People are created to be social. Some of us need a lot of people around and some of us just need a few, but we all need someone. The theme song for the Cheers Bar on TV was Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name, And they're always glad you came; You want to be where you can see, Our troubles are all the same; You want to be where everybody knows your name.
Getting together in groups takes communication and money. I was pastor for a rural church where people talked about harvesting together, building barns together and people looked forward to work that needed to be done together. And people did not get a lot of money from farming. There wasn’t time for useless meetings. Church life was valued because it was one of the few times in the week that you could get together in groups.
As people moved in cities and suburbs, they were closer to each other and all types of meetings were easier. And then people got richer and started to work less so they had even more chance for meetings.
We live now at a moment where we have enough leisure time to get together. We live close enough to others to get together. And the internet has drawn more people closer together than any other time in the history of the world.
I participate in a couple of groups started by Meetup.com. Meetup.com is a website with about 5,000 topics. You simply sign on, locate your home city and either join one of the many groups or start your own and see if others will sign on. There are 1,100 groups meeting in New York City, once a month. Near Jackson Heights, the Spanish conversation meetup meets once a month across from the Post Office, the Daschund Meetup Group has 649 members for its monthly meeting, the Boardgames meetup has 559 members. And there are 40 different religious meetups, Born Again Christians meetup, 7th Day Adventists meetup, NYC Gay Christians meetup, Sojourners Magazine meetup, the Jewish Salsa meetup, and the NYC Hinduism meetup.
We are going to look in the Bible this morning at the power that is unleashed in the Christian life, when we find a place to meetup, find a place to belong. Watch these people tell how it changed their life to be part of a group of Christians.
I hope that you feel that you belong here in this meetup, this church. And if you are involved, I ask you to take time after the service this morning to help someone feel how great it is to have friends and be involved at Community Church.
We are thinking today of the strength that we get by belonging. Belonging happens when we find a group that has a purpose and members who accept us. Remember that I said in the introduction that when the world was more rural, more poor, and had less communication, belonging only happened in the family and village. Belonging can happen in a healthy family or a good village. Some people feel loved and accepted in their family or even community. Long Lake New York is at the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. The lake is 14 miles long and one of the prettiest sites of creation, well at least in the summer, well, at least when its warm, well, after the black flies are gone, well, on days when it doesn’t rain. You get the picture. Much of the central Adirondacks is small communities after the tourists are gone and winter is harsh. Long Lake is run by Hoss. He owns the General Store which stays open all winter. He has an RV park in a great location. So he has tremendous influence on the community life in Long Lake, almost like a genial uncle who keeps a family going.
But most people don’t have perfect families and don’t fit exactly into their city or town. And when the Greeks gathered more into cities, they invented the word ‘ekklesia’ for groups that are created, not for families, not for towns or tribes, but groups with a unique purpose that socialized together. These new groups had tremendous popularity because they gave people a choice where they wanted to belong. And Paul comes along and says, we are creating an ekklesia. He defines its purpose. It is the group for people who worship the God. He goes on in these verses to explain that it is not just one more religion – in verse 14 and 15, this is the God who visited the planet. This is the God who lived as a perfect human to deal with our feelings of weakness and guilt. This is the God who crossed cultural boundaries and cared for Greeks as much as Jews. This is the God who has power over our enemies and works for peace because he has the respect of principalities and unseen powers, this is the God who transforms life when we make an invitation so that being in this group, you will be happier and talk about how God has really made a difference, and this is the God who has gone to heaven with the marks of the crucifixion still on him as an eternal reminder that he has taken care of the evil of this world by offering a perfect sacrifice to break the power of death.
Paul is defining the kind of ekklesia that he has formed. Just like Meetup.com, he is getting into a trend that was going on and starting his own ekklesia. And ekklesia is in English the word for ‘church.’
We have a need to belong somewhere because that is how God created us, to have a place where somebody knows our name. We have a need to belong somewhere because one of the key promises of Christianity is that God provides a group where you will belong and get encouragement in your spiritual and every day life. The church is the way God delivers on the promise.
And we have a need to belong because the as Paul writes in Ephesians 5, the days are evil. Remember that a group is something with a purpose that accepts you. People of all political persuasions are upset by the confusion and danger of our institutions. The war is being lost in Iraq and Afghanistan which makes Iran and North Korea more bold. The federal government is awash in scandals that show more than corruption and sex, but the indifference of leaders to care about these things.
When I first heard of the plane crash on Wednesday, I immediately assumed that there might be a larger problem. It is a sign of our times.
And so, I invite you to commit your life to the God that Paul reveals for our group, our meetup.com, our church. And we will promise to be a group that accepts you and helps you find a meaningful task and friends for your spiritual journey. And you will be accountable in joining to succeed in the things you want for your life. Joining is a step towards accountability, accountability to be here in worship, to be faithful to tell others what God has done for you, accountable in generosity, accountable to show the world what an authentic Christian group looks like. During the next song and as we stand, I invite you to join us.
