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You Belong: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity (#2170)

2024/11/17 By Greg

Today I wrapped up a six week sermon series inspired by Debie Thomas’ new book A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity (Broadleaf, 2024). Today, we focused on belonging.

Advent Lutheran Church – November 17, 2024 Worship (photo by Greg Smith)

Sermon

My message, “Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity” was based on John 14:1-14.

Belonging

You can watch the sermon below or read the manuscript.

Excerpt

In fact, this morning’s modern reading was an excerpt from the book’s introduction. A Faith of Many Rooms begins with Debie’s personal story of never quite fitting in culturally or spiritually. It continues with chapter after chapter exploring how she moves beyond the faith of her family of origin and begins to embrace a more spacious Christianity. And it is an honest reflection about her difficult journey.

I’ll come back to Debie’s story in a bit. For now, let’s consider the idea of belonging. Dr. Brene Brown – a widely recognized author, researcher and storyteller – has written about the difference between fitting in and belonging.

She explains that fitting in is about assessing a given situation and then changing yourself or becoming whoever you need to be to be accepted in a given group.  Belonging, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. Belonging doesn’t ask us to change who we are, but instead invites us to bring our authentic selves to our relationship with something bigger.

Which brings me back to our faith. We are used to saying I believe or we believe whether reciting the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, or the Athanasian Creed.  This is important, but so is recognizing that we belong.

Siblings in Christ let me say this plainly: you belong.

We belong.

We are all God’s children. 

One of my all-time favorite catechisms comes from our sister denomination – the Presbyterian Church USA. It was written for children, which means it says exactly what needs to be said without using fancy words.

Belonging to God: A First Catechism is presented in question-and-answer format.

It begins:

Question 1. Who are you?  I am a child of God. 


Question 2. What does it mean to be a child of God? That I belong to God, who loves me.

We belong!

We need to stop trying to fit in.

And we need to live into our belonging.


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Greg Smith

Greg is a follower of the Way of Jesus who strives to make the world a better place for all people. Currently, he serves as Chief Executive Officer of White Rock Center of Hope and as Interim Senior Pastor of Advent Lutheran Church. He has served ten congregations, taught religion to undergraduates for eight years, and helped three organizations provide quality healthcare to underserved populations. (Read More)

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