by Marcia Mount Shoop
Romans 12:1-8
“Paul’s call to those in the belly of empire is BE NOT CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD!
But be transformed by the renewing of our minds. So that we may discern the will of God—and what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Paul is not talking about the demonic perfect that whiteness trades on—the hegemony of white bodied superiority, of able bodied, of straight cos gendered bodies, of one right way bodied. Paul is talking about the kind of perfect that is of God—when we live proper to our true nature, when we are aligned with our divine purpose, when we are free to be true to who God made us to be.
God didn’t invent white bodied supremacy—greed did—and America codified it and christened it and Called it normal and built the architecture necessary to enforce conformity in every layer of our common life.
Paul knew that kind of empire—and he so eloquently reminds those seeking to follow Jesus in the midst of it that there is an internal authenticity, a God given flame of who you are that they can’t touch. That’s what is perfect and acceptable and good about you and me.”
Watch the full GCPC service on 8/27/23 here
(Scripture and sermon begin at 41:20)