Sermons

Most times, sermons don't move me. They're meant well, and usually delivered - well, adequately. But in terms of making me stop and think, they tend to fall short.

This morning's was different.

The priest who delivered it usually has a more casual style than the pastor -- my family calls him Fast Willie because his sermons are short, which we like, and they tend to have some humour, which we also like. But this morning, he started by talking about five or six people that he's met as a priest. Each had had something bad happen to them, from being raped or molested to getting addicted to drugs or becoming a prostitute. Each of them felt that what had happened to them had to have been because they were inherently bad people, and that it was the best that they could expect.

For each of them, he said, his message was the same. They had a right to expect to be loved unconditionally by their God, who did not see them as inherently bad. They had that right.

It made me stop and think. For a bit, I thought yeah, that's great if you believe in God. And then I thought well, even if you don't, the idea that bad things happening to you don't necessarily mean that you're a bad person.... and even if you ARE, it doesn't mean that you can't work yourself into a position where you can be loved. I also thought Well, I'm a father, and I love my daughter unconditionally, but that doesn't mean that I won't punish her if I think she's deserved it -- but, then again, punishing her doesn't mean I don't love her. It was not, I thought, the classic message of a demanding supreme being that could lash out at any moment, one whom you were not worthy to approach, let alone look at. It was more hopeful.

I liked that.