Everybody Is a House of God

Our church is a 1, 300-member multiracial, multicultural, multiethnic, many gendered, all sexual orientations, fully welcoming, wild and wonderful congregation that loves art and loves justice. And I am a Christian pastor who, unsurprisingly, believes there is more than one path to God. When I say that, though, I sometimes get hate tweets. 'What? Jesus is the only way, the truth and the life!” When I was a younger Christian, I believed that. But now, as I've grown up and as I've moved in the world with so many amazing multi-faith leaders, I'm crystal clear that God speaks more than one language. God wants all of us to belong to God, and God, I believe, is love.There is a little text in the Christian Bible that says, 'God is love, and those who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them.” You know what that means? Everywhere love is, God is. In a family taking shelter at home. Between partners, lovers. Between a mother and a child. Between neighbors who knock on the door and say, 'Can I bring you groceries?”God is love and everywhere love is, God is. That means all of us who love are love shacks. We're all houses of love. So, I think we have a chance to both simplify our faith and amplify our faith at the same time. What if all of this religion stuff is just about loving each other? What if we don't have to fight about how to call God? What if we don't have to make people pass a test before they can join a church? What if all we have to do is treat each other like God is in each of us?Imagine everybody houses God. Everybody is a house of God. God lives in them. And love is where God is and God is where love is. If we bind ourselves around love, we can not only get through this crisis, but we can make the world a place of peace and joy where we all love our neighbor and everyone has enough.Excerpted from The Call to Unite: Voices of Hope and Awakening. Copyright © 2021 edited by Tim Shriver and Tom Rosshirt. Excerpted by permission of The Open Field.