Just As We Are

AM Psalm 89:1-18 • PM Psalm 89:19-52
Hosea 2:14-23 • Acts 20:17-38 • Luke 5:1-11

One of the things I find most striking in today’s gospel reading is when Simon protests to Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Jesus replies, “Do not be afraid; from now on, you will be catching people.”

How often Jesus tells us not to be afraid! And—often—how hard it is not to fear.

Jesus accepts Simon exactly as he is, a simple fisherman who is most likely as human as we all are. Simon is not perfect or learned in rabbinical law. Simon has displayed his faith when—at Jesus’s suggestion—he and his fellow fishermen go out on the lake of Gennesaret and catch so many fish that the boats begin to sink.

It is not always easy to believe that Jesus accepts and loves us just as we are. We forget that only One is perfect, and that is the Lord. 

I was stunned upon reading that at the Lambeth conference, which took place recently in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury affirmed as church policy a 1998 statement that rejects “homosexual practices as inconsistent with scripture.” 

It has always been my experience in the Episcopal church (and I have been going since I was five) that love and acceptance of LGBTQ people is a given. I can’t help but feel how hurtful such an affirmation is to gay people—and not just spiritually.

I believe that God accepts me just as I am—an imperfect gay man who is looking forward to the thirty-third anniversary of his same-sex relationship. Like impetuous Simon, I am sure of God’s love. As the saying goes, “God don’t make no junk.”

Written by Christopher Koppel

Christopher is happy to be spending his retirement in Fayetteville, with his husband, Dennis, and his pooch, Milo.