identity

God our father, 
You are the everliving and forgiving One. 
Generous, providing and blessing One. 
Patient and kind, loving and caring One. 
Sharer of power, lover of justice, 
Rescuer from darkness, 
Provider of a place to dwell. 
God our father, thank you for welcoming all of us into your eternal family.

(Christine Sine, http://godspace-msa.com/2015/06/08/meditation-monday-the-father-heart-of-god/)

"...for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." 


This morning we get to talk about identity. and Dad.

Abba. Father. That is what Jesus called God. That is what we are called to call God. It means God is not remote from us. God is next to us, as close as any most loving father ever was. And we are God’s beloved children. You are God’s beloved child. All of us are.

That is our identity. Now.

Just when you have completed all the work of establishing your own identity - over against your parents, or your peers, or some machine of government or industry; just when you have established your identity as a sexual being or a political animal or a consequential force in local government; then it is that Christ comes to us. Then it is that we hear the good news. And he calls to us - into a new identity.

Paul was looking both ahead and back when he told the Galatians they were heirs of the promise. He wanted them to know they were God’s beloved children, that they were part of the plan, too. Just like the Hebrews who’d wandered through the desert with Moses, or the Moabite woman Ruth, or any of the people who came into fellowship with God through the people of Israel. Paul wanted them (and you) to know that in Christ everybody has a chance to realize that they are beloved of God. 

You are. And so is everybody else.

All three religions of Abraham have this message in mind: you and I, we can be part of this story too, and find our identity as children of Abraham, as God’s beloved ones.

There is no longer Jew or Greek or slave or free or male and female - and we could go on: no black or white or brown, or rich or poor, straight or gay, legit or criminal, sober or using... 

... but there it is:

All of you, all of us, are one in Christ Jesus.

And if that is who you are, then you are one of the people chosen by God to lead the world into a new reality. You are God's beloved child, and you have work to do.

Because there is no kingdom of heaven unless there are believers in it - in it up to their necks. In it with a passion and a willingness and a promise to fulfill; in deep with the kingdom and the kingship of God, ready to put their work in the world into God's service, to bring into being, into present reality, the hegemony of Jesus, the reign of the Cross, and the right to live in freedom and security - and crazy self-expression - of all people.

This week, in the Orlando Massacre, we have seen a hate crime against gays, an act of terror in the name of God, and the sorry result of lax gun laws, all in one act of desperate and criminal violence. 

It was public instantly. I heard it from a man on my way into church last Sunday; he'd just heard it on the radio as he parked his car. Public instantly - and a magnet to the numb narcissism and the wacko commentary of self-involved people of all kinds. Instantly public, and a trauma. Public instantly, and a magnet to the numb narcissism and the wacko commentary of self-involved people of all kinds. Public instantly, and a trauma. We share in it, gay or straight, male or female, Muslim or Christian, Latina or Anglo.

Free or slave. Yes, there are slaves in the world. 

And there is moral slavery too - demonic bondage that holds people captive with anxiety, fear, and despair. And we are here to proclaims freedom to the captives.   

Freedom from want. Freedom from fear. Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship.

Free to worship God without fear.  

And free to assemble for peaceful or political ends, and to sing out for God's kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. Without fear, in freedom. Whoever we are. 

For we proclaim that: 
Love is strong as death.
Love casts out fear.
Love does not despair.

There was a rumor going around that the president had been able to sign something very like the Brady Bill, revived. No such luck. Those of us who remember when Jim Brady and Ronald Reagan were shot may not remember that the Brady Bill was signed by President Clinton. Twelve years later. It took that long. It takes an unconscionable amount of time to get reasonable gun safety laws passed.  

And that is another third of this tragedy, the Orlando Massacre, and so many others. We may be inclined to see one third of the picture: lax gun safety laws, violence against a targeted group - gays, Latinos, Blacks, Sikhs; or Muslim extremism and recruitment of home-grown terrorists. But all of them were at play in this situation. And when politicians and commentators are so unwise as to capitalize on tragedy to build votes or popularity it only feeds the fire.

