Poems, Prayers, and Promises from a Country Parson

In an earlier post I pleged to post some good quotes and thoughts from Bishop Arthur J. Moore's autobiography Bishop To All Peoples.

Though a short book, just shy of 150 pages, and a "not so new book", published in 1973, Bishop Moore raised several interesting and timely points.

"Methodism must be flexible enough to speak the language and address itself to the problems peculiar to a particular area and at the same time promote the worldwide task of the church" p 127.

"The command to preach the gospel was not intended for a single age, but for the ages.  The church can live and expand only when world vision is constantly before its eyes and when its minsiters and people are heroic adventurers and brave pioneers, ready to follow their Lord in the dangerous way of the Cross.  A Formal, faint-hearted, self-indulgent churc cannot hope to succeed in the time of such a revolution." p 98.

I wonder what advice and insight Bihop Moore would offer The United Methoidist Church as we gather for General Conference.

Tonight I finished reading J.B. Phillips classic work Your God is Too Small. I really enjoyed the book.  Glad I read it.  I wish I had read it earlier in my ministry, but at least I have read it once.  I just want to share a few quotes from the later chapters of the book.

Pardon the masculine exclusive language.  This book was written before inclusive language become common.

From Christ and the Question of Sin

"If God Himself is both Truth and Love it would be logical to suppose that a deliberate refusal to recognize or harbour truth and love would result in an attitude that makes reconciliation with God impossible." p 105.

From Statisfactory Reconciliation

"To assent mentally to the suggestion that "Jesus died for me" is unhappily only too easy for certain types of mind.  But really to believe that God Himself cut the know of man's entanglement by a personal and unbelievably costly act is a much deeper affair.  The bigger the concept of God the more the mind staggers at the thought, but once it is accepted as true it is not too much to say that the whole personality is reorientated." p 107.

From The Abolition of Death

""Heaven" is not, so to speak, the reward for "being a good boy" (though many people seem to think so), but it is the continuation and expansion of a quality of life which begins when a man's central confidence is transerred from himself to God-become-man." p 115. 

"Whosover liveth and believeth on Me shall never die" (John 11:26).  It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the meaning that Christ intended to convey was that death was a completely neglibgle experience to the man who had already begun to live life of the eternal quality. p 115.

From the final chapter

Those who respond to the Truth have always been a minority, and when God visited the earth in Person the response, even to Him, was not very large. p 122.

But if real Christianity fails, it fails for the same reasons the Christ failed--and any condemnation rightly falls on the world which rejects both Him and it." p 124.

In a few days I will finish Bishop Arthur J. Moore's book Bishop To All Peoples.  I will have several good quotes from the Bishop.

