Amazing words from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Transcription: (beginning at 46:18) “…And this is where theology is so utterly critical for the world. That we should know that we were created not because we were necessary or needed; we were created because we were wanted. It is so crucially important to know that each one of us is the result of love, created by love, created like love, created for love. That why you and I are is because God loved us, God loves us, God will love us forever, unchangingly. And that we don’t have to do anything, absolutely nothing to earn God’s love. We were created as the result of the ‘bubbling-over-ness’ of this Divine Love. But God loves us, not because we are loveable; we are loveable because God loves us. We’ve tried to turn this upside down. I am good so that God may love me. I go to church so that God may love me. Unh-unh (NO)! That is NOT the gospel! The gospel is you are loved already. There is nothing you need to do. Somebody’s put it very succinctly. There is nothing you can do to make God love more. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less. Incredible!! Quite extraordinary!! It contradicts everything we have learned from the culture of achievement success. The rat-race culture where stomach ulcers become status symbols. That you have to work yourself into a frazzle so that you may be acceptable. (49:50) And the scriptures try…Oh, they try don’t they!...to get us to understand this fundamental truth. Because the fundamental truth about each one of us is that we are loved. We were loved, we are loved, we will be loved. (50:12) Jeremiah, my favorite prophet, has at the beginning of his ministry this extraordinary commission: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” You might even want to wonder if God knew anything about human biology. I mean, how do you know anyone before they have been formed in the womb, except that you are making an INCREDIBLE assertion: “Hey Jeremiah, you are not an afterthought. You are not an accident. You are part from the very beginning of the Divine Plan. Before I formed you in the womb-Peter, John, Mary, Elizabeth-I KNEW you! I didn’t say, ‘Oh dear, what am I going to do?’ Ah, yes, I know. No! But we really don’t believe it. I suppose it is that some of us, uh, maybe look like accidents…(laughs) But NOBODY is an accident. NOBODY is an accident. OK, this is the Old Testament and we say maybe the Old Testament… Ephesians chapter 1, doesn’t it say those extraordinary words about how God chose us to be God’s children in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. God knew that we would be around. That you…and you…and you…would be those who were members of his Son’s mystical body. We could go on and on. Didn’t God try to tell his people when he chose them to be this special race and gave them the Decalogue… You who are graduating know that preface to the Decalogue is a very important preface. “I am the LORD Thy God.” Which one? “The one who has ALREADY delivered you.” Although we don’t have the word, we ought to insert the word, “THEREFORE…” Thou shalt not… Everything we do-ALL of our existence-is Eucharistic. Everything we do is responding to what God has already done. “Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ didn’t say, I will wait until they are die-able for. For if Christ had had to do that, they would have had to wait until the cows came home. That when we were God’s enemies, the depth of the Divine Love for us was such as to pour this Love that will not let us go. And so friends, you go forth, seeking to remind people of what the world conspires to subvert. For see in our world you have systems-economic systems-where people say, “Yes, the system has been successful.” But at what price?! At what price? How many people must be out of work so that the system should work? What is the price when great Christian ideas such as compassion become almost swear words? Go forth telling God’s children, “You Count! Your worth is an infinite worth, for you have been created in the image of God. You are God’s Viceroy. You are God’s stand-in.” That kind of truth is dynamite--is dynamite--in situations of injustice and oppression where the system has sought to dehumanize and make people think that they were less than this. That YOU stand in for God. You are God’s representative. And this has got nothing to do with achievement. It has got nothing to do with extraneous things. Your worth is INTRINSIC. It comes with the package. It is part of what it means to be human. Go forth to tell them that, “Hey, you are so precious to God that your name is engraved on the palms of God’s hands. You are known by name. Your hairs are numbered. You are so precious that if God let you go even for a split-second, you would disappear into the oblivion out of which God’s creative work brought you. That God holds you and God breathes into you the Divine Breath from moment to moment. You are a God-carrier. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are essential. That you must not just be respected, you must be reverenced. You must be one before whom every person would genuflect: “The God in me greets the God in you.” Go forth to tell them that they matter, even when the world seeks to deny this truth. Tell them that it is not race, it is not color, it is not wealth, it is not status that gives them their worth. It is that they have been created in the image of God, they have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God, they have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Go forth and help to change this world so that there is laughter and joy, so that there is peace and reconciliation, so that there is justice and goodness. And let the kingdoms of this world become as the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever. Amen."
