What a great topic for my first sermon as your interim minister: belonging.
Do I belong here? If you just walked in the door for the first time this morning, or if you’ve been away for a long time, or if you’re just wondering if you belong here. Let’s wonder together.
Most of us, at one point or another, have felt like an outsider.
Most of us, at one point, have felt like an insider.
Most of us know what it feels like to move from being inside a group to outside.
Most of us know what it feels like to move from being outside to in.
The need to belong is a basic human trait. It’s an evolutionary trait left from when those outside a group had less a chance of survival. Belonging meant survival, individually and as a species.
Cultivating belonging remains central to building Beloved Community, a vision popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is a world free from racism, poverty, violence, and hatred—built on justice, compassion, and interconnectedness. Philosopher Josiah Royce used the term earlier, describing an all-embracing unity for the human race. In either vision, Beloved Community is a world where diversity is celebrated, not erased.
A sense of belonging is central to building the kind of community that is strong enough to hold together in the radical ways we demand—for justice, equality, equity, inclusion. But there’s a difference between belonging and feeling you belong. You might belong here, but if we aren’t intentional about sharing that good news, you might not feel it.
BELONGING AND HEALTH
Belonging also shapes our well-being. In The Power of Kindness, Piero Ferrucci notes that people with strong connections enjoy wider support networks and even better health. He cites a study of 334 people who were exposed to the common cold. Those with more meaningful relationships resisted infection better than those with fewer—even more than those who took vitamins or exercised.
Other studies echo this truth: social isolation shortens life expectancy. In a Swedish study of 18,000 people, those who felt isolated were four times more likely to die prematurely. A Finnish study found that people who felt connected to community had two to three times less risk of early death. Heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and lung disease all proved more survivable among those supported by others.
Yet our society prizes independence. I’m not advocating dependence—or codependence—but interdependence. Ferrucci observes that modern habits and technologies, while efficient, often make life colder, less personal. Profit and productivity too often win over warmth and connection.
That isolation only deepens our longing to belong. We need to feel part of something larger than ourselves—something that matters. Connection strengthens us, lets us be seen, defeats loneliness.
The challenge is this: once our own need for belonging is met, we often stop there. That’s why, in church, we intentionally widen the circle. That’s why covenant groups keep an open chair—for the person who hasn’t arrived yet, the stranger not yet a friend. The guests at our tables.
INTO THE WILDERNESS
In our reading this morning, Brene Brown reminds us that belonging isn’t just about braving the wilderness—it’s about becoming the wilderness. Out there, you’re exposed. No barrier, no trail, no protection. In California I’ve encountered bears and rattlesnakes; in Alaska, moose and brown bears; in Japan, giant spiders that looked straight out of The Lord of the Rings. Belonging in human community can feel just as risky. Instead of wild animals, we face old wounds, past rejections, or the challenges of our own neurodiversity. But the risk is worth it.
It takes a community to build community. If you’re a social butterfly, do your thing. If you’re shy, take one small step—like you did walking in today. Most of us are somewhere in between. Know this: your presence matters. I like to say, “Show up half for yourself, and half for the people who need you.”
Brown says that when we break down walls and leave our ideological bunkers, we live from our wild hearts instead of our weary hurts.
And belonging is not just about where, but to whom. This beautiful sanctuary—the Zen garden, the stained glass, the architecture—is the where. But look at the faces around you—familiar, new, friendly, even unsettling. They are the “to whom.” That is where you truly belong.
THE WINGS OF AWAKENING
The Buddha taught that the people to whom you belong are those who will help cultivate enlightenment in your lives. I will end with a little story adapted from the Sambodi Sutta called “Self-awakening” (Anguttara Nikaya 9.1)
There was a time when the Buddha was staying in Jeta’s Grove when monks asked him, “What are the prerequisites for awakening?”
The Buddha replied: “Surround yourself with admirable friends and companions. With such friends you hear teachings that open awareness. You persist in abandoning unskillful qualities and cultivating skillful ones. Awakening begins with the companions on your journey. When you know the power of belonging to such a group, you grow in mindfulness, selflessness, goodwill—and you will be unbound in the here and now.”
Unbound means free. And that freedom begins in Beloved Community.
Eckhart Tolle put it this way: “You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are.”
And so, belonging expands. It’s not just to those in this room, but to our neighbors, our nation, our world. This congregation has been affirming that truth for decades.
I’m not here to teach so much as to remind—to hold up the commitments you already live into. They are what claim your attention. They are where your hearts belong.
It can begin with something as small as a yard of climbing rope, or a smile.
So in this month of “belonging,” let’s do three things:
If you’re new, accept the invitation to belong. I’m new too. Let’s walk the wilderness together.
If you’re not new, let’s deepen our connections. Let’s create the kind of space where belonging is what we naturally offer—where the wilderness feels less frightening.
And together, let’s remember that our work for love and justice enables the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. To live in love.
The divine purpose of the universe: that’s how important you are.