This is my sermon manuscript from Sunday March 25, 2012

    Today we come to the last sermon in our series about the Three Simple Questions.  I pray this series has helped you grow in your faith.  I know it has challenged me think how I can be more like Jesus.  I do think these Three Simple Questions have helped me know the Go of love, hope, and purpose.
    We’ve repeated them before, but I think they are worth repeating again.  Do you all remember the Three Simple Questions?  They are:
“Who is God?”
“Who am I?”
“Who are we together?”
    These are timeless and universal questions.  People across the world and across the ages have been pondering and seeking meaningful answers to these questions.  In his book, “Three Simple Questions,” Bishop Rueben Job has helped us find those meaningful answers people have long sought after.  Bishop Job has helped us find those answers in the Bible.
    Do you all remember the answers the Bible offers to these questions?
    “Who is God?”  The Bible tells us that God is the creator and sustainer of all that is seen and unseen.  If we want to see God, the Bible tells us all we need to do is to look at Jesus Christ.
    “Who am I?”  The Bible tells us that we are God’s children.  Jesus Christ offers us God’s gracious love. 
    “Who are we together?”  The Bible tells us that we are all connected in the human family.  The Bible also tells us that living well together is difficult.  We can only live well together by loving others and ourselves.  The only way we can love others and ourselves is by first loving God.  If we want to know what that love looks like, then all we need to do is to look at Jesus Christ.
    Last week we considered the role prayer plays in helping us connect to the God of the Three Simple Questions.  Prayer helps us know God, know ourselves, and know how we are to live with others.  I we want to live a life of love, hope, and purpose we need prayer-filled lives. 
    Today we come to the end of this series and I want to use this sermon to address what it means and looks like to “live the questions.”  So I ask, “What does it mean to live the questions?”
    Let me offer this story.
    This past week I spent a good bit of time walking around and pondering the thought, “Living the questions.”  While walking and pondering, I got to thinking about third grade math.  Do you all remember third grade?  When I was kid, third grade math was all about multiplication and division.  The first half of the year you spent all day remembering the times tables.  The second half of the year you spent all day learning about division.  Looking back on third grade it was a time of building up and taking down.
    I hate to tax your brain, but let’s do some math. 2 x 2 = 4, 2 x 3=6, 5 x 8 = 40, 10 x 10 = 100, 12 x 12 = 144.  I see some steam coming out of some of your ears. 
    I don’t know how you learned the multiplication table, but Mrs. Cowley, my third grade teacher, taught us by repetition.  We went over the multiplication table over and over again, kind of like how we’ve been repeating The Three Simple Questions and their answers over and over again. 
    At the beginning of the year our class struggled a bit, we had to do the math, then after a few weeks we began to remember, and then after a month or so Mrs. Cowley would ask random questions and we would answer almost before she finished the question.  Over time the multiplication table became natural.  You might say it became part of who we are.  As a grown up we use the time tables without thinking.
    In celebration of this spring weather you decide to have a cook out.  You go to the grocery and pick up a pack of hotdogs.  There are ten dogs in a pack.  You get two packs.  You go to the bread aisle to get some buns.  I’ve never understood why you get dogs in packs of ten but buns come in packs of eight.  Without sitting down with pen and paper, you pick up three bags of buns.  And if you got kids, you can use the four extra hot dog buns and subject them to the most embarrassing sandwich at the cafeteria table-a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a hot dog bun.
    Friends, this is what I think it means to live the questions.  We know the questions: “Who is God?” “Who am I?” and “Who are we together?”  We know the answers.  We are connecting through prayer and spiritual growth to the God of love, hope, and purpose who answers these questions.  And when we are faced with the questions we live the answers.
    A few weeks ago tornados swept through the mid west.  These huge storms destroyed towns and families.  News reporters ran to the scene to tell us the story.  They interviewed people whose earthly positions were picked up by the wind and thrown into a million pieces and places. Though, it was never directly asked, you heard people asking and answering the first question.
    “God sent the storms to teach us a lesson.”
    “God was mad at us.”
    “God is judging us.”
    “God is....you can finish the rest of the sentence.”
“Who is God?” wasn’t asked, but it was answered.
    You go to the mailbox.  There is a letter waiting for you.  It’s got your address, but not your name.  It is addressed to “Resident.”  Though, it was never directly asked, you have an answer to the second question.
    “You are a resident.”
    “You are a zip code, a street number, a street name.”
    “You are a citizen of a certain state.”
    “You are a citizen of a certain nation.”
“Who am I?” wasn’t asked, but it was answered.
    You go to town.  You see a man on the side of the street.  He looks like he hasn’t had a bath in several weeks.  He looks hungry.  The light turns green.  You move with the flow of traffic.  Though, it was never directly asked, you’ve answered the third question.
    “He’s just a drunk.”
    “If he only tried to find a job.”
    “He would only use my money to buy booze.”
    “I can’t do anything to help him.”
“Who are we together?” wasn’t asked, but it was answered. 
    Friends, this is what it looks like to live the questions. 
    In the closing paragraph of his book “Three Simple Questions,” Bishop Job has this to say about living the questions.  He writes:
We know we cannot do everything to change the world, but we can, by God’s grace, each do our part.  We can, each one of us, live what we are--a creature of the God who is Creator of all that is, a beloved child of God, a responsible member of God’s global family, and a follower of Jesus Christ as part of God’s faithful family.  Every day that we live as Jesus lived, we change the world. (74)

    Listen to that last line again, “Every day that we live as Jesus lived, we change the world.”  Living like Jesus?  Isn’t that a novel idea?  Haven’t we heard that before?  Wasn’t that something Paul said in scripture we heard this morning?

    Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children. Live your life with love,     following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. He was a     sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God. Ephesians 5:1-2.

