“Belongingness”
John 17:20-26
John 17:20-26
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
* * *
"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
* * *
One of the worst feelings I experienced as a child was waking up from a nap and finding myself alone. It was late afternoon in South Korea and my mother had gone shopping for dinner preparation. My brothers were playing with their friends outside. I called for my mother as I slowly awakened. No one was home. As a child I knew that having my Mom or my Grandma nearby meant that I was not alone and that I belonged – that I was connected to someone who mattered to me.
Even as an adult, there are times when I wake up feeling alone. It takes a moment to let myself know that I am not alone and that I belong. I know my friends and relations are part of me and that I belong to them. All of us belong to someone or a group of people who are near and dear to us. To be human, I believe, is to be in relationship with others. A Chinese character for a person is made up of two lines leaning on each other. To be human, in Chinese philosophy, is to be able to lean on each other.
Barbara J. King, a professor of Anthropology who has been studying apes and monkey behaviours for over 20 years, asserts that “belongingness” is the most profound and most stirring (moving) transformation in the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens.[i]
In her recent book, Evolving God, Professor King defines belongingness as,
“…mattering to someone who matters to you. It’s about getting positive feelings from our relationships. It’s what you and I work to maintain (or what we wish for) with family and friends, and perhaps also with colleagues or people in our community; for some of us, it extends to animals as well (other animals, for we human are first and foremost animals.) Relating emotionally to others shapes the very quality of our lives. … Belongingness, then, is a useful shorthand term for the undeniable reality that humans of all ages, in all societies, thrive in relation to others.”[ii]
She sees belongingness “as one aspect of religiousness – an aspect so essential that the human religious imagination could not have evolved without it.[iii]” “Religion is an active expression of belongingness aimed at a spiritual sphere.[iv]
This sense of belongingness was what the community of John was seeking desperately. Today’s Gospel lesson was written as a book around 100 CE. It was a time of disappointment and pain for the followers of Jesus. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. The followers of Jesus were facing persecution for not abandoning a man who stood against the mighty Roman Empire. They were facing growing antagonism in the synagogue for they were considered to have gone astray from Judaism. The second coming of Jesus seemed most unlikely. The followers of Jesus felt alone and abandoned.
When hope seemed to be vanishing, they recollected the stories of Jesus and their teachers who lived and ministered with Jesus, and they were renewed in hope.
They remembered that the followers of Jesus had experienced God, whom they could not see, through Jesus. They also began to realize that the ministry of Jesus – a Way of living out God’s compassion in and through their lives – did not end with the death of Jesus but continues through them – the church. This is what one biblical commentator writes. “The Evangelist leaves no one in doubt: the church is not an orphan in the world, an accident in history, a thing dislodged, a frightened child of huddled rumours and superstitions. The pedigree of truth is established and unbroken: from God, to Christ, to the apostles, to the church.”[v]
The early Christian community of John found renewed hope when they realized that God’s presence extended beyond Jesus to the community of believers and that each one of them, as part of that faith community, was being called to continue to proclaim the message that everyone belongs in God’s just and compassionate community.
On June 10th, 1925, the union of The Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church in Canada, and The Congregational Union of Canada was solemnly consecrated in the Mutual Street Arena, Toronto, in the presence of more than 8,000 members of the three denominations. One of the hopes of union was to build Canada as a just and compassionate society based on the teachings of Jesus. Jesus’ prayer – That All May Be One – was understood as the foundation of The United Church of Canada.
Much has happened since Union in 1925. We have experienced the glory days of the 60s and 70s when churches were busy and filled with people. Mission and outreach were thriving. These days, churches in general are busy struggling to survive with far fewer people. Church buildings, like ours, are aging and in need of repairs. It seems at times that many churches are just too focused on themselves rather than reaching out to the community and working with them.
Jesus’ prayer – That All May be One – is a reminder of that our purpose as church is to promote and to work on belongingness to one another in God. Once in a while, during the week, I look at the photos of the ministers who served here at Kingston Road United Church. They represent more than themselves as individuals. They symbolize all the people who have ministered in this neighbourhood and beyond this place. I am also grateful to see that this tradition of service is being carried out in our community. The bulletin cover photo of Kareen Clarke and Marjorie Bromfield best represent to me how we practice belongingness at KRU. The cover could have been photos of Bessie, Don, or Eve, and many others from our faith community. We all belong together here as brothers and sisters in God’s love in order that we could continue to expand belongingness of God in our society.
