CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—GOD LOVES YOU. YES, YOU! [R, 12-21-23]
If I have but one thing to say to you, it is this: God loves YOU.
Not God loves everybody, because you may not be included in everybody.
Its the same as Black Lives Matter. Many people get caught up in proper grammar and forget that proper grammar often gets lost in reality.
Saying All Lives Matter leaves black people out. They have never been included in all. If we say that Black Lives Matter, that is when we say that all lives matter, that is when black folk are finally included.
Semantics? No, reality!
Like most of the good stuff I know, I learned that from Helen. All of this comes out of remembering what Helen said to me one day when I was trying to figure some way to preach about one of those stories that no one listens to because they think they already know all about it—like the garden of Eden, or Noahs Ark, or Jonah & the Whale, or The Good Samaritan, or The Prodigal Son, or… especially at this time of year, the birth of Jesus.
Helen said, “You worry too much about that. You have only one thing to do when you preach, and that is to remind us that God loves us.”
I belong to an inclusive church congregation. Not everyone feels included there, though, because some folks feel that they do not deserve inclusion. If you don’t think you should be included, you aren’t, regardless of the good intentions of the includers.
So I don’t say to those, God loves everybody, because they don’t want to be part of everybody. To them I have to say, God loves you!
Others simply want to be left out. They are loners, and feel comfortable that way. We don’t include them unless we respect their desire not to be included. For them, non-inclusion is inclusion.
Semantics? No, reality.
So I don’t say to those, God loves everybody, because they don’t want to be part of everybody. To them I have to say, God loves you!
The message of Christmas is simple: God loves you!
John Robert McFarland
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