Beginnings: Longing to Belong is a ten-week study that explores the importance of community in the Christian faith, using fire as its central metaphor. Each session includes a meal, a video presentation, and a small-group discussion. The study can be used as part of the Beginnings series or as a stand-alone program. Around the Fire is a book that explores the themes and topics of Beginnings: Longing to Belong in greater depth. It includes a Bible story that is the springboard for each week's session, additional Scripture references, and supplemental illustrations that expand upon the basic presentation. Beginnings: Longing to Belong is the third installment in the Beginnings study series, which includes: -Beginnings: An Introduction to Christian Faith -Beginnings: The Spiritual Life -Beginnings: Longing to Belong

Beginnings - Longing to Belong Participant's Companion

Around the FireBy Andy Langford

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2008 The United Methodist Publishing House
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-687-65012-5

Chapter One

Longing to Belong?

Introduction

"The soul hardly ever realizes it, but ... loneliness is really a homesickness for God." Hubert Van Zeller

SPIRITUAL HUNGER

In my former book [The Gospel According to Luke], Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit....

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight....

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken....

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized." ... Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 1:1-9; 2:1-41, excerpts)

HOMESICKNESS

Mark recalls: When I was in my early thirties, I studied at a school in Germany for almost two years. I lived alone, and my research in the library was a solitary pursuit. I was sometimes lonely and often felt at least a twinge of homesickness. I found solace listening to a homeless street performer named Terry. Terry spent his days on the old stone bridge that I walked across on my way to the university. Every afternoon I would listen to Terry play American folk songs and would feel a nostalgic pull toward home. Terry was a remarkable talent. Even though his voice sounded as if he had just gargled a handful of gravel, he knew how to work a crowd. He began with upbeat songs, singing with enthusiasm and grinning his toothless smile at everyone who passed by. Although he had not bathed in weeks, Terry was utterly charming. Crowds swelled around him. Young mothers forgot their caution, allowing shy children to drop coins furtively in his open guitar case while bolder ones danced around his feet. With the skill of a consummate performer, Terry would gradually slow the pace of his repertoire and take us to a deeper, more introspective place. Terry always ended with his signature piece: Bob Dylan's classic, "Like a Rolling Stone." When this homeless man sang about living without roots or a place to call home, the crowd was stilled. It seemed irreverent to walk by or to toss money in his case. We knew instinctively that with this song, Terry was singing, not for us, but for himself. And yet, Terry was still singing about us. Homelessness is not just about where someone sleeps at night. Our homesickness is a condition of the soul—a dislocation of our hearts from the heart of God, a disconnection from the hearts of one another. Looking back, I now realize that I was not the only person on that bridge looking for a place to connect. In our own way, all of us were there searching for a home.

We find our home wherever we feel affirmed for who we really are and wherever we can learn to accept others with no strings attached. This means that what we call "home" is actually the experience of true community. Home is not just our childhood house or the town where we grew up. Home is more than just a place on a map. It is the assurance that we have a place in the heart of God and in the hearts of those people who love us.

When this kind of redemptive community is missing from our lives, we feel a nagging sense of loss, a deep longing to belong to something bigger than ourselves. In a Walker Percy novel, a character named Will Barrett is having a heated conversation with his psychologist, Dr. Scanlon:

"Something is wrong, Scanlon."

"What is it, Will?"

"I'm homesick."

"How long have you been homesick?"

"All my life."

WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME

Today, many of us feel like Will. We live in an increasingly mobile society where people are constantly pulling up roots, a fast-paced, demanding world where few find the time or energy to connect with each other. Generations ago, most people lived in close-knit neighborhoods where friends gathered on the front porch or at the town square to share the important events of their lives. Now the front porch has been replaced with the privacy of a back deck. The neighborhood has become a gated community. The town square has dissolved into suburbs of strangers. As a result, we are more likely to cocoon in our homes pursuing solitary activities: gaming on personal computers, listening to private play lists on our iPods, and ordering movies from our living room. These lifestyle changes have combined to turn us into isolated individuals, struggling to make it on our own.

Mark recalls: When I was in college, nobody went out or studied on Thursday night. We all gathered around the television to watch the most popular show of the decade. This show featured a group of misfits: an unemployed and overweight wisecracker, an insecure mailman, a middle-aged graduate student, a hardened single mom, and a washedup baseball player. Somehow—almost miraculously—all these people who could not fit in anywhere else found a home in a Boston pub called Cheers. I think the reason that college students loved Cheers was that we were also struggling to find our place. We were not so much missing our old homes; we were trying to make a new one where we were. The yearning we felt was expressed in the Cheers theme song:

"Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name."

THE PERILS OF ISOLATION

"The virtuous soul that is alone ... is like a lone burning coal. It will grow colder rather than hotter." John of the Cross

We all need a place to call home, a community where we can really connect. When this is missing from...