Practicing the Faith: Tools for your journey

In the sermon this month, I talk about belonging. Belonging is both a very personal issue, and also a very public justice issue. I am working on my second book, which is about how to stay in community with the people you really don’t want to be in community with. That’s about belonging, too, and helping others to feel they belong.

As I write these things, I have worked with a church (not my own) which is caught up in much conflict that has affected me. The situation is very messy. Certainly I don’t feel like I belong. The bigger concern is that in the midst of the anger and pain that I experience, I don’t want to belong with these folks. I don’t want to understand or forgive or love those who are hurting me. I don’t see the face of God in them.

When we try to practice our faith, we begin with being honest about how far we are, sometimes, from being the loving person we want to be. We find a safe, appropriate place to vent our feelings. And we recognize that healing and forgiving and loving take time.

What are your stories about belonging? When have you felt that you really belonged? That you didn’t belong?
And when have you included or welcomed or loved someone else so that they felt they belonged? When have you found that you didn’t want to do that? Have you ever felt that you and your enemies belonged together?

May God lead all of us to that place.