Ephesians 4:31-5:2
Mark 10:17-31
One of my sisters, when she was a very young child used to ask an interesting question. She wondered, “When am I going to turn into a boy?” She never did, actually. But young children can express some funny ideas about their sense of identity.
There is a lot of work involved in developing your own sense of who you are, and this was part of the work for my sister when she was four years old.
When we grow into adolescence we tend to look to our peers as a means of figuring out who we are. We want to be accepted by them, we want to be liked, and we want to like ourselves. We want to know who we are, and one dimension of that is knowing who we are not.
We finished our five-week study on risks we must take for peace last week. And in our final discussion we talked about how hard it can be to talk to people on the other side of an issue. We get really dug in on our attitudes and beliefs about things, so much so that we can lose our ability to communicate with the people who are dug in on the other side. Where we stand on something, what we are for and what we are against, becomes a fundamental piece of our identity.
As we struggle to sort out who we are and what matters to us, there are many possibilities competing for our attention and allegiance. To a large degree this matter of identity is a choice we all make. And the choice we make will determine a lot about who we are in the world and what our impact on the world will be. The impact can be significant.
Last month there was a 58-year-old man caught hiding in some trees near Donald Trump’s golf course. He was apparently intending to shoot the former president. Law enforcement, trying to get a handle of his motives, discovered a handful of things about him: that he is originally from North Carolina, but he lived most recently in Hawaii. That as a younger man he was once called a Super Citizen for coming to the aid of a crime victim, but in later years he was charged with possessing weapons illegally. And that at one point he tried to put together his own army to defend Ukraine.
He was described as a man in search of a mission, someone trying to figure out who he is. And most recently, it seems, he began to think that his mission, his identity, was assassin. But in some important ways it seems clear that he really had no idea who he was.
What do you say about yourself? What do you want to be written on your tombstone? I’ve kept a blog for about ten years or so. When I first set it up I was asked to create a profile, which would tell readers something about who I am. I struggled with what to put out there. How did I want to identify myself? There are so many ways. Eventually, I landed on this: “Wife, Mother, Pastor, in the order in which they became a layer of my identity.” I could say other things about myself, too, but in saying this, I am saying that these are the words that define me best, these particular relationships and this particular work. In choosing these identifiers, I am saying something about what is most valuable to me. But, as important as these identities are, there is something yet more important – for me and for you.
Remarkably, no matter what identity we were born with, no matter what identities we have made for ourselves, each of us has been given a new identity in Christ. In the language of our faith, to become a Christian is to be reborn into new life, to become a member of a new family, a new body – the body of Christ. It is astounding. Yet I wonder how much we are aware of that particular identity in our daily lives. In all the decisions we make, how much are we influenced by our identity in Christ?
In the coming weeks we will take a closer look at this identity. We will dig into the qualities of this new life we take on with our faith, the values we adopt as our own when we decide to follow Jesus. We begin today with this story about the rich man who approached Jesus.
Mark calls him rich. Matthew adds that the man is young, and Luke calls him a ruler. And so we sometimes lump it all together and call him the rich young ruler who approached Jesus with a question: What must I do to inherit eternal life?
He seems sincere in asking this question; he really wants to know. He is probably a devout man who seeks to live his best life, and he’s well on his way there. He’s doing well financially, that is quite clear. He is devoted to obeying God’s law, that is also clear. But there is something in him that is still unsettled. He has the notion that there is still something more, some sort of calling, perhaps. Whatever it is, he yearns to know.
So Jesus tells him: You should sell all your possessions and come follow me. And the man was shocked. He went away grieving because he, in fact, had many possessions.
Now I believe most, if not all, of us should be able to identify with the rich man in this story, because we too have many possessions. We might have a little less than our neighbors. We might lack a few things that we feel, if we only had them, would make our lives complete. But, still, we have a lot. And perhaps there is another thing you can identify with about this man: the idea of living without our possessions is frightening.
To the rich young ruler, if I may call him that, what Jesus is asking doesn’t even make sense. He may very well have been taught as a youth that riches are a sign of God’s favor, a reward for righteous living. Why on earth would he give them up?
The rich man walked away heartbroken, grieving because while he kept all his many possessions, he sensed he was losing something of greater value. He left in defeat, and Jesus remarked, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” His disciples were greatly astounded, Mark says. In answer to their astonished expressions Jesus said, “But all things are possible for God.”
All things are possible for God, particularly all the things that are not possible for humans. There is nothing a human being can do to earn their salvation. There is no way for a human to inherit eternal life, but with God it is possible. Because every way you fail to live into God’s image, every way you fall short of God’s design, every way you neglect this relationship with the divine, God extends forgiveness.
We are forgiven, this is the first mark of our identity in Christ. God extends forgiveness for our every shortcoming, for every ornery act, for every bit of selfishness or narrowmindedness or spitefulness. For every way we can fail to live into God’s image, God is willing and able to forgive. Wipe the slate clean. Offer us a fresh start, new life. In Christ Jesus, God is turning everything upside down and inside out and, as hard as it is to believe, it’s true. Thanks be to God.
But there is one more thing. One thing that goes hand in hand with being forgiven and that is this: to be one who forgives.
As Jesus showed in so many ways, one requires the other, they go hand in hand. We who are the forgiven must live lives of forgiveness, extending the same gift to others – all the others. If not, we find ourselves in the dank, dark room that Desmond Tutu describes, trapped in there with stale air and all our sins. Trapped, because it is forgiveness that makes us free.
This is a choice for each one of us. A choice to forgive others, as we have been forgiven, to be imitators of God, as the letter to the Ephesians says. To offer a new beginning to others, just as God has offered to us.
To live into this identity, the forgiven, what will it mean for your life? Is there someone you have held a grudge against? Is there someone you have had a falling out with and now it is too uncomfortable to reach out in friendship? Is there someone whose politics or opinions are too offensive to you and so you have cut them off?
Is there someone you cannot talk to because it might feel like walking across a minefield? Make up your mind to forgive. Forgive, as God has forgiven you.
picture: AdobeStock_369837295
