Faith | To whom do we belong? It’s a question worth exploring
Perhaps you remember the line from an old folk song, “I owe my soul to the company store.”
My intent is not to explore the economic and social distress put forth in this simple but straight-forward musical lament, true as it is.
Rather I want to take its lead and reflect deeply, “To whom do I owe my soul?”
This query belongs to a trilogy of existential questions: Who am I? Whose am I? How do I?
Accordingly, I invite interested readers to ask, “To whom do I belong?” This is a loaded question, easily overlooked or avoided for it pulls us out of our self-centeredness.
Whose am I?
Your initial reaction may be that you belong to nobody or to none but yourself.
The idea of being dependent or obliged does not sit well with us. However, much of history has been built on and corrupted by some persons “belonging” to other persons—the sin of slavery. Even then, the slave owners “owed their souls” to other “masters” or “Master.”
So, whose am I?
Some Christian believers subscribe to what is called, “The Heidelberg Catechism,” which begins with the most basic of existential questions: “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” The response is, “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”
To belong to Someone or belong to a people—that is an entirely different perspective than belonging to no one, which philosopher John Donne rejected: “no one is an island.”
I am not my own, but I belong.
Along with legions of scholars and sages, from social scientists to historians to theologians, the consensus is that we are social beings. We thrive in community, not in isolation.
This is true for families, athletic teams, companies, neighborhoods, churches, schools, towns, states, and nations. Baptist preacher Carlyle Marney once said, “The antidote to poverty is not property; it is community.”
To whom or to what do I belong?
Many nations and organizations create a pledge of allegiance. In the United States, the allegiance is to our flag and the republic which it represents, proclaiming to be “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
In our founding documents, we rejected dependence on a monarch and declared our independence, then reconstituted ourselves as the new type of republic just described.
Within that republic is the notion that we belong to each other; that we are gifts to each other; that we need each other to be a whole people; that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” (A. Lincoln).
Like it or not, I am ME because of you, and you are YOU because of me.
Lord knows we often disagree, even vehemently. A contrary bumper sticker reads, “If you don’t like my flag, I’ll help you pack.”
But we can do better than this—we must—for we belong to each other and to that great Holy Other.