Connectedness, Synchrony, Electricity

The sun is shining. That’s pretty unusual in an Oregon winter, so I am really grateful. I’m looking forward to some puttering and other simple things that bring pleasure, especially when they are contemplative (I know I’ve written about ironing—no ironing piled up for me today LOL). I seem always to be well connected when I can lose myself in something repetitive. It is one reason I discovered long ago the virtues for me of kataphatic prayer (like praying with a rosary). I suppose it is a matter of how we’re wired; I have many spiritual companions who prefer centering prayer. Diversity, of course, is part of the plan of creation. Sort of like how one of my best friends often reminds me the tall trees hold each other up. Whatever it takes to stay connected is good, is God given, is holy.

Which is why we pray to be “set us free … from the bondage of our sins” [collect for 5 Epiphany Book of Common Prayer 216]. Of course, it is not up to God to set us free. We have to free ourselves from disconnectedness. Think about it now, what is the opposite?—connectedness, synchrony, electricity! Then we can see that abundance of life that is available to us if only we will tap into it.

The second voice of the prophet Isaiah [40:21-31] sings of the mystery and magnificence of God “Have you not known? Have you not heard?…  Have you not understood …? The Creator of the ends of the earth … [whose] understanding is unsearchable … those who wait for [God] shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” Those who stay connected, are heirs of the power of creation.

The blessing of the Gospel is the revealed glory of life in the dimension of love as Jesus told us, as Paul learned the hard way [1 Corinthians 9:16-23].

Did you see that uproar about the homoerotic Spanish painting of Jesus? (“‘Gay Christ’ poster sparks outcry in Spain as some say depiction of Jesus looks ‘homoerotic’“). Here is the image, how does it look to you? Paul says he became all things to all people in order that he might share the Gospel. Why should the Jesus in our spiritual center not resonate with our own way of being in creation?

It is as though a “demon” had been set loose somehow. In Mark’s Gospel [1:29-39] Jesus, who has just called his first disciples, visits the home of Simon and Andrew along with James and John. All four were called from their boats as they fished at the shore; all four dropped everything to follow Christ. Now they find Simon’s mother-in-law is ill. The story says Jesus heals her. The key here is that Jesus “lifted her up.” This means he returned her to her place in the community; connected. This is why, in the story, she immediately gets up and serves lunch. In the society of Jesus’ time there was no worse “sin” or disconnection than that of being cast out from the love of others. Frequently people who were ill or in any sort of trouble were cast out. Jesus’ healing restores them to their right place in connection with their loved ones, in their societies, in their families, in their towns.  

The point of the Gospel then, the Good News of salvation, is that we are all connected through Christ. In the connection is normality, return, refreshment. Many years ago when I was becoming an Epsicopalian, when I was working with AIDS ministry, the motto of the church came from then Presiding Bishop Edmund Browning. It was: “There will be no outcasts.” (https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/pressreleases/there-will-be-no-outcasts-official-obituary-for-edmond-lee-browning/ ). It was the clarion call of the Gospel to those of us in the LGBTQ+ community in those days of oppression. It was, and remains, a blessing.

We all are called to remain connected in synchrony with Creation living fully into the LGBTQ+ lives with which we are created in God’s own image.

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Year B 2024 RCL (Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147:1-12, 21c; 1 Corinthians 9:16–23; Mark 1:29-39)

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

Sing, Praise, Rejoice, Dance, Love

It’s a sunny day in the Willamette Valley, warming up to a perfect summer-like temperature; yesterday was downright hot. It sure feels like summer, yet there is that hint of the coming of autumn. It was on the cold side last week, we struggled to find a good evening to eat outdoors and even then had to light the fire pit. Logically we have a bit of summer to go—my zucchini are going berserk, cucumbers too. Yet last weekend in the US was the holiday that officially “ends” summer. People resumed their non-summer lives, traffic all week was as berserk as my zucchinis. Oh well. We love living here, the weather is usually some version of gentle year round with only occasional blips of ice in February or heat in July. Gardening provides a way for us to be close to the earth in a personal way, although the truth is we are surrounded by mountains and forests and great rivers, all of which contributes to an air of spirituality that emanates from creation. That spiritual center aligns with love; we love our surroundings, we love harmony with nature, we love, and the love we live is the love we share with our neighbors and fellow citizens as we are able.

