Sermon for Sunday, September 15, 2024 || Proper 19B || Mark 8:27-38
In the age of the internet, identity theft is a prominent danger. Answering silly quizzes on Facebook, clicking innocuous links in emails, downloading attachments, falling victim to a data breach – all of these are ways that scammers can steal our identities, impersonate us to open credit cards, or empty our bank accounts. My identity was stolen once, years ago, and I had to assure my bank that I was definitely not renting limousines in Texas. We spend a lot of time, money, and worry protecting our identities, but I wonder how often we think about what our identities actually consist of. What are the most important facets of our identities, and how do they change over time? And how does “follower of Jesus” fit into the picture of our identities? That’s what we’re going to explore for the next ten minutes.
Our identities are slippery things. They are synthesized and refined and redefined throughout our lifetimes as we gain new skills and interests, as we adapt to new circumstances and relationships, as we deal with success and failure. When I was a child, the main facets of my identity were “boy,” “son,” “brother,” “student,” “baseball player,” “LEGO builder,” and “Star Wars nerd.” Nowadays, the main facets of my identity are “father,” “husband,” “pastor,” “writer,” “LEGO builder,” and “Star Wars nerd.” (Some things never change.)
To come up with a list of the facets of your identity, try this. Write the words, “I am” at the top of a sheet of paper. Then list as many things as you can. Make sure the things you list really work for you when they follow those two important words, “I am.” For example, I would say, “I am a soccer player,” because I play as often as I can, and playing soccer brings me life. I wouldn’t say, “I am a golfer,” though I own golf clubs. The answers to the “I am” question can be relationships (like “mother,” “friend,” “game master” – (that last one is very important to Dungeons and Dragons players). The answers to the “I am” question can be ways you move in the world
(like your gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, etc.). The answers can be jobs, vocations, hobbies, skills, and interests (like “nurse,” “surfer,” “Tottenham Hotspur fan”). The answers can be values you live by and missions you undertake (like “I am a kind person” and “I am engaged in the struggle for racial justice”). Our identities are composed of so many different parts, like all the instruments of a symphony orchestra playing different notes, rhythms, volumes, and timbres, but all contributing to the same music that makes us who we are.
As we worship God together here at St. Mark’s, we nurture many facets of our identities: as servants, friends, teachers, students, carers, sharers, extra grandparents (seriously, my kids have about 55 bonus grandparents at this church). Along with these facets, we nurture the two most important facets of our identities: “children of God” and “followers of Jesus.”
As Children of God, we embrace our identity as “unique, precious, and unrepeatable” acts of God’s creation, whom God loves and in whom God delights. Part of embracing this truth about ourselves means embracing the same truth about each other person, and not only each other person but every single living thing. The identity “child of God” is the fundamental piece of our identity that connects us to our Creator and to all of Creation. No matter what other facets of identity come and go, “child of God” remains now and into eternity. We do nothing to earn this identity, but we can make it more real for ourselves through our relationships with God – through prayer and study and service and worship and silence and stillness. The more we live into the identity of “child of God,” the more we can look upon others and see that same identity shining forth from them. This revelation compels us both to treat others with the same dignity we desire for ourselves and to work towards changing the death-dealing systems of this world that undermine such dignity.
And that brings us to the other facet that we nurture here at church: “Follower of Jesus.” But before we address that, let’s take a step back. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus asks his disciples who they say he is; in other words, “What is my identity?” Peter responds right away: “You are the messiah.” And while Peter doesn’t expand on this identity, his reaction to Jesus’ explanation of it shows us what Peter’s expectation is. It’s no wonder Peter takes Jesus aside to clarify things. Jesus is obviously mistaken. Had he heard Peter right? Peter had said “messiah”; not “sacrificial lamb,” not “victim.”
Bur Jesus had heard Peter. Jesus could sense the underlying expectation of such a baggage-laden identity as “messiah.” The Messiah was an Anointed One. And the two most famous “anointed ones” in the Hebrew Scriptures were Saul and David, both militaristic warlord-kings. But If Jesus had wanted to live into the militaristic expectation of “messiah,” he probably wouldn’t have recruited fisherman. “Look around,” he seems to say to his disciples. “I don’t have an army. I have you guys. I haven’t been fighting. I’ve been healing. Follow me because I glory not in destruction, but in resurrection, in new life, in deep relationships that lasts beyond death. That’s my identity as the Messiah.”
With this identity explained, Jesus then invites us to take his life into our own identities. “If any want to become my followers,” Jesus says, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” It’s quite possible this isn’t what we signed up for. It’s quite possible we expected more comforting words. Perhaps we expected Jesus to say, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Perhaps we expected Jesus to say, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Perhaps we expected Jesus to say, “I came that [you] may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Well, the good news is this: Jesus does say all those things. It is these promises of rest and relationship and abundant life that make us able to accept his strident expectation of identifying as his followers. Denying ourselves means letting go of our stranglehold on our own lives – our self-determination, our isolation – in order to allow Christ to live in us.
This week, I invite you to prayerfully write “I am” at the top of a blank sheet of paper. List every facet of your identity that you can, remembering only to list those things that really make sense after those the words “I am.” You can even rank your list in order of importance if you like. Where on your list do “child or God” and “follower of Jesus” fall? In what ways is God beckoning you into deeper relationship with God that will make these pieces of your identity shine even brighter?
Child of God and Follower of Jesus: there’s no identity theft here. These are only identity gifts. Far from their prominence taking away from the other facets of our identities, being children of God and followers of Jesus make all the other pieces of us fall into place. Thanks be to God.
Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash.
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