On Sunday night we had a great service and reception to celebrate this milestone. Here's my sermon from that evening.
“The 3-D Life” Acts 10: 34-48
by Rev. Dr. Christine Johnson
There was something in the words of Jesus that compelled
Peter and all the disciples
to
carry on his work beyond his death.
This is clear in the scripture passage from Acts.
Jesus’ ministry starts in Galilee, then spreads throughout
Judea, and then beyond.
By the time Peter preaches this sermon,
he is
calling all nations to understand the peace that Jesus preached,
and to
participate in the healing that comes when we seek forgiveness for our sins.
It’s too bad that throughout history, Christians took a
three-dimensional message
and
conveniently collapsed it into two dimensions.
What I mean is this.
We went from no partiality with all its edges, bumps and
grooves
to partiality with its uniformity
and predictability.
We went from preaching Jesus as judge, a judge of fairness
and justice,
to
appointing ourselves as judge, judges full of self-interest and prejudice.
We went from understanding repentance as the route to
forgiveness,
to
setting up a cultural code which laid out unforgivable sins.
Said in another way...
Jesus is
often painted in two-dimensions, flattened,
so
there’s only a few angles from which you can view him.
What we need is a 3-dimensional Jesus, sculpted in all his
height, depth, width and mass.
Then, we can see Jesus from below, from beside, from
underneath, from above.
If we were to hold Jesus, there would be weight.
If we were to touch Jesus, there would be texture.
When you think about three dimensions, say in the case of a piece
of sculpture,
where
you stand makes a difference in how you see the piece.
So, too with a three-dimensional Jesus,
each one of us sees Jesus from a
particular viewpoint,
from a
particular contextual and cultural reality.
Today, we are naming and claiming and celebrating those
particular contexts.
Today, each one brings to our faith a particular story,
our
place of origin, our language, our life’s work,
our
family life, our relationships, our sexuality, our physical characteristics.
Today, we are celebrating the fact that we are all welcome
at the table,
and the
particular viewpoint with which we see Jesus really matters.
Just as Christians have flattened Jesus into two dimensions,
it also
happens to us.
We get define by a couple of descriptors and all else falls
by the wayside.
Some of us get defined by the colour of our skin
to the
exclusion of all our other dimensions.
Some of us get defined and ghettoised by our sexuality.
Some of us get defined by our gender,
and are
expected to fulfill tightly defined roles.
Some of us get defined by our class,
as if
money determines everything.
Some of us get defined by our size,
tall,
short, narrow or wide.
Some of us get defined by our physical challenges
and
expected to lump the inaccessibility of most of our buildings.
Some of us get defined by our educational level,
whether no education or the
recipient of an advanced degree.
But you know as well as I do,
that we
are three-dimensional beings.
We are our ethnicity, our sexuality, our gender, our class, our
size,
our
physicality, and our intellect.
We are all of these --
complex,
interesting, infuriating, and often, beautiful.
Each one of us has depth, height, width, mass
and
there is no one vantage point that tells the full story of who we are.
For me, this is why I’ve been involved in the Affirming
Process.
Not because it’s perfect. (I’ve heard lots of fair criticisms).
Not because it’s the only way.
(I’ve heard about a number of
congregations who name and claim their inclusivity explicitly.)
Not because I think it makes a congregation “better” than
another.
(This
is an important caution.)
No, I’ve been involved because for some congregations this
is a good way to struggle together,
to name
our own partialities, and our own propensity for judging others
to name
what we’ve assumed are unforgivable sins,
and then
to take one baby step, and perhaps another, and another towards healing the
world.
Tonight, we’re not celebrating a title, or the end to an
interesting process,
we’re
celebrating a faith that names and claims a three-dimensional Jesus.
We’re celebrating a faith that names and claims us as
children of God,
in all
the beauty and complexity God gave us.
We’re celebrating a faith that says there’s no partiality,
there’s
no judge other than justice,
there’s
no unforgivable sins.
We are saying that death in all its racist, sexist,
homophobic, classist forms,
in all
the ways we’ve degraded persons with physical or mental disabilities,
in all
the ways we’re created barriers that set us apart,
will
not have the final say.
The resurrection of Jesus teaches us that no tomb
can stop us from celebrating our
faith and working together for the common good.
This is not easy. In
fact, it’s probably downright impossible.
But it’s our faith, and it’s crazy and wonderful.
And that’s what we’re celebrating tonight.
In our own way, in our own time, warts and all,
we will
say loud and clear,
all are
welcome, all are welcome in this place.
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