Who Do You Think You Are?

Luke 4: 16-21 & 1 Corinthians 12: 27-31

Roger Lynn

May 21, 2017

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

For the past several years I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions. The particulars take a variety of forms, but in the end it all seems to come to one query. “Just who do you think you are?” It is a question worth pondering from time to time. What does it mean to be me? What am I called to do? Who am I called to be? Just who do you think you are?

I am certainly not the first person to ask these sorts of questions. Such pondering is firmly rooted in our faith tradition, as well as in every other major faith tradition. I would even venture a guess that it is embedded in our DNA somewhere. Asking such questions seems to be a part of what it is to be human.

2,000 years ago, when Jesus asked such questions, he found himself drawn to the prophet Isaiah.  In Isaiah’s words Jesus found a description of his own identity – bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom for the oppressed, God’s favor for all. “Who do you think you are?” Jesus asked himself. The answer he found was that he was one who could be a channel for God’s work restoring wholeness to the world. And he went about doing so by using all of who he was – his compassion, his gift for telling stories, his sense of God’s presence in his life and in every life. 

And he managed to live out that calling so fully and completely that others came to see God shining through him and they wanted to follow. “Followers of the Way” was one of the first names associated with this group of people. Just who do you think you are? We are followers of the Way. The Apostle Paul said the same thing in a slightly different way. When he was writing to the people in the city of Corinth who were seeking to follow where Jesus was leading, he told them that they were the Body of Christ. To be a person of faith, connected with other people of faith, choosing this particular path, meant literally taking on the identity of the one they were following. Just who do you think you are? We are who Jesus was. We are called to be channels for God’s work of restoring wholeness to the world.

Fast forward 2,000 years and the answer to the question remains the same. For those of us who seek to be followers of the Way, living our lives with integrity and faithfulness, we are still called to be who Jesus was. We are still called to live our lives in such a way that God shines through us and into the world. We are still called to help restore wholeness in the midst of all the turmoil and brokenness wherever we find it.

So how do we go about doing that and what does it look like when we do? Well, to begin with we need to recognize that there are no quick and easy answers. Genuine faith does not have shortcuts. Ann Weems put it this way:

A profession of faith is not a part-time promise; 

it’s a whole time / all the time / every time way of life

(from “Searching for Shalom”)

It takes time (a lifetime to be exact) to be a person of faith. And it takes paying attention. We live such busy, even hectic lives, in the midst of a very busy, even hectic world. There is much to distract us from what is really important. There are meetings to attend. There is dinner to be prepared. There are bathrooms to be cleaned. We have to be very conscious and very intentional about slowing down enough to listen for the whispers of God. We have to slow down enough to remember who we really are. The story in Luke where we find Jesus reading from Isaiah follows immediately on the heels of his time in the wilderness. Discovering just who we think we are requires being very intentional about paying attention.

And I am more and more convinced that when we take the time to ask the question and listen carefully for the answer, the answer which will begin to unfold will be an answer that embodies our whole selves. We each have unique gifts. We are each uniquely ourselves. Why would God want anything less than, or anything other than, the fullness of who we are? Harold Whitman put it this way. “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what make you come alive, and then do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

So what does it look like to be a person of faith who is helping to bring wholeness to the world? Well, it will look different for each person, and it will look different for each group of people. And whatever specific forms it takes, you will know it is real if it is leading you towards a fullness of life and not away from it. You will know it is real if you find yourself coming alive. Frederick Buechner has this to say on the subject – “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (from “Wishful Thinking”)

My late wife Veronica taught people how to speak a language of peace. It was what brought her soul to life. And in so doing she brought healing and understanding to the world. For some folks I know it is planting and tending beautiful gardens. For some it is preparing delicious food. For some it will be raising vital, healthy children. For some it is mediating conflict. For some it is teaching children to read. The question comes to each of us – just who do you think you are? And the first hints of an answer, I believe, are found when we begin to pay careful attention and discover those places where our soul comes alive. Then we will understand what we have to share with the world. Then God’s presence will shine into the darkness. Then the world will begin to be healed.

Just who do you think you are?