Lynette Jennifer Douglass abides for eternal life in the love of the risen Christ. Lynette herself preaches this Gospel.
Across my scant fifty-six years of life, from early childhood through a sacred-music career and onward into ordained life, I have said my prayers and served God’s people in seventeen congregations, some Lutheran, some Episcopal, and I have not known a member of any of these communities who has pressed this point as enthusiastically as Lynette: She is loved, as all of us are loved; she belongs, as all of us belong; we all abide for eternal life in the love of the risen Christ.
Lynette’s evangelism about the love of Jesus Christ is particularly poignant and powerful because Lynette has faced a lifetime of rejection and marginalization due to her physical differences. She survived the emotional abuse of religious people whose ableist religious beliefs tormented Lynette with guilt and despair: surely if she loved God enough, or prayed to God hard enough, God would heal her palsy in a wondrous sign of grace and power.
Of course this is an obscene theological idea, foreign to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a shameful twisting of our faith into a weapon to torment a member of Christ’s body, a branch on Christ’s vine, a lamb of his own flock, a sinner of his own redeeming. This noxious notion turns God into a monster who demands that we believe something, or else God will refuse us physical health or physical abilities. I have felt the anger rise in me as I listened to Lynette’s stories of rejection and judgment.
And I have marveled at her brave choice to keep coming back to Christian congregational life until she found a place where she would be embraced fully as a member of the Body of Christ, no improvements needed, no notes. She found that place here, at this ordinary street corner.
Now, as a former therapist, and as a priest who values personal transformation highly among the many gifts we receive from God through Christ, I can’t resist reiterating one thing that Lynette preached somewhat less often. Christian life changes us, and challenges us. Peter and Paul both offer personal stories of radical improvement: by following Jesus, they were significantly changed, and often this change was painful.
But Lynette’s teaching holds; it stands up; it is valid: God loves you no matter what, and this community accepts and embraces you just as you are. You need not grow or change to be accepted and embraced here. We affirm your dignity as one who was made in the image of God, and we affirm that God is talking about you, along with countless others, when on the sixth day of creation God looks at all the life that is flourishing on this green and good earth, and God proclaims that all living creatures — again, that includes you! — all creatures are not just good but “very good.”
Lynette chose as our first reading today the hymn of praise sung by the prophet Jonah. At a glance, Jonah’s song is beautiful but standard fare: God saved him from his own self-destruction, and Jonah is gushing with gratitude. But be sure you notice that Jonah sings this song not from the safety of the dry and warm beach, but from the innards of the great fish. “You brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God,” Jonah sings, except God did not yet do that! How does this make sense?
Lynette could tell you how. From within the struggle of her life, from inside her many hardships and challenges, with her voice clouded by her physical struggle, Lynette sang (often she literally sang!) about her blessed rest in God’s everlasting arms. She did not wait for liberation from her physical disability. She did not proclaim the Good News with an asterisk, saying that apart from her challenges she is confident of God’s grace and mercy. No, God was — God is — fully present and powerful upon Lynette’s kind and enthusiastic heart. No changes needed. No notes.
And then, finally, at the very end of her life, Lynette shared with me, her pastor, some insights and ideas about her journey of personal growth and transformation, insights and ideas that of course I am not at liberty to share. As dogged as Lynette was to proclaim God’s unconditional love, she understood, as we all do, that life as a branch on Christ the True Vine will change us, goad us, prod us, push us, prune us, so that we bear more fruit.
After all, a vine is a living thing, a growing thing. Jesus says to us, “I am the true Vine,” and right away we can perceive that our eternal abiding in his love will mean that we branches of his will grow and change. So Lynette joins you and me today in the proclamation of this bracing truth: eternal life with Christ will have a powerful transforming effect on us all.
Eternal life with Christ will turn our hearts outward toward our neighbors in need. Eternal life with Christ will train our ears to hear the cry of the oppressed. Eternal life with Christ will demand from all of us a great many acts of self-giving love, because without them, we can hardly begin to sustain this community of faith.
But again, I say to you: Lynette is right to begin the proclamation of the Gospel with this Good News: God loves you no matter what, and this community accepts and embraces you just as you are. You need not grow or change to be accepted and embraced here. We affirm your dignity as one who was made in the image of God, and we affirm that God is talking about you, along with countless others, when on the sixth day of creation God looks at all the life that is flourishing on this green and good earth, and God proclaims that all living creatures — again, that includes you! — all creatures are not just good but “very good.”
And finally Lynette encourages us to sing one more song, after we’re done joining Jonah in his song of praise from the dark belly of the great fish. After a lifetime of learning from wicked people that something is fundamentally wrong with her, that she doesn’t measure up, that she is less valid or less loved because she struggled to speak clearly, Lynette belts out alongside us this great chorus written by Paul our patron:
“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Preached at the Requiem Mass for Lynette Douglass, May 23, 2026, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Seattle, Washington.
Jonah 2:1-10
Psalm 27:10-18
Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39
John 15:1-17