“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”
This is the very first song nearly every child learns
in a Christian Sunday School. Sunday School teachers and members of the church are
vessels of this love through their care and instruction. In this supportive environment,
children grow in faith as they grow into their God-created selves.
But in too many churches, once young people begin to question
their sexual orientation or gender identity, the message they receive is that
God’s love is now conditional. This causes deep spiritual harm. Someone who doesn’t
have a nurturing environment to grow into the person God created them to be
lives a stunted life, never living into their full potential.
Church ought to be the place where every child of God will
find a loving and accepting home to be who they are.
The United Methodist Church made huge changes to be
that loving place through General Conference actions.
There are some United Methodists who are going to
think we went too far by removing the language that declared homosexuality as “incompatible
with Christian teaching”, allowing clergy to preside over same-gender weddings
(if they choose to do so) and allowing LGBTQ clergy. I hope you will enter into
a time of wondering: why would these pass overwhelmingly by delegates from
around the world (the ban against LGBTQ clergy only had 51 no votes out the entire
body)? What scriptures would prompt people to adopt these positions? How do
these statements help us “do no harm; do good; and stay in love with God?”
We humans see the image of God as through a mirror
dimly (I Corinthians 13: 12). God is so much bigger than our limited
comprehension. The God who created the world in all its diverse flourishings
has imprinted on each human God’s own image. The more we encounter and enter
into relationship with each other, the deeper we look into each other’s eyes,
the clearer God’s image emerges. We gain a bigger picture of who God is,
particularly when we include those who don’t look like us, think like us, or
love like us.
There are people of all ages in your community who are
looking for a grace-filled community that allows them to ask questions, to be able
to take tentative and shaky steps to explore who God made them to be, to find
themselves in a community who will cheer them on when they do so.
Will you and your church be that community?
Let me tell you: there is amazing joy waiting for you
if you are willing to do so. For wherever there is new life, whenever someone
says yes to being their full God-created self, when someone is finally able to proclaim
out loud to God “I praise you
because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” the angels sing and
the saints dance.
I pray that our United Methodist Churches will be such
loving places. May no child of God ever think they are beyond God’s love. May
they be able to sing throughout their life:
“Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus
loves me, the Bible tells me so”