Love is the outward expression of what we experience inwardly, we take the joy that we experience in our souls and give of it freely, as we are able.

In his letter to the church at Rome [Romans 13:8-14] Paul draws a focus on love. He says to “owe no one anything, except to love one another.” He explains that all of the commandments “are summed up in this word: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” And then he says to “put on the armor of light.” This is one of my favorite sound bites from Paul. He means wrap yourself in love, let the love in you shine outward so as to create clarity in the same way that clouds are swept away after a storm. It is utterly the message of Christ.

Today’s Old Testament reading from Exodus [12:1-14] is the story of the Passover. It is the revelation of God’s caring, fortifying love. It is the example of the outpouring of love that protects. The Psalmist [149] replies with joy: sing, praise, rejoice … and feel. This is how to fill your own heart with overflowing love.

In Matthew’s Gospel [18:15-20] Jesus tells us that there is nothing that is beyond the possibility of creation so long as love is shared synchronously.

The synchrony that is embedded in “love your neighbor as yourself” is the synchrony that weaves creation together. Love is the core of all of creation, love is the unobservable and yet obviously present higher power that God calls us to revel in.

We watched “Red, White & Royal Blue” last night; it is the latest major feel-good gay movie I guess. It made us feel good. Our community can use more of that just now. It has been a tough year for LGBTQ+ people worldwide. And yet we continue to make strides toward living in synchrony with creation and with all people. We must continue to fill our hearts with joy, to sing, praise, rejoice—and dance, especially dance—it is our call from God in whose image we are created.

Proper 18 Year A 2023 RCL (Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 149 Cantate Domino; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20)

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

Let Love be Genuine

It began to rain in the past week; at first just a bit, but then on Friday it rained all night and all day. If you don’t live in Oregon you won’t understand how we rejoice when that happens. It isn’t so much about the water (which, of course we need, and for which, of course, we are grateful). Rather, it is about the culture of rain. You see, here, it rains from October through May. Usually never those kinds of downpours you hear about on the evening news; usually, just steady, rain, and it is quiet and constant and comforting. I haven’t slept that well in months. Also, when it rains the moisture turns the carpet of pine needles in the forest into a naturally fragrant ecosphere that is unique … in fact, when I came back here after being away almost five decades the first thing I noticed was how much it smelled like Oregon.

Creation nourishes us with goodness, which is love, which is God. The synchrony of love and creation brings forth in us, love, because we feel joy. This is the cycle of the dimension of love.

The cycle of love is eternal. This is what the authors of the intermingled texts in the Old Testament try to convey. It is fascinating to see how scholars millenia ago used cultural tools, mainly oral culture story-telling, to relate the revelation of God’s truth. In last week’s scripture a baby had been found in the river; today the grown man Moses is learning all about theophany [Exodus 3:1-15]. He is encountering a bush on fire.

Let’s look at the text. What happens? Moses is tending sheep when an angel appears “in a flame of fire out of a bus … blazing, yet it was not consumed.” Fire is a sign of theophany—the presence of God. So we are forewarned by the authors. But did Moses know this? Perhaps.

An angel appears, Moses is surprised. He looks away. Wouldn’t you? And, because he looked away, God loves this. God speaks now out loud! I saw you look away! Then God calls to Moses who says “here I am.” And God says that God sees misery and is going to intervene. Moses asks who to say it was and God says “I am.” Just like Moses said “here I am” God says “I am” who “I am.” Love, being, am-ness, is the essence of this God, and of God’s love, which is.

Psalm 105 [1-6, 23-26, 45c] is the response in our lectionary reminding us to give thanks as we recount these deeds. Gratitude is the pathway to active love. Thanks is the road to gratitude. Give thanks, sing praise.

In Romans [12:9-21] Paul recounts not only a God moved to intervene in misery, but also a God who demands that the response must always be love. If you were looking for a recipe for active love, here is an outline:

            let love be genuine

            hold fast to what is good

            love one another

            be ardent in Spirit

            rejoice

            live in harmony

            overcome evil with good

In Matthew’s Gospel [16:21-27] we are moving rapidly toward Jerusalem and the culmination of what theologians call the Christ-event. Jesus finds it important to convey this to his disciples; after all they now are deeply involved. Peter’s response is, like Moses looking away, is very human. Jesus famously says to Peter “Get behind me, Satan!”

