It’s almost the Fourth of July, I still don’t know what I am wearing to the church picnic (I’m thinking my rainbow comma t-shirt), and I don’t know if our neighbors will have fire works (I’m praying that they don’t). It’s strange how we can remember some days in our life, I mean almost exactly has they happened almost a year later. Last year the Fourth of July was on a Sunday, so the church picnic was on a Saturday (I still don’t understand why it can’t be on a Sunday, which means I went to church on Sunday. But I didn’t go to the church I was raised in. Last summer, I did some church exploring. I thought I had found a church where I was accepted for who I was and what I believe, how wrong I was. The sermon was about God is punishing the United States because of the LGBT community. I can only imagine what this year’s sermon will be about because of recent events in NY. I have a feeling that Christians across the country will go to church on Sunday and hear a sermon about how God is punishing the United States, the reasons for this punishment will go a little something like this; the LGBT Community, Abortion, President Barack Obama, Muslims, Liberals, Atheists and last but not least Feminists.
But what if the sermon wasn’t about God punishing the United States? What if the sermon that pastors across the country give on July 3rd is about love and inclusion? What if the sermon was about the grace and mercy? See I’m a dreamer so I dream of a world and of a Church in which love is all that matters. Not love of power, love of money, love of hate, but Agape. I dream of a Church in which everyone is welcomed and loved for who God has created them to be. I dream of a Church in which people aren’t reminded of their past mistakes, but told that they have an infinite worth. I dream of a Church where the people are concerned not only about the after life, but life right here and right now. A Church in which people see a need in the community and they take care of it, regardless of how it is going to affect the budget (does a Church really need millions of dollars sitting in a bank, just in case something happens to the church?).
For me the Church is supposed to show the world what God looks like. The problem is that not all of the Church looks like God. So my final dream and really the summary of my dream; a Church that resembles the loving, forgiving, merciful, graceful, awesome God that I have fallen in love with.
go in PEACE. live PEACE. be PEACE.
