SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to be back.
SPEAKER_00: I was uh speaking in the church up in New Hampshire last weekend.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they uh they hired a new preacher earlier this summer and uh hit two days into moving to New Hampshire, he slipped in his driveway and broke his femur.
SPEAKER_00: So so Mike fixed my girlfriend called me and said, Hey Patty, would you would you be willing to come up here one of the Sundays?
SPEAKER_00: Because all of a sudden, this brother that was gonna preach throughout the whole summer as a as their new minister is out of commission for eight weeks, no weight on that foot.
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I don't know how you how you do that at all.
SPEAKER_00: But uh anyway, so I had a chance to go up there and speak.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he is he is recovering, he's doing well.
SPEAKER_00: Uh their their hope is that uh not this Sunday, but next Sunday, he'll be able to speak from a wheelchair.
SPEAKER_00: So, but anyway, so we're we're doing a series called Better Together all summer.
SPEAKER_00: That's been our focus as a church.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you see some of these t-shirts that people are wearing.
SPEAKER_00: We had t-shirts made, we had fun events that small groups organized, we have more of those to come.
SPEAKER_00: But we really wanted to focus on this idea that is from the Bible that we are actually better when we are together.
SPEAKER_00: So today's sermon is one body, many parts.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'll explain that in a little bit, but I want to explain something really important that kind of got lost over the last 2,000 years, is that the church is people, not a building.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a time in your schedule when you show up and attend church.
SPEAKER_00: Church is something we are, not something that we attend to.
SPEAKER_00: It is people, and when it comes to church, it is people coming together because they're better together.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
SPEAKER_00: By the way.
SPEAKER_00: But coming together has its challenges.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's not it's not automatic.
SPEAKER_00: We're none of us are used to living in close relationships with other people outside of our physical family for the most part.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe you had a roommate in college, and uh and that was the level of closeness.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, and then we we have a romantic partner, and then we're developing closeness, and that's hard in itself.
SPEAKER_00: If if if you you've experienced that.
SPEAKER_00: How about a larger group of people like us coming together and try to try to live out something that's a little more like family and a little less like just attending some meeting?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm actually gonna get going with this sermon, so we're gonna have time after the service.
SPEAKER_00: We we we have the building is open for the next 45 minutes or so, sometimes an hour, for people to just hang out and experience that closeness, that community.
SPEAKER_00: We call it fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: But the idea is we you you don't just listen to me, you get to listen to each other and talk to each other and and encourage each other.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna read this longer part in 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: All of my scripture readings are from letters of Paul today, as he addresses Christians.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not a Christian, uh, you know, these letters are not addressed to you, but you I'm sure you'll learn something about what God designed is for humans that live in a community.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the one that we start with is in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a paper Bible, you can flip there.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a you know a nice little foam Bible, you can eat it, or you can just follow along the screen as I read this chap this part in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12 through 27.
SPEAKER_00: This is written to Christians.
SPEAKER_00: The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts.
SPEAKER_00: And though all its parts are many, they form one body.
SPEAKER_00: Now you get where the title of the sermon comes from, right?
SPEAKER_00: So it is with Christ, for we are all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given the one spirit to drink.
SPEAKER_00: Now the body is not made up of one part, but of many.
SPEAKER_00: If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
SPEAKER_00: And if the ear should say, Because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
SPEAKER_00: If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
SPEAKER_00: If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
SPEAKER_00: But in fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
SPEAKER_00: If they're all one part, where would the body be?
SPEAKER_00: As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
SPEAKER_00: The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
SPEAKER_00: And the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor.
SPEAKER_00: And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.
SPEAKER_00: But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lagged it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
SPEAKER_00: If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.
SPEAKER_00: And if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: What a powerful scripture.
SPEAKER_00: What a challenging scripture.
SPEAKER_00: So I got two points today.
SPEAKER_00: One, this idea of belonging.
SPEAKER_00: If you're part of the body, that means that you belong.
SPEAKER_00: But belonging is a hard concept, and I'm going to talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: And the second point is this idea is I need you, and you need me.
SPEAKER_00: This this mutual dependency, how God created us.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do this alone.
