United Methodist Church Westlake Village

From "I Am a Rock" to "We Are Family": A Spiritual Journey

• United Methodist Church Westlake Village

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Have you ever found yourself proudly declaring, "God and I are good on our own" only to discover the painful limitations of spiritual isolation? This soul-stirring journey explores the transformation from fierce independence to the healing embrace of community faith.

The path begins with childhood church wounds and a Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack—"I am a rock, I am an island"—as spiritual self-sufficiency becomes both armor and prison. When cancer strikes, that carefully constructed independence crumbles in the face of fear and uncertainty. The contrast between facing a life-threatening diagnosis alone versus surrounded by church family becomes the powerful "tale of two scans" that reveals how deeply we need each other.

Through authentic vulnerability, this message examines the complications of church-as-family without glossing over the hard parts. Yes, spiritual communities can wound us. Yes, some relationships require boundaries (Romans 12:18). But the gradual quieting of fear that comes through genuine connection cannot be found in isolation. As we learn to receive support as readily as we offer it, something profound shifts in our spiritual landscape.

Whether you're a committed church member, a spiritual nomad, or someone nursing old religious wounds, this vulnerable story offers a compassionate invitation to reconsider what it truly means to be the church rather than merely attend church. Perhaps the family of faith—messy and imperfect as it is—might be exactly what your journey needs right now. Take a moment to reflect: Where might God be inviting you into deeper community, and what first step could you take today?

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Linda Northrup:

Of course. When Pastor Darren said I want to get you up there one more time before you leave, I blithely said sure, I'm always as intrigued by the development of the things that I preach as anyone else, because I start out with the bad first draft and then God helps with the editing process. So I enjoy it as much for what I learn as for what I'm able to share. Then I started looking at the circumstances. Oh, it's my last Sunday worshiping regularly with this group of people no pressure there. And oh, it's Pentecost Sunday, okay. And then, as I was watching the news yesterday and it feels like the world is falling apart and division is overwhelming peace, joy and unity. Well, it's New Member Sunday, just to top that off, and I want to start with a musical reference. As you all know, I often do God throws these songs in my head and I just feel like I have to use them. So, in the iconic words of Sister Sledge, we are family. I got all my sisters with me and, poetic license, my brothers as well. This on this slide is how it all starts for me. When we talk about the church, we hear a lot about being brothers and sisters in Christ, and this verse this morning about being the family of God, the very children of God, and just like the image of God, the Father, as many of you have heard in previous messages that I've given, that can be complicated. Families can be complicated, did I say, can be? I probably should have said families are complicated and bringing it down a level. I think it's because people are complicated or I don't know. Maybe, to be more specific and honest, I think people tend to complicate things, maybe especially relationships.

Linda Northrup:

Jesus kept trying to break through with a simple message. Pastor Darren spoke to us recently about the Beatitudes where Jesus makes clear that power and wealth are not at the heart of his message. Jesus spoke particularly of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned and just basically attending the needs of the suffering, and that's in Matthew 25, 31. It's always worth another read. Jesus even went so far as to say that when we do that for others, we are doing it for him. And I think, even more importantly, he added on when we neglect people who are suffering, we are neglecting Jesus. Well, what does this have to do with the church? Just like families can do harm and cause pain, the church can be a dysfunctional family and, as my grandma used to say, it can hurt like the dickens when spiritual brothers and sisters are the source of disruption and emotional trauma. What can we do? How do we respond? What is the church? Last week, pastor Darren spoke from Jeremiah.

Linda Northrup:

The words that really hit home for me were around the fact that God didn't need a temple. Me were around the fact that God didn't need a temple. God doesn't need a building for there to be a church. I once heard a preacher say you don't go to church, you are the church. And it seems simple in a way like when Jesus told us in Matthew 22, 37 to 40, love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. He said. All the law and the prophets are summed up in these two commands, are summed up in these two commands. Well, when it comes to being the church, being the family of the very children of God, this phrase you are the church. For me it can be a little loaded. There are some challenges and opportunities that this concept has brought in my life and I want to share just a couple of things about those challenges and opportunities as we get ready to welcome some new members today.

Linda Northrup:

As many of you know, I grew up in the church and as my faith grew, I had growing pains, just like a lot of us did growing up. I doubted, I questioned, I rebelled, and some people in my church family were hurtful. I was rejected. I was even vilified by some. Now my reaction, much like my reaction to my dysfunctional biological family, was to close myself off more and more and become self-sufficient and independent. I'm fine without them, was my mantra, and I thought God doesn't need a building, and neither do I. God and me, we're fine without all of that. And I built a life that worked pretty well. I visited church buildings from time to time, as I had told our former pastor Walt the first day I met him. I'm not much of a joiner, but I love to visit. It's likely not a surprise to anyone that one of my favorite songs growing up was the Simon and Garfunkel song, " I am a rock, and those lyrics say I am a rock, I am an island.

Linda Northrup:

I was committed to being strong, to loving God and to doing good, but on my own, thank you very much. I was great at giving help and comfort, especially in my role as a lawyer. I was terrible at asking for or receiving it. Now. I didn't fully realize it at the time, but I had chosen a very hard road, chosen a very hard road, and God and Jesus trudged it all the way, sending beams of love and light through people who showed up on my path my grandparents, my sisters, people I met in those occasional church visits, people I encountered in my work and in volunteer work. Now I'd sit at these fountains of love and light like a traveler wandering in the desert when they get to an oasis, but each time I'd turn down the invitation to stay, to get more deeply involved, and after filling up my little tank, I'd head on out alone again. I was perpetually running on empty, but I didn't really know it. We are the church. We are the church became for me I am the church. And that was a risky journey fraught with peril. It was not the path I think my loving God wanted for me. Nevertheless, he never left my side as I trudged along.

