The Metropolitan Congregation

- serving and celebrating the LGBT communities of Manchester and the North West

Sermon - 20th May 2018

Pentecost - What does God's love mean to you?

Various, including Acts 2:1-16

We invited members of our congregation to talk to camera, answering the questions, "What does God's love mean to you?"

The 16 short videos and transcript of each is reproduced below.

 

Video 1 – Unconditional love

Elizabeth

Hello, my name is Elizabeth. To me, God’s love means unconditional, special, intimate, and God’s love is not something that you can weigh, because it has no weight. It is just unconditional and overwhelming – in a good way! That’s it really!

 

Margaret

OK, to me, God’s unconditional love to me means a lot to me, because God loves me for who I am. It does not matter how much I have. It doesn’t matter who I am. It doesn’t matter… His unconditional love is so, so special to me.

 

Video 2 – Acceptance and forgiveness

Zenlita

So, what does God’s love mean to me? It means I will never, never ever be alone. I will never be on my own. It’s unconditional. He takes me as I am and doesn’t judge me. He loves me for who I am and what I am, and it doesn’t matter what other people think. It’s very important that if I have God’s love in my life, it allows me to love others the same.

 

Magadaline

OK, when I think about God’s love, what comes to mind is in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It makes me feel and appreciate God’s love for I am a sinner, and He died for me. He has given me hope. He has given me a new beginning and a new life, so whatever it is I have been going through, He will never leave me. I see a future. I am forgiven. I am a child of God. I am loved unconditionally. So when I think about His love, I can’t think about anything else. What the destruction can be, whether it’s suffering, whether it’s pain, but I know He is there, and He is a loving God.

 

Video 3 – God loves Creation

Fazilet

Hello, my name is Fazilet and God’s love for me is to love his humans, and His creatures and His nature.

 

Hina

Hello. God’s love means to me is to love His creation, to love His everything what He created, and that means ME!

 

Jenny-Anne

The love of God means to me that God loves me just as I am, and not the way other people want me to be. I learnt that the love of God encourages me to be myself and to get on with the things I need to do in the world to try and help other people, to give them the confidence that God and this church gave to me.

 

Video 4 – God’s Diverse Creation

Charlotte

God’s love is the unconditional love He has shown to me, a love not based on my sexuality, or my religious belief or my political beliefs. It is an indiscriminate love, based on the human that I am, and I believe in God’s word that God’s love enables us itself, and that’s the kind of love that everyone of us should show to one another. God did not say that we should love a gay or straight neighbour, or a Muslim neighbour: He said we should love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

 

Jean-Pierre

For me, God’s love means a lot, like forgiveness, happiness, sharing everything with others, and being happy, dancing and just being yourself.

God’s love means to me freedom: freedom to love, freedom to live, freedom to do what we want in peace, and also forgiveness.

 

Video 5 – God’s Just Creation

Alain [video in French]

Good evening. I am Alain…

What is the love of God?

For me, it’s a about applying the Ten Commandments.

That’s fundamental.

And having love for others.

 

Cat

I think that God’s love for me is all about justice and truth and mercy. And it was interesting that we interviewed Doreen Lawrence recently for “Songs of Praise”, Stephen Lawrence’s mum, who fought for so long for justice for her son, and it’s the 25th anniversary of Stephen’s death. He was killed in a racist attack in London, and she talked about how God had really helped her during that fight, and how she had prayed for protection and guidance, and God had given her it. I thought that was really beautiful.

 

Video 6 – Loving Others

Bouba  [video in French]

The love of God is the smile of a love one. The love of God is the people of the church, the love of good people.

We see them help others and the love of God is without limits.

I come here to church because I love God and because God also allows me to arrive and go back in good health for that I thank you very much. Thank you.

 

Guy

The question is: what does God’s love mean to me? The love of God means to me loving, saving, worshipping and following His commands, put Him first in my life. That’s the love of God to me.

 

Jean-Marc

Hey. They call me Jean-Marc Inches. For me, the love of God means a lot. It’s not selfish. It does not envy. It always seeks the happiness of others. Thanks.

 

Video 7 – God’s Love Reflected

Philip

For me, the love God is about the love I see in other people, and the love that I feel for other people. Because of all the time I’ve been involved with this and other churches, I have found God in others. I don’t think God is “out there”: I think God is within all of us, and when I see God, I see it in my friends, in my acquaintances, in the people I meet, in what they say to me, and in what I say to them. That for me, I where I see the love of God.

 

Jimmy

Yes, to me Jimmy, I understand God is here and is unconditional and that gives me a picture that I should look… love other people as I love myself. And should wish for other people what I would wish for myself to have. And so, in that way, I paint a clear picture for how God loves me, and that’s the way I should love other people as well.

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