    In this scripture, Paul was telling Christians long ago and Christians today, to live like Christ.  Look at the word he uses in verse 1.  He writes, “imitate God.”  I’m sure many of you all have heard the old adage, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  I suggest “imitation is also the sincerest form of worship.” 
    In this passage, Paul is speaking to people who were familiar with the ancient art of public speaking.  If you wanted to become a great public speaker you would find a great public speaker and ask to be their student.  As a student you would then learn to imitate the teacher.  If the teacher raised his hands when he spoke, you would learn to raise your hands when you spoke.  If the teacher tried to make a point with a soft spoken voice, then you would learn to make a point with a soft spoken voice.
    As Christians, we are called to imitate our teacher.  Our teacher is Jesus Christ.  Living the questions means to live like Jesus would. 
    What does that look like?
A few weeks ago tornados swept through the mid west.  These huge storms destroyed towns and families.  News reporters ran to the scene to tell us the story.  They interviewed people whose earthly positions were picked up by the wind and thrown into a million pieces and places.  You hear the following explanations:
    “God sent the storms to teach us a lesson.”
    “God was mad at us.”
    “God is judging us.”
    “God is....you can finish the rest of the sentence.”
    Because you are trying to live the questions, the explanations sound like this, “2 x 2 =5, 4 x 5 =15, 3 x 9 = 10.”  You know they mean well, but the answers are wrong.  God is loving creator and sustainer.  Let’s don’t rush to say God sent storms.  How about we live in a world were evil takes many forms and fashions and storms are example of a fallen creation.  Instead of blaming God, you look for ways to help these victims rebuild their lives.  You do something God would do, you work for restoration, re-creation, and redemption.

    You go to the mailbox.  There is a letter waiting for you.  It’s got your address, but not your name.  It is addressed to “Resident.”  You ask? “Am I just a resident, a zip code, a street number, a street name.”  No.  “I am something more, something greater, I am a beloved Child of God.”  You are living the questions.
    You go to town.  You see a man on the side of the street.  He looks like he hasn’t had a bath in several weeks.  He looks hungry. Before you started to spend more time in prayer, Bible study, devotion, worship, and serving others you would have sat in the car and said to yourself, “He’s just a drunk,” “He would only use my money to buy booze,” or “I can’t do anything to help him.”  Because you are living the questions, when the light turns green you go to the next gas station or fast food place and get the man something to drink or eat.  Friends that is what it means to live the questions. 
    Living the Questions means we imitate Christ.  We cannot imitate what we do not know.  So we can’t imitate Christ if we don’t know Christ.  We can’t live the questions if we don’t know the answers to the questions.  We can’t answer the questions if we don’t know the God of the questions.  We can’t know the God of the questions without know Jesus Christ. 
    Friends over the next two weeks we will celebrate Palm Sunday and Easter.  We will journey through the Passion of Holy Week.  We will focus our attention on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We will remember what The God of love, hope, and purpose has done for us so we might be able to fully love and live.  I pray that you see these days as a divine invitation to draw closer to God.  I hope you see these days and actually every day, as a divine invitation to know love and grow in love.  For in drawing near to the God of love we truly find hope in this world and discover our purpose for living. 
    Now I understand living the questions might sound difficult.  Living like Christ is a high standard.  Jesus is perhaps the most difficult person to imitate.  Why?  Not because  what he asks us to do in so difficult, but because it is inherently and radically difficult from the way we are used to living.  But Christ is gracious.  If we draw near to God, God will draw near to us and help as we grow and over time and as we grow in grace-living the questions and being like Christ will be as natural as “2 x 2 = 4, 5 x 3 = 15, 4 x 6 = 24.” Amen. 

I wrote a manuscript for the third sermon in this series; however, I didn't feel like it was what needed to be preached from the pulpit.  Instead, I used a simple outline to answer the question "Who are we together?"

The third of the Three Simple Questions is a question about community and relationship.  It calls us to ponder our relationship with God and our relationship with each other.  They way we answer this question shapes how we form and function in community. 

BIshop Rueben Job addresses this relationship in his book Three Simple Questions.  Bishop Job offers this insight:

"Our destiny is to live in confidence and loving and trust in loving relationship with this God and with our neighbors--with all God’s children--who are just like you and me.  When we begin to live this way, we begin to love as God loves; we begin to love our neighbors as ourselves.  This is the way of love.  This is what it means to live in community."

