Of Sacred Worth

As some of you may know, today was Reconciling Sunday at Dumbarton. If you don't know what Reconciling Sunday is, it's an annual event "to celebrate your communities welcome of persons, to recall God's promise to love ALL people, to learn more about ending discrimination based on sexuality and gender, and to remember LGBT persons around the world in our church who are not in welcoming places" (that's from the Reconciling Ministries Network website, which you should check out if you're not familiar with it).

In addition to just being a great Sunday in general, I went from crying tears of joy to tears of pain in the course of the service. Today we celebrated the baptism and membership of one of my youth and his newborn daughter, which was absolutely beautiful. Then on the other end of the spectrum was the prayer request that another one of my youth shared during our time of praying joys and concerns; her grandfather died a few weeks ago but as this was her first week back since it happened she asked the congregation to pray for her and her family, and she started sobbing as she spoke. If you know anything about me you've probably guessed that not ten seconds after she started crying I was crying. It was just so painful to see her in pain. It made my heart happy, though, to see so many people comfort her then and after the service. That's part of what I love about my church-if nothing else, it is a community of people who truly love God and love each other. That's what today was about. Reconciling Sunday is a joyful affirmation of our commitment to love one another and to celebrate love wherever it is found.

Not everyone, though, celebrates or even believes in the value of Reconciling Sunday. The United Methodist Book of Discipline states that "all persons are of sacred worth" (2008 BOD, Constitution, Section 1, Article IV). But that is not how all people are treated, even (and sometimes especially) in the church.

A friend of mine told me a story a while back that I've been saving for this week. She took a January Term course at a different seminary through the consortium that Wesley is a part of and the topic of the sacred worth of human beings came up. The professor asked the class if they thought that everyone was of sacred worth. In a class of twelve, four people said no. Four people! Maybe this isn't mind-blowing or earth-shattering to you, but I just about had a heart attack. It made me sick to think that four seminary students would say that there are some people who just don't matter to us or to God. Some people aren't worth our time or efforts or love.

The theme of today's service was Tell Out, and one part of the service involved writing on a paper heart a message about God or Dumbarton or love that you want to share with the world and pinning your heart on your chest for the day. But since I'll only see a few people today and I think this is just about the most important thing, here's what I wrote.

EVERYBODY deserves to be loved.

Everybody. Not just people who look like me or act like me or believe like me. I don't get to decide who to love and who to ignore. Ignoring people isn't an option I even have. Let me say that again.

EVERYBODY deserves to be loved.

Everybody. Even the ones who annoy you. Even the ones who hate you. Even the ones who hurt you. Because that person matters to God. You may not like everything that person does. God may not like everything that person does. Then again, God probably doesn't like everything you do, either (God certainly doesn't like everything I do). And that person is of sacred worth. Everyone is of sacred worth.