This is how professor King ends her book, Evolving God.
“For million of years, human ancestors derived meaning from mutuality; late in our prehistory, humans began to seek belongingness in the sacred as well as in the daily rhythms of small-group life. Emotions that we had been content, before, to create with those we could see, hear, and touch, we now began to create in relation with sacred beings. … That we evolved as spiritual creatures because we evolved first as meaning-makers in emotion with each other is a message grounded in the evolutionary perspective, and in hope. When belongingness runs amok, it can become xenophobia, and people may begin to act out of fear and hatred of others. Yet the power of belongingness amounts to the power to base our lives, the lives of all human who are intertwined in a globe-sized web of belongingness, on an understanding that we all come from the same roots. We evolved as primates; as ancestral hominids in Africa; as settlers of all the corners of the world; and finally as people who act in relation to sacred beings. We are primates still, able to embrace the expression of different faiths, or no faith at all, as we continue to make meaning through belongingness.[vi]
We live in a city where more than 120 languages are spoken and many cultures and religious faiths are expressed in relation to one another. To be One in our culturally and religiously diverse city requires us to be who we are as we learn about our neighbours’ faith traditions.
The People of the Hopi Nation believe that the world’s religions each contained one spiritual thread, and that these threads are always seeking each other, wanting to join. When all the threads are finally woven together, the Hopi believe, they will form a rope that will pull humanity out of this disjointed cycle of history and into the next stage. [vii]
May we continue to be one in God’s compassion. May we dare to belong to our neighbours in this community. May we learn to weave thread of our faith with our neighbours’ faith to build a just and compassionate society.
Even as an adult, there are times when I wake up feeling alone. It takes a moment to let myself know that I am not alone and that I belong. I know my friends and relations are part of me and that I belong to them. All of us belong to someone or a group of people who are near and dear to us. To be human, I believe, is to be in relationship with others. A Chinese character for a person is made up of two lines leaning on each other. To be human, in Chinese philosophy, is to be able to lean on each other.
Barbara J. King, a professor of Anthropology who has been studying apes and monkey behaviours for over 20 years, asserts that “belongingness” is the most profound and most stirring (moving) transformation in the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens.[i]
In her recent book, Evolving God, Professor King defines belongingness as,
“…mattering to someone who matters to you. It’s about getting positive feelings from our relationships. It’s what you and I work to maintain (or what we wish for) with family and friends, and perhaps also with colleagues or people in our community; for some of us, it extends to animals as well (other animals, for we human are first and foremost animals.) Relating emotionally to others shapes the very quality of our lives. … Belongingness, then, is a useful shorthand term for the undeniable reality that humans of all ages, in all societies, thrive in relation to others.”[ii]
She sees belongingness “as one aspect of religiousness – an aspect so essential that the human religious imagination could not have evolved without it.[iii]” “Religion is an active expression of belongingness aimed at a spiritual sphere.[iv]
This sense of belongingness was what the community of John was seeking desperately. Today’s Gospel lesson was written as a book around 100 CE. It was a time of disappointment and pain for the followers of Jesus. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70 CE. The followers of Jesus were facing persecution for not abandoning a man who stood against the mighty Roman Empire. They were facing growing antagonism in the synagogue for they were considered to have gone astray from Judaism. The second coming of Jesus seemed most unlikely. The followers of Jesus felt alone and abandoned.
When hope seemed to be vanishing, they recollected the stories of Jesus and their teachers who lived and ministered with Jesus, and they were renewed in hope.
