Beloved and Sucky

The difference between what you spirit,

or your soul, or your cells know or remember,

is different than what you are taught or told.

-Carlton Pearson-

Carlton Pearson is a preacher that began the Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa Oklahoma in the 90’s.  The church reached a member ship of over 5,000 but that began to change when Pearson started preaching the Gospel of Inclusion. 

Quickly defined:

The Gospel of Inclusion is the exciting and liberating news that in the finished work of the cross, Jesus redeemed the entire world to God from the cosmic and organic sin imposed upon it by Adam, the original man. In effect, the world is already saved, they just don't know it; and, unfortunately, most Christians don't believe it.

Agree or disagree, that isn’t the point.  I am fascinated by this man’s story. 

The first time I heard Pearson speak was in an interview with Rob Bell.  He tells this story of going to a county fair, where he and a few others had come to witness.  After a while Pearson tells his group to start saying, “Do you know that if you die tonight you are going to heaven?”  Upon hearing this my eyes widened, my thoughts froze, and I just had to sit with it for a while. 

REWIND: A couple weeks before I had listened to a short Rob Bell sermon on the parable of the Prodigal Son.  In the sermon he talks about how the Father’s role is to tell his son’s who they are.  One son demands his inheritance, squanders it, and then decides to return home once he realizes the error of his ways.  Along the way he rehearses in his head what he will tell his Father, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son”.  Yet the Father sees him, embraces him, clothes him, has the fatten calf killed, and calls him son.  Then we know what happens with the other son.  He sees what the Father is doing and begins to proclaim THIS IS UNFAIR! (I’m paraphrasing).  To which the Father replies, “You are always with me and everything I have is yours.” 

Rob Bell goes on to say that one of the lessons layered in this story is the power of telling people who they are, regardless of how they have behaved or are behaving. 

So we are back with Pastor Pearson running around in the fairgrounds telling strangers they are going to heaven.  What is valuable about his actions is his attempt at speaking to the soul.  For there is literally nothing more powerful than knowing you are loved in spite of yourself.  And speaking it into the life of another human being will in fact create a difference.  Even if that difference is giving a stranger a good story.  We simply cannot forget radical experiences.

My Mother has always said, “love people where they are”. 

Insert meme of Jesus speaking to the crowd.  “But what if they are gay, What if they have a different religion, What if they are annoying and smell bad, What if they are a hipster, What if they are an ultraconservative bible thumper, What if they just generally suck?!?!?!”

Well I hate to say this but we all generally suck. 

Yet we are all much much more than that. 

However you label it.

Blessings.