Making Room
Making Room

From our reading of scripture, especially in the book of Acts, we see that there were controversies in the early church. The greatest one seems to have been whether or not Gentiles (non-Jews) could be welcomed into the church just as they were (read Acts 15). There were some who wanted Gentiles to become Jews before they could be baptized and welcomed fully into the community. Peter, who had experienced the Holy Spirit falling on Cornelius, a Roman centurion, spoke out with boldness, “…why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors not we have been able to bear?” (v. 10)

When I first started attending MCC in Washington, DC, there were few women or people of color. Over the years that began to change, and change made some people uncomfortable. Change usually does! I preached a sermon once, many years ago, that my spirit has reminded me of. I think it was titled “Moving Over.” At the time I said men needed to move over to make room for women. White people needed to move over to make room for people of color. Lesbian and Gay people needed to move over to make room for Bi-sexual and Transpeople. (We have expanded the alphabet since!) Everyone needed to move over to make room for non-LGBT people. Today I believe that all of us people of a certain age need to move over to make room for younger people. 

Moving over and making room makes a lot of us uncomfortable. People have ways of expressing themselves that don’t always fit in with what we might consider appropriate, especially when we come together for worship. 

Can we remember what it was like when we first received at least a beginning understanding of God’s love and grace? Remember how you were infused with warmth and joy? Remember how grateful you were to find MCC, a place where you could be yourself? Remember how people made room for you?

I encourage us, and that includes most especially me, to delight in moving over and making room for those who we perceive to be different from ourselves. This may be a challenge for us, but I believe it is a challenge we can and must meet with love and grace.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:7-8, 11)
Pastor Candace
PastorCandace@ResurrectionMCC.org

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