But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  (Galations 5: 22-23)

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  (Ephesians 4: 1-3)

The other night, our brains being way too tired to much of anything else, Hugh and I turned on the TV and just slouched on the couch with our feet up on the coffee table.  Hugh picked what we were going to watch, and it was an episode of The Simpsons.  I quite like this cartoon even though I’m not a big cartoon fan.  I like it because they usually deal quite sensitively with issues of faith and church, and because of their often hilariously recognizable portrayal of Ned Flanders, the Christian who lives next door and lives a life of such rigid faithfulness that he rivals Rev. Lovejoy in his faithfulness.  I also like how they support Lisa Simpson’s faith as a Buddhist, and Homer and Bart Simpson’s reluctant church adherence.  The show can be irreverent and crass at times, but usually its for a purpose, and it deals quite honestly with issues of ethics and morality.

The episode that we watched was completely in keeping with this whole thing, and story line had Marge Simpson, stage managing a community theatre production, that she cajoled Homer into auditioning for, and Homer, in his total lack of skill, still managed to get a pretty significant part.  Believe it or not, this isn’t the part of the show that I found most riveting, even though I can tell you that any guy who just ‘shows up’ for a Community Musical Theatre audition, and can sing in tune (or mostly in tune), will land a part.  Women, I’m sorry, but you either need to be Kristin Chenoweth, or you need to be related to someone on the production team (and yes, that is an exaggeration, but really not that much!).

Any way…..as is often the custom with Community Theatre, the cast goes out for drinks after rehearsal, leaving Marge behind, as the Stage Manager, to clean up and close up the theatre.  Marge, who puts her heart and soul into the theatre, but not on stage, is treated as if she’s invisible by the cast, and is ‘left behind’ to do the scut work.

In the middle of the episode, I remarked to Hugh that the show was verging on painful in its accuracy.  You see, there have been many places, where I have put my heart and soul into, that I have been treated like I’m invisible or as someone who ‘doesn’t belong’.  And yes, I know, that I am myself; a unique and remarkable Creation, but I also know that sometimes my ‘uniqueness’ means that I am viewed as if I’m not part of the group, or as if I simply have faded too much into the background.  And as much as I’m am comfortable with who I am, those experiences leave an indelible mark on my soul.  Now, its important that you recognize that yes, this has happened to me in Community Theatre, and has meant that I get very uncomfortable in those settings, but also that this has happened to me in a myriad of other settings; church, work, other clubs and so on.

And here’s the kicker.  I have heard so many stories from people around me to know that this experience is universal.  All of us are on a quest to find our ‘peeps’; the places we know that we belong and that we are seen.  And those places are rare, but increasingly important.

They’re important, because the places where we belong, where we are seen, and where we have community; those are the places where we can become fully ourselves.

I’ve thought about this a lot this week, because we have heard a lot of stories of people’s mental health derailing in quite public and catastrophic ways.  We all heard in horror about the bus driver that drove his bus into a daycare and killed two children seemingly deliberately.  We were on an afternoon of ‘Shelter in Place’ yesterday for what were confusing and alarming reports of weapons and violence.  We have heard of young teenagers swarming random adults on the TTC, seemingly for no gain at all except the adrenalin rush of aggression.

At a conference that I went to last fall, one of the speakers reminded us that “Self-care takes place in Community”.  I was really couldn’t understand what she was saying at the time, but after a whole lot of thinking and pondering it – I’ve come to this as a conclusion:

We need each other.  Not only that, but we need to be in places where we are ‘seen’, are included and are respected.  Because its only in these places where we can become fully ourselves; fully who God has created us to be.  But (and of course there’s a ‘but’), these places of community, need to be places where we treated each other with the ‘fruits of the Spirit’ as described in the Galatians passage.  Places where we ‘bear each other in love’, for the purpose of ‘unity’ of the whole, not for the elevation of the individual.

And I know, my dear Bethel friends, that this is something that we’re pretty good at.  That’s why I often refer to you as my ‘peeps’.  So, I think for us, we need to do two things:  1) look around, and make sure we aren’t overlooking anyone because they are quiet, or unable to be in church on Sunday, or because who they are seems different from us and 2) expand our circle a little bit at a time, so that others outside of our community can experience the welcome and wholeness that we all enjoy.  I really believe, in this day and age, that Community is the only place that people can become fully themselves, and fully who God has created them to be.

And yes – you are my ‘peeps’.

Blessings today and remember you are Loved.

~Rev. Lynne