We are watching the inexorable march of fascism.
We have seen the near overthrow of our own government
which is still on-going.
We have seen the self-righteous right take over
the supreme court and turn the law into dust.
We have seen the right to body sovereignty
removed.
We can only expect that we will be next,
first they will re-outlaw our marriages
then they will re-outlaw our selves.
And intelligent people don’t have the erm [gumption? cojones?]
to make their friends and relatives understand this isn’t about the price
of gasoline
this is about life and death.
Your girlfriend dead from a coat-hanger abortion.
Your sister dead from carrying a fetus too long until it killed her.
This is my cry.
“Wash and be clean.”
How much more clear could Elisha’s instructions to Naaman
have been (2 Kings 5:13)?
Naaman wanted magic.
But the magic is within you.
The spirit of God is within you.
God is within you.
God is with you.
God is with gay you,
God is with lesbian you,
God is with transgender you,
God is with queer you,
God is with polyamorous you …
and you know what,
all you have to do is look in the Bible,
throw it back in their faces,
all of us are there in God’s own image.
“Wash and be clean.”
That’s all it takes.
Admit your self
to your self
and be
your own God-given self.
Do it all with love in your heart.
“You reap whatever you sow” (Galatians 6:7).
Have love in your heart in all that you do.
If you do not have love
get some,
any way you can.
If you feel upset or angry or vengeful (as I clearly have been doing)
think about someone you love
think about some thing that you love
think about love
get some love in you.
Then
go out and “wash and be clean”—
go out and be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer,
proudly, loudly, fiercely, boldly—
remember,
you are made in God’s gay image
or you are made in God’s bisexual image
or you are made in God’s lesbian image
or you are made in God’s transgender image
now how could that be? but it is,
you are made in God’s own image
did you think God really was an old man?
did you never think God was intersectional?
And wherever you go say to them “the Kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:9, 11).
Because it has.
Because it is.
Because it is in us,
the LGBTQ people made in God’s image,
we are the keepers of the kingdom of love.
Proper 9 Year C 2022 RCL (2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30 Exaltabo te, Domine; Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16; Luke 10:1-11,16-20)
©2022The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.