Drag Queens, Owls and Turkeys

The weather is warm, it is mimicking spring (fortunately we will go back to the rain tomorrow, we need rain in winter in Oregon). I am recovering nicely from something odd and asthma-like. Having done an immense amount of writing during isolation and asthmaishness I now find myself liberated to work on my model railroads (yes, plural), my gardens, composing and making music, and my usual past-time of too much cooking. This is the magic of semi-“retirement.” You can do what you want, and there is more to do than there is time to do it.

Today is Superb Owl day (thanks to National Public Radio for that one! https://www.npr.org/2022/02/11/1080119057/superbowl-superb-owl-super-bowl-sunday ) and I want to shout out to the owl that kept me awake from September until late January. Thank goodness it finally has gone quiet (or maybe just gone).

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Valentine. I’ve decided to roast the second turkey I picked up at Thanksgiving for my husband—he loves turkey and dressing, not to mention the aroma of turkey roasting.It will be fun and loving and that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s all grace.

God’s grace is the love we share, it is the only help we need, because by staying plugged into love we can attain perfect grace, that state sometimes known as heaven. As Jesus reminds us constantly, the kingdom of heaven has come near if only we can turn to its dimension.

One of the most amazing moments of grace I experienced this week was listening (even more thanks to NPR) to some queer STEM queens (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/drag-artists-science/ ).

I don’t suppose I will ever meet any of these people, but my heart went pit-a-pat at the idea that one of them might really know what a confidence interval is, what the word “significant” really means in science, what it means to understand that events occur under various probability distributions (oh, what would my mentor at the University of Chicago have said?) Well, you know, after three grueling years of unforgiving coursework, the day I passed my comprehensive exams he asked me to take a walk with him on the “quad.” It was bracingly chilly, we walked and chatted. I was in heaven (it was grace experienced), here was my mentor choosing to spend time with me. It turned out he had a zillion questions for me about music, he had been waiting for me to make it to “colleague” level. Memories aside, to know there are not just queens, but drag queens, who not only get science but create science and change the human capacity for grace, is thrilling.

Love, you see, is always the crux of the matter, turning from love means turning to mortal self, turning to love means living in the frequency of the heart, in the reality of the identity in which God has created us. To be blessed is to know God by staying in your own heart where God always is urging you to be more and more the you God created you to be.

In Luke’s Gospel (6:17-26) we continue the story of Jesus’ ministry to vast crowds, It says (6:18) “They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.” It is a theme in Luke’s narrative that the healing comes from hearing. We are meant to understand that it doesn’t just happen; rather, it comes from the internalization that happens when we “hear,” (the term is metaphorical for perception, it doesn’t require physicality) when the love actually changes us and moves us closer to a new dimension. It was in their “hearing”–perception–that the hearts of the people in the crowd were touched and healing began. It also is important to remember that the essence of healing is full restitution into the community. Healing is being. Thus, it was in seeking change that the crowds opened their own hearts to the love offered. The love moving from Jesus to them was like electricity moving through power lines. No wonder we can understand they shifted into the new dimension of grace and love.

We are blessed when we stay in the dimension of the heart where God (Jesus) always is. Jesus recounts the famous “beatitudes”: statements that all begin “blessed are you” and end with the command to live fully into the new dimension by “rejoic[ing]” and “leap[ing] for joy.” Walking in love is rejoicing, leaping for joy, heaven is that state of pure grace.

God’s grace is the love we share, it is the doorway to the heavenly dimension where drag queens and gay priests do science, where husbands roast turkeys, where even owls are honored. Amen!

Epiphany 6 Year C RCL 2022 (Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1  Beatus vir qui non abiit; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26)

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