Belonging

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just stop and you do this? For me, it was my first church council meeting. I, it was my, I was in my mid-20s. It was the first time, the first church I’d really gotten involved in, done some leadership, taught some classes.

And then of course, I was an accountant. So guess what position they asked me to do when the treasurer retired? I was the treasurer, so now I was on the church council. And I’m in this meeting, and all of a sudden, somebody says, brings up this new family that’s in the church.

And they were a fun family. They had two or three kids, and they started mocking them. They said, they’re a little too conservative for us.

And so I went, and they said, they take the Bible literally. What are we going to do? They want to start leading classes. And again, I went, am I in the right place? I, it was an eye-opener, which there are many eye-openers you have along the way.

But it was one of the first times in the middle of church, I was thinking, do I really belong here? Do I fit in? You know, the song’s playing in my head. One of these things does not look like the other. And I’m thinking, they don’t even have any clue who I am.

They just know I can do accounting. As we continue through our first Corinthians and talking about us being the body of Christ, we’re talking about belonging. It just happened to fall on the Sunday that I want to talk to people about joining the church and the possibility of that.

And we’re going to explore that a little bit as we go. But there are some times that different people feel like they don’t belong, that they are different. And how do you reconcile that as a member of the body of Christ? We stand as you are able.

We’re going to pick up in 1 Corinthians 12, 14 and go through 20. For if the body does not consist of one member but of many, if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would make it less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, there would be a sense of hearing. If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

You may be seated. Fill in the blank. Because I do not belong.

Because I’m too young, I do not belong. Because I’m too old, I do not belong. Because of health issues, I do not belong.

Because I’m broken, I’m hurt, I’m not good enough. I’m lost, because I don’t have spiritual gifts. I mean, if you look at the Old Testament, all the way through, a lot of them had excuses when God called them.

Moses, Moses was really good at excuses, and he had some great excuses. I mean, he killed some people, he’d run, he was scared, he had a speech impediment. I mean, he had some good excuses, but God just kept telling him, hey, I got you, I’m here, I’m going to strengthen you, I will give you the words.

You can even use your brother Aaron and work through him, and you can be a partnership and a team, so we don’t have an excuse. As we get into talking about how Paul is comparing our bodies to the body of Christ, or the church, and that we have different parts, because I am a foot, you know, nobody gets to see the feet. I mean, maybe we should have a show your feet Sunday, so everybody, no.

That did not take long. That’s what happens whenever we wash the feet, people go, really, are we really doing a wash the foot, washing the feet Sunday again? But the foot’s important nonetheless. And in fact, Paul gets into things where he says, even the parts that we hide end up being some of the most important parts of the body.

I mean, have you ever heard what happens to someone if they lose a big toe, has anybody lost a toe? And you have to totally relearn how to walk with just one toe missing. So the church is that we have many parts and one body, that we are one church. I’m drawing it around one church.

Each of you has gifts from God that are important, that are needed, that are necessary for the one church. Some people think because I can’t do this, I’m not a part of the church, or because I don’t have this gift, but you still might. And some of you, God is calling to do huge, amazing things, and we’re still saying, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the church, to the body.

But God is saying, you do. There is an importance in each one of us. And when we’re missing any of us and trying to function as the church, we’re a bit of a dysfunctional entity.

And we need other parts to come in, new people to come in to complete the body. We need all of this to be who God has called us to be. As a church, Eric Rodewald wrote an article in the Washington Institute, and he started it off by saying, who knew spitting in a plastic tube would become such a popular pastime? Has anybody ever spit in a plastic tube? Mine was for COVID reasons, but this, he said, Ancestry.com has more than 23 million members, and it’s in its DNA network, and 23andMe boasts more than 12 million customers worldwide.

We have some family members who have done this, so sometimes the boys are going, we gotta do this, we gotta figure it out. For Holly and I, who are adopted, we think, well, that would be pretty interesting to figure all that out. It’s never been easier to track down that great-great-grandmother from Norway.

We’re also watching professional historians do it on television. We tune in to shows like The Antique Roadshow. How fun is that sometimes? Who Do You Think You Are? Finding Your Roots.