SPEAKER_00: So there's this part in this passage that always kind of caught my attention, and and I felt like, wow, how do we do this?
SPEAKER_00: This this part uh in the belonging part, in verse 26 that we just read, it says, if one part suffers, every part suffers with it.
SPEAKER_00: And if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you read that, you I I when I read that, I ask the question, how close do we need to be in order to be able to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: How much do we need to be emotionally connected to each other?
SPEAKER_00: That uh, you know, you you something happens to you and you're suffering, and first of all, that I would know, and maybe as a minister I probably have more more connections and more, but that we would know.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have social media and information can be passed around easier today than back in those days.
SPEAKER_00: But but just knowing doesn't mean that we suffer with.
SPEAKER_00: Just knowing doesn't mean we rejoice with.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is an amazing challenge for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: To get closer, deeper in our relationships.
SPEAKER_00: So when when something happens, it touches our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: When when when somebody gets hospitalized, when somebody loses a parent, it's it's it's like you know, we're experiencing this loss together, we're experiencing this challenge together.
SPEAKER_00: That's God is working through that.
SPEAKER_00: But the same thing happens if if if somebody if you get a promotion, if you know something amazing happens, you're you're you know, your your your son gets married, or some, you know, fun things happening.
SPEAKER_00: We we're we're we're like we're connected and we're like it's it's not just your joy, but it's our joy.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this a high calling?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: That's not just showing up on Sunday for an hour and a half.
SPEAKER_00: This is a lot more than that.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible teaches this in uh another another letter that Paul wrote to the Roman church.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of my favorite chapters in the in the Bible, Romans 12.
SPEAKER_00: It's very practical and incredibly challenging.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's talking about the same concept.
SPEAKER_00: He says, just as, this is Romans 12, verse 4 and 5, just as each of us has one body with many members, these members do not all have the same function.
SPEAKER_00: So in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
SPEAKER_00: I think we have probably a, if you're a Christian, you probably have a better understanding that I belong to God because He saved me, He brought me into His kingdom, in His family, but we have a harder time realizing that we belong together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, you can't pick your physical family, it's not your choice.
SPEAKER_00: You're born into it.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you like it or not, whether whether they're they're supportive of you or not, uh, and everybody's got one beard uncle, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's that's families.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't pick them.
SPEAKER_00: You know what's the same with the church?
SPEAKER_00: Today in our society, it's very popular to go and and and shop around for a church and pick a church.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
SPEAKER_00: If you're really experiencing biblical Christianity, when you get baptized, you belong to that community.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's okay to move, you know, sometimes job and other decisions make us move around, and we need to find another faith community where we belong.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, it's that's why some people watch the service online, and if you're sick or uh for some reason can't make it, we're happy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm gonna wave you over the camera.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you're watching.
SPEAKER_00: But nothing replaces the belonging doesn't necessarily happen this through a screen.
SPEAKER_00: Screen doesn't feel belonging.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's harder, at least.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I know gamers build great communities even through screens, but you have to be a special person to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us need to see each other face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Might need a hug, might need somebody to put their hand on your shoulder or hold your hand or just express ways of physical connecting.
SPEAKER_00: Belonging has been studied recently uh by a fairly famous uh sociologist and author called Brene Brown.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what she writes about belonging.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and you can read, she wrote, she meant she deals with this topic in a couple of her books.
SPEAKER_00: She says, true belonging is not passive.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the belonging that comes with just joining a group.
SPEAKER_00: It's not fitting in or pretending or selling out because it's safer.
SPEAKER_00: It's a practice that requires us to be vulnerable, get uncomfortable, and learn how to be present with people without sacrificing who we are.
SPEAKER_00: We want true belonging, but it takes tremendous courage to knowingly walk into hard moments.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a powerful quote, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it so what do I get out of it if we really want to belong, not just to God, we although even in our relationship with God, we need to become vulnerable, we need to be uncomfortable, we need to be present, and it takes courage to have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to see God, uh those qualities are non-negotiable.
SPEAKER_00: But in our relationships with one another, we need those exact same qualities.