The way of love isn't an easy road to travel.  The Bible shows us how difficult it is to live well and to live well in community.  Story after story in the Bible retell how we are quick to focus on ourselves instead of living for others.  Thankfully the Bible isn't all bad news, for we do find a word of hope.  The Bible tells us how the God of Love wants to take up residence in our hearts through the endwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

It is only by Spirit-filled living that we can love God, know and love ourselves, and truly love others in community.  It is only by Spirit-filled living that we can live out the virtues of Godly community in Ephesians 4:1-4.

Are we willing to make it happen?  Do we want to grow in Christ?  Are we willing to put others first?  Do we want others to have know the love of God?  It wont just happen.  We must work for it and allow God to work in us.  Amen. 

    During the season of Lent we’ve been responding to what Bishop Rueben Job calls, “The Three Simple Questions.”  Do you all remember these timeless and universal questions?  They are: “Who is God?” “Who am I?” “Who are we together?”
    Over the past three weeks we have turned to scripture to see what answers the Bible offers to these three questions.  “Who is God?”  The Bible tells us that God is the creator of all that is seen and unseen and the one who holds all things together.  The Bible also tells us God became human in Jesus Christ. 
    “Who am I?”  The Bible tells us that when we call on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we become Children of God.
    “Who are we together?”  The Bible tells us that we are all in need of God’s grace.  The Bible also tells us that living in community is difficult.  The only way we can love others as God has called us to love is by God’s presence indwelling in us by the Holy Spirit.
    It’s one thing to know the answers to the three simple questions.  It is entirely another thing to pray and to live in the questions.  Bishop Job was right when he said the “Three Simple Questions help us know the God of hope, love, and purpose.”  Today I want to spend some time pondering what would it look like to pray the questions and next week what does it mean to live the questions.
    What is prayer?  When I think about the question several answers come to mind.  First of all, I think of communication.  Prayer is communication with God.  Secondly, it is something that I desperately need more in my life and ministry.  Yes I said it.  I desperately need more prayer in my life and ministry.  Your preacher needs to spend more time with God.
    I bet I am not the only one here who feels like they need to spend more time with God.  How is your prayer life?  Do you pray?  Other than our prayer time in this service, when was the last time you prayed?  Did the prayer go something like this...”Lord we thank you for this food.  Amen.” 
    Don’t get me wrong saying grace before we eat is important, but we need more prayer than just “Lord bless the chicken.”  We need the kind of prayers Jesus taught his disciples.  We need the kind of prayer that connects us with the God who answers the “Three Simple Questions.”
     We need the kind of prayer Jesus taught his disciples in Luke 11:1-4.  I invite you to turn to Luke 11 so we can look at this prayer together.
    I think it is important to set the scene in which Jesus gives this prayer for it tells us much about the prayer life of Jesus.  Luke tells us that Jesus had gone off to a “certain place.”  When I was in region Galilee our tour group visited the place where tradition tells us Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount.  On the side of this steep hill there is this little cave.  It’s more like a nook instead of a cave.  Just a small little indention in the side of the hill.  There is an old legend that says this little nook was the “certain place” where Jesus liked to go and pray.
    Luke tells us that Jesus is in this certain place praying when one of the disciples is watching.  This goes to show us that people watch what we do.  Jesus’s prayer life must have stirred something within this disciple.  Do note that we don’t know which disciple asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.  That is not important.  What is important is that the disciple wanted and desired a deeper prayer life! 
    The next few verses should be very familiar to us.  They form what we call “The Lord’s Prayer.”  We usually pray this prayer or something similar to it in our Sunday morning order of worship.  I could preach a sermon series on the prayer itself, but this morning I just want to do a survey of what Jesus teaches us in this model prayer.
    Recently I’ve begun trying to write the pastoral prayer I share in our Sunday morning worship.  Sometimes I turn to a passage of scripture such as one of the Psalms and use the scriptures as an outline to help me write my prayer.
    The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer.  It isn’t the only way to pray.  With this prayer Jesus gives his disciples of long ago and his disciples today a pattern to follow.   
    Perhaps you could think of the Lord’s Prayer as a “paint by number” painting.  The Lord’s prayer gives us an outline of the painting and tells us where to put the different colors.  It is up to us to do the painting.  As we learn to pray we become more creative.  We know the basic shapes, pattern, and colors present in a beautiful prayer.  As we grow in prayer we discover we don’t need the little numbers to tell us where to put color.  After the a while we don’t even need the outline.  Before we know it we are praying beautiful, powerful, life changing prayers.
   
