There was a Contemporary Christian Music song that was really popular back in the mid-90s when I had first committed my life to Christ. It was a song by popular artist Michael W. Smith called “Place in this World.” And the first verse went like this:

The wind is moving

But I am standing still

A life of pages

Waiting to be filled

A heart that’s hopeful

A head that’s full of dreams

But this becoming

Is harder than it seems

Feels like

I’m looking for a reason

Roaming through the night to find

My place in this world

My place in this world

Not a lot to lean on

I need your light to help me find

My place in this world

My place in this world

I think that finding our place in the world is a journey we all make at some time in our lives…because we all want to find a place where we belong. That’s the theme of nearly every teen movie. Even many non-teen movies feature the theme of searching for belonging in the world. And every movie I’ve watched with that theme offers different answers. Sometimes it’s a group of friends, oftentimes it’s romantic love, and sometimes no answer is found at all. But it always feels to me like the belonging found in those movies is rarely something that would stand the test of time.

We all want to feel like we belong. And we will sometimes go to great lengths to find belonging…sometimes even changing who we are in the hopes of fitting in with whatever group it is that we are trying to belong to. But the only true belonging rests in finding the place where we can truly be who we are, without changing ourselves or covering over our blemishes or pretending. Do you have a place like that in your life? I can’t help but think about the theme song for the TV show Cheers when I think about finding a place of belonging. I’m guessing many of you know it, so sing along if you want.

Making your way in the world today

Takes everything you’ve got

Taking a break from all your worries

Sure would help a lot

Wouldn’t you like to get away?

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

Doesn’t that just say exactly what we are all longing for? A place to belong? A place where everyone knows our name?

And while for the people of Cheers, that place is a bar. My hope is that for us it can be the Church, with a capital C, and hopefully her representation here, in this place. Paul’s letter to the Colossians gives us an idea of what the Church, with a capital C, should look like. And I think you can imagine how a place with these characteristics might be a place where people feel welcome. Hear how the apostle Paul begins this section of his letter: “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” In the original Greek, this sentence actually begins with the verb. “Clothe yourselves!” It’s an imperative. And I love the Greek verb here. It literally means “to sink into.” So, Paul says, “Sink into hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” When I think about sinking into something, I imagine being completely immersed in it. And if we’re talking about sinking into quicksand or water, that might be scary. But to think about being immersed in compassion and kindness and humility and meekness and patience. That sounds wonderful! I feel like we spend a lot of our lives immersed in the opposite…indifference, cruelty, selfishness, pride, and impatience. If the Church is being what it has been called to be, then it should be a place where we can escape the negativity and hatred of the world and sink into compassion and kindness and humility and meekness and patience. Wouldn’t that be a place you’d want to go? That is the kind of place I envision when I think about the second Great End of the Church, the list of six guiding principles in the Presbyterian Church. That second Great End reads: The shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God. In other words, the church being the Church.

Unfortunately, we all know that the church, with a small c, often does not act as it should. The apostle Paul recognized that, so he didn’t stop with just that list of ideal qualities. He added something very important. He writes, “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Paul saw first hand the conflict and pain that happened even amongst the people of God. He witnessed conflict and division in the early church. In fact, most of his letters dealt with some issue of conflict he’d heard about or witnessed in the church to which he was writing. But Paul saw what the church could and should be. And he always tried to call them back to that. And for Paul, the key is love. Bear with one another, forgive one another, but above all else…LOVE. Paul goes so far as to say that love is the thing that binds us completely.

Paul adds a little bit more to his admonitions to the church of Colossae. He writes, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.” As we think about the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the church from the Great Ends of the Church, I think these verses correlate well. Shelter – Shelter is a place of safety, free from pain and anger, a place where peace rules. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,” Paul says. Nurture – Nurture is about care and encouragement. Being thankful is a great way to encourage others. And as the word of Christ dwells in us, we will certainly grow in our care for others. And spiritual fellowship – Spiritual fellowship is uniting with one another in worship of God. And in worship we gather around the Word of God to learn and be changed. And we sing songs of thanks to God for all God has done for us. That is the heart of worship and the heart of spiritual fellowship. And it is at the heart of where we find our belonging within the Church. Because we find our belonging, not because of our connections with one another, but because of our connection with God.

That theme song from Cheers that we sang earlier said:

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

As sinners redeemed by God, we come to the Church with the same troubles. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we’ve all sinned in the same way or we all face the same trials in life or we all have exactly the same stories. That is patently not true. But we all come from the same place…a place of brokenness, in need of healing and saving. And though you may walk in the doors of this church or another one not knowing a single person’s name, God already knows your name. And he welcomes you, as a sinner redeemed by Christ, to come into his kingdom and find your belonging.

And once there, it is the job of all of us to clothe ourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. And above all else to clothe ourselves in love, so that all who come here seeking God, will find God at work through us. Paul ends this section of his letter with these words: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” The big movement in the Christian Church back in the 90s was the WWJD movement: What Would Jesus Do? It encouraged us through a mass marketing scheme to ask ourselves the question in all things, What Would Jesus Do in this random situation that I find myself in? Now, while that can sometimes be a helpful question for us to consider, perhaps a better question for us is HOW WOULD JESUS BE? What characteristics would Jesus exhibit in his interactions were he in this situation? I suspect that simply sticking to Paul’s short list here in Colossians would get us a long way on the road to being like Jesus and thereby “doing what Jesus would do”. So let us clothe ourselves, immerse ourselves, sink into compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…and above all else LOVE. For love binds us to one another in completeness. That is who we are called to be and that is what the church is called to be. And when we live as the church is supposed to live, this place becomes a place where everyone can find belonging. May it be that place for you today and for the rest of your lives. Amen!