As I reflected deeply this past week, one word that kept coming back to me was the word, belonging.

To belong is to be a part of something bigger than one’s-self while at the same time maintaining one’s own unique self.

In other words, you are connected to a wider group of people while being yourself in the group.

Belonging is not dependent on what one does.

Belonging is not dependent on the approval of others.

Belonging just is.

I have often said that the starting place for faith is that of belonging.

We belong to God and in Christ we belong.

Faith is that basic and that profound.

Last Sunday in my sermon, I spoke about a person who had a spiritual vision.

In this vision she suddenly saw Christ.

Jesus came to her and in her vision, she could see Christ in others.

There was this feeling of connection and oneness.

The vision was so moving for her that it changed her life.

She came to a new understanding of what it means to belong to Christ.

In our Gospel reading for today Jesus prays a prayer for us.

It is a prayer for something that we desperately need in our world today.

Jesus prays:

“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.  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me.”

From this prayer, what did you hear?

When I hear this pray from Jesus.

These truths come out of the prayer:  a prayer for oneness, a prayer for belonging, a prayer that Christ would be in us through the glory of the Father.

And lastly, I hear that Jesus is praying for unity.

There are so many forces at work in the world that undermine unity.

The kind of oneness and unity that Jesus has with God is the same kind of oneness and unity that Jesus wants for us.

Can this be true for us?

I can remember as a child walking through a small-town neighborhood with my father.

We were visiting his hometown of Akron, Iowa.

Akron is a tiny community in western Iowa.

As we walked together, I can recall seeing church after church on every street corner.

And I asked my dad, “Why are there so many different churches when we all believe in Jesus?”

Maybe you too have had that same question.

My father’s response has held up for me now for over three decades of my life.

He said to me, “Tom, the Lord speaks to us all but he speaks to us all in different ways.”

I believe that this is true.

The Holy Spirit speaks to each one of us but the Holy Spirit speaks to us in different ways.

Our unity is not found in having the exact same experiences of faith or in having the exact same theological beliefs – our unity is found in Christ – in Christ we belong.

In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ we belong to God and we belong to the community of saints.

The advocate, the Holy Spirit, helps us to understand and to come to the knowledge of this truth.

Because of the Holy Spirit we can together pray this prayer of unity:  “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”

“Come, Lord Jesus, come!”

In that prayer, we may we receive this blessing that John writes in Revelation:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints.”

John does not say in the book of Revelation that some of the saints would receive this bless or every other saint or the ones that believe in having churches that like red carpet vs. green carpet.

No, John’s blessing is for all the saints of God.

All the saints of God belong.

And so, people of God, remember that we belong.

We belong as the saints of God.

We pray for those in need and we especially pray for those who have forgotten that they belong.

We pray for oneness and unity in Christ.

We are called to be bridge builders who work together to build up the body of Christ.

And may God bless us in this holy work.  Amen.