Read Today's Scripture
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
John 17:20-26
Belonging and Possessing
In today’s Acts reading, the Lord stands by Paul and says “as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so also must you testify in Rome”. Notice how God stands by Paul as though they are one. Paul belongs to his Lord and the Lord belongs to him. One word that children learn early on in life is “mine!” In many ways, we all know what this word means. It communicates possession, “my toys”, “my job”, “my garden”, “my lunch”. But it also communicates belonging: “my wife”, “my family”, “my father”. Within the contexts of relationships, to use the possessive is to also acknowledge that we belong to that person and that person belongs to us. There is a powerful relational dynamic that occurs. Because to belong to someone and for them to belong to us means that we share the same life. So, isn’t it remarkable that in today’s John’s Gospel, Jesus, as he prays to his Father (notice the language of possession and belonging), also desires that we would know that we belong to his Father, and his Father belongs to us (Jn 17:23)? I think we know that we belong to God. But have you considered the implications of God belonging to us? We possess him. Think about a baby sitting on the floor, to whom her mother stoops down so she can touch her mother’s face and her mother can pick her up. In the same way, in his Son’s incarnation, God has stooped down so low to us sitting on the ground so that we can grasp his face. And in his Son’s ascension, God has picked us up to see his face in heaven. And lest we forget, in Pentecost—and in our Baptisms—God has given us his Holy Spirit so that even though we live here on Earth, we can know that we belong in heaven. Because now, it has pleased the Father that heaven should belong to us.
Collect
O loving Father, grant, we pray thee, that thy Church, being gathered by thy Holy Spirit, may be dedicated more fully to thy service, and live united in love, according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.