Mar 25, 2022 |
Rector's Blog: Incompletely White
| The Rev. Philip DeVaulRector's Blog: Incompletely White
As we turned from the presentation towards the people at our table for a small group breakout discussion, one of our brilliant, beloved, thoughtful parishioners spoke up. “Well, I’ll just say it, and I guess I should be sorry, but I love our liturgy.” I love her. I love that she said this. This was exactly the right thing for her to say and exactly the right place for her to say it. And my immediate response was, “I love it too, and I don’t think you need to be sorry.” Because the point of the work of Becoming Beloved Community isn’t to make you feel bad or shame you for loving something that has shaped your relationship with God. The work is meant to open us up to the fact that, however beautiful our experience of God has been, it is incomplete because we have not allowed ourselves to be influenced by people who don’t look like us. The liturgy isn’t bad. It’s incomplete.
However beautiful our lives have been, they are incomplete because we have not allowed ourselves to be influenced, led, taught, pastored, challenged, pushed, transformed, forgiven and loved by people who don’t look like us. We are not bad people, finally learning to be good. We are incomplete people searching for the wholeness of God, and the wholeness of God’s creation as seen in the people we have historically ignored and marginalized.