Second Wednesday in Lent 2010 sermon 2 of 6
Second Wednesday in Lent
2/24/10
Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Title: I’m Being True to Myself!
On Ash Wednesday last week we learned through the words of God that contrary to modern belief life is not better in our own hands. Life is only better in the hands of our heavenly Father, for that is where true life is found. It is in him only can we trust. We also learned that God created the Christian Church to be his voice on earth. It is in the church, namely the local congregation where the Word of God is rightly preached and the Sacraments administered that God is present. Today we are going to look at our identity, just who are we, not by the world’s standards, but by God’s, since we are Christians living together in the community of the Christian Church.
Countless times and places require you to show your identity. We all have been there and done that. At the airport security checkpoint we’re required to show our identification. When you and I use a credit card, we are asked to show identification. With the new Mississippi law we are now required to some identification to buy some cough medicine.
Your identity is important. Identification is immensely important nowadays. Think about your identity, it’s important isn’t it?! Your identity distinguishes you from the other 6 billion people on this earth. Your identity gives you a purpose, and direction for your life! So the question to consider today is “Who are you?” Seriously, who are you?
A popular saying today is, “I’m being true to myself!” I am not sure what that means, for how can you be true to yourself if you don’t know your true identity? When Jesus was on the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Oh, the ones who crucified Jesus were being true to themselves. Judas the betrayer was being true to himself. But they crucified the Son of God! It’s a soul-searching question: Who are you?
Maybe you say that you know who you are: you’re a Christian! You are here today doing Christian things like attending worship and Bible classes on a pretty regular basis, but how many of you are still searching for your true place in life? In the good old days, as we refer to them, we grew up with less media. We got the local newspaper, local radio stations, and maybe 4 channels on the TV. Today it’s different. We are constantly bombarded from every direction. All the media messages, the commercials, the pundits, the self-help programs, the life-style magazines, all undermine a sure sense of identity. How many of you have your own Facebook or MySpace pages? Is that who you really are? Talk about identity crisis! We can literally create our identity, projecting what we want people to perceive of us! How about your values and morality? Even the “best” Christians pick and choose parts of the Bible they would like to live by. And then there’s identity theft. What a terrifying experience! People can actually steal someone’s identity—social security number, banking information, personal information, and so on. In fact sometime in August we are going to have the Thrivent rep come in and show us how we can better keep our identity secure. Talk about an identity crisis!
As I thought through this problem of identity I came to the conclusion that a good way to describe our identities might be to think of our identity as being a patchwork quilt. A patchwork quilt is made of a bunch of very different, usually brightly colored patches, all a little different. Through relationships, occupations, and past times we fabricate our own realities like assembling a patchwork quilt. We take a little from our parents, a little from our experiences, a little from work, a little from the media, a little from the Bible, a little here and a little there. Our lives resemble that patchwork quilt, crafted from whatever we consider is best for us. We’ve let the ways of the world influence who we are, what we believe, and how we behave. “Father, forgive us for we know not what we do.”
Instead of basing who we are on who we think we are we need to ask, “How does God see me?” Who am I according to God?
Saint Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:23, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God”. “You have been born again.” That makes us think of baptism. Because you are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus your identity is changed and you are given a new identity. Your identity as a condemned sinner is changed to an identity of forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Your identity of trusting no one but yourself is changed into an identity of trusting our heavenly Father who has given us an eternal salvation. We talked about that last week. Your identity as a patchwork of all the influences upon your life is bound together by Jesus Christ. That’s true for you, for me, and for us all.
Our identity in Christ is constantly threatened. As I said earlier, our weekday lives are bombarded with messages about who the world wants us to be. When you think about it, so much around us is here today and gone tomorrow. Think about your interests, how much have they changed through the years? How about the arrangement of furniture in your house? How about your relationships? Do you let the changes of life change who you are? Do you let the world’s purposes take you away from your true purpose?
Saint Peter tells us that two things are constant. Change, yes, and something else that is constant for all eternity, the non changing Word of God. God’s Word never changes, but engages our ever-changing lives so that we can live and grow into the identity to which we’ve been given in baptism. You have been baptized into that reality. Week by week the preached Word grows and strengthens your identity. Week by week the preached Word engages our lives to keep us true to who we are in Christ. Your identity, the way in which God sees you as His perfect child, does not change, just as God’s Word does not change. The Father heard the Son’s words that Friday Afternoon—“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”—and he has forgiven you and through his Word continues to forgive you. As God considers you, He does not see a poorly crafted patchwork quilt. Instead, he’s painted the portrait of your reality—a portrait of the cross and resurrection of Christ. That’s your identity, proclaimed by God’s Word that will stand forever. As you share in the death of Jesus through your baptism so you too will indeed share in His resurrection!
In discovering your identity in Christ, God opens the door to learning about who you are, what you are called to be as His child, and to embrace the hope for your life in this world and the world to come. Now we say, “In God being true to His Word and His self, He has shown us who we are to be!” We can boldly proclaim, “We are to be true to Him” because the identity He’s given us is imperishable and everlasting. We are His children, born again in baptism from the imperishable Word of God. We can be sure of who we are in Christ because although all things around us wither and fade like grass, God’s Word stands forever. His promise spoken to you is forever, “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
Your identity is not a patchwork quilt crafted by you or any other person. Rather, you are part of God’s church, a community that comes together around His Word to be the body of Christ and a foreshadowing, although imperfect, of what’s to come in the New Creation. Born again of the imperishable Word, this is our “Life Together.” This is what God sees. This is our identity. God is being true to His Word and to you! Amen.