SPEAKER_00: We need to get vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: That means that I'm opening myself up to be hurt.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word what the word means.
SPEAKER_00: I'm letting you close enough that if you hurt me, it will hurt real bad.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_00: And that is that takes courage.
SPEAKER_00: That takes courage.
SPEAKER_00: That takes going, getting closer to somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I I know in a previous sermon I talked about physical space, what we're called, what we're what we're comfortable with, how far you need to stand, so so I'm comfortable with you, and and how during COVID it actually has grown about a foot farther.
SPEAKER_00: We're you know, we're like just don't don't come too close, stay far.
SPEAKER_00: We're good here.
SPEAKER_00: Coming closer emotionally, it's on you had to stab those, kind of enter into those boundaries and be invited into those spaces.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Being present takes intentionality, energy, and time.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means, it takes.
SPEAKER_00: All of those requires us actually prioritizing.
SPEAKER_00: This needs to be important to us for it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Here's uh here's here's the difference between fitting in and belonging, again from Bernie Brown.
SPEAKER_00: This is because fitting in means you you try not to ruffle feathers, you're trying to behave as the group kind of expects you to behave.
SPEAKER_00: And church, traditionally for the last couple thousand years, has been very much of a uh a space that enforced and pressured fitting in.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I probably don't need to say more about that.
SPEAKER_00: But fitting in is assessing situations and groups of people, then twisting yourself into a human pretzel in order to get them to let you hang out with them.
SPEAKER_00: Belonging is something else entirely.
SPEAKER_00: It's showing up and letting yourself be seen and known as you really are.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for coming.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for showing up.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you that as we have conversations in the fellowship, as we meet outside of our church meetings, uh practice belonging.
SPEAKER_00: Show up in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a danger.
SPEAKER_00: If you show up as you are, some of us might be a little self-righteous and judgmental, and you don't feel like you belong.
SPEAKER_00: That was a problem in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But but again, we don't pick our families, we don't pick our spiritual families.
SPEAKER_00: Going back to that scripture that we read at the beginning of the sermon, I'm gonna read the first part of it again in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13.
SPEAKER_00: It says, the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body, so it is with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body.
SPEAKER_00: Whether Jews or Greeks, slave or fem, we were all given the one spirit to drink.
SPEAKER_00: We don't belong to each other because we choose it and we like it, and oh, I like this church.
SPEAKER_00: Can you put me on my membership?
SPEAKER_00: No, it is something deeper that connects us.
SPEAKER_00: It is that we when we get baptized, this is how somebody becomes a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Bible's normative way of people coming in a covenant relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: God gives those people his spirit, forgives their sins, and his spirit lives in them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, that that itself deserves like four or five sermons just to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
SPEAKER_00: But because it's the same spirit who lives in us, and we were be baptized into the same family, we belong.
SPEAKER_00: Period.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just because uh, you know, I I'm not sure if I like this guy, I'm not sure if I like that girl.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, God, God don't care.
SPEAKER_00: You guys say brothers and sisters, figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: Better better get on with it because you belong.
SPEAKER_00: And that's and that's our challenge, and that's that's the encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: In the first century, the biggest challenge of people actually figuring out this out and belonging together was that some of the members of the churches were Jewish, and some of the members for nations that the Jews called Gentiles, which meant non-Jewish, and and that was a very distinct division that God actually set up and enforced throughout the Old Testament, but God, even throughout the Old Testament, prophesied again and again about you know, this isn't just for the Jews, it will come to all nations.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're Jewish and you feel like you're in this privileged position of being God's chosen people, and all of a sudden these other guys that used to be the enemy, used to be these not God's people, people show up in church, you can imagine that causes some challenges, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and so one of the things that the Bible, the New Testament letters especially address, is this idea of this Jewish-gentile division that that people, it's easy to form a clique.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine if if you know all of you guys were Jewish?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you would be sitting together and not with the rest of the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul says that that that's not working.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're not two churches, we're we're one, and you guys gotta mingle.
SPEAKER_00: Are there any illustrations today that are like that, right?