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Amazing words from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Transcription: (beginning at 46:18)
“…And this is where theology is so utterly critical for the world. That we should know that we were created not because we were necessary or needed; we were created because we were wanted. It is so crucially important to know that each one of us is the result of love, created by love, created like love, created for love. That why you and I are is because God loved us, God loves us, God will love us forever, unchangingly. And that we don’t have to do anything, absolutely nothing to earn God’s love. We were created as the result of the ‘bubbling-over-ness’ of this Divine Love. But God loves us, not because we are loveable; we are loveable because God loves us.
We’ve tried to turn this upside down. I am good so that God may love me. I go to church so that God may love me. Unh-unh (NO)! That is NOT the gospel! The gospel is you are loved already. There is nothing you need to do. Somebody’s put it very succinctly. There is nothing you can do to make God love more. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less. Incredible!! Quite extraordinary!!
It contradicts everything we have learned from the culture of achievement success. The rat-race culture where stomach ulcers become status symbols. That you have to work yourself into a frazzle so that you may be acceptable. (49:50)
And the scriptures try…Oh, they try don’t they!...to get us to understand this fundamental truth. Because the fundamental truth about each one of us is that we are loved. We were loved, we are loved, we will be loved. (50:12)
Jeremiah, my favorite prophet, has at the beginning of his ministry this extraordinary commission: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” You might even want to wonder if God knew anything about human biology. I mean, how do you know anyone before they have been formed in the womb, except that you are making an INCREDIBLE assertion: “Hey Jeremiah, you are not an afterthought. You are not an accident. You are part from the very beginning of the Divine Plan. Before I formed you in the womb-Peter, John, Mary, Elizabeth-I KNEW you! I didn’t say, ‘Oh dear, what am I going to do?’ Ah, yes, I know. No! But we really don’t believe it.
I suppose it is that some of us, uh, maybe look like accidents…(laughs) But NOBODY is an accident. NOBODY is an accident. OK, this is the Old Testament and we say maybe the Old Testament… Ephesians chapter 1, doesn’t it say those extraordinary words about how God chose us to be God’s children in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. God knew that we would be around. That you…and you…and you…would be those who were members of his Son’s mystical body. We could go on and on.
Didn’t God try to tell his people when he chose them to be this special race and gave them the Decalogue… You who are graduating know that preface to the Decalogue is a very important preface. “I am the LORD Thy God.” Which one? “The one who has ALREADY delivered you.” Although we don’t have the word, we ought to insert the word, “THEREFORE…” Thou shalt not… Everything we do-ALL of our existence-is Eucharistic. Everything we do is responding to what God has already done. “Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ didn’t say, I will wait until they are die-able for. For if Christ had had to do that, they would have had to wait until the cows came home. That when we were God’s enemies, the depth of the Divine Love for us was such as to pour this Love that will not let us go.
And so friends, you go forth, seeking to remind people of what the world conspires to subvert. For see in our world you have systems-economic systems-where people say, “Yes, the system has been successful.” But at what price?! At what price? How many people must be out of work so that the system should work? What is the price when great Christian ideas such as compassion become almost swear words? Go forth telling God’s children, “You Count! Your worth is an infinite worth, for you have been created in the image of God. You are God’s Viceroy. You are God’s stand-in.”
That kind of truth is dynamite--is dynamite--in situations of injustice and oppression where the system has sought to dehumanize and make people think that they were less than this. That YOU stand in for God. You are God’s representative. And this has got nothing to do with achievement. It has got nothing to do with extraneous things. Your worth is INTRINSIC. It comes with the package. It is part of what it means to be human.
Go forth to tell them that, “Hey, you are so precious to God that your name is engraved on the palms of God’s hands. You are known by name. Your hairs are numbered. You are so precious that if God let you go even for a split-second, you would disappear into the oblivion out of which God’s creative work brought you. That God holds you and God breathes into you the Divine Breath from moment to moment. You are a God-carrier. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are essential. That you must not just be respected, you must be reverenced. You must be one before whom every person would genuflect: “The God in me greets the God in you.”
Go forth to tell them that they matter, even when the world seeks to deny this truth. Tell them that it is not race, it is not color, it is not wealth, it is not status that gives them their worth. It is that they have been created in the image of God, they have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God, they have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Go forth and help to change this world so that there is laughter and joy, so that there is peace and reconciliation, so that there is justice and goodness. And let the kingdoms of this world become as the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever. Amen."