2/24/10
Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Title: I’m Being True to Myself!
On Ash Wednesday last week we learned through the words of God that contrary to modern belief life is not better in our own hands. Life is only better in the hands of our heavenly Father, for that is where true life is found. It is in him only can we trust. We also learned that God created the Christian Church to be his voice on earth. It is in the church, namely the local congregation where the Word of God is rightly preached and the Sacraments administered that God is present. Today we are going to look at our identity, just who are we, not by the world’s standards, but by God’s, since we are Christians living together in the community of the Christian Church.
Countless times and places require you to show your identity. We all have been there and done that. At the airport security checkpoint we’re required to show our identification. When you and I use a credit card, we are asked to show identification. With the new Mississippi law we are now required to some identification to buy some cough medicine.
Your identity is important. Identification is immensely important nowadays. Think about your identity, it’s important isn’t it?! Your identity distinguishes you from the other 6 billion people on this earth. Your identity gives you a purpose, and direction for your life! So the question to consider today is “Who are you?” Seriously, who are you?
A popular saying today is, “I’m being true to myself!” I am not sure what that means, for how can you be true to yourself if you don’t know your true identity? When Jesus was on the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Oh, the ones who crucified Jesus were being true to themselves. Judas the betrayer was being true to himself. But they crucified the Son of God! It’s a soul-searching question: Who are you?
Maybe you say that you know who you are: you’re a Christian! You are here today doing Christian things like attending worship and Bible classes on a pretty regular basis, but how many of you are still searching for your true place in life? In the good old days, as we refer to them, we grew up with less media. We got the local newspaper, local radio stations, and maybe 4 channels on the TV. Today it’s different. We are constantly bombarded from every direction. All the media messages, the commercials, the pundits, the self-help programs, the life-style magazines, all undermine a sure sense of identity. How many of you have your own Facebook or MySpace pages? Is that who you really are? Talk about identity crisis! We can literally create our identity, projecting what we want people to perceive of us! How about your values and morality? Even the “best” Christians pick and choose parts of the Bible they would like to live by. And then there’s identity theft. What a terrifying experience! People can actually steal someone’s identity—social security number, banking information, personal information, and so on. In fact sometime in August we are going to have the Thrivent rep come in and show us how we can better keep our identity secure. Talk about an identity crisis!
As I thought through this problem of identity I came to the conclusion that a good way to describe our identities might be to think of our identity as being a patchwork quilt. A patchwork quilt is made of a bunch of very different, usually brightly colored patches, all a little different. Through relationships, occupations, and past times we fabricate our own realities like assembling a patchwork quilt. We take a little from our parents, a little from our experiences, a little from work, a little from the media, a little from the Bible, a little here and a little there. Our lives resemble that patchwork quilt, crafted from whatever we consider is best for us. We’ve let the ways of the world influence who we are, what we believe, and how we behave. “Father, forgive us for we know not what we do.”
Instead of basing who we are on who we think we are we need to ask, “How does God see me?” Who am I according to God?
Saint Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:23, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God”. “You have been born again.” That makes us think of baptism. Because you are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus your identity is changed and you are given a new identity. Your identity as a condemned sinner is changed to an identity of forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Your identity of trusting no one but yourself is changed into an identity of trusting our heavenly Father who has given us an eternal salvation. We talked about that last week. Your identity as a patchwork of all the influences upon your life is bound together by Jesus Christ. That’s true for you, for me, and for us all.
Our identity in Christ is constantly threatened. As I said earlier, our weekday lives are bombarded with messages about who the world wants us to be. When you think about it, so much around us is here today and gone tomorrow. Think about your interests, how much have they changed through the years? How about the arrangement of furniture in your house? How about your relationships? Do you let the changes of life change who you are? Do you let the world’s purposes take you away from your true purpose?
Saint Peter tells us that two things are constant. Change, yes, and something else that is constant for all eternity, the non changing Word of God. God’s Word never changes, but engages our ever-changing lives so that we can live and grow into the identity to which we’ve been given in baptism. You have been baptized into that reality. Week by week the preached Word grows and strengthens your identity. Week by week the preached Word engages our lives to keep us true to who we are in Christ. Your identity, the way in which God sees you as His perfect child, does not change, just as God’s Word does not change. The Father heard the Son’s words that Friday Afternoon—“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”—and he has forgiven you and through his Word continues to forgive you. As God considers you, He does not see a poorly crafted patchwork quilt. Instead, he’s painted the portrait of your reality—a portrait of the cross and resurrection of Christ. That’s your identity, proclaimed by God’s Word that will stand forever. As you share in the death of Jesus through your baptism so you too will indeed share in His resurrection!
In discovering your identity in Christ, God opens the door to learning about who you are, what you are called to be as His child, and to embrace the hope for your life in this world and the world to come. Now we say, “In God being true to His Word and His self, He has shown us who we are to be!” We can boldly proclaim, “We are to be true to Him” because the identity He’s given us is imperishable and everlasting. We are His children, born again in baptism from the imperishable Word of God. We can be sure of who we are in Christ because although all things around us wither and fade like grass, God’s Word stands forever. His promise spoken to you is forever, “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
Your identity is not a patchwork quilt crafted by you or any other person. Rather, you are part of God’s church, a community that comes together around His Word to be the body of Christ and a foreshadowing, although imperfect, of what’s to come in the New Creation. Born again of the imperishable Word, this is our “Life Together.” This is what God sees. This is our identity. God is being true to His Word and to you! Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 2:29 PM
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