January 3, 2010
 
Scripture:         John 1:10-18
 
Sermon:           “Who We Really Are”
 
            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, where we will read together verses 10 through 18.  You can find that easily on page 124 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.
            Now that Christmas has come and gone I’d like to get into John’s gospel a little bit with you.  It’s different, you know.  It’s a different kind of writing full of poetry and symbolism.  It’s very intelligent and sophisticated.  And sometimes John is difficult to read.  You have to keep going back over what you just read, you know, because you feel like you missed something or didn’t quite understand the words.  It’s a tough read sometimes.  And more than once I’ve had to just set it down and come back to it later.
            But, John’s gospel also says things in ways that just make deep sense to us, too.  Like today’s scripture—it kind of cuts to the chase of what this Christmas story is all about.  We tell great stories about shepherds, a little town called Bethlehem, mysterious magi from the East, a star in the heavens.  Great stories.  John’s gospel doesn’t mention any of that stuff.  It’s like John said, “Well, what does all of that really mean to us, anyway?  Shepherds?  The Virgin Mary?  Magi?  A dirty manger in Bethlehem?  What does that stuff really mean to you?  What does it really mean to me?  How does it make a difference?”  These words here that we are going to read, they skip the details of the how and when and focus on what it means to us.
            This is the word of the Lord…
 
            He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
            And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)  From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
 
