January 13, 2008

It happens every three seconds, so I’m told. Someone collects bits and pieces of personal identity information about someone else--social security number, bank account or credit card number-- and puts it all together to make up a “new you.” They go through trash dumpsters or find lost wallets or purses or check books; they send out phony e-mails asking for personal information; and then they steal someone’s identity to commit fraud or crime. It’s called “Identity theft,” and it’s becoming a growing problem. And when victims discover their identity has been stolen, it becomes a nightmare to put it mildly to get it back. The good news is there are security services available offering protection from this kind of theft and putting a lock on your identity.

The very core of today’s Jesus story is about identity. Not only about Jesus’ identity, but also our identity. It’s a story about no just who Jesus is, but with Jesus, who God wishes us to be.

Jesus goes to John the Baptist and has to persuade John to baptize him. We are told nothing about the baptism itself. It’s what came before and after the baptism that matters the most. All we know is Jesus stands on the banks of the Jordan and talks with John, and the next thing we know, Jesus is coming out of the river after the baptism. And as he comes up from the water, an epiphany happens, a moment of divine revelation is given to him. The heavens open to him and he sees descending toward him and upon him like a dove the Spirit of God. This experience is given to him alone. It is a personal experience for Jesus. And the meaning of the heavenly descending gift is announced for everyone to know and share: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

And what the Voice says about the identity of Jesus as God’s Beloved, the Voice says about us. God wishes us to be beloved children of God and so we are who God wishes us to be. That’s what Jesus’ baptism was about and this is what our baptism is about, as well.

Baptism is about celebrating our child of God identity. When I was an infant my Presbyterian parents brought me before God in that rural Illinois church to receive the blessing of baptism as a child of God. As I grew in my faith experience on my spiritual journey I came to a place later in life when I chose as a believer to be baptized as a matter of conviction and conscience and following the example of Jesus and my witness to faith in him. So I was baptized a second time. The first time as an infant as a choice of my Christian parents. Then at age 26 as a believer choosing for myself. I wasn’t repudiating my infant baptism, and I will never repudiate or insult the infant baptism of anyone else. I simply and deeply felt that if I was to be a Jesus follower I wanted to follow in his steps for baptism. Jesus chose it, initiated it, and was intentional about it. And I wanted to follow him in that.

But whether it was through my parent’s choice or my personal choice, both forms of baptism celebrated the same spiritual truth and gift over my life and identity. Once as an infant and once as a believer, there was the celebration that I am a beloved child of God and I entered the fellowship of all those who found their blessedness in Jesus Christ.

Baptism doesn’t make us children of God. People already are beloved of God.

As Carl Sandburg says in one of my favorite poems:

There is only one horse on the earth

And his name is All Horses.

There is only one bird in the air

And his name is All Wings.

There is only one fish in the sea

And his name is All Fins.

There is only one man in the world

And his name is All Men.

There is only one woman in the world

And her name is All Women.

There is only one child in the world

And the child’s name is All Children.

There is only one Maker in the world

And His children cover the earth

And they are named All God’s Children.

Baptism is celebrating our embrace of our true identity. This is the salvation Jesus brings to us. He awakens us to who we truly already are as creatures beloved of God, and this glorious and amazing identity is a gift of God.

Baptism is about opening up to and affirming the truth of who we are--we are daughters and sons of divine pleasure. And baptism is also about living out the responsibility of being beloved children of God. This is who God wishes us to be.

Responsibility comes with being a child of God. The Spirit of God gifts us to be beloved of God and gifts us to embody our child-of-God identity. Being beloved creatures of God carries the task and responsibility to embrace the Spirit and the life of the Spirit. It brings the responsibility to hear the Voice of God, trust it and be faithful to it. The responsibility of God’s children is detaching from all that is not love and attaching to everything love is and doing what love demands. It is dis-idenitfying with sin and the ways of darkness and identifying with the identity of Jesus Christ and being his continuing presence in the world and following his holy ways. Our task is to discover and live our child-of-God identity. This is who God wishes us to be.

In her reflection, “Marked for a Purpose,” author Kathleen Norris says, “We (as Christians) are meant to witness to peace in a cruel and violent world and bring a message of hope in the face of despair. Whatever the worldly powers may be…Christians are called to witness to another, greater power. Our baptisms mark us for this purpose.”[1] This is our responsibility. This is who God wishes us to be.

And the responsibility of those who have awakened to their child-of-God identity is to awaken others to who God wishes them to be.

Jesus knows himself to be the beloved son of God and he sees in everyone else the beloved child of God and he awakens them to who God wishes them to be and who they already are, and they awaken still others.

This is Christ-like evangelism. So much of what we call evangelism has much more to do with identifying with sin than with already being children of God. And what often is carried out as evangelism is neither Christ-like nor authentic. It’s as if we have to get people to do something, like confessing their sins or saying the right formula of words according to “4 spiritual laws” or “steps to peace with God,” before they can become a child of God. That’s not the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus saw the child of God within himself and then saw it in others and awakened them to that identity and they in turn awakened others. Evangelism is what takes place when awakened people awaken others to their true identity as a child of God. Christ-like evangelism isn’t beating or badgering or bullying someone into submission to Jesus. The Jesus-way forms an interpersonal chain. As John Shea describes it, through this chain linking people awakened to their child of God identity, (spiritual) communities are built up, traditions develop, and the revelation of Jesus is passed from generation to generation.” This is who God wishes us to be.

And to protect against our precious identity as beloved children of God being stolen, being taken from us, the Spirit of God infuses us to lock in who we are. There will be no identity theft of children of God. Nothing can rob us of our essential, spiritual identity as beloved daughters and sons of God. No amount of sin or sinning, faults or failings can steal it. Which is why this identity is such an incomparable gift! We have always been and we shall never cease to be beloved of God.

We may forget who God wishes us to be. We can believe we are not beloved children of God. We can choose to live out some other identity as defined and dictated by others or by the world. But nothing is able to steal from us or rob us of or separate us from being loved by God and beloved of God. There can be no identity theft of “the beloved child of God.” The Holy Spirit is God’s life-lock on who God wishes us to be.

We stand with Jesus in his baptism and hear the Voice declare divine favor on us. God calls us beloved and wishes us to be true to our “child of God” identity and be responsible in being children of God as gifted and guided by the Holy Spirit.

[1] Christian Century, 12/25/07, p. 17.