Read Psalm 133 & Romans 15:1-7 here.
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We belong together.
What do you
think about that statement? Some of you
are in full agreement that we belong together, but maybe some of you would like
to argue against it. In the United States, we value our individualism
highly. Being an introvert has almost
become a heroic trait. The growth of
online communication and social media has made it tremendously easy to keep our
social interaction at a safe distance, metered out in short statements. But we also have an inherent need for belongingness. (Yes, belongingness. That
really is a word. I even went to the
library to look it up in a good old-fashioned giant book.)
The psychologist Maslow lists belongingness in his hierarchy
of needs right above safety and security. We need to have relationships
that go deeper than simply connecting.
We need to be in authentic community with one another, and what better
place to have meaningful relationships than in the church?
There have
been times in my life when I would have argued hard against this idea that we belong together. As Steve Martin would say to his audiences
back in the 70’s, I would have said, “I don’t need you. I can do this act alone. I often do.”[1] But even as he was saying that, he was
depending on the team of people running the lights and sound for the stage he
was on, the people managing the venue at which he was performing, and living
off of the money people paid to get into that show, and enjoying the laughs of
the people in that audience that encouraged him to keep talking.
We need
authentic community, we belong together, and through our faith in Jesus Christ,
the Holy Spirit works among us to help us achieve that, drawing us together.
Jesus talks
about this in Matthew 18:20. He says, “Wherever two or more are gathered in my
name…” . . .there’s gonna be trouble.
Our
scriptures for today show us why we’ll find people on both sides of the
argument about whether we belong together.
Being together, belongingness, is beautiful, but it’s also difficult and
messy. It takes commitment, and it takes
time and energy, and it takes grace.
Belongingness is Beautiful
Both our
scripture readings have some lovely statements about the beauty of being
together.
Psalm 133 says, “How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity!”
when kindred live together in unity!”
How wonderful, how beautiful,
when brothers and sisters get along! (Message version)
when brothers and sisters get along! (Message version)
Romans 15
says, “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant
you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ
Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
These
beautiful statements are true. Unity is good
and pleasant. Harmony sounds much nicer
than dissonance. One of the images Psalm
133 uses to describe the beauty of unity is the dew on Mount Hermon. It’s the
highest mountain in that area, and is known for having heavy morning dew, a
surprising abundance of moisture in the midst of the relatively dry climate of
Palestine. That dew is fresh and new
every morning, just as God’s blessings are new every morning. Belongingness is beautiful. They are not
saying that it’s easy, though, and it’s the difficulties and challenges we go
through to achieve unity and harmony that make them all the more beautiful.
It is difficult - Psalm 133 says it’s like
precious oil…not just any oil, but the really good costly oil. True unity and harmony are not easy. They
cost us. The Bible is full of stories of
conflict and division that threatened the unity of God’s people, and conflict
and division have continued throughout the history of the church. Divisions in
church and between people are nothing new.
In fact, they begin all the way back in Genesis, in the first
family. Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain
and Abel. Cain killed Abel, the very
first murder. Why did Cain kill
him? Because he was Abel.
The book of
Romans is written to people who were in conflict, Jews and Gentiles who had
different ideas about what was required to be accepted into their Christian
fellowship. Before getting to the part
we read this morning, Paul has spent three chapters in Romans talking about how
to get along with one another because it is difficult.
Belongingness is messy – We see in Psalm 133 that there is oil and water all over
the place.
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
running down upon the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down over the collar of his robes.
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.
What a mess! There’s oil in Aaron’s hair and it’s
dripping all through Aaron’s beard, and it’s getting all over his clothes . . .
yes, I’m being funny. The psalm writer
is painting us a vivid picture of God’s abundant blessing that comes through
being united with one another. The oil
on Aaron’s head is the anointing oil that was used to ordain him as the first
priest over Israel.
Being around
people is messy like that. The more we
get to know one another, the more we get to know about the real person that
lives beneath the facades we put up for the public to see. We tend to give the impression, maybe
especially when we come to church on Sunday, that we’ve got it all together. Underneath the facades, we are real people
with real hurts and real fears that we’re often reluctant to share, and
reluctant to hear about.
That’s why…
Belongingness takes commitment
We are a
covenant people. A covenant is a
commitment. “The Old Testament tells the
story of God’s steadfast love from generation to generation. God made promises
of faithfulness to Adam and Eve, to Noah and his family, to Abraham and Sarah,
to Moses and Aaron, and to the house of David, calling the people to respond in
faith. … God made a new and everlasting covenant with us through Jesus Christ.[2]
We’re going
to be talking in our membership class this afternoon about the commitments that
we make in response to God’s covenant with us.
We respond by accepting God’s love and grace in Jesus Christ, we make
commitments to follow him when we are baptized, and we commit to his church and
to one another when we join the church.
That commitment deepens as we commit to participate in various ways, and
to serve one another, something we’ll be talking more about in the coming
weeks. The more fully we commit, the
more our belongingness grows.
Besides
commitment…
Belongingness takes time and energy – Together we are on a journey that lasts through
all the seasons of our lives. In many
ways it is like a marriage. Our
marriages and friendships don’t do very well if we don’t give them much time or
effort. But with time and effort, we can
thrive together.
The psalm we read this morning, Psalm 133, is
called a “song of ascent.” It’s one of
15 psalms with this heading. Psalms 120 through 134 are all songs of ascent.