They remembered that the followers of Jesus had experienced God, whom they could not see, through Jesus. They also began to realize that the ministry of Jesus – a Way of living out God’s compassion in and through their lives – did not end with the death of Jesus but continues through them – the church. This is what one biblical commentator writes. “The Evangelist leaves no one in doubt: the church is not an orphan in the world, an accident in history, a thing dislodged, a frightened child of huddled rumours and superstitions. The pedigree of truth is established and unbroken: from God, to Christ, to the apostles, to the church.”[v]
The early Christian community of John found renewed hope when they realized that God’s presence extended beyond Jesus to the community of believers and that each one of them, as part of that faith community, was being called to continue to proclaim the message that everyone belongs in God’s just and compassionate community.
On June 10th, 1925, the union of The Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church in Canada, and The Congregational Union of Canada was solemnly consecrated in the Mutual Street Arena, Toronto, in the presence of more than 8,000 members of the three denominations. One of the hopes of union was to build Canada as a just and compassionate society based on the teachings of Jesus. Jesus’ prayer – That All May Be One – was understood as the foundation of The United Church of Canada.
Much has happened since Union in 1925. We have experienced the glory days of the 60s and 70s when churches were busy and filled with people. Mission and outreach were thriving. These days, churches in general are busy struggling to survive with far fewer people. Church buildings, like ours, are aging and in need of repairs. It seems at times that many churches are just too focused on themselves rather than reaching out to the community and working with them.
Jesus’ prayer – That All May be One – is a reminder of that our purpose as church is to promote and to work on belongingness to one another in God. Once in a while, during the week, I look at the photos of the ministers who served here at Kingston Road United Church. They represent more than themselves as individuals. They symbolize all the people who have ministered in this neighbourhood and beyond this place. I am also grateful to see that this tradition of service is being carried out in our community. The bulletin cover photo of Kareen Clarke and Marjorie Bromfield best represent to me how we practice belongingness at KRU. The cover could have been photos of Bessie, Don, or Eve, and many others from our faith community. We all belong together here as brothers and sisters in God’s love in order that we could continue to expand belongingness of God in our society.
This is how professor King ends her book, Evolving God.
“For million of years, human ancestors derived meaning from mutuality; late in our prehistory, humans began to seek belongingness in the sacred as well as in the daily rhythms of small-group life. Emotions that we had been content, before, to create with those we could see, hear, and touch, we now began to create in relation with sacred beings. … That we evolved as spiritual creatures because we evolved first as meaning-makers in emotion with each other is a message grounded in the evolutionary perspective, and in hope. When belongingness runs amok, it can become xenophobia, and people may begin to act out of fear and hatred of others. Yet the power of belongingness amounts to the power to base our lives, the lives of all human who are intertwined in a globe-sized web of belongingness, on an understanding that we all come from the same roots. We evolved as primates; as ancestral hominids in Africa; as settlers of all the corners of the world; and finally as people who act in relation to sacred beings. We are primates still, able to embrace the expression of different faiths, or no faith at all, as we continue to make meaning through belongingness.[vi]
We live in a city where more than 120 languages are spoken and many cultures and religious faiths are expressed in relation to one another. To be One in our culturally and religiously diverse city requires us to be who we are as we learn about our neighbours’ faith traditions.
The People of the Hopi Nation believe that the world’s religions each contained one spiritual thread, and that these threads are always seeking each other, wanting to join. When all the threads are finally woven together, the Hopi believe, they will form a rope that will pull humanity out of this disjointed cycle of history and into the next stage. [vii]
May we continue to be one in God’s compassion. May we dare to belong to our neighbours in this community. May we learn to weave thread of our faith with our neighbours’ faith to build a just and compassionate society.
-------------------------------------------
[i] Barbara J. King, Evolving God (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 2.
[ii] Ibid., 2.
[iii]Ibid., 8.
[iv]Ibid., 22.
[v] Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hays, Carl R. Holladay and Gene M. Tucker, Preaching Through the Christian Year (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1992), 292.
[vi] King, Evolving God, 236.
[vii] Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), 208.
[i] Barbara J. King, Evolving God (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 2.
[ii] Ibid., 2.
[iii]Ibid., 8.
[iv]Ibid., 22.
[v] Fred B. Craddock, John H. Hays, Carl R. Holladay and Gene M. Tucker, Preaching Through the Christian Year (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1992), 292.
[vi] King, Evolving God, 236.
[vii] Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love (New York: Penguin Books, 2006), 208.
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