shouts?

I love the ordinariness of the scripture this week. In the first letter from Peter we have a very direct and straightforward set of facts—Christ suffered for sins, was put to death, was made alive, proclaimed. And now you are saved. What more is there to say? In the Gospel there also is direct, straightforward language. Jesus came from Nazareth, was baptized, heard the voice, was driven into the wilderness, came back to Galilee, and proclaimed the fulfillment of God’s will.

Jesus says “repent.” I bet you think that means you should feel bad and stop doing something. That is not true. To repent is simply to turn, to re-turn, if you will, to God. Remember … remember God. That is how we repent. What is the best way to repent? The best way to repent is to remember God by re-specting each other … I divide that word that funny way on purpose because I want you to think about it. That means “do it again, as you did it before.” Remember the last time you gave someone your total and absolute utter respect? That was the last time you re-pented, the last time you re-turned to God. Re-capture that feeling.

Plain, straight-forward, direct: love God, my friends. Stop the madness, listen to the music, re-spect each other, and rejoice at the rainbows.

*1 Lent (Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15)’
©2012 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.