The Rev. Peter Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University, died this past Monday, February 28. This is a tremendous loss for the Harvard community, but I believe also for the church in the United States.
I did not know Gomes. I never met him and never heard him preach (though I wish I had). I've read one of his books and know I should read more.
There are a variety of places you can read about his life and achievements: on the Harvard Divinity School website, on Wikipedia, and in obituaries in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
I want to share one quote I read in the paper this morning. In 1996 Gomes said this in an interview with the Boston Globe:
"[My mother] always told me that I must invent my own reality. Reality will not conform to you. You must invent your own and then conform to it. So I did. I am an authentic and an original . . . I will not allow myself to be known simply as an African American, no more than I would allow myself to be known as gay or conservative. They are all bits and pieces of a work in progress. I am a child of God."
Wouldn't it be nice if we could all live with this sort of authenticity? What might the world look like if we had enough security to live as fully and courageously as the people God created us to be? What might the world look like if we all recognize and admit that we are works in progress? What might the world look like if we could see each person we meet as a child of God instead of the through the lens of our own reality and perspective?
This, I believe, is the essence of what we are called to create as leaders of Christian communities. We need to create communities that invite people to discover who they are as children of God. And once they have discovered this (or begun to see themselves as works in progress), we need to be communities that support and equip people to live authentically and faithfully at home, at school, at work, and in their neighborhoods and communities.
Isn't this why the church exists? Isn't this why Jesus told us to go forth and make disciples?
Thank you, Peter Gomes, for living your authentic and faithful life so publicly for the rest of us. May you rest in peace.
1 comment:
I had the privilege of hearing Peter Gomes preach on North Haven Island, Maine, and am deeply saddened by his death at such a young age. He was so vital, compassionate, and witty, and he conveyed his belief in God's love for all of us in an inimitable style that kept me hanging on to every word. I was looking forward to his memoir, which he said he would write after he retired. May light perpetual shine upon him.
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