Who Are You?

 “Who Are You?”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Sept 8, 2013

Text: I Peter 2:9-12 // Series: Identity: Seven Things That Make You Unique

Well, good morning.  If you are new or visiting with us, welcome.  My name is Brad and I am part of the teaching and leadership team here at JRCC. 

In the opening sequence of a 2002 movie, a mysterious man is pulled from the ocean in the middle of a storm.  The fisherman who rescues him finds two bullets in his back and a mysterious capsule in his hip but the young man has absolutely no memory of who he is.  Thus begins his quest to discover who he really is and why the CIA is chasing him across Europe.  Do you remember the movie?  It began a franchise based on the books by Robert Ludlum that grossed over 638 million dollars domestically at the box office.  Can you remember the first one?  That’s right.  It was the Bourne Identity with Matt Damon.  The movie raised an interesting and powerful question: what happens when you forget who you really are? 

Well today, we are launching our fall teaching series where we are going to spend seven weeks exploring the question of Identity.  Now, when you think your identity, what kind of factors shape or have shaped it?  As I think about my own identity, I can think of the huge spectrum of influences that make up who I am today.  There’s cultural factors.  I AM Canadian.  There’s geographic factors: I was born in Lethbridge in southern Alberta, moved up to a small town in northern BC when I was 3, then to suburban Toronto for all of my teens years, then I moved to Langley for schooling and have been here ever since.  Each of these moves and these unique places have contributed to my identity.  Then there are temperament factors: I’m an extrovert so much of my identity revolves around not being quiet or not being alone.  There’s vocational components – for many of us, who we are has a strong and not always healthy connection to what we do.  There are unique imprints on my identity made by my family of origin – some of these are profoundly healthy, some are painful and some are just plain confusing and weird.  (Don’t laugh… you know it’s true for your family of origin, too).  All of these things and many, many come together to make up my sense of identity.  What about you? What makes up your identity?

And here’s the premise of this teaching series: that there ought to be things that are unique to your identity IF you claim to be a follower of Jesus.  That is not to say that these traits or behaviours that we are going to explore together do not apply to other people, but it is to suggest that the Scripture calls something out of us that is rich and deep and has the capacity to change not only our own lives, but also the lives of those around us.  Let’s pray as we dig in.    

When I was in High School, my maternal grandmother came to live with us for a period of time.  She was in the middle of over a decade of her struggle with dementia and Alzheimer’s, a struggle which eventually lost several years ago.  Her living with us produced some very sad but also some funny memories.  I can remember the time she came out of the bathroom and asked me if I would be so kind as to come with her and give a stern talking to the very rude woman who was in the bathroom window parroting and mimicking everything she said and did.  Turns out, of course, that it was just her own reflection in the mirror.  But this was just a part of the journey of identity shift – some of you have been there or are there with people in your life whom you love.  Grandma slowly lost the ability to recognize or remember us but in the process, she also lost her own identity.  She experienced a gradual dis-integration in her personhood.  And ever since that experience with my grandma, I have begun to wrestle with this concept of identity…  What is it that makes a person who they are?  What holds these various parts together & makes each of us unique? 

Philosophers and smarty-pants type people much more learned than me put this discussion into what a first seems at first glance, like and odd category.  The notion of a formal relationship to oneself or between the aspects of one’s self is known as integrity.  Philosophers and psychologists speak of Identity integrity, but which they mean “Integrity is a matter of making the various parts of   your personality into a harmonious, intact whole…   It is the correspondence of intention and action.” 

This is different than what we often think of when we use the term integrity, isn’t it?  If we say that a person has integrity, we are usually thinking of their actions. But actions always flow out of something, we’ll use the phrase from that definition: intentions or volitions.  The Bible would use the term our heart to describe this.  But our intentions are rooted in something much deeper.  They are rooted in our sense of identity.  Take your Bibles or your YouVersion.com app on your smartphones and turn with me to I Peter 2:9-12.  We’re going to explore together this morning the components of a fully integrated life… One where my actions flow naturally from my intentions which are rooted in a proper sense of my identity. 

