“Do you really believe ALL are children of God?” That sentence began a letter from an anonymous mother of a gay teenager. She went on to explain that she did not wish to cause any problems but she was concerned about what her pastor was saying from the pulpit.

Her son loved the youth group. He was accepted and included by his peers. The pastor, however, had made statements that clearly indicated that her son was at best an inherently flawed child of God, and at worst not a child of God at all, but an “abomination.”

Since she insisted on remaining anonymous and would not identify the church she attended, I could not directly respond to the troubled mother.

Nevertheless, I carried that letter for months and read it in pastors’ meetings. I reminded pastors that the message being communicated by that pastor was “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Yes, there are some who exclude members of the LBGTQ community as “children of God.” But the circle of exclusion is much wider than sexual orientation. Only those who verbally and publically “accept Jesus as savior” are deemed  to be children of God.

I was confronted with the theological underpinning of the exclusion notion in an uncomfortable encounter.  It was in the narthex of a large urban congregation as I gathered for the processional for the 11:00 worship service.

The sermon text for the 8:30 service was 1 John 3:1-2: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is who we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”

Suddenly, I was confronted by an irate woman who latched onto the sleeve of my robe, turned me toward her, and stridently asked, “Are you going to preach that sermon in this service?”

“Yes, I am,” I responded.

“Then you are going to contribute to people going to hell,” she harshly warned. “Only those who have accepted Jesus as their savior are God’s children.” She then quoted John 1:12, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

“On what basis do you believe ALL people of God’s children?” the persistent inquirer demanded as the processional hymn began.

“On the basis of God’s creation and redemption of all,” I responded while trying to join the procession now in progress. “Read Genesis 1:26-27 and learn the meaning of ‘prevenient grace,’” were my parting words as I moved toward the altar to again proclaim that we are ALL God’s children NOW!

There are biblical passages that support the notion that not all people are children of God. In fact, the verses immediately following the text for my sermon can be so interpreted: “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil. . . The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”(1John 3:8-10)

The question (Are ALL people children of God?) is no idle theological abstraction? The answer determines everything—how we treat others, especially those who are different from us; how the church does evangelism and mission; even how we engage in public policy and political decisions.

As a Wesleyan, I live with the confidence that God’s prevenient (“preventing”) grace is universally present in ALL and that Christ died for ALL. Therefore, ALL have inherent worth and dignity. That includes Muslims and Methodists, Hindus and Hassidic Jews, Baptists and Buddhists, Atheists and Anabaptists, Conservatives and Liberals, Traditionalists and Progressives, Gay and Straight, Friends and Enemies, Illegals and Citizens, Men and Women, EVERYONE!

Yes, I believe we can turn our backs on our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God. I leave it to God, however, to determine the ultimate consequences of such disavowal. My responsibility isn’t to judge. My calling is to bear witness in word and deed that ALL are precious sons and daughters of God, redeemed in Jesus Christ.

All evangelism, therefore, is relational. We meet Christ in the other more than deliver Christ to another. Bearing witness to the gospel begins with treating ALL persons as “thou” rather than as “it”, as a friend rather than evangelistic prospect.

I wish I could have talked personally with the bereaved mother of the gay son. I would have told her that “Yes, I really believe ALL persons are beloved children of God, and your son is a precious child of God.”

And, I would like to have had an opportunity for an extended conversation with the irate worshiper who feared that my message was misleading and complicit with eternal damnation of people who don’t profess Jesus as Lord and Savior. I would like to know why she is upset with the notion that all are children of God. I would treat her with respect and dignity as a beloved child of God while cautioning that to accept Christ is to accept those for whom he died—ALL.

“Do you really believe ALL are children of God?” That sentence began a letter from an anonymous mother of a gay teenager. She went on to explain that she did not wish to cause any problems but she was concerned about what her pastor was saying from the pulpit.

Her son loved the youth group.  He was accepted and included by his peers. The pastor, however, had made statements that clearly indicated that her son was at best an inherently flawed child of God, and at worst not a child of God at all, but an “abomination.”

