It’s Okay—You Can Call Us Sinners

We queers and allies know we are sinners before God and each other.  We acknowledge as much in the Confession every Sunday—standing together, saying aloud that we know we fall short, claiming the absolution offered through the priest from our loving and forgiving God.  We all screw up.  We all participate in broken systems that perpetuate oppression, greed, destruction, and inequality.  We all do.  We are not God, and we remind ourselves as much whenever we ask God for God’s amazing grace—trusting and believing that it is always and everywhere available to us. 

As a progressive church, we occasionally get mail from well-meaning Christian people who want to remind us that we are sinners in God’s sight if we condone queerness.  There’s never a return address or name on these letters and social media posts.   It’s okay.  It’s all okay.  I just want to remind the senders right back that they are loved by our God.  That our broken humanness binds us all together, and that that doesn’t matter nearly as much as God’s tremendous loving grace.  God’s economy is so different from ours.  We want God to reward us for good behavior and punish the guilty for their sins.  God doesn’t see her creation that way—she is delighted with all of us and her desire is for our flourishing.  She knows that the more deeply we know and trust her, the more freely we will come to her in the guise of our whole and complete selves—not hiding behind false righteousness.  And she has compassion on us when that is too hard.

Anonymous friend, welcome to the sinners club.  We’ve saved you a seat and a cup of coffee.  It’s not our queerness that separates us from God—it’s whenever we start to believe we can do this life thing without the grace and kindness of God; to us and to all God’s creation.