            The power to become children of God…
            What does Christmas really mean?  When you start taking down all of the decorations, that’s what you’re left with.  What does Christmas really mean?  The story has been told.  All of the shepherds and angels and wise men have gone back to the where they came from.  They’re safely packed away in the attic until next year.  And what does it all mean?
            Do you see how John’s gospel makes more sense to us now?  What does it mean?  “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God…”  That’s what it all means.  This Jesus gave us power to become children of God.
            So, you might say that this is all about identity.  Who are you?  That’s what John wants us to know is the true meaning of Christmas.  Who are you?  What is your identity?  Why, you’re a child of God.  That is your identity.  A child of God.
            Did you know that before?  Did you know that you’re a child of God?  Because John is quite clear about this:  He was in the world, and the world was even created through him.  But, the world did not recognize him.  Did you know that you’re a child of God?  A lot of people didn’t know that.  The world did not recognize him, John said.  Even though the world was created through him, they didn’t know who he was.  Didn’t recognize him.  So, if you didn’t know it, either, John was talking about you.  The world did not recognize him.
            So, this coming to us, like we just celebrated at Christmas—this coming to us is about identity for us.  He gave folks power to become children of God.  It turns out that’s who you are.  And if you didn’t know that already, you’re not alone.  The world didn’t recognize him.  His own people didn’t accept him.  The world was created through him, but they didn’t know who he was.  The world, then, didn’t really know that they were all children of God.
            If you didn’t know that, then you’re not alone.
            There was a man once that didn’t know who he really was.  Lots of people, really.  Lots of people don’t know who they really are.  But, this one I know a thing or two about.  He didn’t know who he really was.  He thought that he was somebody else.  He did not know that he was a child of God.
            When he was a lot younger, Zack had been recruited by some folks to do their dirty work.  It was just a job at first.  Just a job.  You can work there 9 to 5 and leave it all behind.  It was just a job when Zack would go to collect money from folks in the neighborhood.  Everyone owed the people that Zack worked for an amount of money to pay for their protection.  And the deal was that Zack had to collect a certain amount from each of these people.  They were his neighbors.  But, he could keep for himself anything that he collected over this amount.  That was the deal.
            Well, it was just a job at first.  But, Zack began to enjoy the things his extra money would afford.  New clothes.  Nice things in his house.  A new house.  He could really get used to living this way.  And he discovered that the more he could intimidate people, the more money he could make for himself.  So, he got bigger.  And the bigger he got, the more intimidated people became.  He was a short guy, too.  So, he could make his muscles look even bigger because everything was kind of low to the ground, you know.
            It may have started out as just a job.  But, before too long this man turned into something like a monster.  He had driven away an awful lot of people in his life.  He was a very lonely man with no love to speak of.  And I can’t say that he didn’t deserve that.  Zack became mean.  And he was greedy.  He hurt a lot of people in order to get all the things he had.  So, he’d come to believe that he was anything but a child of God.
            One day, however, Zack heard that this Jesus who had come into the world was in that neighborhood.  You can read about it in Luke 19.  Jesus saw Zack up in a tree trying to get a look at him over the crowd that gathered.  And Jesus, who gave folks the power to become children of God, he said, “Zack!  Zacchaeus!  Hurry and get down out of that sycamore tree.  I see you up there.  Get down.  I’m coming over to your house.”
            Now, you can say that he was a sinner.  You can say that he was a bad guy.  And you’d have every reason to think those things.  That’s who Zacchaeus believed that he was.  When he looked in the mirror, that’s what he saw.  A sinner.  A bad guy.  Jesus said, “Today salvation has come to you.  You’re a child of Abraham.  And I’ve come to seek out and save folks like you.”
            There was a woman once that didn’t know who she really was.  Lots of people, really.  Lots of people don’t know who they really are.  But, this one I know a thing or two about.  She didn’t know who she really was.  She’d started to believe that the mistakes she’d made and the things that people said about her because of them—well, she started to believe that was all true.  She didn’t know who she really was.
            I don’t know how it started.  There are a lot of things that can cause folks to get involved with this kind of stuff.  She sold her body, you know.  She used her body to make money off the lust of men.  How do folks get involved in that?  Single mothers sometimes.  Growing up in poverty and you didn’t get much of an education to hold a regular job.  How do you end up there?  Sometimes it’s an addiction, you know.  Folks have a drug habit that they pay for like this.  And, maybe, you’ve just been treated that way your whole life.  Nobody has looked beyond your body and thought anything of your mind.  So, you’ve learned how to use that in order to make a living.
            Do you know the folks in her neighborhood called her?  Do you know what they said about her?  They have names, you know.  And that’s who she believed she was.  She didn’t know who she really was.  The people who lived in her town called her “sinner” among other things.  I imagine they used some other words.  But, they called her a “sinner”.
            She heard that this Jesus who had come into the world was in a house nearby.  And she ran over to see for herself.  You can read about it in Luke 7.  She had this expensive jar of perfume that she opened up just for him.  And the weight of what her life had become just overwhelmed her to the point of tears so that she was crying so hard Jesus’ feet were getting wet.  And she dried his feet with her own hair and she was kissing his feet.
            Folks standing around them, well they couldn’t quite believe it.  “If this man was really who people said he was, a prophet of God, surely he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him.  She’s a sinner!”  That’s what they said.  She’s a sinner.
            But, Jesus gave people the power to become children of God.  He said to her, no matter what anybody else said, “Your sins are forgiven.”  They called her a sinner.  He said, “Your sins are forgiven.”  And if her sins are forgiven, what words are there to call her anymore?  What names can anyone label her with if all of that stuff in her past is now forgiven?  Who is she now?  Who is she except a child of God?
            If that is her true identity, you know, she doesn’t have to go on doing the things that she believed she had to do before.  She’s not really that person she was led to believe that she was.  Is she?
            The Bible itself begins with this amazing assertion.  It says, “God created people in his image.  In the image of God he created them.  Male and female God created them.”  That’s how the Bible begins.  So the first thing you should know about yourself, according to the Bible, is that you are created in the image of God.  You are a child of God.
            John’s gospel opens with something of the same assertion.  “The world came into being through him.”  It said, “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”  Now, all things includes you.  So, you should know where you came from, who you belong to.  That’s your identity.
            And then there’s that one word.  That one little word and it says everything.  “The world came into being through him, yet…”  Yet.  Sounds like “but”, doesn’t it?  Yet.  The world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.  Folks didn’t know that they were created in the image of God.
            They didn’t know.
            Did you know?
            Seems that folks had forgotten.  They’d learned a different identity.  They believed that they were other things.  They believed that they were other things so they lived in other ways.  It was like they weren’t even free to live as children of God.  They didn’t know that’s who they were.  Did you know?
            The church has long taught that, yes, we are created in the image of God.  But…Yet…But that image is somehow distorted by sin.  We can’t see it very well if at all.  And that might sound to you like condemnation.  Sin prevents you from seeing your true identity.  You hear that like it’s something you’ve done because, well, you know what your life has been about.  But, what the church means is that it’s not just about something you’ve done.  That’s part of it.  But, it’s part of it for everyone.  What the church says is that the world itself prevents us from seeing who we truly are.  We are born into this mess and learn everything but the truth of who we really are.
            This one that came, Jesus, he gave power to become children of God.  He showed people who they really were all along.  They just couldn’t see it for themselves.  Can you see it?  John the Baptist said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  Can you see it now?  If he takes away the sin of the world?  Your sin?  My sin?  The brokenness of the world that causes us to live in the ways we do?  Can you see it now?  That’s who you are!  That who we really are.  Children of God.
            Can you see that?
             
Rev. David James Brown
Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)