It was great to be back at Redeemer last Sunday. Readings were Acts 11, John 13:31-35, and a quote from Peter Block on belonging.
As always, I have to begin by saying how glad I am to be back with you. Many of you don’t know me yet, but I know you, because I know this community. I know this to be a place of commitment and compassion.
The Gospel and the reading from Acts were not chosen for you, believe it or not. They were appointed in the lectionary. But what gifts they bring us! And they speak to my concerns these days, to the work I’m doing. And they speak, I hope, to you.
For the past year and a half, I’ve been part of a school for leadership sponsored by a group called the Mastery Foundation. They are not connected to any particular faith tradition, but they have been shaped by many active ministers of many faiths. They are passionate about fostering workability and resilience in communities. They offer courses on community building, peace and reconciliation, and ministry development. They work in Israel, in Ireland, and in the U.S. They are giving me the resources to start a new women’s community, to step out and do something that makes a difference in people’s lives. I’m able to be here today because I left my parish position to take a leap of faith. I’m looking to build community. This brings me continually back to thinking about what community is and how to do it.
Between the story in Acts and the Gospel, we hear some important things about community. The story in Acts describes how the early group of Jesus’ disciples spread beyond the bounds of Judaism. Peter recounts a vision in which he learns not to disdain the Gentiles and their ways. As Luke tells the story, it’s pretty easy and clear. Peter tells the Judean community what happened, and they say, “Oh, OK, that’s great. Even those scummy Gentiles get a second chance at life.”
It’s not likely that things were that smooth. Luke’s version leaves out a long process of argument and downright name-calling that didn’t end for centuries. But the story remains pointed and important. It reminds us that we will continually be called to reach beyond what makes sense to us. The Gospel keeps growing, calling to wider circles of people, and when it does it’s likely that “those people” will appear to us as a problem rather than the answer to our prayers.
But say we expand the circle. Say we even realize, one day, that others have opened the circle to us. At some point in our lives, we all find ourselves in the position of the Gentiles who were waiting to be included. Women and people of color know this position. Queer folk know this position. The revolutionary, insulting moment of awareness for privileged people is exactly that moment when we find that we are outside some circle, needing others’ permission to enter. When men first encountered women’s spaces where they were not invited, it was a shock. When heterosexuals realize that there’s a whole world they didn’t know about and weren’t invited into, it can be a shock. We all have some place where we find ourselves outside waiting.
When we’re in together, it can be exhilarating. Finally - a place where I’m welcome! A place where I fit, with all my rough edges and quirky parts! A place where I’m loved and accepted as I am!
But that’s just the beginning of belonging. We long for it. We long for that place of recognition. But belonging is a community capacity, as Block says. We cannot experience it without the other parts of belonging. When we truly belong to something or someone, they belong to us. That means we are responsible for the building up and maintaining of that community. Belonging without ownership and accountability is just warm feeling. It isn’t yet community, and it isn’t yet what Jesus promises. There’s so much more waiting for us.
In John’s account, Jesus tells the disciples to love one another. What we miss in today’s reading is that he tells them this just after Judas has left them on the night of the Last Supper. Judas has left to betray Jesus, after Jesus has washed his feet and eaten with him. And Jesus knows Judas is doing this.
Why does this matter to us?
Luke’s happy story about welcome really hides just how challenging this Gospel work can be. The hard part isn’t just opening the door to those we think of as outside. It isn’t just walking in when we’ve been told we don’t belong.
The hard work begins when we’re in, and we look around and say, “What am I doing with these losers?”
What am I doing with that traitor?
What am I doing with that sinner?
What am I doing with that not-so-educated, or too educated, person?
What am I doing here with Republicans, or Democrats?
What am I doing here with people who don’t share my theology?
Those are exactly the questions we need to ask.
What are we doing here?
What am I doing with the person who walks in for the first time?
What am I doing with the people who disagree about the direction of the church, or the country, or the world?
What am I doing with the people who aren’t here, who need what I have?
What am I doing with the resources entrusted to me by previous generations?
What are we doing here?
Social justice work and community service and cutting-edge worship are inseparable from the internal work of community building. We need always to reach out beyond our current borders, and we need also to strengthen and repair the internal fabric of community.
In my new community, with only two members, we spend a huge amount of time working on internal relations. We’re not doing it because we have nothing else to do, or because we have a lot of conflict. We’re doing it because we are keenly aware that our effectiveness in the world is linked to our internal communication and commitment. We do it so we can be ready to receive the next members with open arms.
Each day we deepen our commitment to one another and to the ministry we see awaiting us. We leave open room for disagreement, because disagreement is one form of commitment. But we return to the work of belonging, for the sake of the world.
In a world in which it’s easier and easier for people to become isolated, the work of belonging is more important than ever. And it is work. It is holy work, the work of stewardship and reconciliation and outreach. It brings great gifts, and also great demands. But the demands turn out to be gifts as well, when we are called to use all of our capacities in the service of the world.
By this everyone will know that we are disciples, if we have love for one another.
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