    What outline does the Lord’s prayer offer us?
    It begins by directing our attention and our hearts to God.  The prayer begins by drawing us to the first of the three simple questions “Who is God?”  The Lord’s prayer reminds us that God is our heavenly father.  It continues by reminding us what God is doing in the world--ushering forth God’s heavenly Kingdom and will.
    The Lord’s prayer then transitions us into the second question “Who am I?”  The Lord’s prayer helps us recognize our daily dependence upon God.  When the early church prayed the Lord’s prayer, they saw the petition, “Give us this day our daily bread” as a two fold request.  When early Christians raised this petition to God they were asking God to provide for their spiritual and earthly needs. 
    The Lord’s prayer then leads us into the third question “Who are we together?” When we pray “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us, and lead us not into temptation,” we recognize that life together is difficult.  The Lord’s prayer teaches us each time that we pray it, “We need forgiveness and we need to be people who give forgiveness to others.”
    You see the Lord’s Prayer connects us right into the Three Simple Questions.  This is the type of prayer we need.  I am not saying that we should simply pray the Lord’s Prayer every time we pray, but we need prayers that connect us with the God of all creation, reminds us who we really are, and what we need to do to love and live well with others. 
    Think again about the prayers you’ve been praying lately.  Do they connect you with the God of hope, love and purpose?  Do your prayers help you live out the answers to the questions “Who is God?” “Who am I?” “Who are we together?”
    At the beginning of this sermon, I mentioned how I earnestly need a deeper prayer life.  When I do an inventory of my spiritual conditions and needs, the need for more prayer is top on the list.  I don’t know about you all, but this passage of scripture has convicted and inspired me to spend more time in prayer.  To be honest with you, I really don’t know what this will look like in my life.
    If have a good friend who leads a contemporary worship service for young people.  She has introduced me to prayer stations.  The worship service she leads utilizes them.  A few months ago I went on a Pastor’s retreat where she set up some different prayer stations for us to use. 
    One station had little pieces of clay.  You were invited to take the clay and mold it and shape it in your hand while you prayed the Bible verse “You are the potter I am the clay.”  We were supposed to focus on what shape God wanted us to be.
    One station had pieces of paper.  You spent some time in prayer and then you wrote down sins that needed forgiveness, struggles, or needs in your life on this paper.  Then you took the paper and burned it with a candle.
    There was a prayer station at the alter where you could just kneel and pray. 
    I mention this because there is really no one right way to pray.  I don’t want you to think that spending more time in prayer means you got to spend more time kneeling at the alter or sitting in a chair.  However, if we aren’t kneeling at the alter in prayer it very well might be a good thing for us to start doing!
    In our book club, we are learning about different ways to pray.  Bishop Job has written an excellent book entitled, “Becoming a Praying Congregation.”  In our book club, we are looking at some of the different ways of praying that Bishop Job explains in that book.  We’ve learned about the prayer of silent listening.  That is where you simply sit in silence with a piece of paper and focus your thoughts on God.  You might repeat the verse “Speak for the servant is listening” or “Be still and know that I am the Lord your God.”  As you sit in silence you write down or draw what you feel God is saying to you.
    We’ve learned about the prayer of imagination.  In this way of praying you read scripture over and over and try to put yourself into the story.  What do you see?  What do you hear?  What do you smell?  And again you write down what you feel God is saying to you.
    There are many ways to pray.  I have another friend that is teaching her church to use prayer beads.  You simply hold the beads in your hand and focus on a different need as you touch each bead. 
    Yes there are many ways to pray and we should use a variety of these ways to connect with God.  But no matter how we pray I believe there are five things we need to remember.  These four things are not original to me, but come from William Barclay’s little book about the Lords Prayer.  Barclay says these four things should be part of every prayer:
Remember God is your Father and King.
Don’t hesitate to tell God your daily needs.
Don’t shrink from telling God our mistakes and failures.
Never forget to place the unknown future into God’s hands.
I would like to add one more thing
 Don’t forget to tell God thank you!

