Who am I?

Today we come to the second Sunday of Lent and the second of three questions that we are pondering as we journey to the cross of Good Friday.  Last Sunday we began our journey by responding to the first question, “Who is God?”.  Today we come to the second question.  It, like the first, is a timeless question.  It, like the first, is a universal question, for all of us must answer it.  Today’s question is this, “Who am I?”

“Who am I?”
Perhaps you remember an election debate several from several years ago.  It was actually the 1992 vice-presidential debate.  On stage were Al Gore, Dan Quayle, and this strange white haired man who introduced himself in what many call is the most memorable opening statements in vice-president debate history.

This strange man was Admiral James Stockdale.  He was Ross Perot’s running mate.  Do you remember how Stockdale introduced himself?  Looking straight at the camera he said, “Who am I?  Why am I here?”

The crowd laughed.  The moment became history.  Saturday Night Live found a source for a bunch of funny jokes. 

But the question “Who am I?” really isn’t funny.  The way we understand and answer this question influences and shapes how we live, how we think of ourself, and how we treat others.

So who are you? If a stranger came up to you and asked “Who are you?” how would you respond?  I think most of us would just tell them our name.  Hello I am Hugh Hendrickson. 

But is that all we are?  Just a name? 

As I was getting ready to go on my trip to Israel, I had to get a current passport.  If I wanted to leave the country, enter into Israel, and get back into the United States I needed this (hold up my passport).  From what I was told, this little book proved my identity.  This little book proved my citizenship.  Whatever I did, I needed to make sure I never lost this little book. 

I don’t know if you have ever applied for a passport.  You don’t just go and get a passport, you have to apply for a passport and if the government sees fit you are given a passport.  Even though you pay for a passport you never own it because the passport is an official document of the United States government.

The passport application asks several different questions.  Name, age, current address, previous address, where you were born, proof of your birth and citizenship, and a current picture.  All these questions determine and prove who you are. 

But when it comes down to it does a passport or driver’s license really answer the question “Who am I?”

I would like to think that we are more than a name, age, current address, nationality and citizenship, and our current photo.  Are we more than data and facts?

In seminary we had to take all these personality profile tests.  They were part of this class that was supposed to help us understand who we are.  I took a Disc Test and a Meyers Briggs Test and a spiritual gifts test.

These tests asked all sorts of questions like:
Do you like crowds?
Would you rather sit in the middle of a room or against the wall?
Would you rather lead or follow?
Would you rather watch a movie or go to a concert?

The questions go on and on.  Like I said all these questions and tests were supposed to help us find out and understand who we are.  The Disc test told me I was a helper.  The Myers Briggs told me I was a bunch of letters, something like an infp or infj.  The Spiritual gifts test told me I was a teacher.  But are we more than tests?  Are we more than questions? 

“Who am I?” Sometimes we answer this question by listing off what we do. Many of us form our identity by our interests and our hobbies.  That is how people know us.   I’m a preacher, you’re a teacher, you’re retired, you like to read, you like to garden, you like Nascar, you like Georgia Football, you root for the Atlanta Braves.  And the list could go on.

But are we more than our hobbies, our interests, and our jobs?

I’ve mentioned all these different ways people answer and understand the question “Who am I?”  There is one place we haven’t looked.  Let’s take a moment to see how the Bible answers this question.

Today’s scripture gives us a good answer to this question.  Listen to it again...

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

The Bible tells us that we are more than data, answers to personality profile questions, more than careers, hobbies, and interests.  We are more than all the things that can be used to label us and put us in a box.  We are more than this.  The Bible tells us that we are Children of God.

Whenever you have pondered the question “Who am I?” Did the idea that you are a child of God ever cross your mind?

It is an idea a truth worth considering. 

Listen to what Bishop Rueben P. Job has to say about identifying ourselves as a child of God.  This comes from his book Three Simple Questions.

When each of us claims our full inheritance as a child of God, we see clearly that we are given this wonderful world to end and to share as God’s family.  In the eyes of Jesus, we are not given a special place because of our birth, place of origin, wealth, gender, or occupation.  As children of God, all receive an identity and place as God’s beloved child.   (Job, 42).

The Bible also tells us how we become Children of God, how we receive and welcome the love of God.

In John 14:23 we read, “Whoever loves me will keep my word. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

When we respond to this love and choose to love by obeying God’s word we are then able to truly answer the question “Who am I?” and live as if we are children of God.  As Bishop Job writes, “With these truths deeply imbedded in our lives, we too, can decide to walk the way of love, justice, reconciliation, and peace because we want to walk in companionship with the One who is love and calls us to love God and neighbor.” (44).

This is important.  This is something we don’t need to forget.  We always need to remember we are children of the great big wonderful and all powerful God.  We are children of the God of amazing love, amazing grace, and mercy beyond all measure. 

The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are children of the God who demonstrated, proved, and showed his love for us, “While we were still sinners Christ, the son of God, died for us.”  We will remember this demonstration of love on Good Friday we when draw near to the cross of Calvary.  However, we can remember this act of love every time we draw near to the Lord’s Table in holy communion.

So let us draw near to the God of love, the God who calls all who love him his Children, the God who ultimately answers the question “Who am I?” in broken bread and shared cup.  Amen.