April 2022

It's funny isn't it? That you can preach a judgmental and vengeful and angry God and nobody will mind. But you start preaching a God that is too accepting, too loving, too forgiving, too merciful, too kind, you are in trouble.

–Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson

If the quote above sounds familiar, it may be that you remember it from the sermon on the Prodigal Son last month. In what is one of Jesus' most famous parables, we are presented with a loving father, a wasteful son, and a resentful older brother. In our lives, we will likely find ourselves to be all three of these characters, at one point or another. This parable has long stood as an expression of God's boundless love for us all, with the father running out to meet his errant son, wrapping him in an embrace, and giving thanks that he is safely home. So it is for us: we are met with joy when we return to God.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in our celebration of Easter. On that glorious day, we celebrate that nothing -not even death itself- can separate us from the love of God. This love reaches into all of the places we choose to hide from God, the things we deem unthinkable or unworthy. God's love pulls each of us out of the tombs of our own making, into the joy of resurrection.

Bishop Robinson reminds us that the world has little trouble understanding a God that holds to the same prejudices and enmities that we humans endorse. But the world does struggle to understand a God that is so merciful, forgiving and kind, that would send His only begotten Son into the world; or that the Son would suffer and die, so that we might enjoy abundant life. When we limit the love of God, we limit the power of Easter -of Resurrection- in our own lives.

 So, may this season be a chance for us to roll away the stones in our lives. May we remember that the God we celebrate is all-loving, all-forgiving, all-merciful, all-kind. Let us, like the disciples on that first Easter, share this news, with a world that still dwells in darkness.

- Pastor Jon