Since she insisted on remaining anonymous and would not identify the church she attended, I could not directly respond to the troubled mother.

Nevertheless, I carried that letter for months and read it in pastors’ meetings. I reminded pastors that the message being communicated by that pastor was “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Yes, there are some who exclude members of the LBGTQ community as “children of God.” But the circle of exclusion is much wider than sexual orientation.  Only those who verbally and publically “accept Jesus as savior” are deemed  to be children of God.

I was confronted with the theological underpinning of the exclusion notion in an uncomfortable encounter.  It was in the narthex of a large urban congregation as I gathered for the processional for the 11:00 worship service.

The sermon text for the 8:30 service was 1 John 3:1-2: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is who we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”

Suddenly, I was confronted by an irate woman who latched onto the sleeve of my robe, turned me toward her, and stridently asked, “Are you going to preach that sermon in this service?”

“Yes, I,” I responded.

“Then you are going to contribute to people going to hell,” she harshly warned. “Only those who have accepted Jesus as their savior are God’s children.” She then quoted John 1:12, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

“On what basis do you believe ALL people of God’s children?” the persistent inquirer demanded as the processional hymn began.

“On the basis of God’s creation and redemption of all,” I responded while trying to join the procession now in progress.  “Read Genesis 1:26-27 and learn the meaning of ‘prevenient grace,’” were my parting words as I moved toward the altar to again proclaim that we are ALL God’s children NOW!

There are biblical passages that support the notion that not all people are children of God. In fact, the verses immediately following the text for my sermon can be so interpreted: “Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil. . . The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”(1John 3:8-10)

The question (Are ALL people children of God?) is no idle theological abstraction?  The answer determines everything—how we treat others, especially those who are different from us; how the church does evangelism and mission; even how we engage in public policy and political decisions.

As a Wesleyan, I live with the confidence that God’s prevenient (“preventing”) grace is universally present in ALL and that Christ died for ALL. Therefore, ALL have inherent worth and dignity. That includes Muslims and Methodists, Hindus and Hassidic Jews, Baptists and Buddhists, Atheists and Anabaptists, Conservatives and Liberals, Traditionalists and Progressives, Gay and Straight, Friends and Enemies, Illegals and Citizens, Men and Women, EVERYONE!

Yes, I believe we can turn our backs on our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God. I leave it to God, however, to determine the ultimate consequences of such disavowal. My responsibility isn’t to judge. My calling is to bear witness in word and deed that ALL are precious sons and daughters of God, redeemed in Jesus Christ.

All evangelism, therefore, is relational. We meet Christ in the other more than deliver Christ to another. Bearing witness to the gospel begins with treating ALL persons as “thou” rather than as “it”, as a friend rather than evangelistic prospect.

I wish I could have talked personally with the bereaved mother of the gay son. I would have told her that “Yes, I really believe ALL persons are beloved children of God, and your son is a precious child of God.”

And, I would like to have had an opportunity for an extended conversation with the irate worshiper who feared that my message was misleading and complicit with eternal damnation of people who don’t profess Jesus as Lord and Savior. I would like to know why she is upset with the notion that all are children of God. I would treat her with respect and dignity as a beloved child of God while cautioning that to accept Christ is to accept those for whom he died—ALL.

Linda no longer remembers Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. In fact, she has forgotten Jesus and God! Mention of Easter only elicits a blank stare. Talk of Resurrection adds to confusion, even frustration at what seems to her like meaningless chatter.

Dementia erases more than memories of events, people, and experiences. It deletes abstract concepts, including cherished doctrines.  If being “Christian” or a disciple of Jesus means believing prescribed abstract doctrines, people with cognitive impairment are beyond discipleship and salvation.

Such persons, however, can teach us what it means to really know the reality behind cherished doctrines.  Linda and the residents at Bethany are teaching me that “believing” is not the core of Christian discipleship. Discipleship is doing what God does, which is the deepest form of knowing.