Ancestry sells. Genealogy is having a pop culture moment. But why? Why now? What are we searching for? Genealogist Bernice Bennett says there may be some people who are looking to find that they’re connected to Pocahontas.

Trying to find somebody famous. Does anybody have a famous ancestor? Holly does. Tell them who your famous ancestor is.

So she flies kites on the weekends. We’re looking for something. She said they’re looking for someone famous, but others are saying there’s something missing.

Who am I? How can I find that information? And how can make me feel whole? In other words, we’re searching for belonging. We want to recognize ourselves. Our own sense of being and purpose can be reaffirmed when we see ourselves in the generations that have come before us.

We are hardwired for such connection, but many of us feel adrift. Genealogy research and programs tap into an unmet need. When we’re talking about our purpose, why we’re here on earth, I mean, so many people look to commercials and movies and social media and TV shows.

It makes it so much harder to find our purpose there when we’re in that. But our purpose comes from… Anybody know? On three. One, two, three.

All right. I got the whole church to say God. Look at that.

Our purpose comes from God. It doesn’t come from other people. It doesn’t come from people outside the body of Christ.

And then the part of the body of Christ is to help us each live into our purpose. How is my part fulfilling in making the body whole? Not just looking at to the past, but looking to who I am and how I can be a part of the body, how I fit in and how I belong and how that makes sense. Now, most of the time when I was in seminary, I’d hear something from John Wesley, and I’d go, oh, I guess that’s why I’m here.

But I heard this quote from John Calvin that just stuck with me. And Calvin in his Institutes says this, when is a church not a church? How do we recognize the true church of Christ? And how do we discern the false? Calvin’s answer in the Institutes was in his day and remains an important question. And it’s essentially the ministry of the word and the sacraments of baptism in the Lord’s supper are the hallmarks of the true church.

Where these are lacking, surely the death of the church follows. Okay, if you look at that, where the word of God is spoken, are we sticking to the word of God? Are we trusting in the Bible? I mean, a lot of times people will come to church and never pick up their Bible, never read it, never grow aside from what they hear from other people. And then they open the Bible and look at it and they think, well, I know better than this.

So they have a sense of that doesn’t fit what they believe. But Calvin said there’s a true church that we all belong to, that is the body of Christ. A true church where the word is spoken, where the sacraments are distributed, where we know Jesus Christ.

As in the body of Christ are not the people who sign into membership, but the body of Christ are those who believe in Jesus. Fully, completely committed, giving it up for Jesus. And then we find our purpose as well.

John Ander says, young adults have become a scapegoat of sorts for a myriad of societal problems and changes. We seem to have lost, what seems to be lost in this conversation with millennials is who they’re talking about. And now there are some Gen Z’s.

There’s an effect that it’s having on many of the younger adults with their mental health and self-confidence. A new survey consisting of 2000 millennials has revealed some troubling statistics regarding how young adults, they see themselves. It says an outstanding 80% believe they are not good enough in virtually all areas of their life.

80%. And then 75% of the respondents admit they constantly feel overwhelmed by pressure to succeed in their careers, find meaningful romantic relationship, meet others’ expectations and maintain a presence on social media. In all, 80% of respondents even say these worries have negatively impacted their sleep and admit that their overall mental health has suffered.

So where’s all this pressure coming from? 25% say it comes from their parents. 20% say it’s social media. 17% of their peers and friends.

And a lot of pressure, they say, ends up coming from within. I’m not good enough. What is our source? And that’s what leads to a sense of feeling like, I mean, some of us may worry about where do I belong in the church, but some people worry about where do I belong in the world? And I feel like I say it every week, but the world needs Jesus.

Where do I belong in the world? We need to belong to Jesus. We need to commit to God. We need to trust in God.

We need to know that our purpose in the church and in the world comes directly from God who loves us and gives us the gifts and the strength and the guidance and the wisdom that we need to make a difference in the world for the kingdom of God, to make a difference for good, to change the world for good. To know that with that, we don’t have to say, because I’m not this person, I do not belong. It’s simply as long as we believe and trust in Jesus, we belong.

And there’s places in the body of Christ for people who haven’t even come to faith yet. It’s just not always necessarily in leadership. In so many churches I served in, they would say, oh, it’s a new person, let’s get them on a committee.

And I’d be like, oh man, how do we know they’re ready for a committee? I mean, if we put them on a committee, what if they don’t have time to be in a Bible study? If we put them on church council, what if they don’t want to be in a Sunday school class? How do we work it like that? Paul tells us, if all were a single member, where would the body be? We have unity in our diversity because we have unity in Jesus Christ. Each one of us is unique. Some of us are a little more unique than others.

But in that diversity of how God made you different than everyone else, we pour that together with the power of the Holy Spirit and we become the church. It’s an amazing thing how that works. Tony Smith tells the story of his four-year-old daughter who had just really made a bad decision and he scolded her and she got in trouble and she felt bad.

And he went into his office in the house and he was working in there. And then she knocked on, there was a tiny little knock on the door. And he said, come in.

And there she stepped in the door and she had her head down and kind of looked up and said, dad, this is how it is. Sometimes I’m good. Sometimes I’m bad.

There’s a little of both in me. That’s the way it is. And she turned and she walked out the door like she had just dropped the mic and told me everything I needed to know.

And he said, as I started thinking about it, I think that’s a little bit about all of us. There’s good in us. There’s bad in us.

And he said, the Bible even tells us that we, in our own goodness, are not good enough to meet God’s standard of holiness. So thank God he provided a savior because he did that. You know, when God calls us and we say we’re not good enough, probably true.

I mean, it is true. It’s the way it is. We got some good in us.

We got some bad in us. But thank God when we have Jesus in us to fill the gap, to provide the difference, to connect us to the body of Christ, to give us purpose and hope and joy and life. So everyone in their uniqueness and their diversity has a oneness in Christ.

So we can be the church and we can be Christ alive in the world today, serving and living and giving and hoping and sharing and making the world a better place. And not just doing nice things, but doing kingdom things because the Holy Spirit is working through us and strengthening us and empowering us through the love of Jesus Christ. But as Calvin said, there is a true church.

And this sounds silly to some of you because you’ve been going to church your whole life. But I realized this week, I don’t want to miss out on this. I hear so many people’s disparage doing this because some people abuse it.

Some people don’t do something with it. But the truth is to belong. All we got to do is receive Jesus, to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead and we will be saved.

And then we’re a part of the body. And then in our sanctification process, we’re all somewhere on that road of growth and trusting in God more and more. And when we do that, we walk that path together.

And a lot of you have said this. Most of you have been through confirmation and other things because you’ve been in church your whole life. But I got to tell you the truth.

In confirmation, when I said all these words of commitment, I don’t know if it really, I understood exactly what they were. This sounds silly, but I’m going to invite you to say a prayer. Most of you have already received Jesus into your hearts, but I just want you to do this to deepen your faith.

And I try to do it each and every day. I mean, if you know someone like who in modern times has probably brought more people to Jesus than anybody else by the millions. Billy Graham.

Billy Graham was on a radio show and they kept drilling him. They tried to trap him in his words. And they kept asking him, when did you first receive Jesus? And he said, this morning.

And then they talk a little while longer and they go, okay, wait, wait. When did you receive Jesus? And he said, I did earlier today. And they kept asking him, they go, wait a minute.

You’ve been doing this your whole life. Are you saying you weren’t a Christian until now? And he said, no, I wake up every day and I renew my faith in Jesus Christ. I accept Christ deeper into my heart every day.

So I think if Billy Graham can do that, maybe we can too. If you would like to, and God knows you do what’s on your heart and what God is leading to, you too, then just repeat after me. Just one more thing we can do to connect as the body of Christ.

Let’s pray. Dear Lord, come into my heart. Forgive me for falling short of your glory.

Forgive me for being a sinner. I receive Jesus Christ today. I commit to growing in Christ.

I am your servant. I am your disciple. In you, I find purpose.

I find my place. I trust in you for my strength. And my wisdom.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now and forever. Thank you for eternal life.

And thank you that that begins today. Thank you for a church family I can walk with. And that in my uniqueness.

You can use me. And you can do kingdom things through me. Thank you for my brothers and sisters.

Thank you for the unity we have in Jesus. And for the body of Christ. Amen.