Perceptions, righteousness, glimpses of the kingdom

The last time I wrote in this blog was the Sunday before the US presidential election. It is no coincidence that I, like many, have been in shock since then. Enough about that …

We had a white Christmas in Wisconsin, barely, by which I mean we had a lot of snow running up to Christmas and the rain all Christmas Day washed it away. So we were at least able to contemplate the state of climatic grace known as white Christmas for the week running up to and through Christmas Eve. It was a good and holy Christmas and Christmastide, something we can treasure going forward.

Just after the start of the New Year we traveled to Toronto for the wedding of two dear friends, men who have been building a life together for several years and now have become family to each other. It was a wonderful wedding and a holy fellowship blending the families of the two men together with the family of their friends. It was for me one of those transformative moments, when I see a glimpse of the kingdom.

I have just been to Malta and back. Trips like that, as accustomed as I am to them now, still amaze me just because they are possible. After flying all night across the Atlantic I always think to myself, as the plane prepares to land (usually for me at Schiphol in Amsterdam), “my goodness, look where we are!” And then again a few days later as the Mediterranean glistened outside the midday windows of my plane landing in Malta. My hotel room afforded me a deck overlooking the ocean, which was delightful. I was very tired the first day and slept soundly. The next morning when I opened the curtains I was shocked to see through the morning mist and island just off the beach outside my window. “I don’t remember and island being there” I said to myself. Just then, the mist cleared a bit and I could see the island was moving toward the port—a cruise ship—well, then I guess (aside from the humor of it) it is another example of dimensions of human perception. What we see in one way at one moment can easily appear to be another thing a moment later. It makes life at once tricky and interesting.

In today’s scripture we hear Moses remind the people that righteousness comes from a right heart attuned to God’s commandment to love God and love each other. We hear the Psalmist reflect that message, singing thanks together with a vow to walk in God’s way, which is justice. We hear Saint Paul remind the people at Corinth that arguing about details of churchmanship is vanity and not of one heart with God and God’s justice, because we all have a common purpose together which is to maintain God’s just and righteous kingdom among us. Finally we hear Jesus interpret the law in several difficult passages that all boil down to two things: first that constant reconciliation is a key to just righteousness, and second that it is critical to remain focused, as Moses’ message said, on a right heart attuned to God.

We are living in both a wonderful and a difficult moment. I suppose most people in most times can have said that same thing. Of course it is true for lgbt people that this situation is always a part of our condition. That for every momentous act of love and unity we experience there is in society at large a balancing act to be performed. Still, it is critical for us to keep focused, not to be distracted by emotions, to rejoice in the good and holy and transformative moments we experience, to repent of the sin of casting ourselves as right rather than as being people of right hearts attuned to God, to be open to glimpses of God’s kingdom among us.

 

6 Epiphany (Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37)

©2017 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.

Keep thinking*

It is tough to move around. No matter how nice a place your new place is, the change is always problematic. The shifting of culture is really more important than most of us think. We think the US is one country and everything is the same, but we really are a nation of 50 countries, and each one has its own collection of cultures, and they all really are different from each other.

Wisconsin is lovely. We are especially moved, after 30 some years in the Northeast corridor, to see the sky. And especially at night. We can see the moon, and the stars—all of them—against the inky black sky. And now we live on the edge of Lake Michigan, which is one of the world’s largest inland seas—freshwater notwithstanding. Just those things, simple as they sound, are part of the different culture here, and especially are part of our comprehension of this new place where we find ourselves.

I think maybe because I have not worked as a priest much (I am not yet licensed in Milwaukee, and have served only once in Philadelphia since moving in May), I have a kind of secular perspective. I notice how, when I hear church people talk, they sound churchy. And it almost immediately turns me off. There was an interesting article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a week or so ago about how churches are trying to attract young men. We drove past a place last week called “Brew City Church.” We laughed, but I bet they get more young men than anything with a saint in its name. So, I am going to try to make a theological point here without getting churchy. Let’s see how well I do.

To know, in the ancient texts, usually is code for sex. And when it isn’t code for sex, it is metaphor for the kind of melding that happens between souls during sex. Somehow the most human moment we can experience is also crossed with the most holy moment. And when the Old Testament prophets talk about “knowing” God, they mean having that kind of intimate experience with God, knowing God in your soul, and God knowing you in your soul. This is the second Sunday in Advent. Christmas is three weeks away (take that! all you premature marketers!). And God says through the prophet Isaiah that “the earth will be full of the knowledge of God.” Wow. The whole of the earth, every living thing, is destined to know the soul of God.

It means that you should take time in these deliciously dark nights of winter to look inside your own soul, to find God within you. The only sin, remember, is refusing to be one with God.

In this week’s scripture, we have the story of John the Baptist appearing in the wilderness. He eats locusts and honey—ick! And the author of Matthew’s Gospel has him saying some dramatic things. But the most important thing he says is this, which Jesus also will keep saying (a sort of leitmotif in Matthew’s Gospel): “repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

So let’s see. Repent means pause and look inward. Re- pent; pent, again. Do it again. Look inward, again, and again, and again. Because the kingdom of heaven not only has come near, it is here, nearby. Only by continually thinking (pent, penser, to think) can you move yourself into God’s dimension. God’s dimension of reality. Only by moving to the dimension where you know God will you find God’s kingdom.

In God’s dimension of reality there is justice. And there is peace. And there is equality for all of God’s creatures. We who are glbt must re-pent until we are truly proud of the souls God has given us to live in. When we have done that we will stop bowing to hetero-hegemony. Then we will see that the blindness society has keeps people from seeing that some people are not replicas but are diverse. Nature is diverse. Humanity is diverse. God’s creation is diverse. We are diverse.

Have a soulful second Sunday in Advent. (Remember, Christmas begins at sundown on Christmas Eve, the 24^th of December. Don’t be saying “happy holiday” to people for six *$&^@ weeks!)

*2 Advent (Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12)

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