Post #3: I cried in church yesterday

I adore my church; it's a friendly, loving, welcoming place to worship. It is like an oasis in the desert after my decade-or-so self-imposed exile from organized religion. After 28 years of hyper-organized religion, I was deeply hurt by the treatment I received from many "Christians" who I thought had been my friends. It is a joy to be part of the College Avenue Congregational Church family, full of loving people living out their faith in practical ways. Another thing I enjoy is that this church encourages the church body to wrestle with scripture and entertains any question. Gone are the days when I attend a church where I am told to just believe something that doesn't seem to be believable to me, personally.

At the end of the sermon yesterday, Pastor Michael quoted this scripture which is one of my favorites. Sitting at the piano with my back to the congregation, I fought back tears, thinking about how important this text has been to me at difficult times in my life. I'm surprised that I don't have this one memorized already. Given all that's happening with my employment and my concerns about the coming election, this seems particularly relevant to me right now and I suspect it might be helpful to others as well.

Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.