All The Lonely People, Where Do They Belong?-Based On John 14:15-21

I was reminded of one of the most morose songs this week after reading the lectionary and some of you might know it. Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles is one of the most depressing songs looking at lonely people, even asking the question “where do they all belong.” There are two main characters in the song, Eleanor Rigby who we can assume is an older woman without much of a life in front of her, or behind her for that much. She may even be destitute in the sense that she is picking up the rice after a wedding and then returning to an empty home. Father McKenzie is the minister of the church where he must have spent a lot of time, but he is a man who lacks faith as the song says he is “writing a sermon that nobody will hear.” “What does he care?” Eleanor Rigby dies and is only left with her name in the church yard, nobody came to the service, and Father McKenzie presided and didn’t even save her. He wiped the dirt off his hands and walked away. All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

According to Christ, they belong in communion with believers who are willing to give them a new life and a new beginning. However, there are many here among us that are very much like Father McKenzie in that we lack the faith, or even the obedience to try to make a difference in the lives of others. We have the tendency to wipe our hands clean and walk away from the grave of someone we don’t even know and return to our own lives of mediocrity. Of all the lonely people in the world, Father McKenzie could have easily reached out to the poor lonely woman picking up rice off the front of the church. He didn’t. Did Father McKenzie know Eleanor Rigby, or did he just walk past her as an aloof man of God? How do you go through life and look at all the lonely people and not do something about it? Where do you think they belong? More importantly, are you reaching the lonely people? Are we as a church reaching all the lonely people?

How many of you realize that Sunday is the loneliest time of the week? While many people are in houses of worship with family and friends, there are still others at home in bed alone. They may not be physically alone, but they are in a state of loneliness from a spiritual perspective. Many people may be alone by choice, or because the church has abandoned them in one way or another. Still others, come to houses of worship trying to reach out for connections, but are denied because the house of worship has become a social club befit with stature and outrageous comparisons of status. Sometimes church conversations swirl around lunchtime reservations, business meetings, and church finances; and yet there is a desperate soul or two waiting to be embraced and welcomed back into the family. How do we reach out to those in this world without Christ in them?

The first thing we need to do is take a good look at ourselves and find out if we are guilty of keeping Christ all to ourselves. Are we so wrapped up in the our world that we are so selfish to share the love of Christ with others? Are we not willing to sacrifice our initial plans to spend a little extra time with someone who needs to know Christ’s love a little more? I will be the first to admit that I have a hard time approaching people new to the congregation. Julie (my fiance) is the extroverted half that I never had, and she has helped me meet people and made me feel comfortable. There have been times where I will visit churches out of town and hear amazing messages, but the minister and his flock don’t have one minute to share. That is not the kind of church that Christ set forth. In I John 2:3-5, “3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.”

Being alone also implies that the church cannot keep to itself and wax about how good things will be when Jesus returns. We must stand up and have faith in the teachings while we are here. There is a vast wealth of knowledge that we as a body of believers can share with others. We can share the need to love one another, helping a neighbor, being peacemakers in times of conflict, and so many other nuggets of greatness. Whether or not we live those, can only be determined by those we are trying to minister to. We cannot become so lazy with our faith and simply use it when the chips are down. Our faith is an ever evolving and ever changing part of being a Christian. Max Lucado makes the point that “faith with no effort, is no faith at all.” Using your faith out of convenience is not the way to live. Cars, dishwashers, cable TV, and Starbucks are things of convenience, but not your faith.

The last point I want to emphasize this evening is that as long as you believe Christ is in your heart, Christ is always with you. Christ may have left us in the physical sense, but the spirit is always with us even as we go throughout the life we are blessed with. We are interconnected with our faith, our spirit and everyone around us. When we look at other people, remembering that they too were created in the image of God is important in reaching out to someone who is lost. We also need to help the people who are lost realize they are not lost after all, but they are searching for Christ in all the wrong things. People search for Christ in the loneliest of places. Places like nightclubs, house parties, bars, and even houses of prostitution. There are many folks in our lives that we haven’t even met that are searching aimlessly for Christ in all the wrong places.

I continue to be involved in the personal security world (on a really part time basis), but it started out in a bar in Soulard for me. In the year after graduating from college, I needed a second job to help get my feet on the ground and to move out of my mom’s house. So I became a bouncer for a saloon in the "wilds" of Soulard. This world of being able to determine who was "in" and who was "out" almost gave me a messianic complex, in that I was able to allow people into this popular venue, or send them home miserable. As time went on, I noticed a pattern every weekend. The same people came to the bar and they sat in the same place, ordered the same drinks, and had the same conversations. This is the most depressing situation I had ever been around, but I realized that these people were seeking something greater in their lives, but didn’t know where to find it. Oddly enough, there was a church right across the street from the saloon, but none of the parishioners ministered to the patrons. Now that same church has been closed due to a lack of attendance.

Are we able to save everyone, of course not! I would much rather us reach out to the Eleanor Rigby’s in this world, and not be like Father McKenzie. There is no reason for us to keep the faith to ourselves. Go out on a limb, because that is where the fruit is. Like camels, Christians unload their baggage on their knees. Reach out to those lonely people, because unfortunately John Lennon and Paul McCartney didn’t know about Dover Place Christian Church. This is where all the lonely people belong, who cares where they come from?