    Can you just imagine what a difference would happen in our lives, in our church, and in our community if we began praying like this?   What would happen if we started groups that met throughout the week for no other purpose but prayer?  Do you think we could change the world?
    You might not believe this, but there was a church that began a prayer meeting.  This wasn’t a special church.  It was just an ordinary church.  It had its share of strife, bickering, and backsliding.  One day the church’s leader, Count Zinzendorf, said “Let’s have a prayer meeting.”  48 people responded to his call.  24 men and 24 women. 
    These 48 people committed to praying one hour a day.  So in this church there was always a man and a woman praying.  They could have been praying at home, at the church, or at work, or even on vacation.  These people committed to praying 1 hour a day.
    Anybody want to guess how long this prayer meeting lasted? 
    It began in 1727 and lasted over 100 years.  I think it lasted 127 years.  After 65 years of 24 hour prayer this church had sent out 300 missionaries to share the gospel across the world. 
    It just so happened that an Anglican priest headed on a missionary trip to Georgia ran into a group of these Moravian missionaries.  Do you know what they were doing when they met?  They were praying because their ship was getting ready to sink in the North Atlantic ocean.  The Anglican priest they met was a man by the name of John Wesley.  
    After seeing the witness of the Moravians in prayer, John Wesley began trying to answer the three simple questions-”Who is God?” “Who am I?” and “Who are we together?”  The witness of the Moravians helped John Wesley meet the God of love, hope and purpose.
    John Wesley, empowered and inspired by his Holy Spirit encounter at a Bible study at Aldersgate street in England, began a missionary movement that helped change the world.  We are here to today as United Methodist because of that movement.  A movement born out a a group of bickering, upset, and backsliding Christians that decided to pray.
    The Lord only knows what can happen if we decide to pray.

Pastoral Prayer

Gracious God we are humbled by your invitation to “Come and pray.”
We also apologize for all the times we have not responded to your gracious invitation to commune with you in prayer.
Forgive us for being selective in our response. 
God have mercy on us for all the times we have failed to pray simply because it did not fit into our so-called “busy schedules.”
God have mercy on us for all the times we have approached you in prayer, not as God, but as a wish granting genie.
God have mercy on us for all the times we’ve been so wrapped up in our own world that we’ve neglected to see the world outside of us and failed to pray for others. 
God have mercy on us for all the times we told our family, our friends, our church, and even the stranger that we would pray for them, but didn’t.
God have mercy on us for not being the students of prayer you have tried to teach us to be.
Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.  Please teach us and help us to be better students of prayer.
Lord teach us and help us to pray without ceasing.  Let our lives be living prayers.
Lord teach us and help us to approach you in awe and reverence of your holiness.
Lord teach us and help us to look outside of ourselves.  Help us to see the needs of others and to feel compassion for the needs of others.  Help us be faithful to our promises to pray for the needs of others.
Yes Lord help us to be true to our promises as you are faithful and true to the promises you’ve made to us.
Lord, again, our prayer is to be better disciples, better students of prayer, and better practitioners of this gracious gift.
We thank you for this gracious gift and thank you for teaching us to pray...
Our Father who art in heaven....

Amen. 

Today we come to the second Sunday of Lent and the second of three questions that we are pondering as we journey to the cross of Good Friday.  Last Sunday we began our journey by responding to the first question, “Who is God?”.  Today we come to the second question.  It, like the first, is a timeless question.  It, like the first, is a universal question, for all of us must answer it.  Today’s question is this, “Who am I?”

“Who am I?”
Perhaps you remember an election debate several from several years ago.  It was actually the 1992 vice-presidential debate.  On stage were Al Gore, Dan Quayle, and this strange white haired man who introduced himself in what many call is the most memorable opening statements in vice-president debate history.

This strange man was Admiral James Stockdale.  He was Ross Perot’s running mate.  Do you remember how Stockdale introduced himself?  Looking straight at the camera he said, “Who am I?  Why am I here?”

The crowd laughed.  The moment became history.  Saturday Night Live found a source for a bunch of funny jokes. 

