They say the converts are the most zealous. I’m a convert. I wanted to be self-reliant and act like I don’t need anyone. I have been converted to community. I tried to secure my ever-narrowing circle and say that “These are my people.” When I looked around, it was just me. Lonely. Afraid of the wider world.

I spoke before how I was angry and isolated in 8th grade. What got me out of my isolation was a potent combination of basketball, Power of the Pen, and the 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. We were a small school, so we went on the trip with the two other Catholic schools from Dover and New Phila. I heard that there was a new student from Colombia. I had no idea where that was.

His name was Mao. He had just moved here to be with his mom. Mao couldn’t speak much English and I didn’t know much Spanish. We some how ended up sitting next to one another on the bus and we noticed each others sketchbooks. We spent the time drawing funny comics and then exchanging the Spanish and English words for what we were drawing.

I come from a family who doesn’t like “Mexicans.” Mao would be labeled “Mexican” if we would have saw him on the street. But there was a connection there that busted my prejudice and collapsed my categories.

Mao and I were best friends all through high school. He’s now down in Brazil, and we still keep in touch and his artwork is on my wall. He opened my world up. We both liked similar music. We love art. He introduced me to Dali and the surrealists. He loved M.C. Escher.

There was an instant connection that I can’t explain. When I took him to the YMCA camp down the road to ride horses, one counselor asked, “Do you always finish each other’s sentences?” We were just on each another’s wavelength.

Because of Mao, I’m a better person. I try to find connection instead of playing the “are you in my box?” game. Because living things don’t belong in boxes.

I set up these categories in my brain to keep me safe, but I must die to those. I’m talking categories that are a No-True Scotsman fallacy. No-True Scotsman is a logical fallacy that shows how we love to move the goal line. The fallacy goes like this: “No True Scotsman wears a blue kilt!”
“Well, my grandpa from Edinburgh wore a blue kilt.”

“Then he’s not a true Scotsman because he wears a blue kilt, and no true Scotsman wears a blue kilt.”

There are categories that keep us safe, like looking both ways before crossing the street, not touching a hot oven, and getting vaccinated. Those are proven by the scientific method. But in the realm of identity, there’s a lot more leeway than we might suspect.

I know because I’m a convert to community and converts are the most zealous. A lot of my categories had to die. Just like a grain of wheat has to die to produce more wheat. We can walk through life with a clenched fist, resisting being open… but it’s the openness that creates life. Produces more wheat, more grain.

My world is bigger because Mao is in it. It prepared me well for when I met Leo.

Leo was my best customer when I was in sales in Washington, D.C. Not only a customer, but a good friend. He taught me the basics of soccer. We kicked the ball around one warm spring morning in a park. Leo is from Costa Rica. His laid-back attitude really blessed me and helped me put things in perspective. He’s the reason I like good coffee. He introduced me to authentic Costa Rican coffee and explained the different blends and styles to me.

We shared life together. One time he invited me to lunch. He gave a cryptic invite and added, “Hey amigo, you know my wife is from Peru, right? And you know what they say about Peruvians?”

“I have no idea what they say about Peruvians.” I said.

“They are fiery and like order! It’s why we’re a good couple. My pura vida balances out her OCD.” He took me to this industrial part of town, to this really dumpy looking place. Yet the inside was amazing. It was an authentic Peruvian restaurant. There he introduced me to seviche, an amazing dish. I learned about Peru and Costa Rica. Coffee and seviche.

What did Leo learn? My company had Washington Capitals tickets right on center ice. Leo said he had never watched hockey before. So we went down to a game. The first period, Leo and his wife flinched. It can be intimidating when you’re right on the glass, and it’s your first game. After the first period ended, I asked what he thought.

“Wait, this is like soccer on ice with sticks!”

The next two periods Leo and his wife were pounding on the glass and yelling. It was awesome! Such a transformation. He’s a huge Capitals’ fan to this day.

Everything old is new again. In this time of distance, I’m learning the importance of connection and community. As I reflect on my journey of life, I’m surprised about how far I’ve come. How many folks enrich my life. People like Protestants. That was a category of folks I didn’t hang around with. People my family used call “Mexican” even though they were from Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru. Those were categories of folks I didn’t hang around with. People who like classical music and play the organ. Those were categories of folks I didn’t hang around with. In each instance, I’m better for it.

Jesus today is talking of his death. Some gentiles approach his disciples, and they play a game of telephone. Gentiles to Philip, Philip to Andrew, Andrew to Jesus. And then Jesus rants about dying grains of wheat and stuff.

I take this to mean that Jesus is tired of playing telephone. Did you catch that? That’s funny. I love that opening to today’s scripture. God came directly to us. He was a brown-skinned Palestinian Jew in the context of the first century. He was from a poor family, born in a barn. He was particular… yet he was also universal! He came and hung out with all the wrong people. He gathered 12 disciples from all walks of life: fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, women, those who were demon-possessed, infirm, Jew and Gentile and Samaritan. Jesus is all about going to everybody, he will draw all people to himself. Yet people are still playing that old game, and instead of going direct, they play telephone. The Good News is that everyone can go direct to God, no need for telephone. Each of us is connected to the divine.

