My priest just emailed to everybody at my church. (We're Episcopal, btw) Tomorrow will be interesting
:
As your priest, I am privileged to a very special perspective and view of you all, through a lens of Christ's great heart and Christ's love. Not only from standing up front, from where I can see all of your beautiful faces in a way you cannot see each other--as we seek to draw nearer to God and one another--and you are, indeed, very beautiful, let me assure you. I am also honored to be invited to a closer walk with some of you as you journey through both joyful and difficult life changes and transitions. An esteemed member of the St. A's family is currently engaged in one of those transitions and it is both joyful and difficult at the same time. Let me share something she shared with me a few days ago that touched me deeply.
"When I was a little boy, I prayed to God. I prayed God would make me a girl because I knew I wasn't really a boy, not inside. I didn't want to keep pretending to be a boy because it was hard to pretend all the time. I knew I couldn't go on forever pretending like that. It made me very tired and sad. I wondered why God would want me to be tired and sad every day. But I tried hard not to disappoint God. One morning, after praying like this for many years, I woke up and God had changed me. God had changed my tiredness into courage. God gave me the courage to tell the truth. God gave me the courage to tell people I wasn't a boy, even though it made some people laugh and some people get mad. God's courage has made me happy. God's courage has taught me to love myself. God's courage lets my outside be like my inside. God's courage gives me the gift of honesty. God is Truth. I thank God for giving me the courage to tell the truth. I thank God for giving me the courage to be me. Thank you God, for creating the infinitely complex universe, and for creating infinitely complex me."
As members of the congregation of Christians at St. A's, we make our welcoming embrace of one another unequivocal. We seek to ally ourselves with Jesus, the "bread of life," who allowed himself to be chosen or taken by God, blessed, broken, and given for the good of others. It is with the "broken" part that we have the most trouble usually. But it is precisely there, in our brokenness, that we are able to finally admit how very much we need each other. We need to be seen for who we are in our deepest selves, and find ourselves welcomed--not in spite of who we are, but simply because we are. It from this place of acceptance that we can learn to live what (fellow Episcopalian and researcher) Brene Brown calls a wholehearted life, and she points out that, "Our capacity for wholeheartedness can never be greater than our willingness to be brokenhearted." Common sense and life experience teaches us that we do not draw closer to others from our places of strength or success. Closeness with others comes from being vulnerable to one another, from what might seem to be our brokenness shared. We do this well at St. A's and yet we are called to more, more wholeheartedness, greater vulnerability.
So when our esteemed member takes the risk to disclose herself as she is, it is an act of radical love, and radical trust. I know that you all can match her offering with your own love and wholeheartedness, even though at times it may feel awkward, uncomfortable, or whatever--confusing! Jesus made a lot of people pretty uncomfortable, including his followers but it is worth it. So please welcome into our midst Freya Gilbert, who has been known to us as F_____n until now. It is an honor and a privilege to do so! We will transition along with her, and sometimes it will be downright bewildering for us and for her, but it is a joyful transition that Freya and I both invite you to celebrate from now on in our lives together. Please prayerfully and lovingly welcome Freya as you have F_____n, and know this changed relationship for the great good gift that it is.
Gratefully,
B_____a+