These verses are written by Peter, a close friend and disciple of Jesus, who himself had undergone a significant identity shift.  Peter began his career as a rough around the edges fisherman and ended up becoming one of the significant leaders of the early Christian movement in Jerusalem in the first century.  And in the NT book of I Peter, he writes to people who are living as foreigners and strangers scattered throughout the world.  He writes to them to remind them of their primary identity as children of God.  In chapter 2, he is beginning to contrast their unique identity, with those around them in their culture. Follow along as I read I Peter 2:9-12 [2 slides]

Once you had no identity, but now that you have come into God’s forever family, you have undergone a fundamental identity shift.  Philosophers call this an “identity conferring commitment”.  An action, rooted in volition that actually radically shifts the very core of my sense of identity and my disposition.  This is what Peter is describing and he is using a whole pile of metaphors and images to drive at the same point.  That if you, in your life, have made a choice to commit your life to Christ – whatever language you want to use: you have crossed the line of faith, you have said ‘yes’ to God, you have accepted Jesus into your heart… That you have undergone a fundamental identity shift.  Something now marks you at the soul level that is different and unique from those who have not made that identity conferring commitment.  Look at what the text says about your A New Identity:

The first statement he makes is one of differentiation.  Other people may practice deceit, hypocrisy, jealously. Other people may explore the claims of Christ and reject Him but you? You are not like that.  Because you have a different identity.  There are things that make you unique.  Firstly,

Chosen people – brought into God’s forever family – In other places, the Bible uses the language of adoption.  That by expressing faith in God, you have been given a new family identity.  And this also come with   

Royal priesthood – nobility & access to God as King – We were in England this summer and as we stood outside the fence at Buckingham palace I thought “I wonder how hard it is to get an appointment with the queen?”  Well, if you are part of the house of Windsor, you don’t need an appointment… You just walk right in.  That is what Peter is trying to communicate here.  That your relationship to the King is not outside the fence looking in. Since you are part of the family, you come right in!   And not only has my vertical status changed, but my horizontal relationships have as well.  Peter uses the image of citizenship and says that you are a

Holy nation – granted citizenship in God’s Kingdom – Remember earlier that I said that our identity is partially shaped by whomever issues your passport. By appealing to this image of citizenship, Peter is saying that identity and loyalties are not primarily shaped by the country you live in but by the values and priorities of the kingdom of God.  People whose identities, outside of the kingdom of God, would engender hostility or stark differentiation… Tutsis and Hutus in Rwanda; blacks and whites; complementarians and egalitarians; French Canadians and English speakers; Republicans and Democrats; those who are well resourced and those who are economically disadvantaged… are all citizens of the same kingdom and therefore are bound together by new loyalties & new identity. 

Because fundamentally, you and I have a new sense of belonging.  A new identity that has been etched upon our hearts that supersedes or should we say, undergirds all other elements of our identities.  If you have given your life to Christ, you are God’s possession –  a new sense of belonging.  Once you had no identity, now these things are true of you.

Why does Peter use all of these images?  What is he driving at? 

Point: None of these aspects of a Christian’s identity can be earned; they are all super-natural gifts of God’s grace; fingerprints of His mercy (2:10).   

Now, watch carefully why this issue of identity integrity is important.  You see, most of us when we think about our lives, we live up here in the realms of actions and intentions.  Some of us have been taught that if we work hard at doing the right things, that we will actually become a “good person”.  What this line of thinking suggests is that we hope that eventually good behavior will filter down deep enough into our lives to change our identity.  But I think what Peter is suggesting strongly is that that approach is completely bankrupt.  You see, I can do virtuous actions, like helping the poor, but they can come from polluted intentions.  When we were in Africa this summer we saw all kinds of people who are there “doing their bit for the poor”, giving money or time, some of them quite a lot of it – so that they ease their own Western guilt.  Here in North America some people spend their whole lives keeping track of all the good stuff they do in an attempt to outweigh the bad and get into God’s good books.  They are hoping against hope that when God judges the world, He looks only at their actions. 

But think about the level of dis-integration which that approach suggests.  The reality is that what we do flows out of and is intimately connected with who we are.  If I am a person who has been touched by the mercy of God, I am compassionate and therefore my intention becomes to help the poor and the sick and the oppressed and therefore I serve at the Gateway of Hope or build a house in Guatemala or treat my employees generously.  These things are natural to me because they are linked with my identity.  What Peter is saying is that change happens fundamentally at the level of our identity and that we can’t earn or behave our way to this kind of deep level change… it is all a work of God’s grace when we give up our life and step out of darkness and into His marvelous light.   This is good news! 

And as I grow to understand my identity more and more, it grows

Fresh Intentions: Healthy desires are rooted in a healthy identity

I want to show others the goodness of God (2:9) – because I have fundamentally experienced it at the core of who I am as a person.  But if you are like me, you are not always the shining model of your new identity.   

Peter explains why in verse 11.  He reminds us that “worldly desires rage against our souls” In this middle zone of intentions This is where the battle is often fought (I Peter 2:11) Even if my identity has shifted, my intentions and desires don’t always come along for the ride!

