You may listen to the sermon audio here or read it below.
Lord, may the words of my mouth and the mediation of each heart here before you be acceptable in your sight. Amen.
I have told you stories of our radical hospitality in campus ministry before, but I want to share another one because my students continue to surprise and delight me.
We had one student graduate from UNF this past spring semester. She is one of our most outgoing and talented students, with lots of friends at the university and in the community. She was having a hard time finding a venue for her graduation party, so finally we just decided we would host her party on the final night of Food for Thought on the Tuesday before graduation.
We rented out part of the ballroom, decorated it, and had some incredible lasagna along with traditional Egyptian food that our student’s mom brought in. Around 6:15pm a student hesitantly walked into the room and quietly asked if she was in the right place for Food for Thought. I began to explain that this is a different gathering than usual because we were celebrating Khalifa, our graduate.
I looked over to Khalifa for a cue of some sort to see if she knew her and Khalifa swept her up in a hug, exclaimed “YOU ARE WELCOME HERE!”, and put a plate of food in front of her. No one had ever seen her before, but immediately, she was brought in to be a part of this weird and wonderful community. I don’t know if we will ever see her again, but that night she was fed and loved like she’d been with us for the whole year.
“You are welcome here.” That can be a powerful invitation. In a time when we can find almost anything to divide ourselves up, we seem to insist that we are even more unique than the next person, and we aren’t as good about gathering socially as we once were… “You are welcome here” can be some of the most life giving words we can hear today.
You see, we long to be in community. Despite what people might say about social media, it really is all about belonging. We want to be even more connected in a world that seems so distant and disconnected all the time. We crave a community that understands us and invites us into the real “stuff” of life. We long for people who say, “hey, I’m struggling with that too.” Or “I totally understand what that feels like.” We need that. It’s a part of what makes us human beings. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s right there in the middle— we need love and belonging in order to feel as if our lives have meaning and purpose.
I substitute taught in the middle schools around Jacksonville before I started working here at Redeemer. And wow they taught me a lot about the need and innate desire for belonging.
I remember watching as a group of students debated whether they would play basketball or volleyball. It all revolved around what everyone else wanted to do. No one wanted to be the one to make the decision because no one wanted to be the odd one out— to make the wrong choice.
This doesn’t stop in middle school. The college students I work with are constantly weighing different opportunities on campus with who is attending, how they might be perceived, or if they will be welcomed.
I recently heard a quote from Martin Luther and he’s supposed to have said that we are all mere beggars, going and telling other beggars where we found bread. That’s what campus ministry feels like to me— we are all craving connection and community, and we are all going and telling others where we found it. And that’s exactly how our ministry grows. It’s not me— it’s our students who understand our commitment to hospitality and invite more students to be a part of this relationship.
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Today is Trinity Sunday, and instead of trying to understand the theological implications of the Trinity, we simply need to understand the relational implications of it. And that’s it. Belonging. A belonging so deep and intricate and binding that nothing can separate it. A relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— but also a relationship between God, humanity, and all of creation. The trinity is a relationship that we are invited into.
That’s what makes the truth that we proclaim in this place so different. That’s what makes the gospel so different. When we choose to proclaim this truth— that we are invited into relationship with our God— it can be life changing. That’s what campus ministry does for college students and that’s what this congregation does for the community surrounding it. We open our doors and say, “you are welcome here, we want you here, and God wants you here” because that’s what the gospel says.
And the really remarkable part is that there is no question of whether or not we belong in this community, there is no question about whether someone is in or someone is out. Paul tells us that we are all children of God because, as we heard just last week on Pentecost Sunday, the Spirit was poured out on everyone. Everyone— children, women, men, widows, young, old— there was no discrimination of the Spirit. She poured her power out on to everyone who was gathered, regardless of who they loved, what they looked like, or where they came from.
That’s what makes this community, this relationship, different than anything else in this world. And we don’t quite understand it, do we? It’s almost impossible to wrap our heads around the promise that we are a part of this relationship, fellow dancers in the Trinity… God’s children— and there is truly and simply nothing we can do to change that. Do we believe that?
When we say, “come Holy Spirit,” whether in baptism or in prayers or before communion, we are asking that all of our other identities be washed away. We are asking to be adopted into God’s family. We are asking for a new reality, a new creation to overtake this one.
As we invite the Spirit into our lives, into this community, into our colleges and universities, the Spirit is inviting us into the relationship of the Trinity— the relationship that turns the whole world inside out and upside down. The relationship that heals the sick, and comforts the crying, lifts up the poor, and casts down the rich.
We are invited into this incredible relationship and we are called to go out into the world and tell them where we found it. We are all beggars, telling other beggars where we found bread. Amen.
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