Sermon transcript:
Do I belong here? That question sits at the heart of our lives. Today, belonging is more relevant than ever. The people of Alberta voted on a question of belonging this past week. Anti-immigration sentiment is rooted in questions of belonging. Diversity, equity, and inclusion progress and backlash have belonging at its core.1
The thing about belonging, when it is there, is it often goes unnoticed. If you have a strong sense of belonging, you might not be aware of the benefits it affords you, like the cyclist who has no idea they have the wind at their back. Exclusion, by contrast, rarely goes unnoticed. Even if it is silenced, questioned, or disbelieved, it is nevertheless felt. Exclusion breeds loneliness, depression, and impostor feelings. Research consistently finds that people with stronger social ties live longer and lead healthier lives.2 Perhaps that is why belonging questions are so persistent in our lives: Do I belong here? Do I have a place? Would anyone notice if I were gone?
Paul writes to a church asking similar questions. The church in Corinth had a problem. They had several problems. They were divided by personalities, by social status, and by disagreements about what it meant to be a faithful Christian. And now, even the gifts of the Holy Spirit had become another source of division.3
In Corinth, people compared spiritual gifts and ranked one another. Some felt important; others felt invisible. Into that anxiety, Paul offers one of the most tender images in the New Testament: the church as a body. “For just as the body is one and has many members,” he writes, “and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
Here is the heart of today’s message: when we offer our gifts in service to God, we find our place in the body of Christ. We move from watching faith happen to participating in it. And in that participation, God heals something in us: the loneliness of exclusion and the emptiness of wondering whether our lives matter. We are needed, connected, and part of God’s healing work in a lonely world.
But before we go further, Paul makes a statement that challenges how we often think of belonging, usefulness and productivity. He says, “It was by one Spirit that all of us, whether we are Jews or Greeks, slaves or citizens, were baptized into one body.” It’s not that you need to be useful to belong, that you need to prove yourself to belong. You already belong to this body of Christ, this body that lives to enact love, so how are you going to participate? That’s the question. Belonging is not something we earn through usefulness. It is something we receive through grace—and then live out through service.4 You are known. You are needed. You have a place.
With this foundation, Paul begins with a wide vision of gifts. There are varieties of gifts, services, and activities, he says, but the same Spirit activates them all. Spiritual gifts are not reserved for preachers, musicians, or people with obvious charisma. They are the many ways God’s love becomes practical in the world.
Paul also makes another important distinction: gifts are given “for the common good.” They are not trophies for personal status. They are tools for building up the community. In God’s economy, the person who sets up chairs, makes coffee, sends a card, or checks on a neighbour participates as fully in Christ’s ministry as the person in the pulpit. This is good news for anyone who has thought, “I don’t have anything special to offer.”
Paul imagines the foot saying, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body.” He refuses that logic. The foot is no less essential because it is not a hand. The ear is not less essential because it is not an eye. Many of us have felt like that foot. We look around church and think, everyone else seems confident, faithful, and capable. I am too young, too old, too wounded, too uncertain, too different. I do not fit. Paul’s answer is direct: you do belong. The body is not healthy because all its parts are identical. It is healthy because it is diverse.5 Different histories, personalities, abilities, cultures, identities, ages, and questions are not obstacles to unity. In the Spirit, they are part of how the body becomes whole.
Loneliness is not simply the absence of people. It is the absence of being known, needed, and connected. Meaninglessness often grows in that same soil. When life feels disconnected from love and purpose, we ask, “Why am I here?” The body of Christ answers that question in a particular way. You are not an extra. You are not an audience member. You are a member living part of a living whole. When you offer your gift, two things happen. Outwardly, someone is fed, comforted, taught, welcomed, or accompanied. Inwardly, you begin to see that your life has a place in God’s larger work of love.
Exclusion fractures, but belonging heals. That is not only psychology; it is also Paul’s vision of the church. In the body of Christ, no one is meant to stand outside wondering whether they matter. Each of us is a member—known, needed, and called to offer something. So today open yourself to offer the gift you already know you have or try one small way of serving. Pray: “God, where are you already at work in my life, and how are you calling me to join in?” Maybe it is simply willingness: the willingness to be present, to learn, to try, and to be part of something. Your gift may seem small. But in the body, small things matter. A hand cannot do the work of the whole body, yet the body benefits greatly from it.
Do not wait until you feel completely ready. The body does not ask for perfection. It asks for presence. When we offer our gifts in service to God, we find our place. We discover that we belong. And we become part of a love larger than our loneliness, a purpose deeper than our uncertainty, and a community where every member is needed. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Joe Gaspar
Citations:
1 Joyce Vromen, “The Pain of Not Belonging: Why feeling accepted matters more than we think”, Psychology Today, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/divergent-minds/202509/the-pain-of-not-belonging, September 10, 2025.
2 Vromen.
3 William Loader, “First Thoughts on Year C Epistle Passages from the Lectionary: Epiphany 3”, https://billloader.com/CEpEpiphany3.htm.
4 J. Paul Sampley, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, “New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary”, vol. 10, Abingdon Press: Nashville, 2002, p 947.
5 Sampley, p. 943.