A MATTER OF IDENTITY JMB
Communion Meditation - Lent BSPC
Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 Cols., OH
Romans 5:12-19

February 12, 1978

It was only several years ago that the most fashionable

affliction one could sport was an "identity crisis."\ An

el
identity crisis is what you have when you wake up one morning,
ee Pe
look in the mirror, and ask, "Who am I?" — and don't know the

<< ———— oe

answer \ A severe identity crisis is what you have when you
ca

crawl back in bed and stay there for two weeks | or instead of

shaving and showering and going to the office, you dawn blue
omer - gma Sa RE ee

jeans, buy a motorcycle and hit the road.
|

It was only several years ago that "Who Am I?" was the
——s ee
"in" question. | I have a cousin who at the time was in the
process of graduating, cum laude, from Yale University.\ She
was a drop-out from church youth groups, however, \When I

asked her why, she answered in a way I haven't_forgotten. “™ ‘
“Le GeAec Fe erogh meetrys aad Fafeed Gbsrt uhe T am
She said, ("' f
far the seet~r& my fi fe"

tt

4

ahead we overdid it | Perhaps our concentrated concern
Serve

to loosen rather than firm our sense of identity. | The
BY dies

uestion, however, remains a live and important one.| Erik
(UC eee’ f A. eel cel

Erikson taught that establishing one's identity, one's sense
MoS joer Ss aA
of selfhood, is the eel task of adolescense.\\ In

adolescent years the healthy, growing individual learns who
he or she is.\ It is not, however, a simple matter of individve\ ideutL .
dwumimmg. Rather, the self is affirmed in relationship :\ the
——— ESS Ste
individual emerges in the midst of a family, parents, brothers
| EE oo, a]

and sisters, community, church, nation. \: made light of the
eee" OE.

— omen

er a
vnote/avostion initially. But we are discoveri ng again
Cn |

that in middle age, for instance, for many people, the job Lae

has not yet been accomplished: | the search for identity vowtdactes

laser DG ae

Dante wrote (em the middle of our life I find myself in

a dark wood. ") And Gail Sheehy wrote a best seller under the
Ac. Aow -ayasys
title Passages which describes mid-life identity crisis in
i

Un bee.
such wiwwewe terms that happy readers report feeling inade-
ee ee
quate and guilty because that they have not yet had one,

A sense of identity is fundamental to mental and spiritual
a —

health. | Establishing that identity is one of the life-long

tasks which confronts every one of us.\ Davia Wiliis suggests
ani Te

dircetly . - .
that advertising caters to our hunger for identity , ctinmeetebyp,

lero ar

(ne are toid that the real you is a blonde, or a brunette,

or whatever you are not now.| All you have to do te become the
arr

polychrome you, is to 'do it', \x0 you do it with the right
a el

i

product, no one will know whether or not you do it. | If you
cre

are still the same old you, try serving and drinking the right
| ke arto

potion. \ vou will know you have ‘arrived’ if a particular
brand of brew is being consumed at a party to which you are
ii 2 ———————

invited. | When you travel, be forwarned that successful
Ec 7"

people are to be found on this or that flying carpet. | These

carpets 'make the going great,' are the ‘friendliest;' ‘move

their tails for you,’ or are equipped with attendants whom

you can 'fly daily' to Houston if you wish..

<a ppsnagentelcEs
wy asi f i i i i
he basic need for seen sty on which these ads corel a
need to be assured that we are worth something, that we are
a are RR elie pC a

gu

of some significance and beauty, that ‘ee are not just lost —
Sa = — a nen ete ee

and if we should get lost, someone will at least notice."

Er

(David Willis, Daring Prayer, p. 30)

Visitors to our culture seem to notice almost immediately

the tendency of American people to avoid aloneness at any cost.
Le iiatinaie alain

Henri Nouwen, Dutch Roman Catholic Theologian suggests that we
— es Fir rer

are not comfortable with ourselves :\ that we need chatter,
= ee

people, muzak , to fill the silence in order to prevent simple
ah h6lU Dal

communication with one's self.\ The reason, he suggests, is

that we are not really sure who we are.

Our identity is established, more often than not, within a
story.| It's important, for instance, to tell our children
eeeeiiAnnee~ Dre ‘ACCA
stories from their infancy:] how it was when they were born,

ig EEE

what we did together when they were pabies \ ana even thmowele “hag
aE

they've heard it. all before it's important _to tell it again:
squfEcee Se meni i

for everytime they hear the story they recognize themselves
ESTE nD

in it, and know, more deeply, who they are.\ That, of course,
whole ors

5. | Who will ever for-

Aler

get that moment in the epilogue of the book, when Haley has

was the power of

traced his ancestors to 4a rem ia, and hears,

haiti rect ae ein .

ote villas

for the first time, the story of Kunta Kinte, the boy who
elie, aE, a,

went into the woods one day to carve a drum and never returned?
ATE bela nnn need eC re

That, of course, was Haley's ancestor. \ ana he testified, that
i /__

for the first time in his life he knew and rejoiced in who he
eee SEE Ce

Was.

