Bible Say What?: Seeing Yourself in the Text | Makenzie Gomez

In the final sermon of this series, Bible Say What, Pastor Mak explores the journey to finding oneself in the very text that may have once been used against us. How can someone begin to find themselves in the text if they haven't even felt permission to find themselves in the church? So many of us here have come from a background of harmful theology, myself included. Many of us have been told or taught that our very existence is shameful and unwelcome in Church. If we’ve been told we shouldn’t even be seen in a church, how on earth are we supposed get to a place of seeing ourselves in the text. If the messaging that’s been ingrained in us leaves people like us out, or worse- characterizes people like us as the villains, how are we to feel anything other than distant and resistant to opening the Bible, let alone reading it with the intention of seeing ourselves in it. It can feel incredibly daunting. It feels incredibly daunting to me. One could say this sermon topic is the “scare the you-know-what out of me” assignment. But like the intention behind my acting class, sometimes we need a push to get out of our own heads, move beyond the box the world has put us in, and address the fear that's been holding us back.