There are lots of movies and novels about “Satan” and there is quite a lot of folklore. The theological truth is that there is not an evil force or being with that name, in fact, in the Old Testament the name means “vacuum” or “absence” or “opposite of love.” So what Jesus is saying to Peter is that Peter’s inability to love is throwing a stumbling block in Jesus’ path. As Paul reminds us to “overcome evil with good” and God reminds Moses that “being” is love, which is the only way, Jesus is teaching us that the response to times of trial must be rooted in love, no matter how hard that is.

Love is never simple, never easy. To walk in love is, as Jesus says, to “take up your cross.”

Tough words for LGBTQ+ people in an increasingly dangerous environment, in daily new challenges of our very being, in a litany of rejection of our love.

Our job as always is to be God’s loving heirs; we are to remember that the God of our LGBTQ+ ancestors is the God who created us in God’s own image to be people identified by our loving being. Don’t be afraid to look love in the face. Do remember to live in harmony, rejoice, and above all, overcome evil with good.

Proper 17 Year A 2023 RCL (Exodus 3: 1-15; Psalm 105: 1-6, 23-26, 45c Confitemini Domino; Romans 12: 9-21; Matthew 16: 21-28)

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

Secretaries, Governors and Drag Queens: Love Realized

Where are we today? An important park in downtown Portland has been renamed for the late Darcelle XV, probably Portland’s most beloved drag queen (she passed away in March at the age of 92). Darcelle’s friends, and in particular her colleague drag queens, are about to put on a 48-hour drag event in an attempt to win a world record but more importantly, hoping to raise significant donations to support LGBTQ people everywhere (including drag queens under attack in many US states) https://www.portlandmercury.com/Theater/2023/06/01/46525694/wildfang-and-darcelle-xv-showplace-will-attempt-to-set-a-new-guinness-world-record

And then, this week, just like it was a normal thing, Pete Buttigieg was in Portland. You know, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation who just happens to be a gay man. When have we ever had a cabinet secretary who was gay and out?

And, I keep forgetting the governor is a lesbian! (I forget, because really, she is just the governor, which, of course, is what you want). When have we ever had a governor who was a person of our own LGBTQ identity?

I think it all adds up to an interesting reminder as we move from Pride month back into real life summertime that although it seems that we LGBTQ people are under attack, it also is true that we have made great strides not only toward equality but also toward normalizing our own existence. The political right are still trying to use us to ferret out angry voters and this will continue through at least the next U.S. election cycle. You and I must try to remember that this anger directed at us is about power, and it (the anger) comes from the fear of loss of power.

But we also must remember first and foremost that we are called to be the symbols of love in God’s creation. It is important for us to be visible, sometimes in just very normal ways—like when my husband and I go to the supermarket and quibble about which things to put where in the shopping cart, and then the cashier greets us “Hi guys!” Just like we belong together! Just like we actually belong together there!

Many years ago, when I was meeting a congregation that was then new to me but would become my parish home for a number of years I was in a conversation with two married straight men who were parish leaders. I had been having a great time visiting their parish and serving occasionally as their supply priest. I liked them and they liked me and we were considering making the arrangement more secure. We had been having a good conversation, when it occurred to me that I should remind them that I had a very visible ministry in the gay community and that if I came to their parish my LGBTQ readers likely also would show up. One of them grimaced and said something along the lines of “well, it’s ok, but do you have to talk about it?” I don’t know to this day how it happened that with great control and calm in my voice I just looked at him and said “Don’t you know that every time you take your wife and son out to eat you are announcing, indeed, waving proudly, the signs of your sexuality?”

And so I think we must celebrate all of the little wins, all those things that add up to witness … the (gay) transportation secretary comes to town to ride a bus down a notoriously difficult transit corridor; the (lesbian) governor declares an emergency when a wildfire occurs, appoints a new secretary of state when the elected one resigns in a scandal, and my husband and I quibble at the supermarket! And, Poison Waters takes up the leadership role of local drag leader. All in a day’s work, as they say, in the Pacific Northwest.

