Welcome to the Family - Belonging (Part 1 of 4 focused on Disney's Encanto)

Psalm 139: 1 – 18, Luke 10: 38 – 42

The good news of the gospel is told throughout scripture in stories. Jesus used stories to teach. Stories that are both timeless and time bound, that is to say that they can have meaning beyond their original context AND that we need to consider them in the context from which they originated. When we hear or tell a story, we are processing our experience – our physical, emotional, intellectual, and social experience – by recounting a moment. Stories are a representation of reality bent through the prism of our lives, not an accurate reflection of the reality the represent.

 

I used to have a pastor who would excitedly report about every movie  - I just saw (fill in the blank,) and it is all about Jesus. It got to be such a familiar report that we always knew it was coming. 

 

But here’s the thing. When you are centered in the good news that God is love and you are God’s beloved creation, a LOT of stories will remind us of God the creator, or Jesus the rabbi and connector, or the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and creativity. 

 

And if we believe in God’s creativity and power, who’s to say a story we see on the big screen can’t speak into our lives. This summer, I’ve been swimming in Disney’s Encanto – first because we used it as a central planning theme for a week at summer camp with adolescent girls, but also because when I had COVID, I spent three days on the couch soaking up movies that I love. This was one of them.

 

Here's the synapsis from Disney in case you are unfamiliar with the story:
“Encanto” tells the tale of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live hidden in the mountains of Colombia, in a magical house, in a vibrant town, in a wondrous, charmed place called an Encanto. The magic of the Encanto has blessed every child in the family with a unique gift from super strength to the power to heal—every child except one, Mirabel. But when she discovers that the magic surrounding the Encanto is in danger, Mirabel decides that she, the only ordinary Madrigal, might just be her exceptional family’s last hope.

 

I also must confess that in a conversation with our Messy Church leadership team this week, I shared that I’m not really sure I am a “series” preacher – or more specifically, I feel really called to follow the lectionary rather than choose my own texts most of the time. I feel like the revised common lectionary, a three year cycle of readings that cover the broad expanse of scripture, is a pathway that shapes my experience as a beloved child of God and as your pastor. And so it tickled my heart this week to turn to the lectionary text from the Gospel of Luke and realize it actually spoke to me as I considered the magic of this story Encanto. We’ll see whether and how the lectionary plays out in weeks to come. I wonder what the Holy Spirit might be up to?

 

Key to the beauty of Encanto is the struggling of young Mirabel, an adolescent girl who is singled out in her family as “the one” who did not receive a gift at her “coming of age” ceremony. Over the course of the first part of the story, we get glimpses of Mirabel’s memory of that day – her beloved, firm and strong Abuela preparing her to walk up to the magical doorway to receive her gift, assuring her that, “whatever gift awaits will be just as special as you.” 

 

We then see the sad moment when Mirabel reaches for the magic door that will reveal her gift only to see the doorway disappear, leaving Mirabel presumably “ungifted” and based on Abeula’s understanding, perhaps “unspecial,” too.

 

From there, we see current day Mirabel cheerfully leading children through her village as she tells of her amazing family. The children listen with great interest to the litany of gifts by family member while they also demand to know Mirabel’s gift.

 

She ducks their questions about her gift, distracts them, recounts the family gifts in ever greater detail…and finally cousin Dolores, whose gift is miraculous hearing from great distances, overhears the children’s question and reveals to the kids that Mirabel didn’t receive a gift.

 

Embarrassed, Mirabel goes on to say to the children that she is just as special as the rest of her family …and one of the children responds, “Maybe your gift is being in denial.”

 

Ouch.

 

Then as the big day approaches for youngest cousin Antonio’s gift to be revealed, Abuela shuns Mirabel’s efforts to help with preparations because she doesn’t have a unique gift to contribute to the work.

 

Another ouch.

