by Marcia Mount Shoop
Acts 19:1-7
“The life of faith is all about God embracing us, claiming us before we even know who we are ourselves. Our belovedness, our embrace in the arms of Divine love–these realities of who we are–well they are true about us before we have anything to say about it. And they are true about us when we say we are distanced from God. They are true about us when we don’t even believe in Divine Love.
Perhaps our biggest barrier to knowing these things about ourselves is that it is easier to believe other things about ourselves than that we are beloved.
It’s easier for us to believe that we are deficient, that we are damaged, that we are guilty, that we are a burden, that we are unloved, alone in the world, different than everyone else. It’s easier to believe that something is wrong with us. It’s easier for us to believe all these things about ourselves than it is to believe the most primary fact of our existence–that we are loved and beloved from the very beginning and until the very end.
The life of faith is really about finding the courage to claim this belovedness for ourselves and for ALL people and making life from that reality instead of all the false narratives we have been taught and tell ourselves over and over again…”
Watch the full GCPC service on 1/7/24 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 46:35)