Linda Northrup:

And that's the challenge for me. To think that, since we are the church, we don't need other followers of Christ to worship and love our Lord. And truthfully, we don't. What we do need and more often than I think, most of us are comfortable admitting is help along that path. We live in a world that prizes self-sufficiency, accomplishment and independence to a level that I think is toxic is toxic. Our birth families are often scattered and we can do and get nearly everything we need for survival on the Internet without actually having to encounter other people IRL in real life. But we're social creatures God made us that way and we are all, from time to time, the bleeding soul whom the Samaritan encountered on the side of the road, in need of a kind word, a warm cloak, a soft bed, a hot meal. There are a lot of people like that in our world today, and at times we are all the Samaritan with an opportunity to help, with an opportunity to help.

Linda Northrup:

And, that being said, as important as joining together is, I do want to say one thing Not all family members are good for us, and I don't believe that God demands that we stay in situations that are harmful for our well-being. Now, this is a conversation worthy of several sermons. It takes discernment, it takes love, but Jesus gives us, through Paul in Romans, a little guidance. In Romans 12.18. It says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably. So keep that in mind as we're navigating this concept of the church as family. Families can be challenging, including our family in Christ, but I feel like when I started to open my heart. When I started to open my heart, when I became more willing to be vulnerable, I found that a family, instead of hurting, can buoy us up when we're sinking and bind our wounds when we're bleeding.

Linda Northrup:

Now, my subtitle for this sermon is " tale of two scans. As most of you know and you know not to load this day anymore it was almost exactly five years ago to the day when I got the news that my mammogram didn't look so good. Now I've talked to many of you from this pulpit about how the going got pretty rough as I trudged along on my own, even with my soulmate Dave here by my side. I knew God was there, but somehow I couldn't find my way to love and peace at all. And as the diagnostic process continued, the news just got worse and worse. Yep, it's cancer. Yeah, it's the invasive and aggressive kind and, by the way, it's on the move. We need to act right away.

Linda Northrup:

I wasn't getting any sleep. I was barely eating. I wasn't getting any sleep, I was barely eating. The path around was getting darker and darker and, honestly, I could feel stuck in the shadow of death, full of fear. And by the time they decided to give me a PET scan, that full-body, all-in-one cancer detection test, I was in full panic mode from the moment I heard I was getting the test until, thankfully, many days later, I got the news that the cancer was confined to my breasts.

Linda Northrup:

Now, as I started treatment, very aggressive treatment, a few weeks later I reached out to Pastor Walt, who I had fortuitously met several months before, and with his loving encouragement, I decided to dip my toe back into the pool with all of you. I worshipped online because this was during the pandemic, just to make things even more exciting, and I worshipped online in my bathrobe, fighting all the lovely things that happen to you when you're going through chemo, and I was desperately in need of comfort and peace. I'm still on that journey, to be honest, even though I'm cancer-free. As the weeks and months of being online with all of you, and then, when the world opened up and my immune system was back online and coming and being here in person, something in me changed. I have Dave up here with me today. Something in us changed Now. There was no big aha moment, but for me at least, the restless beast that was installed in me during my childhood, yelling constantly about my unworthiness, screaming about how much there was to be afraid of, got quieter and sometimes, with increasing frequency, I could hear another voice you are my beloved child. All is already forgiven. Come here and rest in me. We've got this. What changed?

Linda Northrup:

The biggest thing I can think of all right, it's time is that I started hanging out regularly with all of you. I started seeing that, even though my birth family was kind of a mess, god had been sending a family full of love and light all along my journey. This next slide I've been keeping for years near my desk, reminding me that falling down is part of learning to walk. This is my grandmother and this is me at about one year old. As I've walked this path with you, this photo has come to mean so much more to me. It's God's love made manifest Invitation to feast with a loving family at all points on my journey, even when I kept turning them down. God never gives up on us. I love that about God. Now our life has changed for the better because of our time here with all of you?

Linda Northrup:

And why two scans, right? Well, recently my blood tests were less than perfect, something that sends fear, stark fear, through anyone who has been through cancer treatment and they said you know, before you leave for Wyoming, let's do another one of those PET scans. Well, spoiler alert, as I said, all was fine. But as I was going through the process and no, I didn't reach out to any of you, I didn't ask for prayers I am a work in progress but it was different for me this time because in my heart, I knew I had all of you. I already had your prayers.

Linda Northrup:

I didn't feel alone as I went in for the test and waited some very long days for the results. I ate, I slept and I was even able to pray Now, it was the Lord's Prayer in the 23rd Psalm, on a loop. But I think those words are for when our words desert us and the results. When the results came in, I ran around the room and screamed and laughed with Dave, and all of you were there, Just as you're here with us. Just as you're here with us, just as your love and grace and sweet spirits will be with us wherever we are, including the wilds of Wyoming. Now this last slide speaks to me about where we are in our journey With a deeper and more sturdy faith. Still a couple of cubs pun intended for anyone who knows this guy from Chicago. We still have tons to learn, but we're not alone and we're armed with the knowledge that, when the darkness comes calling, we're armed with the knowledge that, when the darkness comes calling, we can snuggle with our family and tell the devil to go. Talk to mama. Amen.