I belong to......

1 Corinthians 3:4-11

           To whom do you belong? If there was a label inside your shorts, who would it say to return you to?  Who do you belong to? It's an interesting question and I am sure there are many answers, none of them really wrong. I could argue that we belong to no one save God himself. We are entrusted to others and we have people and things entrusted to us but who do we really belong to?

          On a grand level, we belong to each other, all of humanity. This is true if we see the incarnation as more than simply the word becoming flesh. God is in the whole world and the whole world reflects God from the smallest flower to the mountains to the diversity and joy of the peoples of this earth. So do we belong to each other?  It is probably good to think that way but it would be a bit overwhelming perhaps.  I can't help but think of that expression, 'think globally, act locally'. Now who do we belong to?

        How about our family?  One of the foundations of faith was the holy family and we see the constancy and love that a family can give. It is life giving, or at least it can and should. Our immediate families can be how we express our love of God. 

        When my children were quite young, a large portion of the parenting fell to me. I will confess it was a  blessing that I may not have always appreciated but it was a gift that not all men get to share in as much as I did. I also felt a kinship to the rest of mankind and I longed for some of my past experiences when I served, first as a volunteer with the elderly and then in a children's psychiatric ward. I cherished those times that were gifted to me. I was allowed to offer myself up to help my brothers and sisters on a slightly grander scale.  Thankfully it was not too long before I realized that my primary service and love of God was to my family.  At that time in my life, I belonged to them and that was my primary duty and joy.

           Now I am married to a most wonderful man. I am truly blessed. If I think back at the time I was ordained, life was frenetic. I was running all over the place, five hands in the fire going here, there and it seemed everywhere.   I cannot imagine that life anymore. My 'ministry' is to my husband, I belong to him. Since we had a religious ceremony and I believe marriage is a Sacrament,  my love for him is a way of loving God. The stability and love of our relationship also helps the outer world by our expression of love and commitment. It is the same way that by loving my children I was working outward with God's love from the nucleus of that small family into the larger world.  I belong to my husband and he belongs to me in a Sacramental way and in a practical way that creates a loving stable society.

           Who else do I belong to?  Besides all of mankind, my children and my husband?  You can name  the people at work, the people at church, the people at the gay men's film group or any other organization I am involved in. As a faithful person, I belong to all. 

      Who do you belong to and how do you express it? Is God involved at all?

For when one says, ‘I belong to Paul’, and another, ‘I belong to Apollos’, are you not merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.