To Reg. it's common knowledge that humans are a
highly but randomly evolved species; God is a delusion
Bijoy born into India's untouchables caste feels
treated like a dog. Doomed to be an outcast for life. Death the only escape. Reincarnation
into a higher caste his only hope.
Western Christians have been deeply influenced by the
ancient Greek view that we are souls trapped in an insignificant body, in a
corrupt world. (Psychopathic killer movies suggest Hollywood also sees the
world darkly.)
These are just a
few examples of the many possibilities of understanding who I am as a human.
...and we can see
that how we understand who we are profoundly shapes our outlook, our sense of purpose
and actions every day
For the atheistic evolutionist, he is just one of
over 6 billion socio-economic, material animals whose main purpose is (a) to
survive and (b) to propagate the species, and no higher Being cares about good
and not so good ways to do that.
Bijoy hopelessly accepts his lot as a social outcast,
and functions daily as a “polluted labourer”
Your too heavenly minded Christian will consistently
loathe her body and not care much if the globe overheats, because she's looking
forward to when she can be rid of this corrupt mortal flesh and “this terrible
world we live in”
See how our sense
of who we are profoundly shapes how we feel about ourselves, our decisions, and
how we live?
Many in our
culture try to form their own identity; “every one for her/himself”, vying for
dignity, competing for importance.
A burly wiccan
told Zurich pastor Phil Wagler, “The deeper you go in paganism, everyone just
makes it up for themselves” Phil responded, “So you're lonely.” “Yah,” the
wiccan responded.
The biblical
story gives what I have found to be a very healthy, balanced, realistic sense
of who we are. It's a an identity we don't have to concoct, just receive,
discover.
The Bible begins,
“In the beginning God...” Oh, so the starting or reference point isn't me.
There's a greater Being.
That Being
created the universe. One chapter can't include exact details, but God
nurtured order out of chaos, and it was good. Humans are part of that
intrinsic, God-given goodness. In fact, after creating humans God, said,
“It is very good.” And God rested, satisfied.
I don't have to
accept an emerged from the swamp identity or a downtrodden identity or “Yuck”
identity. I don't have to make up my identity; just uncover and enjoy the
God-given identity that I already have.
In a world of
heroes and idols Richard Rohr dares to confess, it sounds more exciting to try
to be like someone else “than accepting that I am Richard and that that is all
God expects me to be – and everything that God expects me to be. ...It is
probably the most courageous thing you will ever do to accept that you are just
yourself” (Adam's Return, 158).
The incarnation
of God in Christ, descending into one little whimpering child, in one small
cave illustrates how God values each person.
“Only the
original manufacturer can declare what the product – you – should be. Nobody
else. Your identity is written in your genes and enjoyed by God in its
specificity. Jesus said “Why, every hair of your head has been counted” (Matt.
10:30).
This is radical
humility. We cannot declare ourselves important. We don't need to. Our value
is already bestowed upon us by our Creator. Receive it and we save ourselves a
lot of coping with a negative self-image or trying to promote ourselves. I
need to hear this given the nasty things I sometimes say about myself to
myself.
We heard from
Psalm 8 earlier – God made us a little lower than God (or angels). When I read
that I'm with the writer: Wow. Why would God exalt us to such dignity?
The Psalm is just
as realistic about our limits. We are mortals. “Emerged from the swamp”
actually isn't that far off. Genesis 2 says God formed us from the earth and
to dust our bodies return. We know that. The sooner we face it the better we
live. Yet also, into we earth beings, Genesis 2 tells us, God has breathed
his own spirit. Capacities to think, love, choose, create are reflections of
God. Who am I? Completely ordinary, earthy; yet a reflection of God,
God-breathed..
The Bible is
incredibly honest about the positive ...and the negative. It tells it like it
is.
Genesis 3: The
first God breathed earthlings were tempted. Not by something that seemed bad
but by what seemed good. I guess that's temptation. They were seduced into
dissatisfaction with being very good God fashioned creatures. They were tempted
to actually be like God., figuring out good and evil for themselves. Prolific
author Henri Nouwen believed that original sin could only be described as
“humanity's endless capacity for self-rejection” (Rohr, 159). Adam and Eve
stopped accepting themselves as they were created; they sought to be more, but
it actually didn't make them better. They ended up loathing themselves,
ashamed, afraid, trying desperate tricks to avoid God, and hide from each other,
and themselves.
The rest of the
Bible is full of stories illustrating that when people accept their God given
dignity and limits, living as the Designer created and instructs, they
experience blessing – not everything goes well, but overall, it's good. But
when they try to be more than they are, possess what is not theirs, and control
more than is theirs they end up in cycles of violence, destruction, loss, exile
– alone, fearful, alienated from the life God made them for.
The writer of
Romans summed it up well: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
(6:23). Whether in large measure or small, all of us in trying to become more,
exceeding our limes, have become less than what God created us for. It's
healthiest to acknowledge it. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner”
is known as the Jesus Prayer for good reason. AA is patterned after it “I'm
so-and-so and I'm an alcoholic. The moment we get away from that honest
confession we become self-righteous: “At least I'm better than that sinner over
there. ”
The amazing Good
News is that even though we fall short of what God created us for, God doesn't
give up on us. The Bible is the unfolding story of God trying to connect with
humans, inviting us to live up to our original goodness. God's own Son
enters the picture. Colossians 1 says he is the image of God. - the perfect
example of who we were all created to be like. While on earth Jesus spent a
lot of time teaching us how to live as God created us. And healing. He ended up
suffering, giving his life to take on himself every way we get it wrong, and to
restore us to who we were created to be – if we'll accept it. As our
Scripture text (2 Corinthians 5: 17-21) says, “Anyone who is in Christ is a
new creation...” If you are Christ's, live into that new creation “All this
is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.” In other words, “in
Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins
against them.”
Who am I? At
the core we are part of God's good creation, valued enough that when by our
choices we become less than that, God comes looking for us especially in Jesus,
doing what it takes to bring us back into companionship with himself, and
restoring us to goodness. [Read v. 21]
My cancer
diagnosis was a chance for me to ask, So, in the unlikely chance that I have
only a few months or years to live, how am I going to live them? Who am I? What
am I here for? I realized rather simply that the answer is the same whether we
have 3 months or 3 years or 3 decades. I want to live out who God had made me
to be. I have decided to follow Jesus, and to do what I can to help others
follow Jesus.
Some people fear
that such focus is too limiting, narrows the options. But might the opposite
may be true? When you are tethered at a center point, it's amazing how far out
you can go and not be afraid or lost, because you're always connected to a
center that's more secure than you (Rohr, 155).
Song: Jesus,
be the center
Introduction to
baptism and church membership:
Baptism isn't
into just church ceremony. It symbolises an encounter with living God through
Christ that knocks at the core of life and death and has a way of shaping
everything else. God isn't just theological beliefs to argue about; God comes
in the form of a person - Jesus, a living presence. You can pigeon hole
ideas, you can't do that with an experience of the Person. You can only accept
it or dodge it. A lot of people have become adept dodgers. Some of us just
quit ducking!
Life in God's
image and being restored in Christ is about participation, not attainment. An
ancient baptismal rite reads, “As Christ was anointed priest, prophet and king,
so may you live always as a member of his body” “...as a member of his body”
Don't try to be your God created, Christ redeemed self alone. It might appeal
to the ego; its seduced and destroyed many. Some have even treated baptism as a
sort of graduation after which you leave to do your own thing. We were created
in community. Sin separates us from others. Christ redeems us back into
community, a heavenly kingdom movement much bigger than us. Church membership
expresses that.