Since I am a part of God’s family, chosen by Him loved by Him, with access and privileges, I don’t always act like it. Because I don’t always intend to act like it.  Since we were talking about the royal family earlier, do you remember last year when Prince Harry came to Las Vegas and was widely photographed as behaving badly.  People were outraged because they felt that a person with his identity as member of the royal family should not behave in that way.  Serves as a bit of an illustration of this point… that even though I may be a royal priest, I may not always act like it.  I still wrestle with messed up intentions and actions.  I still complain about things that are not important.  I still stretch the truth to create a favorable impression on others. I let myself get angry or bitter at comments others make.  I get jealous of what other did this summer or of how they look or what they own or wear and then I over-spend to keep up…  Though my identity may have undergone a fundamental shift, my intentions and therefore my actions are still not fully integrated.  Peter is making his case here that when these things and others happen, I am beginning to forget who I am.  I am dis-integrating as a person.  Here’s his Point: Sin isn’t just not living properly; it is a conscious choice to live in non-congruence with who I am.

The image that comes to my mind here in from the world of structural integrity…  Something may look OK on the outside, but if it is weak on the inside at the structural level, it will fall apart.  We got an e-mail this week describing just such an occurrence.  This past March, some of the members of our team that went to Guatemala went to a home to do a food distribution.  “This home was occupied by photo of the family, a pair of sweet grandparents who took it on themselves to raise their grandsons, Julio who is 11 and in 3rd grade, Jose who is 9 and in 2^nd when they were abandoned.  When our team visited, the home was filled from wall to wall with garbage! Things this couple had collected at the dump to try and repair to sell…. mostly old clothes that they planned to patch.”  Anyway, the plan was for another team from the US to go to their home this week and build a roof and a floor but the local pastor that we work with there felt a strong nudge from the Holy Spirit to go and check on this family.  When he arrived, the machine was already working to level the ground but he observed that the house itself was kind of trembling with the vibrations.  He felt strongly that he should get the family out, even though they were insistent that their place was fine and they needed to keep cleaning up inside. Pastor Juan persisted and within 2 minutes of the old lady coming out, the house collapsed - a total crumbling!.. So they used the bulldozer to level the whole land, preparing for the new house! The neighbors came over to thank Juan; said they have been very concerned for the health of the family. There were even 2 snakes that came slithering out when the house fell!  The site has been leveled and covered with a special mix of dirt and white sand that packs very well. The team is headed there now and set to start work tomorrow!! Thanks for your prayers”

To put a new roof and floor in would have been cosmetic because the building lacked basic structural integrity.  It wasn’t held together well.  This text in I Peter is asking the same thing of your life and mine: does your life possess integrity?  Does what you do flow out of who you are?  This is the vision of an An Integrated Life: but it can only occur.

A fully integrated life can only occur when you understand your identity, and aspire each day, with each action to live in congruence with who you are

Now, you may be here today and you are no in a place where you have invited God into your life.  Your identity is still defined broadly by other realities.  We want you to know that you are welcome here for the journey of exploration.  Alpha might be a good place to start or a conversation with the friend who brought you to JRCC.  But here’s what I want you to hear clearly today: There is always a door open for you to join God’s family.  And to be clear, it is not a flippant decision.  Nobody should ever change their identity or allegiances lightly.  That would be like the Olynyks on Sept 15 suddenly abandoning their life-long passion for the Canucks and starting to cheer for Calgary or San Jose or Chicago.  But if you are here and you are not a follower of Jesus, I also want you to hear clearly that living the Christian life is NOT a behavior modification project.  It is an identity conferring commitment that will reshape your life at the soul level.  And so I urge you not to undertake if you don’t fully understand the implications.  But if you are like me, and you know that at the deepest places in your soul, you want more than anything to experience mercy and forgiveness.  To know that your future is secure because of a new sense of belonging, then today might be your day.  In a few minutes, we’re going to respond in prayer want you to go over to the prayer team and talk with them about what you have heard here today.  Build your life on a solid foundation. 

For those who are here who have made a commitment to Christ, my deep prayer for you is that you and I build our lives, as you build your identity, you will build it with structural integrity.  That you will continue to grow in your understanding of who God is and who you are as you engage in Scripture intake and prayer.  That you would make every effect to submit your disposition, your intentions, your actions to the Lord.  And that this will result in you growing to life in more and more congruence with who you are.  People are drawn to people whose lives possess this kind of integrity.  There is a sense of confidence, peace and joy that isn’t just about what they do, it’s rooted in who they are. 

As we close today, Perry is going to come and lead us in a song of reflection.  It’s a song about Peter, the author of this text.  And about some of the times in his own life and experience that he didn’t get it right, that he went off course and the song invites you and I to consider who we are becoming.  What it is really asking is how integrated is your life?  And it’s an invitation to get back to a place of healing, forgiveness, mercy and grace again.  Won’t you take that opportunity this fall?  As Perry sings this, the prayer team will be available at the sides. Jodi and Jackie at this side and Spence and I will be here at this side.  I want to invite you to listen to God and if you want to pray with someone about anything at all, please come.