God loves you.
No exceptions.
Wearing that shirt is a challenge because it means that anything I do, stupid or smart, evil or good, is seen as an action that represents the Episcopal Church. (The shirt also has our shield and the words "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.")
In my long history, I've been in and near a lot of churches that defined themselves by what they are not. Churches that pulled away from larger organizations and the only self-identity they had was "Well at least we don't do/think/believe what those people do!"
Maybe that resonates with the original rebels, but the time comes when the old rebels are either gone or tired and the people of the larger community, who don't have a clue what those people did/thought/believed, just don't have many reasons to jump on board.
I've also been in and near a lot of churches whose basic stance was simply to be nice. Don't rock the boat. Keep our comfortable status quo running.
That sold pretty well in the 1950s, but not now. The comfortable status quo does pretty well without any help from the church, and people understand that. Besides, as a prophetic stance, "keep the old ship running" isn't too thrilling; neither is "we're angry at the group we left." We need something more.
Following our leaders
The T-shirt slogan actually comes directly from our Diocese website. Bishop Hollingsworth and our new Presiding Bishop Michael Curry are both firm in supporting this idea, that the Church should be the ultimate come-as-you-are party.
That's difficult because we humans like to spend time with people who are just like ourselves. Jesus, if you recall, got into a lot of trouble with the "nice folk" for spending time with the wrong sort of people.
A look at St. Matthew's
Though we're quite small and I don't know the personal circumstances of everyone in the church, I can point to
- University professors and blue collar workers
- Business owners and employees
- People with very comfortable incomes and people who live on government checks
- Farmers and town folk
- Straight couples and gay couples
- Cradle Episcopalians and new transplants
- Theological liberals and theological conservatives (along with a few people who are still trying to settle just what they believe)
And the list goes on. Like most Episcopal churches, we have a 12-step group (Wednesday evening at 6:30) and a lot of people whose pain and struggles are only known to a small circle of friends who pray for them.
That T-shirt slogan would make a pretty good prophetic statement for what we want to be.
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