SPEAKER_00: But but Paul addresses this controversy, uh, this this select this separation of Jewish and Gentiles in his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore remember that formerly, you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, that done in the body by the hands of man, remember that at a time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is formerly, this is what it used to be.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes, but now in Christ, as Jews come came into Christ through baptism and repentance, as Gentiles came into Christ, says, now in Christ, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing it in his abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is saying that whatever separated Jews and Gentiles, Jesus abolished.
SPEAKER_00: That separation is not there in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put death to their put to death their hostility.
SPEAKER_00: He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Paul had to teach Christians, followers of Jesus, that you guys you guys can't say over there, and they over there, that doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, there's no nothing divides you.
SPEAKER_00: You guys need to need to realize that that you're one.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you're you're brought near.
SPEAKER_00: You're actually God wants you to be near each other.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have a question for us today.
SPEAKER_00: What divisions do we have in today's society?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're not like the Jewish Gentile divisions, but I'm sure we have some.
SPEAKER_00: Any thoughts?
SPEAKER_00: Jen?
SPEAKER_00: Political divisions.
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: Same.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably one of the things that we feel the most because of the news cycle, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think.
unknown: Cultures.
SPEAKER_00: Cultural divisions, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Oscar and then Angel?
unknown: Racial.
SPEAKER_00: Racial divisions.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, socioeconomic.
SPEAKER_00: Social economic, yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Religions.
SPEAKER_00: Religious divisions, yeah.
unknown: Language.
SPEAKER_00: Language divisions.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Any any anything else?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
unknown: Class.
SPEAKER_00: Class divisions.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
unknown: Education.
SPEAKER_00: Education.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some of the ones that I came up with.
SPEAKER_00: Race is a big one, right?
SPEAKER_00: In uh in America.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'm reading, I'm uh listening to an audiobook uh by Isabel Wilkerson on the title is Cast, amazing book to understand how the race relations developed in the United States.
SPEAKER_00: Uh since now I'm living here, I want to understand and have a have a better better grasp of what that is.
SPEAKER_00: Gender.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's a big one, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh class, there's upper class, middle class, lower class.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in the US.
SPEAKER_00: Immigration status.
SPEAKER_00: That's become, especially recently, a big one.
SPEAKER_00: Uh financial standing, age can be a separation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're, you know, the oldest and the youngest in our church have over 70 years between them, or 60 years at least.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's uh at least a couple generations apart.
SPEAKER_00: Can we have a relationship?
SPEAKER_00: Even though we're a different age, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh education, uh, another big one.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh language, uh, you know, not uh well sorry, appearance, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I actually put a couple of language and culture.
SPEAKER_00: I put in later in the slide, and I don't think it's it made it up there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, how we look, we can easily judge each other by our looks or what we wear.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, maybe maybe our weight, uh, that's right, health can be become a uh a division.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's hard, uncomfortable to be around people that are sick.
SPEAKER_00: Uh people that that maybe struggle with with uh with cancer, for example.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: It's easier to be separate in some of these situations.
SPEAKER_00: Mental health, another big one, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it affects, especially anxiety and depression, affects more and more people in our society today.
SPEAKER_00: And then you know, probably not as big as interest in hobby.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't like football, football season is starting.
SPEAKER_00: Uh off you go.
SPEAKER_00: Are you not cheering for the Patriots?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, amen.
SPEAKER_00: You get you guys get you guys get what I'm talking about, right?
SPEAKER_00: But our the society we live in is incredibly divided.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: And we bring those divisions into the church, and it does it doesn't just automatically disappear.
SPEAKER_00: Even the if the spiritual reality is that those divisions don't matter in Christ, we still bring those ways of thinking, those ways of relating to one another into the church.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a lot of work to do differently.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of work to be different, but but that's who God wants us to be.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be different.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want any of these things to separate us.
SPEAKER_00: And he concludes this part uh uh in Ephesians chapter 2 that he's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles with a conclusion in verse 19 to 22.
SPEAKER_00: How do I know it's a conclusion?
SPEAKER_00: It starts with consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I that my prayer and desire is that every member of our congregation feels that they're not foreigners, they're not aliens, they're not on the fringe, they're they're not weak, they're not outside, they're they're inside, completely holy and belonging here.