 

Even as all of this is unfolding, we glimpse Mirabel’s way with children, we see how Mirabel helps her younger cousin Antonio with whom she’s shared the nursery until his coming of age.  We see how Mirabel’s parents dote on her and try to protect her from Abuela’s barbs and cross words. We see Mirabel’s heart.

 

From the perspective of the viewer of this story, we can see how Mirabel does belong to this family and community – even when she and Abuela cannot see it.

 

Psychology Today describes belonging and its vital importance this way:

Belonging means acceptance as a member or part. Such a simple word for a huge concept. A sense of belonging is a human need, just like the need for food and shelter. Feeling that you belong is most important in seeing value in life and in coping with intensely painful emotions.

 

The desire to belong is real and natural and we have all experienced it. The people around us can help us feel like we belong or they can help us to feel quite the opposite.

 

Mirabel believes that belonging must be tied to her abilities, her gifts, the things she does or is capable of – where the understanding of ability is also comparative to those family members around her.

Abuela seems to fall into that way of thinking, too.

 

In our gospel passage this week, you heard an often repeated story from Luke about Jesus dining in the home of friends. While he is there teaching, Mary sits at his feet and listens. Martha is busy making sure that he and his entourage are fed, and that all of the tasks of hospitality are done. In her frustration, she asks Jesus to tell Mary to help with the work, and Jesus responds with a bit of a scolding. He tells Marth that Mary, sitting at his feet, has focused on the right things.

 

I read a blogpost this week that functioned kind of as midrash, reading between and behind the lines of the text. It was an imagined dialogue between Martha and Jesus after that incident. Martha was feeling hurt by Jesus’ scolding and she tells him privately about that hurt. Jesus took a moment to explain why he had praised Mary’s act and then went on to name his appreciation for Martha’s caregiving and hospitality.

 

I realize this reflection isn’t scripture, but it helps me to remember that Jesus, while fully divine, was also fully human – and I assume sometimes he hurt people’s feelings and sometimes he had to make amends. Sometimes he had to clarify what he said…because that is what it means to be a human in relationship. And it is safe to assume that those interactions were not recorded as gospel.

 

I found myself this week laying Abuela’s hurtful words to Mirabel alongside Jesus scolding Martha. Do we sometimes to make belonging conditional? Do we rank the ways that people belong by some expectation or standard that is ours and not necessarily of God?

 

Each week in worship we hear these words:

We are a reconciling community within the United Methodist tradition, seeking to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, and also seeking to invite others who need a place to belong in community, become followers of Christ, and believe the Good News of the Gospel. As we are transformed, we are called to be love.

 

As I said in yesterday’s Finding Faith Online email, I have felt the first three steps of that movement – belong, become and believe – as God’s call for this community at 6810 Montrose from the moment I was called here. 

 

How is it that we are a place where people can belong – a place where people are accepted just as they are as part of a bigger thing – a thing that is bigger and better because of all the different folks who belong? A place where people can see their place in the picture and feel seen and important even as they wrestle with the complicated things of life? A place where people know that they are beloved of God, no matter what?

 

Do we belong here at Faith because of what we can and cannot do?

Or do we belong because people know us, nurture and encourage us, embrace us? 

 

Today, we had the privilege of committing to Patsy’s belonging in God’s big family – a family where everyone belongs. We may not be the weekly presence that surrounds her as she grows and becomes, but we have committed to stand with her in prayer, to be a source of nurture and growth. And others have made those same commitments to each of us – so that we will know our belovedness to God and to the Kin-dom of God.

 

Thank you for being a place of belonging. Let’s keep imagining how God is calling us more deeply into that work, day by day. In the movie, before Antonio walks up the stairs to get his special gift, Abuela asks him to promise to use his gift “to serve this community and strengthen their hope.” 

 

In our baptism covenant, the charge to the congregation is to “do all in your power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love.” 

 

The work of being a place of belonging is vital. 

May we do that work with intention and love and grace.

Amen.