June 27, 2022

We’re beloved. That can never be taken away.


On Friday the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade. Abortion is one of the most divisive questions in the angry vortex of our American political dialogue. The decision adds to the instability of the last several years.


As Abraham Lincoln said about the Civil War, all sides in the abortion debate read the same Bible and pray to same God. That makes this discussion even more painful.


At a moment when who gets to be heard is a central question, we can speak from our own experience and from our own expressions of faith— and listen to each other.  


I’m a white male, priest and pastor, husband, and a (proud and delighted) father of two.  Here’s the grounding that I find from my faith.


We begin with love, because God’s unconditional love for each of us is the starting point for our lives. We are all wonderfully and beautifully made in the image of God.


This means that we believe that everyone has moral voice and the agency to make moral decisions. That’s how we’re created.  


And as a community that follows Jesus, we’re going to listen to the people whose voices are least heard. 


The gospels tell us that Jesus heard the voices most at society’s margins. This story is fully expressed in the Gospel of Luke. This is the gospel of the Magnificat and the prodigal son, the gospel that celebrates the Good Samaritan.  Blessed are you, says Luke, when people exclude you.


The most important thing we do is to care for each other.  


We don’t avoid the difficult questions in our lives and in our common life together. We know that we can be safe discussing questions of life and death because we recognize each other as children of God. We speak when our community hurts. 


People in our community are hurting because of this Court decision.  


There are women in our community, women in our city, and women in our country who are now unheard, whose voice and opportunity to make moral decisions about their health care has been taken away. That’s wrong. 


There are also trans and nonbinary people whose opportunity to make decisions about their bodies and gender identities have been taken away. There are black and brown communities facing maternal mortality rates at three times the rate of white pregnant people whose voice and opportunity to make moral and life-saving decisions has been taken away. That’s wrong.


So many in our community have experienced difficulty in having children or crises in raising children. Too many in our community have lost children. 


Everything about having and raising children is a moral choice. 


Ultimately the people best able to make those decisions are parents; the person best able to make moral decisions about having children is their mother. We are all prepared to make these decisions through the values of the communities that shape us, including Christian community.


In Friday’s court decision, there came also the early warning that other rights — LGBTQ+ rights, marriage equality, and inter-racial marriage— might also be at risk.


We know that our belovedness as children of God is never at risk and that we are called to see and hear each other.


That didn’t change on Friday. That’s our Christian identity. It begins with God’s love and it can’t be taken away.  Blessed are we.


That’s the solid ground and hope that I find in this moment.  

Grace and Peace,
Matthew Heyd+
Rector