SPEAKER_00: But fellow you're not no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord, and in him you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of together, joined together, build together.
SPEAKER_00: It's that that joining together and building together, God does it, but not if we're not cooperating.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna be joined with one another if if if we're not choosing this.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you guys a practical challenge for this next week or our next couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe that will give you a little more space and time to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Have somebody in your home or or meet some, you know, have somebody have have some kind of a hospital hospitality event with somebody that before you become Christian, you would have been divided from.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody who's a different race than you are, maybe somebody whose culture is completely different, or their language, or whatever would it would, you know, before becoming Christian would have felt like, oh, they're they're they're they're other than spend some time with them.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the best ways to do hospitality is so powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Having them in our home, making food for them, uh, or you know, you can go out for some coffee.
SPEAKER_00: That it doesn't have to be an expensive thing, it doesn't have to be a three-course meal, but spending the time and and being curious and wanting, expressing the desire.
SPEAKER_00: I want to connect, I want to get to know you, I care, I wanna I wanna join and be built into this relationship with you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00: That's how belonging happens.
SPEAKER_00: If we all work on this, our church will be a place where people belong and they feel that they belong, and that's to God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: My second point, it's a little shorter.
SPEAKER_00: I need you, you need me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, I have to uh, you know, I've I've only moved to Massachusetts uh three years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I did live here for two years earlier, but there are things about Massachusetts that are really an antithesis of what what's on there.
SPEAKER_00: Here's here's here I I wish somebody sent me this before moving here.
SPEAKER_00: So I would translate when when he when when uh you know when they say they say wicked, it means uh you're really good, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or uh you know uh you betcha.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm I'm like what what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: You know, and and there's there's a bunch of things on this, but here's here's one of the big ones.
SPEAKER_00: I'm all set.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I hear this in Massachusetts at least once every week.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody, I I've actually gotten in this, in the in the in the habit of saying, finding myself saying it.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you need this?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm all set.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, I become a Massachusetts person.
SPEAKER_00: Um whatever those those people are called, Massachusetts, or I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that bad.
SPEAKER_00: That's another Massachusetts thing.
SPEAKER_00: Then I would need something else.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So, but that's the that's the mind that that's it, that isn't just the language.
SPEAKER_00: Language shows mindset.
SPEAKER_00: I know you guys are being entertained by all those funny things, right?
SPEAKER_00: I've got I better better move on.
SPEAKER_00: So as we go back to this chapter in in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I'm gonna read the middle part of this, I want you to to count how many times does Paul mention either this phrase, I don't belong, which means you don't need me, because I don't belong, or I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna read this middle part of this.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so just count with me.
SPEAKER_00: Now the body is not made up of one part, but of many.
SPEAKER_00: If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
SPEAKER_00: And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
SPEAKER_00: If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
SPEAKER_00: If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
SPEAKER_00: But in fact, God has arranged the parts of the bot in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
SPEAKER_00: If they were all one part, where would the body be?
SPEAKER_00: As it is, they are many parts, but one body.
SPEAKER_00: The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: And the hat cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: How many did you guys find?
unknown: Three and two.
unknown: Four?
SPEAKER_00: Three and two?
SPEAKER_00: Four total, actually.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's that's what I found.
SPEAKER_00: So there's two I don't belongs, right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I missed something.
SPEAKER_00: And the two I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And guess why Paul is referring these to these things?
SPEAKER_00: Because people were saying this or thinking this.
SPEAKER_00: And and we we're probably a very polite society, so we might not go to go up to somebody, I don't need you.
SPEAKER_00: You know.
SPEAKER_00: But when when when we're in need, do we actually vulnerably and humbly ask?
SPEAKER_00: Bring that need.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we bring our needs to?
SPEAKER_00: Many of us are trained in our New England mindset that I've got to figure out this myself and I gotta fix this myself.
SPEAKER_00: And if that doesn't happen, I've got to try a few more times and then maybe then say, hey, could you uh very uncomfortably uh gonna borrow your snowblower, you know, or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, can you imagine what it would create do for a community if we share our needs more freely?
