Fitting in Sermon by Kimberly Cole

This is a sermon I wrote for Graduate Sunday, on May 21st at UMC Rancho Cordova. Scripture reference is Romans 12:1-8.

Fitting In….
In the next few weeks students in college, high school, junior high, elementary school, and even kindergarten will be preparing to start a new phase in their lives… they will be leaving the comforts of friends, familiar settings, friendly faces and going to something new and exciting. Once again as society has been for years, the high schoolers and younger will want to be able to fit in, to be accepted to be one of the crowd. The college graduates and high school graduates…. It’s a whole new world to fit into. Yet it’s not just the graduates and school kids that look to fit in, it’s everyone. Everyone, at any time, or any place, is on a journey; and they are seeking a place to fit in, to feel at home, to feel free to be themselves. We seek new jobs to find happiness in the workplace, we seek hobbies to connect with others who share our passions, and we are all seeking a stronger connection in faith through fellowship and worship. Yet there are barriers, no jobs available, unaffordable dues for clubs, no men allowed, no teens allowed, no women allowed, you have to be a parent, you have to have a certain disease, you have to be straight…. The list goes on. It’s like being in fourth grade again being picked for the dodgeball team and you’re the last one standing alone. Sad thing is, all of these things have happened in churches; it’s like we have to be something to some one. We have to be these cookie cutter people with lots of money to fill the coffers with voices of angels to fill the choir loft, and the children are silently tucked away in the nursery and the elders are silent in their pews. Yet someone is forgetting who made this all possible, who said we don’t have to fit in, that we can be ourselves and be loved and accepted no matter who we are, and how old we are.

We seem to forget about Jesus. As Christians we have been taught to practice acceptance in all aspects of our lives, not just between 9 til noon on Sunday. We leave the gravel of our parking lot and leave Jesus standing where we were parked looking out at us with a look of bewilderment on his face that says, “What about me? Doesn’t anything I say matter?” We go back to our jobs and ignore the new person in the cubicle next to us, we go home and disconnect from our loved ones, and go back to the school yard to bully the weak and tease the less fortunate….. Our faith wavers, our hearts waver, and we find ourselves sleeping in on Sundays, making excuses to just drop the kids off. We become less prayerful, less thankful, less joyful. We wonder why all of a sudden the world seems ugly, violent, and unforgiving; our hearts begin to break, depression sets in. I know from personal experience how painful the disconnection can be. I disconnected myself for almost eight years. I felt like I didn’t fit in anywhere; then God stepped in and sent me someone to bring me back. I stepped into this chapel and I was home. Everything that I feared was gone. I didn’t have to pretend to be anything, I didn’t have to be perfect. I just had to be me. In the book “Wicked”, a story about the early days of the Wicked Witch of the West, our author paints a picture of a young girl that is an outcast; not because she is mean , but because she is, well, green. Her college roommate “Galenda” makes it her mission to make her “Popular” by dressing her up, giving her a makeover, yet she is still green. (Play music clip of Popular). Have you ever tried to “fix” someone to suit you? Tried to encourage them to dress differently, act differently, all because they didn’t fit into your standards? Life could have been a lot easier if you would have just accepted them for who they were, and you could have celebrated your differences rather than scorn them. Could you imagine what that would be like that if everyone practiced that in their daily lives? There would be kids who would enjoy going to school, work environments would be more peaceful and productive, and families would blossom and flourish. Yeah, what alternative universe am I living in? The one that Jesus painted for us in the Bible, and in the scriptures that were read earlier; 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Every morning we wake up God gives a chance to start over again, without having to go through the pains of school, exams and what not; we don’t have to chant or shave our heads and leave our families. Are we blessed or what? And it’s true, we just have to accept it. For some of us it’s hard, and we have to do it on our own time. No one can do it for us. Yet it applies to all of us, young and old, happy or sad, content or pessimistic. Jesus ate with the lepers and sinners and yet we have a hard time volunteering to help cook meals and host the homeless. Jesus befriended Mary Magdeline and accepted her as she was; yet some have difficulties befriending the new, letting in the circle. Yes, Jesus had a circle…. It is in the shape of the world, and is infinite in time. If you ever think you don’t fit in, know that you do, you are that missing piece in God’s heart and you fit perfectly in. Every time, just as you are.