Message by AJ Fox with Guest Speaker Matt Baker

This month we are exploring the theme of belonging. But belonging cannot exist in a vacuum. The sensation of belonging can only come from the sensation of not belonging. And belonging and not belonging are not binary experiences but instead depths and shallows we travel between many many times across our lives. 

It is all very well… by Rev. Rod Richards *

It is all very well to speak of
an interdependent web of all life
and remind us that we are all
Connected. We are.
But there are times when the loneliness
Strikes so deeply that the only
Thing of which I am
Certain is that I am
a
solitary
being.
There are times when the only
piece of belonging I can feel
is
the
longing.
There are times when the interdependent web
feels like just a mess of cobwebs
in a basement
or an attic
of the abandoned house
where I live…
Times when the spirit of life and love
are just words written
in invisible ink
on a postcard to myself.
Wish you were here.
Be with me now.
Don’t try and talk me out
of how I feel
with perfect theology.
Stay beside me
and carry my hope
until I am ready to
hold it
again and be
there for
You.

Poem by David Whyte
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone… To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom…
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come…
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink…
Everything is waiting for you.

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
African American Spiritual
Public Domain
Performed by Marilyn Day and John Prescott

Chant for the Seasons
Words: Mark L. Belletini
Music: Czech Folk Song, Harmony
Permission Granted
Accompanied by Eva Riebold with Live Congregational Singing

The closing words are from Wendell Berry

Belong to your place by knowledge of the others who are
your neighbors in it: the old man, sick and poor,
who comes like a heron to fish in the creek.