SPEAKER_00: And on the other hand, you know, being willing to meet those needs.
SPEAKER_00: That means that we need to be available, present, and responsible.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here.
SPEAKER_00: You can count on me.
SPEAKER_00: Now we all have limitations, you know, that you can't just drop everything and and and meet needs most of the time, but if there's enough of us, there's always somebody that can help meet some needs.
SPEAKER_00: God arranges those parts in the body.
SPEAKER_00: So one of the things we need to do is to realize that, you know, this pastor talks about I need you and you need me.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the other things that he talks about in the middle part is this idea that we're different and that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: So the eye can say to the ear, I don't, you're not one of us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Mahatma Gandhi said, our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you think about that statement, how did our civilization fare?
SPEAKER_00: Not very beautifully.
SPEAKER_00: How about our church?
SPEAKER_00: Can we be this beautiful community of very different people actually getting along, coming together?
SPEAKER_00: You know, another quote that I have is our our diversity of race, culture, and gender is to be celebrated as a picture of God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So what that means, I'm glad you're not like me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you're different.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I'm I'm glad my wife is a woman and and she's not like me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm married to her.
SPEAKER_00: It completes us.
SPEAKER_00: The same way in the church, the different the different people that God brought into his church.
SPEAKER_00: What a beautiful tapestry that God has woven together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's celebrate that, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Let's and and you know, I'm I'm really proud of our movement of churches because we've been striving for this.
SPEAKER_00: One of the brothers shares, I don't know where he got these statistics, that he said that the ICOC is the most diverse church in the United States today.
SPEAKER_00: Which I I wanna I want I want to celebrate, I want to keep that up.
SPEAKER_00: And and obviously there's every local congregation.
SPEAKER_00: We have work to do and we have ways to go, but I'm so glad we're here and so glad we're doing it together.
SPEAKER_00: And I got another quote, I don't know where this comes from, but I love this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, I if I tell you I need you, do not take it lightly.
SPEAKER_00: I do everything I can to never have to depend on anyone, to never show weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And if I say that I need you, it means and I'm trusting you to catch me when I fall.
SPEAKER_00: Can we be that person for each other in our community?
SPEAKER_00: So today we talked about belonging.
SPEAKER_00: God wants you to experience the belonging because you've become part of uh his church.
SPEAKER_00: And this whole idea, I need you and you need me.
SPEAKER_00: We we let's let's not be so independent, but let's be mutually dependent on each other and support and express and experience that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're when you're a family, everybody chips in a little bit, everybody does some part.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if if it works well.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a dysfunctional family, that's probably very differently.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably that overwork some some parts, and some parts are just lazying around and taking advantage.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not be that kind of a church.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be a functional church.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: A few questions for thoughts to this question, and we we're gonna finish with a prayer that that Paul records in Ephesians uh about this unity idea uh as we take communion.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do I see myself as someone who belongs, or am I trying to fit in?
SPEAKER_00: Are there dividing walls between myself and others in our church community?
SPEAKER_00: How can I, with God's help, demolish these walls?
SPEAKER_00: How easy is it for me to ask for help?
SPEAKER_00: Am I someone that can be counted on for help?
SPEAKER_00: Does diversity bother me or delight me?
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes the difference is is bothersome.
SPEAKER_00: I want to acknowledge that.
SPEAKER_00: Which one happens more often in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: So as we take communion, we we are actually coming together with Jesus to remember his sacrifice on the cross, uh, to remember what he's done.
SPEAKER_00: And part of the things that we celebrate in communion is that we're together in this.
SPEAKER_00: We're celebrating that he took out all those dividing walls and we can do this together.
SPEAKER_00: We share the same bread, we drink from the same wine, uh, remembering that we're one in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this, uh, I love this prayer that Paul records in Ephesians 3.
SPEAKER_00: This is the chapter after he's addressing this Jewish Gentile uh division.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and and uh he just he just praises God.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna pray, I'm gonna pray this prayer with Paul uh for our communion time together in Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Get a sip of water.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and earth derives its name.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.