“I’m Being True to Myself!” (1 Peter 1:22-25) Lenten Midweek 2, 2016

1.       In the name of Jesus.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this evening as we continue our sermon series on our “Life Together” as a body of believers in Christ is taken from 1 Peter 1:22-25 and is entitled, “I’m Being True to Myself!”  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.       You know how it goes.  We’ve done it countless times. At the airport security checkpoint we’re required to show our identification. When you and I use a credit card, we are asked to show our ID.  We need to show our identification now to even buy cough medicine. Identification is immensely important nowadays. Think about your identity.  It’s important isn’t it?! Your identity distinguishes you from the other 7 billion people on this earth. Your identity distinguishes who you are.  It gives you a purpose and direction for your life! So the question to consider tonight is “Who are you?” Seriously, who are you! [Pause for 10-15 seconds and let people stir with that question]. People like to say, “I’m being true to myself!” How can you be true to yourself if you don’t know your true identity? How can you be true to God if you’re not sure about your identity? When Jesus was on the cross, he said in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Oh, the ones who crucified Jesus were being true to themselves. Judas the betrayer was being true to himself. But they crucified the Son of God! It’s a soul-searching question: Who are you?
3.       Maybe you say that you know who you are: you’re a Christian! That’s what we expect, sitting here in church doing Christian things. But how many of you are still looking for a purpose for your life? You may be bold enough to say you attend worship and Bible class on a regular basis.  But how many of you are still searching for your true place in life? Those of you who are older grew up in times of less media. Maybe you got a newspaper, had a radio, and in time a TV, only one TV to be sure. Today it’s different. We’re constantly bombarded from every direction. All the media messages, the commercials, the self-help programs, the life-style magazines… They all undermine a sure sense of identity. How many of you have your own Facebook page? Is that who you really are? Talk about identity crisis! We can literally create our identity, projecting what we want people to perceive of us! How about your values and morality? Even the “best” Christians pick and choose parts of the Bible they would like to live by. And then there’s identity theft. What a terrifying experience! People can actually steal someone’s identity—social security number, banking information, personal information, and so on. Talk about an identity crisis!
4.       Maybe a good way to describe our identities might be to think of a patchwork quilt. A patchwork quilt is made of a bunch of very different, brightly colored patches, all a little different. The patches of our lives come through a variety of ways. Through relationships, occupations, and past times we make our own realities like assembling a patchwork quilt. We take a little from our parents, a little from our experiences, a little from work, a little from the media, a little from the Bible, a little here and there. “I’m being true to myself!” Our lives resemble that patchwork quilt, crafted from whatever we consider is best for us. “Father, forgive us for we know not what we do.” We don’t know who we are and we’ve lost sight of our true identity. We’ve let the ways of the world influence who we are, what we believe, and how we behave.
5.       I ask you again to consider the question, “Who are you?” But this time let’s not look at ourselves from our own perspective. Instead, consider the question from God’s perspective. “How does God see you?” To answer that question we need not look any further than God’s Word. Our true identity is found in only one place, in only one man, Jesus. 1 Peter 1:23 says, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.”  “You have been born again.” That makes us think of baptism. Because you’re baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus your identity is changed and you’re given a new identity. Your identity as a condemned sinner is changed to an identity of forgiveness from Jesus Christ. Your identity of trusting no one but yourself is changed into an identity of trusting our heavenly Father who has given us an eternal salvation.
6.       We talked about trust last week. Your identity as a patchwork of all the influences upon your life is changed to one fact: Your life is bound to Jesus Christ. That’s true for you, me, and for us all. Our “Life Together” is about our identity as children of God! We don’t have to pay for this identity and can’t earn it through hard work. God sees you and me through His Son Jesus. By the way, this new you isn’t like that driver’s license picture you hate so much. He sees you perfectly. Of ourselves we’re unsure who we are. God gives us identity in his Son Jesus. That’s our “Life Together.”
7.       Our identity in Christ is constantly threatened. As we said, our everyday lives are bombarded with messages about who the world wants us to be. When you think about it, so much around us is changing. Think about your interests, do you change hobbies often? How about the arrangement of furniture in your house? How about your relationships? Consider movie or television stars.  They’re constantly getting married and divorced and remarried and divorced. It seems like the only constant in this world is change. Do you let the changes of life change who you are? Do you let the world’s purposes take you away from your true purpose? Peter quotes the prophet Isaiah from Isaiah 40:6 & 8 that says, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” Like grass, human life is temporary and fleeting, much like our personalities and desires.
8.       Peter tells us that 2 things are constant. Change, yes, and something else that’s constant for all eternity—God’s Word. 1 Peter 1:25 says, “This is the word that was preached to you.”  God’s Word never changes, but engages our changing lives so that we can live and grow into the identity to which we’ve been given in baptism. Our lives are marked with constant change, but God’s reality is marked by His Word which stands forever. You’ve been baptized into that reality. Week by week the preached Word grows and strengthens your identity. Week by week the preached Word engages our lives to keep us true to who we are in Christ. Your identity, the way in which God sees you as His perfect child, doesn’t change, just as God’s Word doesn’t change. The Father heard the Son’s words—“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”—and he’s forgiven you and through his Word continues to forgive you. As God considers you, He doesn’t see a poorly crafted patchwork quilt. Instead, he’s painted the portrait of your reality—a portrait of the cross and resurrection of Christ. That’s our identity, proclaimed by God’s Word that will stand forever. As you share in the death of Jesus through your baptism so you too will indeed share in His resurrection! “Father, restore us, for we cannot live apart from you!”
9.       In discovering your identity in Christ, God opens the door to learning about who you are, what you are called to be as His child, and to embrace the hope for your life in this world and the world to come. Now we say, “In God being true to His Word and His self, He has shown us who we are to be!” We can boldly proclaim, “We are to be true to Him” because the identity He’s given us is imperishable and everlasting. We’re His children, born again in baptism from the imperishable Word of God. We can be sure of who we are in Christ, because although all things around us wither and fade like grass, God’s Word stands forever. His promise spoken to you is forever, “I will be with you always” (Matthew 28:20). Your identity isn’t a patchwork quilt crafted by you or any other person. Instead, we’re God’s church, a community that comes together around His Word to be the body of Christ and a foreshadowing of what’s to come in the New Creation. Born again of the imperishable Word, this is our “Life Together.”  This is what God sees. This is our identity. God is being true to His Word and to you! Amen.