There is joy in heaven when we are*

I had a conversation the other day, as often happens, with someone who declared he was not interested in religion. But then, of course, he was interested enough to ask me about my faith. And so I said, as I often do, that it’s just too bad that so many people have been so brain-washed with false doctrine. I always begin by telling people that God is not a puppet-master running a marionnette show pulling all of the strings. That just is not how it works. And yet, that is what so many people have been taught.

The scripture this week is disturbingly full of an angry God who is ticked off at people who aren’t faithful, who forget God, who forget to be one with God, and who forget that God is the source of all life and light. It is a very irate (… dare I venture hurt?) God we see in Jeremiah 4 and also in Psalm 14. What are we to make of that? Well, I think we are to think of God as we think of our own selves—God is eternity, God is the source, God is the creation, and God is the creator of each one of us in God’s own image—but God needs tending to once in awhile. God wants us–God’s people–to be plugged in, and to stay plugged in. And this is a two way street. It is as important for God as it is for us.

I had my handyman try to install a rheostat on the dining room chandelier (that’s a very grand word for that horrid fixture—it was in the house when we bought it) and after lots of trial and error he had to give up. Interestingly, when the electrician came the next day, it turned out we’d actually got it right, but those damn CFL bulbs won’t work with a dimmer, which is why we got buzzing and flashing and thought we had failed. But the electrician calmly and methodically matched each wire to each other wire until he sorted out the circuits. And then everything was copascetic. Now, you see, this is how it works with us and with God. We have to stay plugged in and on the circuit. Sometimes we have to methodically sort out the connections and tend to each one fully and separately in order to make sure it all continues to work together. If we do, God who is fully empowered, fully empowers us.

So in the Gospel reading from Luke 15 we have two parables, one of tax collectors and another of the “widow’s mite”—the poor woman sweeping her house for a lost penny. She should have been here the other day. I dashed home from the supermarket because I had to turn around quickly and go to teach. As I set the groceries down the containers of blueberries fell to the floor and pretty soon I had an entire kitchen of blue dots. I got them swept up … and then when I came home from teaching and wanted to cook dinner I grabbed a bag of carrot chips from the crisper and pretty soon I had an entire kitchen full of orange dots. It was quite a day. I swept it all up. I achieved a clean floor. And eventually I achieved dinner. And I rejoiced. And I thanked God. Okay, I got carried away by the sweeping metaphor, but I think it wasn’t the mite that was important, it was the effort, the human attention and the honoring of the connection with God that was the woman’s blessing. This action, of getting and staying connected to God, is repentance.

Is there a gay message here? Only that we must be, and we must continue to be. We must be who we are. I met a man this week who was terrified of being found out to be gay. I was stunned. How can it be that in this year 2013 there still are men who are terrified of being who God has made them to be? How can it be that there still are people who cannot cope with God directly. God has asked us, gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgendered people to understand that we are one of God’s gifts to the whole community. It is our responsibility to love God and to love each other, and to stand up in public as God’s loving children. There is joy in heaven when we do.

*Proper 19 (Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10)

©2013 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Giving is loving*

To give is to act out our relationship with God. If we think we are God, then we are likely to think we need not give, because our pride has shut off our capacity to understand what is required of us as citizens of God’s kingdom. But, if or when we understand that we are truly God’s children, and heirs of God’s kingdom, then we understand fully what our responsibility is. And then when we give, we give of what we have, and usually without restraint. I am writing metaphorically here … I have been giving more than I have for a few weeks now. But I comprehend that this is required of me, and I am surprised each day that when I reach the end of my rope, suddenly more appears, with which I am able to go on giving.

We joke in the Episcopal Church about this gospel story about the widow’s mite, because it always comes at the precise time the parish is asking us to pledge money for the coming year. It’s a shame. Because it distracts us from understanding this bit about giving as something that comes from the soul, like a spiritual exhalation. When we inhale, God gives to us, when we exhale, we give back to God. And that is how it ought to work. When we understand that love is the manifestation of God, we see that that is indeed how it works. The widow gives all that she has, because she knows the love of God, and she knows that the best way to return God’s love is to give. And she probably does not even think that she is giving away all that she has, she thinks rather that she is giving what she can, and all that she can, and that the word all is the important part. She withholds not a penny. This is what God asks of us daily, and I’m not talking about parish pledges. I’m talking about loving each other. God calls us to give, from the well of love that we have.

If there is any particular way to spin this message for the lgbt community it is simply to remind us all that it is how we love that defines us as a community. It is owning up to the right to live in love as God has called us to do that gives us a social identity. And the love that we live, is the love that calls us to give.

Love.

Give.

Because giving is loving, and loving is embracing God.

©2012 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Proper 27 (Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Psalm 127; Hebrews 9 24-28; Mark 12:38-44)