O Love That Will Not Let You Go!

As a pastor, my heart grows heavy when I see God’s beloved children unaware of God’s great love for them. As a result, they have doubted their self-worth. They have isolated themselves from others, feeling unworthy of love. Their souls have been scarred by the world’s hatred instead of healed by God’s bountiful grace.

Do you know how much God loves you?

The psalmist was overwhelmed by God’s love: “O God, you have searched me and known me…you are acquainted with all my ways…such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I can’t take it all in. You know me very well. Nothing, nothing at all is is hidden from me. Even when in the midst of basking in that love my shadow self emerges and I reveal to you my hatred and pettiness, you stick with me, helping me turn from hurtful ways of being and thinking and leading me to what is life indeed.” (Psalm 139)

There is nothing about us that can make God turn away from us: nothing in who we are, nothing in the people God created us to be; nothing in what we have done; nothing in what has been done to us, that can loosen the grasp of God’s love on our life.

When the power of this truth breaks into our life, we become changed. This is what it means to be born again. When we accept the power of God’s love in our lives, we are can’t help but be changed, from the inside out.

God knows everything about us, and yet for many of us God remains a stranger. For some, it’s God’s magnificence that is too great to comprehend that keeps God a stranger. For others it is fear of experiencing intimacy with One who knows so much about us that causes us to keep God remote.

But still God envelopes us with a love that will not let us go. This love promises us a much greater life if we will only open ourselves up to its healing and power.

As you gather in worship, bow your head and let God’s love pour over you. Find yourself showered with it! Feel the power, embrace the presence of this love. Feel the wounded and hurting parts of your life be restored to wholeness by God’s love.

And then, allow this love to flow through you and into the lives of those around you. No one should doubt God’s unconditional love for them. Sometimes, the only way they will know this truth, the only way they will be able to experience this amazing grace, is through your loving actions.

I pray that no soul will doubt that they are loved for simply being who God created them to be (including YOU!).

To Embrace a Ministry of Vomit

It is always interesting to read the final papers of my students and see what the main "take-away" of the class was for them. For my Evangelism class, which concluded in January, the take-away was a brief comment I made on my "Ministry of Vomit" (or VM for short).

Being a pastor in San Francisco, I often find myself in settings with people who have left the confines of their hometowns for the openness and freedom of the City, where the impact of "The Summer of Love" is still felt.  These folks migrated West in hopes of leaving behind the restrictiveness of the past and the rejection they often experienced. Frequently, religion has been at the root of their discontent.

For these individuals, the prevailing religious expression of their hometown left them feeling battered and bruised, as they experienced judgment and condemnation. 

I was blessed to be raised up in a faith that kept reminding me that I was loved unconditionally by God.  This love was expressed vividly by the community.  This orientation shaped my life and my vocation and has sustained me through the ups and downs of life, the good and the bad decisions and choices I have made.  Always, this love drew me back onto a path of wholeness and hope.  It is at the core of my ministry today. More than anything else, I want people to experience this love and rest in its assurance.  For me, it is central to the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Pastoring in SF requires me to create the space for people to express the wounds and pains they have experienced by religious communities. It necessitates being a witness as they explain the ways they were harmed by religious people. In order to offer people a radically new understanding and experience of Christian faith, I have to allow them to emotionally "vomit" on me, knowing that at that moment I am representating a faith tradition that has done them wrong.  It is only after they have been able to get out all that has been bad, then perhaps space can be created for them to experience some good.

So for this pastor in SF, doing evangelism means embracing a ministry of vomit!