Sermon Illustrations on Belonging and Community

Mephibosheth is Saul's grandson, dropped by his nurse as a child while the household fled, lame in both feet, living in a place called Lo-debar, which means, roughly, no pasture. David sends for him. He arrives expecting the treatment the surviving heir of a former dynasty would normally get, and instead he is given land, servants, and a permanent place at the king's table. The narrator repeats the detail four times: he ate at the king's table, like one of the king's sons. And when he sat there, the table covered his feet.

Ruth's vow is usually read at weddings, which obscures what it is. It is said by a widowed foreigner to her widowed mother-in-law on a road, at the exact moment when the sensible thing is to go home. Orpah does the sensible thing, and the text does not criticise her for it. Ruth binds herself to a person, a people, a God, and a burial plot. Every clause increases the cost, and the last one means she is not planning to leave.

Paul lets the foot make its argument: because I am not the hand, I am not part of the body. It is a reasonable-sounding piece of self-assessment. His answer is not encouragement. It is that the statement is simply false: saying it does not make it so, and the foot does not have the standing to decide the question. Then he turns it round. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Both the person who feels surplus and the person who thinks they are self-sufficient are told they are wrong about the same fact.

The Jerusalem church in Acts 2 met daily, held things in common, sold possessions to meet needs, and ate together with glad and generous hearts. It is worth being honest about what happened next. That community had a serious dispute about food distribution within a few chapters, and Paul spent years afterwards collecting money for a church in Jerusalem that had become poor. The generosity was real. It was not a permanent solution and it was not free of conflict.

The story is told of a minister who visited a man who had stopped coming to church. The man had his defence ready. He was told to sit down, and the minister said nothing, took the tongs, lifted a single burning coal out of the fire, and set it on the hearth. They watched it. It glowed, dimmed, greyed over, and went cold, while the fire a few inches away burned on exactly as before. The minister put the coal back and left without an argument.

Sourcing: This circulates in many versions, attributed to different ministers in different centuries, and no primary source has been identified. The behaviour of a single coal removed from a fire is, however, straightforwardly observable: you can lean on that part without leaning on the anecdote.

There is a difference between a household that can accommodate a guest and a household that expects one. The first finds a chair when someone arrives. The second already has the chair at the table, and it is empty until it is not. The empty chair changes the room. It says the group is not complete, and that somebody is missing rather than that somebody might be added. Most churches are the first kind and describe themselves as the second.

A congregation cannot see itself. Everyone in the building knows where the toilets are, which door is unlocked, what happens at the end, and whether the second half of the notice sheet matters. The only way to find out what a stranger encounters is to have one report back: a friend from another town, someone's adult child, anyone who does not know the codes. They will tell you things nobody who belongs is able to notice.

What is a good illustration about belonging?

Mephibosheth at David's table, with the tablecloth covering his feet: he is seated rather than repaired. For the other direction, a single coal lifted out of a fire shows what happens to a Christian who withdraws, provided you tell it as the preachers' story it is.

Where do preachers find illustrations?

For community, the best material is what your own congregation has actually done for one another. Ask two people for permission to tell their story and you will have something no book can supply.

How many illustrations should a sermon have?

Two or three. One of them should ideally be local, because a sermon on belonging illustrated entirely from other centuries suggests it does not happen here.

Do I need to cite an illustration's source?

Yes. Note also the negative case: the newcomer illustration on this page deliberately avoids quoting a statistic about how fast visitors decide, because the numbers in circulation are unsourced and a fabricated figure would discredit the whole sermon.

How do I preach commitment to people who have been hurt by a church?

Distinguish belonging from compliance. Say plainly that some churches have been unsafe and that leaving one was sometimes right, then preach the body as a place with obligations running in both directions rather than only towards the leadership.

How do I make a small congregation feel like a real community?

Work on the specifics, not the atmosphere. Who is contacted when they miss two Sundays, who eats with whom, and who knows the names of the newest three people. Belonging is built out of that, not out of a sermon series about it.