In the church, today is the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost—something some theologians call “normal time,” meaning there are no specific holy days in sight (sort of like the ecclesiastical version of it is hot and dry and there is no rain in sight). The liturgy for the day opens with a prayer that reminds us that love is a system, a cycle, a network, a synchronism, a synthesis … oh, do you see that “syn”? it’s from the Greek for “connected.” Love is all about synthesis, synchronism; love is all about connection. And, therefore, we are reminded of the critical part that you must love your own self, because all other love follows freely from that point.

God provides. God, which is love, provides love, when we walk in love. In [Genesis 24: 34 ff.] is a very long and complex story about Abraham’s son Isaac becoming married to Rebekkah.

We are to take the story at once in two ways—first that it is miraculous that God has provided, and second that it is normative that God has provided. God provides, this is the nature of creation, but it often appears miraculous to us because we are not paying attention to the details of love around us. Miracles you see are really just the average everyday outcome of walking in love. Miraculous outcomes are normative. Their normalcy is their very power.

Thus, as at a wedding feast, we rejoice in the realization of the power of the love we share, which is eternal [Psalm 45:11-18]. The Psalmist rejoices in the presence of the power of love with the metaphor of the joy of a wedding feast … lots of people, two people in love, lots of other people supporting them, circles, like the tightly enclosed layers of an onion, from the couple outward to the surface where we burst into the sunshine … and in every moment in every aspect of every dimension of every layer we rejoice, we sing, we give praise. Because when we do that we whip up the frequency of love and ensure its continuing presence among us.

That is why we, the LGBTQ people of God’s creation, are called to be the artists, dancers, bakers, architects, singers, musicians … and cabinet secretaries and governors and yes even drag queens, whose job is to direct all of society toward the places where acceptance and love prevail.

In Romans [715-25a] Paul writes about the priority of active love. He says we can neither rely on faith nor can we lie back and watch the world roll by. Rather, we must actively remember to walk in love. Salvation is ours through Christ, who came to show us how to defeat the sin of disconnection.

Good old Paul. We can always count on him to explain it to us. So here is what he is trying to say: you cannot rely on the good feelings you have from time to time—say at church, or at a concert, or in the presence of stunning natural beauty—because your animal nature asks you to preserve yourself through isolation, through throwing up fences. This is why we need religion, this is why we need church, to remind us that God became human in Jesus to reveal explicitly to humanity the eternity of the power of love. All this means is that you cannot rely only on yourself; you must rely instead on your faith in community … in community, in connection, in other words without sin. And that again is why God has called us, God’s LGBTQ children, to draw everyone around us into communities of love. To demonstrate that our love is for love.

In Matthew’s Gospel [11:16 ff.] Jesus preaches to the crowds with a series of dichotomies, but sums it all up in these famous words:

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Rest comes in the promise of the joy of love realized.

Proper 9 Year A RCL 2023 (Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67; Psalm 45: 11-18; Romans 7:15-25a; Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30)

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

Synchrony

Time is a curious concept; I was going to say it was a curious “quantity,” because I think most of us think of it that way, but we know from Einstein that time is simply a human psychological imperative … that is, all time is already all at once, but we choose for our own benefit to see time as sequential and therefore as ordinal.

So, when I complain (as I did yesterday in the hot sun bent over my gardens) that I have had to plant vegetable starts and move lemon trees and avocado trees and olive trees outdoors from their winter garage greenhouse and start regular watering rituals as though it were August … and it’s only mid-May … it is a way of measuring time over and against the real experience of life, which is that it’s hot and it isn’t raining. But, then again, I don’t have to worry about the little trees in the garage anymore, and I get to garden in the warm sun, and already we are enjoying food from our little garden. The earth responds to stewardship and collaboration and creation thrives in synchrony.

So, what does that tell us about faith, and joy, and grace and the realization of God’s reality among us? It tells us, that we are not in charge of time … things do not happen on our command … I had a priest mentor many years ago who used to say to me over and over (and over, I never did quite get it) that things happened “in God’s time.”

So this week in scripture we have Jesus telling his disciples on the verge of his ascension that “it is not for you to know the times … but you will receive power … when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses.” [Acts 1:6-14]. So you see, it is not up to us to decide when it is time, it is only up to us to be bearers of the Spirit of Love and to be witnesses to the power of walking in the dimension of love.