The Trinity shows us that God is relationship. Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost, one with the other in perichoresis, the dance with one another that makes them one. The Rev. Stephanie Spellers puts it this way, “That relational quality propels God into creation, where God yearns for relationship with us all and draws us beyond our barriers and into relationship with one another.”

People I didn’t think I had anything to do with became my best friends. I used to want people to say all the right words, like all the same stuff, look like me before I’d risk relationship with them. That’s the old thinking. I have a different approach now. I think it’s all about the approach. The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brill from Avon Lake UCC reminded me of St Patrick’s approach. There were other missionaries to Ireland before him but he was the most successful. He was successful because the other missionaries came and said, “Live like this! Dress like this! Speak Latin!” Pretty much change everything about yourself before you become a Christian. Like Jesus, St Patrick did the opposite. He served without making demands. He would recognize that parents needed prayers about being patient, so that’s what St Patrick did. He learned about local customs and blessed the people. Both Jesus and St. Pat realized this core truth: “Belonging comes before belief.”

I had it backwards for so long. I recognized that I belonged somehow to Mao and Leo. That I belonged somehow to Kate. That I belonged somehow to the UCC. In that belonging, I’m seeing how so many things I thought were in separate boxes are connected. I’m a convert to community and converts are the most zealous.

When I first arrived here, a group of you approached me and talked about how you built homes in Nosara, Costa Rica. Medina and Nosara. Who would have thought those two categories belonged together. But they do! You’ve built or supported the building of over 15 homes. At least one a year since 2008, two houses from 2013 on. You’ve partnered with the ministry of Mercy Homes. You’ve blessed the families… worked and sweated and hit your fingers with hammers side-by-side. You’ve sent youth groups every 4 years who come back brimming with excitement. We do a lot of work locally with feeding our Garfield families and working closely with our local mission partners. We’re also global. For some folks, this is their first experience outside the borders of our great land. And they find connection there. They find new stories, new people, and that the beloved community of God is within and among them even in Costa Rica.

When Jesus is lifted up from the earth, he will draw all people to him. Of course! Of course! Because it’s baked right in. It’s at the subatomic level. Particles in relationship together that form a community that is an atom. Atoms in community that form larger and large compounds. Those compounds in community that form larger and larger communities of communities that make up… US. And pulpits. And paper. And microphones. And streaming services brought to you by the internet and social media. On a planet hurling through space in the gravitational orbit of a star which itself is moving in a larger galaxy.

It’s all connected! It’s all here. Everything old is new again when we take a step and consider how it’s all connected. Julian of Norwich is a Christian mystic who said she saw the whole universe in a hazel nut. How it’s all connected and God’s hands are protecting and guiding it.

In her book, Reflections of Divine love, she states, “And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.”
That’s a foundational truth. If it’s true of a hazel nut, then it’s true of us. We are made. We are loved. We are kept.

Whether in Medina or Nosara. Whether we’re together in the church building or together as the church body. In real time or streaming. At prayer. At work. At home.

Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on the journey of life, you’re welcome here. For when truth is lifted up, it shall draw all people to it.
For us, Christ is the truth. And we can get along with those who find the truth of their tradition for we pray well with others. We can get along with those who love science, for it’s showing what we have known all along. We are made. We are loved. And we are kept.

I believe this to be true. I didn’t use to. Or I believed it only half-heartedly. Now I’m really passionate about it. Helping to build this community I’ve discovered here in Medina and telling the world and bringing my best self to it. I’m a convert, and converts are the most zealous.

I don’t want to sound too pushy, but for your response, maybe you can donate some funds towards the Costa Rica mission trip. We can’t physically go down and build a house this year, but the Costa Rica team wants to send funds down so our mission partners and friends can build a home on our behalf. I hope you’ll prayerfully consider. Or that you’ll reach out like Dorie Christy did. She shared on our Wednesday Night Zoom Call how she reached out to a friend who is a refugee from Aleppo, Syria. She caught up with the family who are all doing well and the youngest who was 4 is now in residency to become a doctor. Or you’ll reach out to an old friend like my mother in-law Constance did and catch up.

Time, talent, and treasure. Welcoming, loving, serving. An open approach to life where belonging comes before believing. A way of life that lifts Christ up and all people are drawn here. I am so passionate about this. I think that’s what the UCC stands for. I believe this to be true and it’s how I interpret everything. I didn’t used to. I converted. And I invite you to this way of life. But it’s your choice. I don’t want to force you because… I know that converts can be the most zealous. If you can’t quite get there, then I’ll be UCC enough for both of us. We’ll keep meeting and sharing our stories.