But the question “Who am I?” really isn’t funny.  The way we understand and answer this question influences and shapes how we live, how we think of ourself, and how we treat others.

So who are you? If a stranger came up to you and asked “Who are you?” how would you respond?  I think most of us would just tell them our name.  Hello I am Hugh Hendrickson. 

But is that all we are?  Just a name? 

As I was getting ready to go on my trip to Israel, I had to get a current passport.  If I wanted to leave the country, enter into Israel, and get back into the United States I needed this (hold up my passport).  From what I was told, this little book proved my identity.  This little book proved my citizenship.  Whatever I did, I needed to make sure I never lost this little book. 

I don’t know if you have ever applied for a passport.  You don’t just go and get a passport, you have to apply for a passport and if the government sees fit you are given a passport.  Even though you pay for a passport you never own it because the passport is an official document of the United States government.

The passport application asks several different questions.  Name, age, current address, previous address, where you were born, proof of your birth and citizenship, and a current picture.  All these questions determine and prove who you are. 

But when it comes down to it does a passport or driver’s license really answer the question “Who am I?”

I would like to think that we are more than a name, age, current address, nationality and citizenship, and our current photo.  Are we more than data and facts?

In seminary we had to take all these personality profile tests.  They were part of this class that was supposed to help us understand who we are.  I took a Disc Test and a Meyers Briggs Test and a spiritual gifts test.

These tests asked all sorts of questions like:
Do you like crowds?
Would you rather sit in the middle of a room or against the wall?
Would you rather lead or follow?
Would you rather watch a movie or go to a concert?

The questions go on and on.  Like I said all these questions and tests were supposed to help us find out and understand who we are.  The Disc test told me I was a helper.  The Myers Briggs told me I was a bunch of letters, something like an infp or infj.  The Spiritual gifts test told me I was a teacher.  But are we more than tests?  Are we more than questions? 

“Who am I?” Sometimes we answer this question by listing off what we do. Many of us form our identity by our interests and our hobbies.  That is how people know us.   I’m a preacher, you’re a teacher, you’re retired, you like to read, you like to garden, you like Nascar, you like Georgia Football, you root for the Atlanta Braves.  And the list could go on.

But are we more than our hobbies, our interests, and our jobs?

I’ve mentioned all these different ways people answer and understand the question “Who am I?”  There is one place we haven’t looked.  Let’s take a moment to see how the Bible answers this question.

Today’s scripture gives us a good answer to this question.  Listen to it again...

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

The Bible tells us that we are more than data, answers to personality profile questions, more than careers, hobbies, and interests.  We are more than all the things that can be used to label us and put us in a box.  We are more than this.  The Bible tells us that we are Children of God.

Whenever you have pondered the question “Who am I?” Did the idea that you are a child of God ever cross your mind?

It is an idea a truth worth considering. 

Listen to what Bishop Rueben P. Job has to say about identifying ourselves as a child of God.  This comes from his book Three Simple Questions.

When each of us claims our full inheritance as a child of God, we see clearly that we are given this wonderful world to end and to share as God’s family.  In the eyes of Jesus, we are not given a special place because of our birth, place of origin, wealth, gender, or occupation.  As children of God, all receive an identity and place as God’s beloved child.   (Job, 42).

The Bible also tells us how we become Children of God, how we receive and welcome the love of God.

In John 14:23 we read, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

When we respond to this love and choose to love by obeying God’s word we are then able to truly answer the question “Who am I?” and live as if we are children of God.  As Bishop Job writes, “With these truths deeply imbedded in our lives, we too, can decide to walk the way of love, justice, reconciliation, and peace because we want to walk in companionship with the One who is love and calls us to love God and neighbor.” (44).

This is important.  This is something we don’t need to forget.  We always need to remember we are children of the great big wonderful and all powerful God.  We are children of the God of amazing love, amazing grace, and mercy beyond all measure. 

The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are children of the God who demonstrated, proved, and showed his love for us, “While we were still sinners Christ, the son of God, died for us.”  We will remember this demonstration of love on Good Friday we when draw near to the cross of Calvary.  However, we can remember this act of love every time we draw near to the Lord’s Table in holy communion.

So let us draw near to the God of love, the God who calls all who love him his Children, the God who ultimately answers the question “Who am I?” in broken bread and shared cup.  Amen.