Isaiah 58:6-12
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
“Connected to Others: Everyone Matters. Everyone Belongs.”
Preached Sunday, October 25, 2026
How has the church community helped let you know that you matter? That your life and experiences, who you are - matter? How have they let you know that you belong? And how do we extend that acceptance and belonging to others to become repairers of community?
Back in 2019, I was very upset by the wider actions of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church - at the time they upheld the Traditional Plan which rejected LGBTQ inclusion in our denomination and caused further harm and division within us. I do want to say that since then, that has been overturned and 7 years later, the denomination is in a much different place. But this story isn’t about the wider denomination, it was about the Sunday after those actions where my heart was hurting. I preached an extremely emotional sermon from the pulpit and shed tears of frustration, anger, and hurt. The following weeks and months were going to be really pivotal for that congregation as we had conversations and shared openly and honestly with one another. But at that point, I felt at one of the lowest points I’ve been in ministry. I wondered if I had made the right decision to tether myself to the wider church.
That week a letter from a dear parishioner arrived in the mail. The summary of that note was simply this:
“When one of us hurts, we all hurt. I see your pain and am holding it with you.”
When she wrote those words, I don’t know if she knew the impact they would have on me - but they did have a tremendous effect on me. More than anything that I had experienced up to that point - her words let me know that I had a place in the wider church community - and not only when I was the happy, joyful, productive pastor they had come to know. But even when I was hurt - when I was feeling lost - I still mattered to the community - and what I cared about mattered to the community. I belonged - as I was, in all seasons.
My prayer and hope is that our church community, and all church communities, would be places of community repair - that everyone would know they matter and belong and have a place at the table.
We live in a world where we are more connected than ever before: social media, cell phones, the internet in general… You know, I recently was talking with a woman whose dad was a pastor - when she was a kid, her mom would tell her and her sister to go play on the internet when her dad needed a break - because a parishioner couldn’t call the house if the phone lines were busy with dial-up internet! Or even recently my 96 year old grandpa told me that he was often on call to fix problems at work. Now, if a friend was calling the house - they’d ask for him by Ray, his nickname. If work was calling, they’d ask for Clyde. And sometimes he instructed his wife and kids that if someone called asking for Clyde - he wasn’t at home. And then - oh well! They had no other way to reach him! As someone who professes spending WAY too much time on my phone, these stories actually made me nostalgic for a world that doesn’t exist anymore.
But despite being able to reach people more easily than ever before - to text, to DM, to browse their snapshots on social media, to read blogs, and to discuss on forums and comment sections… we are an increasingly lonely society. What we’re discovering is that being connected to other people is not the same as having a place where you belong.
What would it look like if our churches and congregations acted as places of community, connection, and belonging - where people knew that they mattered and their presence and life made a difference for good in the community and the world. Churches aren’t meant to be places of proximity where we just worship God near one another - but places where the very act of worship turns us not just toward God - but toward one another and all the places that the bounds of community need repaired. This is what God desires for us - to be in relationship with God and one another - to be like chicks gathered under the wing of their mother hen - connected to God and one another.
Our Scripture from Isaiah today demonstrates this. The people are fasting - which is a pious act - an act of worship in the Old Testament, one that orients the person towards God and shows that they are seeking to be drawn to God and made right with God. But God’s response to them in Isaiah is essentially that they are going through the motions of religion, the rituals of worship, without internalizing what their worship really means - and this includes how they relate to one another in community. The problem isn’t the fasting itself - the problem is ignoring the oppressed among them. The same could be said for any church community today - the problem isn’t worship itself - that is good and right - but it is a problem if our worship doesn’t shape us to be “repairers of the breach.” And so the fast or worship that God chooses is one that shares bread, houses the homeless, covers the needs of others, and builds relationships of kinship and belonging. Worship becomes not just a vertical posture - me and God - but a horizontal one - you, me, us, all of us, others, the whole community - and God. And so we are repairers of the breach - the breach that divided us into us versus them - the breach that is the haves and the have nots - and in its place there is hope, community, and togetherness.
In recent conversations with leaders in the church the question was raised - do we really know our wider community and their needs? The neighborhood surrounding Boardman UMC has changed drastically over the decades - and so has the community within the doors of our congregations. In order to care for one another, to be repairers of the breach, we may first need to engage in a posture of learning and cultural humility - that we don’t know or have all the answers. We need to enter into relationships and conversations with those in our community, to listen carefully to them, and to hear from others what their needs are.
One of my oft quoted remarks from John Wesley, the founder of the Wesleyan and Methodist movements, is “The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness. Faith working by love, is the length and breadth and depth and height of Christian perfection.” Social holiness is not synonymous with just social action or social justice - although those are parts of the equation. What it means is that there is no such thing as a solo-Christian or an isolated Christian. Our faith is meant to be formed, supported, and lived out - in community, together with the Body of Christ.
This is one of the reasons we don’t practice private baptisms - because for us, that’s kind of an oxymoron. When you are baptized, you become one with the rest of the body of Christ, as Paul shares with us in our reading from 1st Corinthians today. In our baptism, we become one. This is not to say that individual differences and gifts are erased - it should be the opposite. Unity doesn’t erase the individual but instead asks how the unique gifts and graces of that individual can be given for the good of the whole body.
The whole body where we all matter - and all belong. No body part can say to another that they are better than the other. The health of the body is measured by the health of the make up of all the parts. We know that if one part suffers, the whole body suffers. If one member of the community is in pain or need - we all are affected. If one rejoices - we are called to rejoice together.
Paul shares that we are one in our baptism - and Isaiah moves us towards justice and restoration. Together, we are all called to not just orient ourselves towards God - but to know that the very act of orienting ourselves towards God is inherently also orienting ourselves towards one another, to mutuality, to community, to a place where all matter and all belong and we care for one another’s needs.
This is why, in our membership vows in the church, we promise to give to God, to the church, and to one another of our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Our whole lives, and all we have, are called to be directed outwards, shared, and used to be builders and repairers of holy, loving, and just community - for it is this that is pleasing to God - and not only that, is just a better way of life. A way of life that is not isolated, lonely, or defined by strife - but one that is marked by connection, belonging, love and care.
Last week I challenged you to spend daily time in reflection on the gifts you have received and how we faithfully respond to them.
This week, as you continue to reflect upon that, I’d ask you to consider two things:
Is there someone in your life - in your family, your church, your wider community - who you think is feeling lonely, isolated, or disconnected? I’d invite you to take one step closer to them this week - whatever that looks like.
And two - consider how your prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness are being shared to form belonging and connection within the body of Christ. Choose one of them to focus on and take a further step with.
Because imagine a community, imagine a congregation - not just a but ours - our community, our congregation - where people don’t simply attend but they belong. Where individuals’ gifts and graces are celebrated and shared with the whole body. Where people know that all of them matter - including those parts that are hurting or in need - and we work together to repair those breaches, work together towards communal justice. And we don’t just have to imagine this as fiction or a possible community - we could all name instances, events, moments - where this church community, where Boardman United Methodist, got it or is getting it exactly right - where we are living as the community God intends for us to be. May it be so - today and every day.
Amen.
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