For Brad
I normally don’t talk much religion on my livejournal. It’s a touchy subject, and I can totally understand why. However, I am inspired by a great message from my church yesterday that I just had to share it.
So, as mentioned in a couple of recent posts, I’ve started going to this church in New York called First Corinthians Baptist Church. I absolutely love it there. I feel like I’m growing, and a lot of things that are being taught is really hitting me at home. This Sunday, our pastor, Rev. Michael Walrond, did his whole sermon based on a letter that was dropped the previous Sunday in the offering basket. Basically, it was someone with HIV who had been coming to the church for a while, but had never joined because he (or she) was not sure they would be accepted - by both the church or by God. Even as I type this, I get a little choked up, cuz their pain is real, and sadly, it’s people who call themselves Christians that add on the mental and spiritual pain they feel.
I really can’t relate. I don’t have any close friends that are HIV positive or have AIDS (at least they haven’t told me, which is their right), besides Brad. I know people who are, I’ve been around those who live their lives normally, most cases, they aren’t even really acquaintances (my college had a rolling epidemic, as most of DC is currently feeling). I was taught at a young age what AIDS was, how it was contracted, and growing up, I don’t think I was really hit with that stigma that once I was in college seemed to be the topic of every AIDS and HIV awareness campaign. Any prejudice came from moral ideas of they had sex before marriage or they were cheating on a spouse or they were gay (which isn’t even an issue anymore).
Okay, I’m getting off the point: Anyways, so the message was based from a passage in 2 Samuel in which David (after the death of Saul and his son Jonathan) becomes the king over an untied Israel. He wants to find anyone still left in the house of Saul that he can show kindness to (since Jonathan was his best friend) and comes to find out there is a son of Jonathan’s still alive, but, as Saul’s former servant tells David, he’s crippled in both feet from being dropped as a child by his nursemaid. So David calls for Jonathan’s son to be brought to him from the little barn he’s living in in the middle of nowhere (seriously, a bloodline heir to a throne is living in a barn?), and then restores to his family all the land that was originally Saul’s, as well as preparing a place at his (David the king) table. The quick answer to the question brought up in the letter: YES! There is a seat at the King’s (God’s) table despite your condition, cuz the rest of us sitting there all got conditions of our own. It’s true that God’s love is UN-conditional. No strings attached. To the answer about whether or not that person would be welcomed in our church: Yes. Because we all have our issues, and we are learning to love beyond our own prejudices. And like Pastor Mike said, if someone says something offense or looks at them funny, then that means there is something wrong with that person. We are commanded to love like God loves us. Our challenge is to love what God loves.
I’m not nearly as eloquent as Pastor Mike was about this whole subject. I really feel like I’m butchering what was an amazing service, because not only does he address the concerns specific to the letter, but made it personal to all of us. We all have issues or conditions, but we are never to be defined by that condition. You aren’t that “person with AIDS” but a child of God. You aren’t an “alcoholic” but someone God loves. You aren’t “that girl with 4 kids, no husband,” but a joint heir to throne of God. There was not a dry eye in the place. And it hits home, because I know a few of my friends that have been hurt and scared by Christians because of their lifestyle or their associations and whatnot. What's the problem with have gay people in your church? God loves them, so why can't you? I've never understood the hate behind people who have been called to love!
Anyways, The entire sermon can be found here: http://www.fcbcsermons.com/ entitled: I Am Not Forgotten.
I urge anyone who passes by this journal to give it a listen, whether you’re a faithful church goer or someone who has given up on the church because it has been one of the most damaging and negative thing in your life. I can’t say we all have it together - cuz I’ve been in mean churches and I know plenty of mean church folk (I won’t even call them Christians), but despite their hate and their prejudice, God still loves you, even if us humans and so-called followers can’t get it together.
So, as mentioned in a couple of recent posts, I’ve started going to this church in New York called First Corinthians Baptist Church. I absolutely love it there. I feel like I’m growing, and a lot of things that are being taught is really hitting me at home. This Sunday, our pastor, Rev. Michael Walrond, did his whole sermon based on a letter that was dropped the previous Sunday in the offering basket. Basically, it was someone with HIV who had been coming to the church for a while, but had never joined because he (or she) was not sure they would be accepted - by both the church or by God. Even as I type this, I get a little choked up, cuz their pain is real, and sadly, it’s people who call themselves Christians that add on the mental and spiritual pain they feel.
I really can’t relate. I don’t have any close friends that are HIV positive or have AIDS (at least they haven’t told me, which is their right), besides Brad. I know people who are, I’ve been around those who live their lives normally, most cases, they aren’t even really acquaintances (my college had a rolling epidemic, as most of DC is currently feeling). I was taught at a young age what AIDS was, how it was contracted, and growing up, I don’t think I was really hit with that stigma that once I was in college seemed to be the topic of every AIDS and HIV awareness campaign. Any prejudice came from moral ideas of they had sex before marriage or they were cheating on a spouse or they were gay (which isn’t even an issue anymore).
Okay, I’m getting off the point: Anyways, so the message was based from a passage in 2 Samuel in which David (after the death of Saul and his son Jonathan) becomes the king over an untied Israel. He wants to find anyone still left in the house of Saul that he can show kindness to (since Jonathan was his best friend) and comes to find out there is a son of Jonathan’s still alive, but, as Saul’s former servant tells David, he’s crippled in both feet from being dropped as a child by his nursemaid. So David calls for Jonathan’s son to be brought to him from the little barn he’s living in in the middle of nowhere (seriously, a bloodline heir to a throne is living in a barn?), and then restores to his family all the land that was originally Saul’s, as well as preparing a place at his (David the king) table. The quick answer to the question brought up in the letter: YES! There is a seat at the King’s (God’s) table despite your condition, cuz the rest of us sitting there all got conditions of our own. It’s true that God’s love is UN-conditional. No strings attached. To the answer about whether or not that person would be welcomed in our church: Yes. Because we all have our issues, and we are learning to love beyond our own prejudices. And like Pastor Mike said, if someone says something offense or looks at them funny, then that means there is something wrong with that person. We are commanded to love like God loves us. Our challenge is to love what God loves.
I’m not nearly as eloquent as Pastor Mike was about this whole subject. I really feel like I’m butchering what was an amazing service, because not only does he address the concerns specific to the letter, but made it personal to all of us. We all have issues or conditions, but we are never to be defined by that condition. You aren’t that “person with AIDS” but a child of God. You aren’t an “alcoholic” but someone God loves. You aren’t “that girl with 4 kids, no husband,” but a joint heir to throne of God. There was not a dry eye in the place. And it hits home, because I know a few of my friends that have been hurt and scared by Christians because of their lifestyle or their associations and whatnot. What's the problem with have gay people in your church? God loves them, so why can't you? I've never understood the hate behind people who have been called to love!
Anyways, The entire sermon can be found here: http://www.fcbcsermons.com/ entitled: I Am Not Forgotten.
I urge anyone who passes by this journal to give it a listen, whether you’re a faithful church goer or someone who has given up on the church because it has been one of the most damaging and negative thing in your life. I can’t say we all have it together - cuz I’ve been in mean churches and I know plenty of mean church folk (I won’t even call them Christians), but despite their hate and their prejudice, God still loves you, even if us humans and so-called followers can’t get it together.