Jerusalem sits on top of a mountain, and people came from all over Palestine to
Jerusalem for the Jewish festivals, and sang these songs as they walked
together along the road that went up into Jerusalem. They are songs for the journey. Presbyterian pastor Eugene Peterson writes
about these songs of ascent in his book, A
Long Obedience in the Same Direction.
In his discussion of Psalm 133, he says,
“Living
together in a way that evokes the glad song of Psalm 133 is one of the great
and arduous tasks before Christ's people. Nothing requires more attention and
energy. It is easier to do almost anything else.”[3]
Developing relationships with one another
that go beyond the surface and that survive and thrive despite our differences
require spending the time and energy to get to know one another more
deeply. That’s why we’re asking everyone
to get connected to a small group during Lent, and why we’re developing
additional small group opportunities for the time after Lent.
Belongness takes commitment, and time, and
energy, and maybe most of all…
Belongingness takes grace –
Paul says in
our reading from Romans 15, in verse 1:
“We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and
not to please ourselves.”
Paul’s doing a little bit of
pandering there. Whether or not we
really are “strong” we probably all would think of ourselves as the
strong. Regardless of how you see
yourself, Paul is telling us to have grace for one another. He restates this in another way in verse 15:
“Welcome one
another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you.”
Jesus welcomes us all regardless
of our strengths and weaknesses to be a part of the fellowship of his
followers, to be a part of the community of saints, to be committed to following
him and serving him together with the same grace that Jesus has for each one of
us.
Pastor Timothy Jones tells a
story about belonging and grace. He
says, “Our middle daughter had been previously adopted by another family. I am
sure this couple had the best of intentions, but they never quite integrated
the adopted child into their family of biological children. After a couple of
rough years, they dissolved the adoption, and we ended up welcoming an
eight-year-old girl into our home.
For one reason or another,
whenever our daughter’s previous family vacationed at Disney World, they took
their biological children with them, but they left their adopted daughter with
a family friend. Usually — at least in the child’s mind — this happened because
she did something wrong ...
And so, by the time we adopted
our daughter, she had seen many pictures of Disney World and she had heard
about the rides and the characters and the parades. But when it came to passing
through the gates of the Magic Kingdom, she had always been the one left on the
outside. Once I found out about this history, I made plans to take [our family]
to Disney World ...
… I didn’t expect …
that the prospect of visiting this dreamworld would produce a stream of
downright devilish behavior in our newest daughter. In the month leading up to
our trip to the Magic Kingdom, she stole food when a simple request would have
gained her a snack. She lied when it would have been easier to tell the truth.
She whispered insults that were carefully crafted to hurt her older sister …
and, as the days on the calendar moved closer to the trip, her mutinies
multiplied.
A couple of days before our
family headed to Florida, I pulled our daughter into my lap to talk through her
latest escapade. “I know what you’re going to do,” she stated flatly. “You’re
not going to take me to Disney World, are you?” … her downward spiral suddenly
started to make some sense. She knew she couldn’t earn her way into the Magic
Kingdom — she had tried and failed that test several times before — so she was
living in a way that placed her as far as possible from the most magical place
on earth.
In retrospect, I’m embarrassed to
admit that, in that moment, I was tempted to turn her fear to my own advantage.
The easiest response would have been, “If you don’t start behaving better,
you’re right, we won’t take you” — but, by God’s grace, I didn’t. Instead, I
asked her, “Is this trip something we’re doing as a family?”
She nodded, brown eyes wide and
tear-rimmed.
“Are you part of this family?”
She nodded again.
“Then you’re going with us. Sure,
there may be some consequences to help you remember what’s right and what’s
wrong — but you’re part of our family, and we’re not leaving you behind.”
I’d like to say that her
behaviors grew better after that moment. They didn’t. Her choices pretty much
spiraled out of control at every hotel and rest stop all the way to Lake Buena
Vista. Still, we headed to Disney World on the day we had promised, and it was
a typical Disney day. Overpriced tickets, overpriced meals, and lots of lines,
mingled with just enough manufactured magic to consider maybe going again
someday.
In our hotel room that evening, a
very different child emerged. She was exhausted, pensive, and a little weepy at
times, but her month-long facade of rebellion had faded. When bedtime rolled
around, I prayed with her, held her, and asked, “So how was your first day at
Disney World?”
She closed her eyes and snuggled
down into her stuffed unicorn. After a few moments, she opened her eyes ever so
slightly. “Daddy,” she said, “I finally got to go to Disney World. But it
wasn’t because I was good; it’s because I’m yours.”
It wasn’t because I was good;
it’s because I’m yours.
That’s the message of outrageous
grace.[4]
We are all God’s family. We are his.
God has called us together to be his church – committed to serving him
and to encouraging one another.
We belong together . . .
…not because we’re Presbyterian,
not because we’re different or
better,
. . .not because we’re good,
but because we’re his.
By grace, through faith in Jesus
Christ,
Thanks be to God, we belong
together.
[1]
Steve Martin, Wild and Crazy Guy
(1978)
[2] W -1.0103:
God’s Covenant, PC(USA) Book of Order
[3] Eugene H.
Peterson. A Long Obedience in the Same
Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Kindle Locations 1533-1534).
Kindle Edition.
[4] Timothy Paul Jones in PROOF: Finding Freedom through the
Intoxicating Joy of Irresistible Grace
By
Daniel Montgomery and Timothy Paul Jones (Zondervan, 2014). This quote was
found at http://storiesforpreaching.com/category/sermonillustrations/belonging/
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