Curiously, after the ascension, the disciples went back up to that upper room … I made a note three years ago that they had “sheltered in place.” Back then, in 2020, we all were terrified of COVID-19, and we all were locked down in place, sheltering to stay alive. But now this scripture has additional meaning. It reminds us that part of witness is rest, nourishment, hospitality, centeredness … all of those things that “home” mean to us (even when home is just a momentary shelter).

Curious note from Acts: the disciples “were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women.” Clearly the women were somehow outliers, probably as we know from our own LGBTQ experience not in reality as much as in the cultural necessity for the author of Acts to use that odd formulation in order to include them. That was a complicated sentence (sorry!) to express a complex reality, which is that although we are outwardly oppressed—just look at all of the vile coming our way under the cause of fighting “culture wars” or “wokeness”—the reality is that we are essential, we are created and called by God to be part of the synchrony of the dimension of love.

So let’s remember that we are called to give thanks, to rejoice, even in adversity, to be “merry and joyful” and to “be glad and rejoice” [Psalm  68]. We are to “sing to God … sing praises.”  Because, as Peter says in his epistle [1 Peter 4, 5], “do not be surprised,” and “rejoice” and “discipline yourselves, keep alert” and “be steadfast in your faith” which is love.

God is glorified in us, as we are glorified in God, because we all are glorified in each other—every person is God’s heir, and welcome to inherit the riches of the kingdom of love, if only we can keep alert. Love in every moment. Do not let yourself fall into criticism, or anger. Keep alert that you love more than you do not love. This, is how we live into the synchrony Jesus described for us [John 17: 10]: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.”

The Seventh Sunday of Easter Year A RCL 2023 (Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36; 1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11)

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

Called to See

Every now and again it strikes me how much every day is the same, every week is the same, everything is the same. I wait for it to be evening then I wait for it to be morning then before I know it’s Sunday again. I joke (maybe joke?) with my husband that my entire life consists of making dinner—I plan it in the night, I check the pantry when I get up, I thaw things through the day, as soon as the sun is low in the sky I’m in the kitchen cooking, then we have dinner, then I go to bed and start all over. Time is passing, it seems, but then again maybe as Einstein said, it is just an illusion (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=82388.0 ). But, of course, the science of Einstein’s perception is that the passing of time depends on the frame of reference.

One way to look at it is to think about how we live in a certain dimension in which our synchrony with creation, a kind of harmony, is an eternal reality. In that there is grace, God’s love freely given in the absolute reality of life.

But then it occurs to me that how we tell our stories to ourselves defines the dimension in which we reside. Do I live in a dimension of dinner? Or do I live in a dimension of love and care, one in which my whole being is oriented to my husband’s, and to the things we share. The moments of togetherness, sharing, indeed loving, are the sunrises of the dimension in which we live. The sun sets and the moon rises and our love carries us. The harmony, the synchrony of the two of us in creation is our own dimension of love.

We all are called to tell—to prophesy if you will—about the dimensions of love we create and inhabit. It is their cumulative overlapping stew that is the eternal dimension of God’s love.

Isaiah (theologians will call this “Second Isaiah” Isaiah 49:2ff.) said “[God] called me before I was born … made my mouth like a sharp sword … made me a polished arrow” and (49:6) “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” The Psalmist (40:10-11) “proclaimed righteousness … did not restrain my lips … I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance, I have not concealed your love.” Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1: 9) “God is faithful, by [God] you were called into the fellowship of … Jesus Christ.” John the Baptist (John 1:34) “I myself have seen and testified.”

As I have written and preached many times, we who are seeking to comprehend how God calls us often don’t realize that we already are living the lives to which we have been called. We have been called to be God’s LGBTQ people, God created us LGBT&Q in God’s own image so we might be a light to the nations. We have been called to lead our LGBTQ lives in the light, as a witness to God’s faithfulness to us. We have been called to proclaim our pride in our God-given LGBTQ lives as a way of pointing to the highway of love into the dimension we create by living in and through our love.

There is a reason Jesus said (John 1:39), simply “Come, and see.”

2 Epiphany Year A 2023 (Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-12 Expectans, expectavi; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42)

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