Most residents at Bethany have forgotten the stories of the empty tomb. None of them can explain what the doctrines of Incarnation, Atonement, and Resurrection mean. The words and concepts have been expunged from their brains and vocabularies.

Yet, they know Incarnation, Atonement, and Resurrection better than many whose cognitive faculties remain intact. They experience the realities affirmed in the doctrinal formulations, and they can be means by which we learn what doctrines really mean in our own experience.

I’m learning that Resurrection is more about life in this world than life after death. It is experiencing moments of Resurrection joy, love, beauty, truth, and goodness.  Here are some Resurrection moments I have recently known:

• A momentary connection between Linda and Michael, our grandson, which elicited a winsome smile and twinkle in the eyes from both

• An unexpected reach for my hand as I sat silently beside Linda

• A woman with disabilities who insisted on carrying the cross as we journeyed across the retirement community for “Stations of the Cross”
• A loud response to the declaration in worship at Bethany, “He is risen!” Residents, including some who seldom speak, replied,
  “He is risen indeed!”
• A blind resident with cognitive loss who immediately sang a rarely sung verse of “Jesus Loves Me”:

Jesus loves me! He who died,
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in

And the rest of us joined in the chorus:

Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

• Looks of delight and sighs of awe and wonder as fresh flowers were placed on the altar at Bethany

• The calming voice and gentle touch of a caregiver as she affirmed Linda’s dignity while bathing and dressing her and Linda’s surprising “thank you!”

Incarnation, Atonement, Resurrection are inseparable experiences! It’s another way of saying that loving presence and personal connections (incarnation) create possibilities for moments or experiences of new life (resurrection); and reconciliation and glimmers of wholeness emerge (atonement/salvation).

It is those who are sensitive to resurrection moments amid the mundane experiences of daily living who know the real meaning of “He is risen! He is risen indeed!”

Those moments come even among sealed tombs, dark nights, and upper rooms filled with frightened disciples.

While attending Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C. in the 1960s, I had the privilege of hearing an array of guest lecturers and preachers. Well known theologians, preachers, and politicians regularly spoke in chapel or the lecture hall. Even President Kennedy spoke on campus only a few weeks before his tragic death.

The most transformative guest during my three years on campus was Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived the Nazi concentration camps. He shared his struggles to survive the daily stench of death and the loss of family and friends in the barbaric gas ovens.

Dr. Frankl’s very presence was testimony to courage and hope amid unimaginable cruelty and death. While the holocaust reveals the raw evil of humanity, Viktor Frankl’s life bore witness to the triumph of hope over despair.

Dr. Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, has inspired countless people for more than half century. He affirms that although we may have limited control over what happens we have freedom to determine our attitude toward what happens. He contends that humans can live with almost any what if we have a why, a meaning amid the circumstances.

I have been reminded over the years of these words from Dr. Frankl: “[Man] is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”

We live in troubled, uncertain, and dangerous times. Hatred and harshness, cruelty and crudeness, greed and grossness, viciousness and violence have been normalized. Injustice, prejudice, and exploitation are defended as virtues. Indifference to and scorn for the poor, the imprisoned, the homeless, and the immigrants has become public policy.

Cynicism and despair are luring temptations in such a time as this. We can succumb to the temptation and be paralyzed by hopelessness. Or, we can choose the way of hope and action.

This weekend we celebrate the reason for hope! In the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ, God took on all the hatred, cruelty, greed, violence, injustice, prejudice and exploitation humanity can muster. Jesus entered his own death chamber upright, with the prayer “Father, forgive them” on his lips.

Evil did not, does not, have the last word! On Easter God delivered the everlasting “No!” to humanity’s evil! The Resurrection is God’s eternal, cosmic “YES!” to everything Jesus was, said, and did!

Love triumphs over hate! Compassion defeats cruelty and indifference! Forgiveness disarms vengeance! Humility undermines arrogance! Freedom wins over bondage! Life conquers death!

We, therefore, can live these troubled times with our shoulders straightened, our eyes on the future triumph of God’s reign of justice, compassion, generosity, and joy. We know that the decisive victory has already been won in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ!