The Promise and Pitfalls of Belonging
Who are your people? We understand ourselves and others by the groups we belong to and the ones we don’t. God calls us to venture out into the deep water, challenging our assumptions and understanding, to discern our true vocation, and to belong to the body of Christ.
The Glimpses of Grace podcast is a ministry of Grace Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Georgia. We are passionate about supporting the spiritual growth of souls, and we hope these sermons and conversations meet you where you are and enrich your soul as we all continue to make meaning in the world today.
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Transcript
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 61:7-8)
Every Southerner has some version of this experience: when you first meet someone and they ask you “Who are your people?” Or “Who’s your family?” There are many ways to answer this, and I always notice that I leave certain relatives out of my response. (Which makes me wonder if others in my family leave me out of their responses!) I focus on some because my identity with them helps craft a story that I want to tell (especially in making a first impression). Or sometimes, depending on the situation, I just go for it and lead off with the craziest relative I have. Better that they know up front, and they may actually find that interesting!
Like the saying goes, here in the South, we don’t lock our, how do we say, interesting relatives in the house. We put them out on the front porch and give them a sweet tea. Interesting stories with families are a common theme in talking with Brandon, Cynthia, Sister Genevieve, and others. I have yet to find that common eccentric aunt that we all share, but I know she exists.
We are not meant to be alone. Our identities are tied to our common life. Our common life gives structure and helps us make meaning. Of course, the urge to belong can see a certain gravity set in that pulls us into a tight orbit within certain groups that we identify with. We humans need to belong, and we will sometimes contort ourselves to fit into the expectations of groups, so that we can gain some benefit from belonging to them. Look at our current situation to see that tension in real time. What ‘groups’ do we identify with? How do we see ‘our group’ as being right, and therefore deserving of power? What lengths are we willing to go to to preserve that pursuit of power? How do we, then, identify others belonging to other ‘groups’ as suspects at best and outright threats at worst?
It is easy with competing group dynamics to see scarcity and to think that we have to fight over limited resources. Ever has this been the case with humanity, unfortunately.
Yes, we all want and need to belong, but we are all also called, and living into the reality of our call sometimes demands that we step outside (or are dragged outside) the comfortable confines of groups we may belong with and to. There is a complex dynamic around what it means ‘to be called.’ Connecting an image from Brandon’s sermon last week, we hear in today’s reading: Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. Something new is introduced.
A state of ecstasy makes us uncomfortable, because it means, ek-stasis, to step or be outside the stasis, the status quo. Eccentricity makes us uncomfortable, because it means, ek-centros, being outside the central orbit or area. Again, to return to that ever-fruitful image of Middle School gym class, no one wants to be the last chosen when the teams form for volleyball. No one wants to be the kid standing alongside the wall, outside the circle. I knew that space well!
We all have a vocation, and the word ‘vocation,’ vocare means, you guessed it, to call. We also see the word vox here, the word voice, and we understand that having a call means discerning what voices we listen to and how we use our own voice in responding. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
The question before us is this: how do we understand being called? How do we listen? Who do we listen to? How do we resist? How do we respond? As we say, our lives are our practice, and we keep returning that image because it is true.
We keep returning to the image of the church, the gathered Christian community, as being a mirror that allows us to see how we are called to grow. The gathered Christian community is a space that challenges us to use our spiritual muscles to stretch toward God’s dream for our lives. Our life is our practice, because we examine what choices we make, how we invest our time. This is the heart of what it means ‘to be a Christian.’
I keep hearing a refrain these days about being part of a Christian society or nation, and I can honestly say I am not sure what that means. I have an idea of what it means, but I know it would mean something much different to certain other people. If we Christians are looking for special status in this society, we could actually dare to follow Jesus and live how he lived, which looked like laying down our lives for our friends, loving our enemies, welcoming the stranger, caring for the sick and vulnerable, challenging oppressive systems, being a healing presence, and opening our hearts to the transforming flow of the Spirit.
We listen for God’s voice and discern how we are being called, how we are to live into our vocation. We need not wave a banner or have special t-shirts made–or enforce certain policies. As the hymn says they will know we are Christians by our love.
When it comes to the urge to belong, it is just a fact that so much of how Jesus calls us to live has always clashed with imperial values–no matter what particular nation-state we are referring to. Far too many who dare to call themselves “Christians” care only about using their belonging in a certain group to further their control and pursuit of power within the wider society–things Jesus himself blatantly rejected and was ultimately killed for. The pattern keeps repeating itself and we keep having to relearn the lesson.
Ever has it been the case that the human impulse for control and power has sought to co-opt the true power of Jesus Christ and warp it for our own agenda and shallow sense of self-centered power.
This word shallow is an important one for us to consider today. The world around us constantly pulls us into the shallows. It could be argued that the greatest commodity right now is our attention, and there are flashing lights and devices everywhere–as well as crafted messages that elicit a fear response–that are clamoring to capture our attention and make a profit off it. We are lured into identifying with groups who then so often pit themselves against each other.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus calls Peter, James, and John into a new way of life–and he does it by calling them into deep water. They have already fished a while, with no result, and Jesus takes the opportunity to teach a lesson. He tells them to take their nets back out and “put out into the deep water.”
Now, there’s an image worth meditating on as we consider what it means to belong and how we live out our calls! Put out into the deep water. Peter, James, and John give reasons why this won’t work, and they highlight the existing patterns they have already used to perform the task they needed to perform. Jesus invites them into a new way of being that involves the deep water.
Of course their lives are changed forever, and they catch so many fish–but more than that they catch a vision for a new way of belonging in this world. They hear the call of Christ on their lives and the text says they left everything and followed Jesus.
I’ll close with this: the other day I was on a walk and I looked up to see a tree filled with vultures. I snapped a photo of it, because it was fascinating and creepy. I asked Brandon later what a group of vultures was called. It turns out there are options: while they are flying, they are known as a kettle; while they are sitting, they are known as a committee; and while they are feeding, they are known as a wake. I think that is fascinating.
There are other fascinating names for groups of animals. A group of pugs, the dogs, is known as a grumble. A gathering of pandas is known as an embarrassment. A gathering of baboons is a congress (honestly). A gathering of hedgehogs is a prickle. Hippos are a bloat, while mice are a mischief. Elephants are a memory, while flamingos are a flamboyance. Hummingbirds are a bouquet, while zebras are a dazzle. Crickets are a concerto, and polar bears are an aurora.
Each belonging of animals, if you will, has a name that helps paint a visual image of that collective gathering. It gives meaning and flavor to the animals in the world.
What about humans? How we would describe a gathering of ourselves? We have options: a crowd is one, but this word comes from a root that means to press or shove, so that highlights a tendency we have. A family is a wonderful image, and the earliest roots there are for domestic servants in a household. Society is a bit abstract, and collective sounds like something on a sci-fi movie.
Community is a powerful image to describe a gathering of humans, and the image it paints is one of a gathering of souls with a sense of unity, of common concern and appreciation.
Jesus had another image that he left us with: a body, specifically in Christian imagery, his body. We are called to be a body of many parts and complementary functions. We are called to appreciate the gifts and insights of all those given life by the Spirit who breathes life into us all. We listen to one another and we listen for God’s voice–no easy task in an age of constant distraction. But that is our task nonetheless, and always will be.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
What will we say?