This sermon was preached on August 23, 2015 at Grace Episcopal Church in Medford, MA. The texts for this sermon were: 1 Kings 8: 22-30, 41-43 , Psalm 84 or 84:1-6 , Ephesians 6:10-20 , and John 6:56-69 . For those of you who’ve been wondering whether I’ve been these past three weeks—or even if you haven’t noticed I’ve been away—I’ve been working with my fellowship program preparing for the arrival of new batch of Life Together fellows. Just over a week and a half ago, nineteen adults in their early twenties descended on our headquarters in Brookline for an eight-day orientation into their year of service and communal living. The first thing we did with the diverse group was to welcome them, each of them, all of them, wholly. We welcomed the fellows from California, Kentucky, and Missouri, the Christian, Buddhist, atheist and questioning fellows, the gay, straight, trans and bi fellows. We welcomed fellows who identified as African-American, Asian-American, Euro-American, and thos