Lord, We Do Belong!

Sermon for 26th Sunday of the Year, cycle B, Sep 27, 1997

by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church

Numbers 11: 25-29

Psalm 19: 8-14

James 5: 1-6

Mark 9: 38-48

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt excluded by a group. Maybe it was because of your race or your color or nationality. Maybe it was because of economic or social class. Maybe it was for no reason at all, except that you just knew everyone around you was thinking, "He’s not one of us." or "She’s not one of us."

It happens in the business world. It happens in social situations. It even happens in families. But where it seems to happen the most is where it shouldn’t happen at all — in churches.

I remember one church in southern Maryland where Maggie and I attended for a couple of years, but never felt "one of them." The church was over three hundred years old. If your great-grandparents weren’t buried in the churchyard, you were an outsider. A few miles away was another church, a Methodist church, where we went very infrequently. (After all, we’re not Methodists.) But each time we went, we were made to feel welcome and accepted. They did not make us feel like we were not "one of them" ... in spite of the fact that we had never been Methodists and were probably the only white folks to ever worship in that church. The fact is we were not "one of them." But they didn’t make us feel that way.

Several miles away was yet another church, also Methodist, same denomination, but all white. We looked a lot more like the people there, but the one time we visited, we somehow were made to feel that we didn’t belong. Lord knows what would have happened if we had tried to take one of our black friends there. It has often been noted that eleven o’clock Sunday morning is probably the most segregated hour of the week. One of the things that attracted us to this particular church, Christ United Methodist Church, to host our tiny catholic parish is that their congregation is thoroughly multiracial. We fully intended our congregation to be as inclusive as possible, in every way. So it was a relief to know that the host parish would not be making any of our people feel uncomfortable because they weren’t the right color.

But race or color aren’t the only reasons for churches to make people feel that they don’t belong. There are any number of reasons people use to put others down in their attempt to feel superior. I’m sure each of you has your own horror stories of how you were treated (or maybe just ignored) at this or that church.

Sometimes those who have had a particularly wonderful experience, like a Cursillo or maybe "being saved" or perhaps speaking in tongues will (perhaps subconsciously) make those who have not had the same experience feel like an outsider. No matter why or how it happens, when a "clique" forms in a church, it is destructive of the sense of community. And this sense of community, of belonging, is something all of us desperately need.

This doesn’t mean that in a big church you can’t have small groups within the whole — so long as everyone gets to belong to one of them. In an Episcopal church we attended in Potomac, Maryland, they had "Family Fellowships." Each had maybe a dozen families. Ours was made up of couples with teenage children. Another had young couples with small children. But every new member of the church was invited to join one or another of the fellowships. It was all very informal, but it worked. We even had a Roman Catholic couple from a neighboring parish in our fellowship. They were not made to feel that they were not "one of us."

Two of today’s readings deal with the tendency of the church to "exclude" rather than include, and tells how Moses and Jesus responded to this tendency.

In the book of Numbers, it tells how Moses ordained 70 elders, and they began to prophesy. But the Spirit also rested on two others without Moses laying hands on them. When Eldad and Medad began prophesying, Moses was told, and Joshua said, "Moses, my lord, stop them." but Moses would not. He said, "Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!"

In Mark’s gospel, John says to Jesus, "We saw a man using your name to expel demons and we tried to stop him, because he is not of our company." But Jesus said, "Do not try to stop him. Anyone who is not against us is with us."

So both Moses and Jesus had to deal with parochial attitudes, and with people jealous of their power. And both of them dealt with it rather firmly. In essence, they said, "They have as much right to the Spirit as you have. They are doing good. They are invoking the name of God. They do God’s work in our name. What does it matter if they are not under our control?"

There are many today who need to hear this message. For example, many do not consider Mormons to be Christians because they have an unorthodox view of the Trinity. But the Mormons do much good work, and do it in the name of Jesus. We should not condemn them or dismiss the good they do. We do not have to join them. But we should acknowledge that they do God’s will as they see it.

Another example: some Roman Catholics have tried to stop us from performing our ministry because we are not under the authority of Rome. Some of you may be harrassed by those who would prefer that our ministry not exist. This even though our orders and sacraments are recognized as valid by Rome, and even though the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church says that Roman Catholics can come to us for the sacraments. This is not the fault of the Roman Catholic Church. It is just that some of their people, in their human frailty, have forgotten the words of Jesus in very similar circumstances: "Do not try to stop him. No one who performs a miracle using my name can at once speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us. Anyone who gives you a drink of water because you belong to Christ will not, I assure you, go without their reward."

So do not be intimidated by those who say, "Stop them. They are not of our company." For we do belong. We belong to God. We belong to Christ. And we belong to the church —- that one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church which is the body of Christ and the company of all believers.

Don’t let anybody tell you that unless you give unquestioned obedience to a particular institution, you do not belong to the church. You not only belong to the church, you are the church.

Week after week the word has exhorted you to let the church live in you. Two weeks ago it was "Faith without works is dead." Don’t sit on the side of the pool and think about being Christian. Jump in and be one. Last week we were told that to God, Number One is the person who is the servant of all. So get into the game and start serving. This week Jesus tells you that what makes you belong to him is not your membership in an institutional church, but your willingness to do good in his name. And he assures you, you will not go without your reward.

Let us pray, Lord, we thank you for your blessed assurance. Others may tell us that we don’t belong. but it doesn’t matter, Lord, because we do belong ... to you.

We thank you for the church, dispenser of your forgiveness, your word, your grace, your love, your joy. But we also know, Lord, that your Spirit rests wherever you will, and that you raise up prophets among those outside the tent. Open our eyes and ears and hearts to see you at work in others. And finally, Lord, we beg you to take us and use us to do your will, to serve each other, to be your hands, your feet, your mouth, your body, your church; for we do belong ... to you. Amen!

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