Does God Love Me?

       Our summer preaching series is based on topics that you have suggested.  Last week, the question I pulled out of the box was, “Does God love me?”  Sounds easy.  Of course, God loves you.  Sermon done.

But maybe the question deserves a little more thought.  Maybe the question isn’t that.  Why would it be asked in the first place if the answer were that simple?   How does one feel God’s love?  How do we know in our minds and our hearts that God’s love is real?  It might be an easy question to answer for others, but if you ask yourself, “Does God love me?” is it more difficult to answer?

In the United Church we tend to talk about this love in a more corporate way.  God loves all of us.  No matter our race, economic status, gender or sexual identities, age, culture, background, your mistakes, God loves you.  We are all children of God and God loves all of creation.  This is a great way to share the gospel, but does this really reach the individual on a personal level?  I find that some of our big, more evangelical churches, are very good at helping people to know that God loves the individual, that God answers an individual’s prayers, that God has a plan for each person, that God is always there for each one of us.  Sometimes though, these churches aren’t so good at stressing corporate love, the all inclusive, non-judgemental love of all people, stressing justice and mercy for those in need of justice and mercy.  It’s obviously another part of life that needs some balance.

I have heard people talk about some of the music in the praise genre, Christian music you might on the radio.  Most of this music comes out of the evangelical tradition, so most of it is based on God’s love for the individual, the sacrifice of Jesus for each one of us, the love, care, and mercy of God that can be found by just believing.  This can be powerful stuff and some are very moved by it.  But others, specifically my colleagues in the United Church, feel that the music is without depth, that it can treat love as trite, that by just saying God loves you and that all you have to do is believe, is too simple and doesn’t touch on the complexity of human relationships, judgement and shame, and the value of feeling doubt and questioning the love of God, even when you believe.  This music isn’t bad; it just shouldn’t be all you hear.  Again, balance is needed.

I am a huge fan of a couple named Michael and Lisa Gungor.  Michael leads a favourite podcast of mine and they both were part

of a band called Gungor.  One of my favourite songs by them is called, “Light.”  It’s a song about their daughter who was born with Down Syndrome.  In this song and in books they have written they tell the story of the birth of their little girl, named Lucy, which means light, and the powerful effect her birth has had on their lives.  Michael often refers to Psalm 139.  This psalm starts by expressing wonder at God’s presence.  “O Lord, you have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.  You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.”  It then speaks of the impossible task of abandoning God.  “Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.”

It then goes on to the most beloved part of the psalm; and for Michael Gungor it speaks of the purposefulness and beauty of his little girl.  Not an accident, not a regret, not a mistake, but a child created and loved by God.  “For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.”  (vs 13-15)

We learn from a very young age that God loves us and that we are children of God.  We need to hear this, especially those who don’t hear it from home, from family, especially those who hear it from home but not from their community.  Even those who hear it all the time from family and friends, still need to be affirmed and still need to hear those words.  

God loves you.  You are a created child of God.  God is love, and you are filled with that love.  You are meant to share that love with the world.  

I invite you to listen to the song written by Michael and Lisa Gungor for their little girl, Lucy, called “Light.”  I invite you to immerse yourself in the love they shared with the world for their little girl and I want you to remember that God loves you this much and more, from your head to your toes, from birth to death, the good and the bad, no conditions, no strings.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.