Wesley United Methodist Church

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  Nowhere

  Friends, 

   

  Recently, someone said to me, "How can you stand living out in the middle of nowhere?"  To be sure, I have described places where I have lived as being nowhere. More recently, I have been starting to think of what it means to be told you live in the land of "nowhere."  What is nowhere? Where is nowhere? Growing up, my mother's favorite response when we had a question was to go look it up. So early this morning, I went to an online dictionary to look up nowhere. Nowhere can be defined as: A nonexistent place. An unknown, distant, or obscure place or state. In, at, or to no place; not anywhere.  My favorite definition of nowhere is  the state of nonexistence or seeming nonexistent.  So, if I live in nowhere does this mean that I am no one? Do I exist at all?

   

  There has been much written recently about the rural--urban divide in our nation. This separation has been in my thoughts for many years. Afterall, I grew up in Ely, Minnesota, but spent a good portion of my life living in large cities such as Las Vegas, Nevada. Returning home to the Iron Range eleven years ago, I recently have been blessed serving several rural congregations. It is through this work that I am rethinking the negative undertones of labeling a location as nowhere. All of the churches I now serve or have served dwell in the woods, fields, and wetlands of northern Minnesota. When I drive from church to church on Sunday mornings and throughout the week, in all seasons and weather, not only am I connecting deeply with the landscapes between the church doors, but I am in a relationship with a diverse group of wonderful people. These folks are not nobodies who live out in the middle of nowhere, but rather, they are somebodies who live in a beautiful part of God's creation, somewhere. 

   

  In my early morning meditation, sitting next to my new companion, Bingo, I began reading a portion of Matthew's Gospel, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.”  Today, as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as inaugurate a new president, my prayer is that not only do we realize that every living person is somebody but also, whether you live on the corner of Lexington and University in St. Paul, Minnesota or in Hill City, Cromwell, or Hibbing, everyplace is somewhere.  Furthermore, whether we gather with one other person or with hundreds, whether it be in small red brick buildings in the woods or large churches on Hennepin Avenue, Christ is always with us, now and forever, for everyone and everywhere.

  Image: Wesley UMC - Hibbing - Matt Hintz