God Is With Us
FROM THE CURATE
“Whoever you are and wherever you are on your journey of faith, you are welcome here and you are welcome at God’s table.” These are cherished words here at St. Paul’s. Many people have expressed how these words have welcomed them into the parish or helped them to continue to find their place here. You are welcome here. You. All your particularities, all your joys, all your struggles. Every part of you is welcome here.
Recent news from the Supreme Court has left many of us feeling tender, vulnerable, or angry. On Friday, June 24, SCOTUS released their opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This decision has effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. People in our community and beyond are wondering where this leaves them and how they are to make their reproductive choices. Lots of folks are asking how to help and what to do next. Many Christians are scratching their heads and thinking about how their theology works with or against the Supreme Court’s ruling. In welcoming one another, we welcome your wrestling, your questions, your array of emotions, and your stories.
I have the unique privilege of walking alongside my wife Angela as she, among many other things, helps people of faith to draw their faith stories and reproductive stories together. Our faith stories are deeply connected to our reproductive stories. Our reproductive stories include our decisions to have or not have children and when, how many children to have and through what means, and how to parent those children. Our reproductive stories include struggles with infertility, challenges of unwanted pregnancies, and the difficulty of deeply desired pregnancies that have complications. Our reproductive stories involve choosing a partner, living our lives with that partner, separating from them, and/or being with them for years and years. We all have a reproductive story. The fact that God is in everything we do and the witness to reproductive lives that is included in our Biblical narrative remind us that your faith stories and our reproductive stories are deeply intertwined. Men and women in our Bible talk to God about their reproductive lives.
God is in your story! Your joys and struggles as they relate to your reproductive life are not in isolation from God. God is with people as they have abortions. God is with people as they give birth. God is with people as they sit in the OBGYN waiting room or have a medical exam. God is with people with they pick up contraception from the pharmacy. God is with people as they parent, change diapers, and breastfeed. God is with people who wail in grief and who scream a cry of joy while watching lines appear on a pregnancy test. God is with people who are glad or who are lamenting as a line does not appear. God is there in our conversations with a partner, with a doctor, with a friend, with clergy, and in the conversations with have silently with ourselves throughout the day. God is with us as we weigh the many complicated parts of being human. All that you may be feeling right now in the wake of this Supreme Court ruling is part of your relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is living and breathing in all that we say, do, feel, and pray.
Because it is often shocking for people to hear from clergy about political issues, I want to be clear that just as our faith stories and reproductive stories are tied together, the political sphere affects our spiritual lives. The decisions of our government and of the political state of the whole world have impacts on our lives of faith. A SCOTUS decision is not an exclusively political change. Politics affect our lives—mind, body, spirit. Jesus knew this well. God journeys with us through it all.
Whoever you are and wherever you are in your reproductive journey, in your faith journey, in the many journeys of life, you are welcome in this place and you are welcome at God’s table.
Your clergy are here for you. We are available for conversation and prayer. You are not alone.
You are beloved; you are enough; and you are worthy.
In solidarity and love,
Rev. Adelyn