This year, my Lenten journey includes reading and reflecting on the book “Black Liturgies” by Cole Arthur Riley. The author is queer, black, and disabled. These identities and the related experiences inform the reflections and liturgical resources found in this book.
The first such entry is a reflection on dignity. As the author shares:
I don’t know what dignity is. Not cognitively. But I know what it feels like. To be loved, to receive honor, to be encountered as a human, not because of any demonstration or performance of such, but because, in mystery, your very being is a miracle, your existence a delicate stitch in the cosmos. Dignity will never depend on anyone’s belief in it, certainly not your own. …the world has a choice: to honor or not to honor. The toll this choice takes has very real implications on our rights, our wealth, our justice, our children, and even our perceptions of dignity, but never dignity itself.
There are some 8 billion people in this world. No two individuals have the same experiences. Everyone is unique and there's beauty and wonder in this truth. There's also injustice. There are systems perpetuated in the world through which some people have gained significant privileges at the expense of others. Colonization, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, economic inequality, environmental degradation, and more leave people on the margins. The world has choices. These have very real implications.
The world has a choice. This has left some people vulnerable, condemning them to conditions that undermine dignity. Migrants and refugees fleeing for the lives may find themselves rejected in their efforts to find safe passage, and new life. There are those whose existence doesn’t ‘fit’ the arbitrary standards of how people are supposed to live, love, and behave resulting in these individuals being treated as deviants and outcasts when they seek to fully embody who they are created to be. There are those whose only sin is a lack of resources due to an unjust system which prioritises cheap goods and corporate profits over the wellbeing of employees. The world has a choice. Unfortunately, dignity is not universally respected.
Jesus says: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
For God so loved the world. The message suggests that God does not discriminate. It doesn’t say, for God so loved evangelical Christians, straight people, those with light skin, men, the wealthy, those who live in the Global Northern and Western regions of the world, or any other privileged group. It says for God so loved THE WORLD. God’s love extends beyond the choices the world makes about who receives dignity. Jesus, the One sent into the world out of that love, ate and drank with outcasts and sinners, those who the world of that time chose to marginalise and deny dignity. In so doing, Jesus redefined what love looks like through dignity transformed by acts of service.
In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we are meant to learn that God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. The world is meant to be saved by the example of Jesus. To the extent that we strive for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being, we shine a light on that salvation. We become a reminder of God’s love for the world that promises not condemnation but life.
For God so loved the world – this includes queer, black, disabled authors, migrants and refugees, those living in poverty, and everyone else the world too often chooses to cast aside. For God so loved the world – this includes us no matter who we may be or what we may have done. For God so loved the world – this message of hope is meant for anyone and everyone who needs it.
For God so loved the world. Knowing this, trusting this, may we acknowledge the ways the world continues to condemn some people, denying them the dignity they rightly deserve through God’s love as we strive for justice and peace, and continually embody respect for the dignity of every human being. This we pray as we sing: (VT) 412 My Soul Cries Out
