Rooted in Love

Open and Affirming (ONA) Sunday

June 28th 2026

Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-8 & Matthew 10:40-42

“Those who receive a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.” This reminds me that only when we call a thing what it is can it live up to its full potential. Einstein said once, “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” I cannot confirm Einstein actually said this, but it is often attributed to him. The point, however, is clear. Fish are not meant to climb trees; they’re built for swimming. Only when we call a fish what it is can it live up to its full potential. The same is true for humanity. Humans are meant for loving, but we’re often sold alternative narratives that skew our worldview and our very own image of ourselves.

For a reason unbeknownst to me, the Christian tradition has taken hold of the human narrative and has, in many cases, thrown us out like fish on dry land. Or Jeremiah might say, “like a desert shrub that doesn’t know when relief comes. They will live in the parched places of the wilderness, in a barren land where no one survives.” We’ve been sold this narrative that we are bad from birth. That we are broken and in need of a savior. That in order to be the kind of person worth saving we have to do X,Y, and Z. What happens when people don’t live up to this standard is a build up of guilt and shame, which in turn causes brokenness, the very thing we set out to avoid and brokenness is passed on from generation to generation and each generation inherits MORE guilt – why haven’t we perfected this yet?! Because we have been pushed out into the desert, on parched, barren land where no one survives.

I guess ‘an eye for an eye’ really does make the whole world blind. Who knew? Turns out, Jesus knew, actually. Hatred breeds hatred. Violence breeds violence. You cannot mend a shattered vase with a hammer.. turns out, you cannot mend a shattered soul by throwing stones, either. Turns out only when we trust in God and drink from the Wellspring of LIFE do we let go of our fear of drought and begin to bear fruit.

The dominant Christian narrative for centuries has declared humans to be inherently sinful and therefore detested by God. And if this wasn’t bad enough, the antidote was fear, the Devil, and hell itself. Talk about fighting fire with fire! But what if the house never needed to be set on fire in the first place? What if this whole time we have been living with this belief that we and so many of our peers are condemned, when we could have been living in the truth of our belovedness, our wholeness, our salvation!? Like the fish who was sold the lie that it was stupid because it couldn’t climb a tree! If the fish had just realized it was a fish and lived as fish are supposed to live, it would have believed it was a perfect genius. Perhaps we too need to realize who we are and begin to live as God made us to live, and then and only then, may we realize we are perfect.

Now I don’t say perfect as in we never make mistakes, because we do still mess up and need confession and forgivess and all that. Fish still naively nibble on fisherman’s bait, you know what I mean? But what I’m getting at is the CORE of who we are. Perhaps, at our core, we are not sinful.. we are not broken.. we are not condemned to hell at all. Perhaps we are whole, we are loved, we are love itself. Perhaps this then might help us avoid doing things that aren’t in our nature. Like a fish can avoid climbing trees, we can avoid hating our neighbor, throwing stones, and creating both internal and external chaos. Perhaps this is the way that will heal the world as Jesus intended.. as Jesus proclaimed.. when we put down our psychological and physical weapons and put our energy into creating life rather than destroying it..

If we proclaim that God is love and that God created everything out of God’s own being, then we too are love. Like fish were created to swim, we were created by love, as love, for love. I think this is truly the essence of the gospel, of what God became human in Jesus to share with us, to try and help us to understand. It all comes down to love. Period. Full stop. Love IS the Wellspring of life from which we drink and bear fruit. Everything else is footnotes.

Everything else is rules and stipulations made up by us to try and control one another. There once was a time when laws were only created as a form of protection. Laws existed as covenants between people that kept the community safe. For whatever reason, it seems we have turned modern day laws into 1) that which will profit corporations and 2) that which will keep people in their place – aka that which will remind certain people that they are in fact, incapable of climbing trees and therefore stupid.

My question is… where along the line did we decide who the dominant humans of the species were who got to tell others they just didn’t meet the mark? WHO ASKED THE FISH TO CLIMB A TREE?! Sorry that I keep coming back to that metaphor, it just really spoke to me I guess. But in all seriousness, how did the white men come to determine that black men were only 3/5s of a person!? How did men leave 50% of the population (women) out of the narrative altogether? Who got to decide which human beings were ILLEGAL? And who gets to decide whether heterosexuals or queer folks should live in society and have equal rights? What wires got crossed between the gospel message of love, equity, and justice and the cultural laws that proclaim the worth of each person?! The answer is complex. We could spend all day answering this question from every lens. The answer is ALSO  incredibly simple. We lost the plot. We turned away from love, our true nature.

We are here today to worship God, whose nature we share, in an act of turning back toward God, toward love. It is here that we remember who God is and who WE are. It is here that we remind one another of the truth in a world that wants to skew the narrative, skew even the gospel message. It is here that we practice shedding the lies and expectations other people have put on us, so that we can practice living as we were always meant to – as whole beings who are beloved, sacred, holy, called, NECESSARY, and never alone. Here, in God’s home, justice is worship and love is public. In God’s home, all are welcome; everyone belongs; everyone has a place at the table.

We don’t just say that all are welcome, assuming everyone who walks in here will assimilate to who we are and how we do things. We say all are welcome with the understanding that all are worthy of love today, right now, just as they are. Will love transform us? It always does! Because it touches the root, the core of who we are. Inclusion and affirmation are not just trendy words, they ARE discipleship. We do not include and affirm people in marginalized communities because it is the ‘trendy’ thing to do right now. We include and affirm people in marginalized communities because we acknowledge that NO ONE, not a single soul, should ever be marginalized! We acknowledge that it is not God that has divided humanity, it is the narratives which we ourselves have created.

At the time Jesus lived, humans have divided themselves up by tribes, nations, religions, caste, health, ability, and gender. Jesus declared none of that mattered. Jesus declared ALL ARE ONE in God. The good news is that if we can create a world divided, that means we also have the power to create a new, united world anytime. A world that insists on the belovedness of every human being. A world that protects life rather than destroys it. A world that is rooted deep in love that refuses to shame, in justice that refuses silence, and in affirmation that refuses erasure.

My hope every time we gather, is that you leave remembering who you are –

you are God’s beloved child.

You are sacred, holy, called, necessary, courageous, free, and whole.

You were not made broken, you are not inherently sinful, you are not pursued by the Devil, you are not destined for hell.

You were made of love and for love.

You belong.

In God’s home, there has always been and always be, a chair waiting for you at the table.

When we come home to ourselves, we find community and God there.

This is life rooted in love, drinking from the Wellspring of Life, bearing fruit for all.

This is salvation.

Amen.