We need to do something different. To act. To speak out. To work -

• ... and to keep working on preventing gun violence through legislation and support for proper law enforcement.
• to build bridges of understanding between the children of Abraham - Christian, Muslim, and Jew - so extremism is revealed as the marginal mutant that it really is.
• to continue to embrace and celebrate diversity among all the beloved children of God.

Liberating God, working your power among the legions of destructive might and the demons of inner disturbance, release us from our fears, protect us from everything that could overwhelm us, and bring all the powers of this present age to serve your just and gentle rule.  (Jim Cotter)

Abba. Father. Let it be so. Amen.

A Man of the City

C Proper 7 RCL

A man of the city – this is how the gospel describes him: not “the Gerasene Demoniac”, not “the appendectomy in Ward 7a”, but a person in relationship to a community. Jesus goes on to ask him your name: he continues to approach the other person with respect, recognizing his human dignity. And when the man is restored to himself, sitting clothed and quiet with Jesus’ feet, Jesus tells him to stay and be a witness in his own community to what God has done for him.

The people of the region see him, and Jesus, as problems. They tried to restrain the man – and he broke free. Jesus strikes fear into their hearts – God can do anything, even restore a man possessed by demons to his right place in the community, perhaps even set everything to rights… with all the problems that would create for the powers that be and those who love them.

Go away, Jesus, you are doing too much good. A little good is enough. If you restore even the demoniacs to their right minds, won’t you also proclaim the year of the Lord and restore us all to our rightful inheritance? Won’t that involve giving up what we’ve gained in our modus vivendi, our accommodation, to Pontius Pilate and the Roman occupiers? To the collaborators in the Sanhedrin and their minions?

Am I going to lose valuable rental property because this guy, the rightful owner, is no longer a raving lunatic in the graveyard, but claiming his place in town?

And worse than that: Jesus did not take him away when he’s gone. The man is still here, still a living witness to the living God. God has done great things for him. And if you don’t watch out, it could happen to you too.

The apostle Paul reminds us that it is not just “a man of the city” who is in chains.

Before faith came, as he put it, we were in bondage ourselves, to sin. The law guarded us, but it was not until faith came – faith and justification by faith in Christ – that we were set free. Acting as a schoolmaster or disciplinarian, the law treated us like unruly children.

Law means the rules and rule-keeping that kept us from sin or self-destruction during a time of our own incapacity (due to sin), as the shackles were meant to keep the man of the city from injuring himself during a demoniac fit. Like him we too lived in tombs – tombs of self-construction, our own vices and habits, which kept us from living freely as people of the city of God.

Jesus called us out of slavery, out of Egypt, out of bondage to our own erroneous ways, into the new land of freedom and ourselves. He gave us the keys to the city – the city not built by human hands, the New Jerusalem, city of God.

When Jesus asked the man his name, he is continuing to address him with dignity. He is also asking, “What is your handle?” as names were powerful in those days and if you had hold of his name you could hold power over a man. His name could give you some power over him just by addressing him, just by knowing who he was.

The sad answer Jesus gets is “Legion” – the man of the city is beset by a host of troubles. Jesus clears them all out, as he cleared the moneychangers from the Temple. This temple of the Holy Spirit, the man’s body, is now restored to its rightful condition, and he is free to praise God.

Like the man who lived among the tombs we have been set free. We are now clothed as he was clothed by Christ, in Christ. We are not now different from one another, one free, one enslaved, one rich, another poor, one privileged, another beset with oppressions. We are all one in Christ Jesus, heirs of hope.

God could raise up sons and daughters to Abraham from the very stones, Jesus taught us. Instead, he has raised us. From among the gravestones he has called us to rise and live. From the tombs of unrighteousness and wrong he has called us out into new life. And we are to witness to him, here in this city, where we live and where we are known. Let us declare what God has done for us.


Proper 7 - Year C - RCL Psalm 43 Galatians 3:23-39 Luke 8:26-39