We find ourselves somewhere in a story: \ we recognize our-

Lenten ieee

selves in the characters we already know very well. \ In an

ob hsb frl essay On Stories, C. S. Lewis observed that children love to
EEE

4

have stories re-read in the same words as vetore.| (orney want
—e ree idlinteeeed

to have again the ‘surprise’ of discovering that what seemed
ra ter re,

Little-Red-Riding Hood's grandmother is really the wolf. It

is better when you know it is coming..." ] (see Willis, op.cit, p. 30+31
Siena

The Christian faith, and the Jewish tradition behind it,

answers the existential question, "Who am i?" by telling a

story - or a series of stories. \ That is why we preserve, and

read and reread the tale of an unlikely tribe of semites wander-

ar
ing around in the wilderness for forty years, and building their
Dc , ee

nation, and the even more unlikely stories of their heroes,
a min ee

prophets, generals and kings. \ Somewhere in those stories,
Se I SEE ieee

Christianity suggests, we find out who we are. | And it originates
sseneeememininiil EE (Pe trtpgpice mint

in the primal story, an historical vignette from the time when
nee —_———

there was no bistory.\ whether or not it is literal history is not
i,

and never has been the point \ The point is what it says about

the human condition and whether or not you and I recognize our-
a oma Ta

selves in the story.

So - think with me about our story, as it was read earlier

from the Book of Genesis...

Once upon a_time God made us from the dust and ciay and

dirt of the ground.\ The important thing is not the material
Ee Bn:

but the assertion that He fashioned us, molded us, made us to

——
be what we are. \ He breathed into us his own life, the divine
Dene ae intend cima NURTRNNE ees

breath. \sna he placed us in Eden, which in Hebrew means
EE Ds

Simply a delightful place: where the trees were pretty and
SR ba ena ni nel

the fruit very tasty.\ He gave us one another for company and
we walked around in that delightful place in innocence, and

the only condition he placed on the arrangement was that we
be tr

aummired obey a few simple rules the essence of which was the

acknowledgement that he is God, the Lord of the place.
agus. OT

ey

But the more we thought about it the less we could
EERDET ALTA aiainiiaintameiaininal

understand why he insisted on his prerogative; \why we couldn't

a e- we
awn the place. \ ana so we broke the rule and pushed him out

ee De
of his own garden, [ana we knew intuitively that our pride
Be

realors
had broken the relationship between our creator and ourselves

and suddenly we felt very funny about one another. \ We were

ashamed and embarrassed and covered our nakedness and lost
ET eC, SE

our original imocence. | cod was disappointed by the way we

chose to use our freedom: \zaen Was no longer possible: now

we would be responsible for ourselves | But even in his deep

disappointment God did not abandon us.\_ Even as he was driving

us cut of Eden, out into our world, he fashioned clothing out
-_ = emai an: EI tae

—— se

a,

of skins for our comfort and safety. \ His love and compassion

followed us east of Eden into our world and our history.
ei ‘eoxatt

- \ Do you recognize yourself in that

ran raher ars

\ the poets and artists and novelist have seen us clearly

——

. The Biblical writers maintain that the whole human con-

- he busts story
Lyf dition is included in ilo [ Adan means man —
$ je ne

Ws humanity: \ our alienation from God is a corporate thing as Ww 3
Seen a ail pa «alt
Cectkur ttre aur welue
well as personal. \ We are separated from our t#ne—ideatisy. Fis ge

ie

nein

But - the Christian faith maintains - something has happened
PETER, RINE
that makes all the difference in the world. “There ?¢s ane. chytin..

Listen to another writer, several decades after the fact,
Wee MEE

trying to put it in words:

‘Therefore as sin came into the world through one man,
be

dem-—

m, so one man's act of righteousness leads

to acquittal and life for all men." [ (romans 5:12, 18) Things

are different now, Paul announced. \ the situation is changed.

God has done something equally as important as his original
creation. | He has sent another man, another Adam to close the

gap and end the aliena ion. |

A Now life is possible again: \ that

which is broken may be put together and healed and made whole.

Do you find yourself there, too? \We aremany people. \ our

TY
identities are diverse. \We are husbands, wives, sons, daughters:
FRR — wa <a _saie

we are lawyers, doctors, teachers, homemakers , businessmen,
nurses: \ we are Repuclican, Democrats. \ we are Americans: \ we
ee - ae inl
are human beings living for a relatively brief span of time on
: —_—

Fete
the planet earth.
Gui simertantovey anak

rel beneath all of that we are creatures of God himself:
Eee | | Sey ec

who separate ourselves from our true identity by pride and
ed WE = EY

willfulness and stubornness . \e are creatures of need: \ beneath

all our temporary ideniies we are children without 4 parent, 4) - ha" >

without a name. \ We need someone to love us and tell us who we
see recep, = RE — qa

are and follow us through life. Guk weltow vs \pack Vw Oran .
=n hneeniinmmeinit cee ia

Who am I? | wno are you? ] We are the ones for whom Jesus

LWoew, To aun, They wouuk, 6 bod To am Ahr | "

@) hymn puts it: ven story of Jesus and his love." It is the

h gapleduleks ¢ —
time to reflect rs, about who _ we ar? pranpeancwentancnsit
enckiEeae

ed

at life, and welcomed us back into his family’

Sha wan erorervermmeriints tha | “Tasvgh pyr Senmanireica ‘oe frass\e WE Tomei — 4 Berei,
sk BE fn Sepos Cacict “Lewd down Ws
i ai And the journey of Lent begins, appropriatel enough, here,

as a family sits down to eat zmgal.| And someone says, (‘eer

the story") and another responds :

‘The Lord Jesus, on the night of his arrest, took bread,
and after giving thanks to God, broke it and said, 'This

is my body which is for you: do this remembering me.'

And in the same way, he took the cup and said, ‘This is
the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it,

do this, remembering me,'"

Amen.

Gea gn, ae - ia Yass Leal Geewn ~ Shen us Bi tem ome
low + OfRAA OMY Veter hy

Oda. Stark. ve wl wr

ee Oe OO why bmn Ee
ie @rUes °° Lid. Or Lord. Bene

Q:.ov- OFF