Who Are We?
Psalm 139:1-6;Romans 14:5-9

Rev. Alan W. Deuel

So, who are you anyway?  Now that’s a question you aren’t often asked is it?  A far more common question is how are you?    We ask that question of our political candidates.  We want to know who we are electing to the highest office of the land.  We want to know something about their character, values and leadership.  Who are you Barack O’Bama?  Who are you Hillary Clinton?   Who are you John McCain?

I’ve spoken with people in counseling settings over the years who have shared how they were experiencing a kind of identity crisis, because of sudden dramatic changes or crises that had occurred in their lives.  Their lives had been turned upside down.  You may recall a scene from Alice in Wonderland.   Alice is confronted by the caterpillar on his toadstool.  She is asked in tones of cool condescension, by this fantastic creature of wind and smoke, “Who are you?”

Now sometimes we don’t want people to know us, blending into the crowd, anonymity, can be a good thing.  Like the story of a university student taking an exam in class.  When the professor asks the class to stop writing, this student continues, which of course is against the rules.  The professor asks the student again to stop, but he persists in writing.  Finally, the professor demands that the student come forward and hand him his exam paper.  He intends to tear it up.  The student asks the professor, “Sir, do you know who I am?”  Offended by the question, he answers: “I do not and furthermore I don’t care who you are.”  “Good says the student and he tosses his exam paper into the large pile of exams and quickly exits the classroom.”

How would you answer the question?  You might answer by stating your name.  We become rather attached to our names over the years.  We don’t appreciate it when people misspell it or mispronounce it.  Our name is integral to our identity.  Some people answer by saying: “I am a student, I am a lawyer, I am a teacher, I am a businesswoman.”  Our work defines us.  Or you might answer by your role: “I am a mother or father, a husband or wife, I’m a grandmother or grandfather, I am a son or daughter.”  Or we point to our circumstances: “I am ill, I am unemployed, I am stressed out, I am happy, or I am having financial problems.”   In a period of severe depression, one might think: “I am worthless, I am of no good to anyone, there is no hope, life is not worth living.” Or we point to our heritage: “I am a native Californian, I am a southerner, I am an American.”  You may point to your personality: “I am a free spirit, I am a party guy or girl, I am shy, I am an extrovert, I am a caring person.”

In this election year, you might answer from a political perspective: “I am a liberal, I am a conservative, I’m a moderate, I am a Democrat, I am a Republican, I am an O’Bama or Clinton supporter, I am a McCain backer.”    What is the most meaningful answer to the question for you?

Some people seek professional help.  Apatient, after many years in analysis, was finally discharged, but he soon returned to his shrink quite unhappy.  “You’re cured said his psychiatrist, you should be happy.”  “Some cure, the patient replied, “When I first came to you I was Donald Trump, now I’m nobody.”

Who are you?   A materialistic or naturalistic evolutionary perspective says you are an accident of nature.   Stephen Jay Gould said: “Humanity is nothing more than a thing so small in a vast universe, a wildly improbable evolutionary event, that it must be a quirk of fate.” This perspective says you are the end result of the interplay of chance and natural selection; you have evolved from some apelike creature.  You are merely a physical creature.  You differ only in degree and not in kind from primates and animals.  You are at best equal in value, but of no greater value, than other species in the animal kingdom.  

Astronomers remind us of how tiny the earth is in relation to the universe.  It is located in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is only one small galaxy in a collection of 27 galaxies spanning 3 million light-years.  Each galaxy includes an average of about 100 billion stars.  Earth is an infinitesimal part of the universe, so in light of the vast cosmic expanse, humans just don’t seem to matter at all.
 
There is, however, another answer, a biblical one, which focuses on a religious perspective.   It makes an astonishing claim.  It says God made people the pinnacle of His creation; humanity is the crown of God’s creation.  You are the crown of God’s creation.  God created you and me in His image and appointed human beings to take charge of the Earth and all its creatures. 

Inspired, by contemplating creation, maybe on a bright day lying on his back and looking up at the rolling clouds or on a clear night, staring up at the stars, the psalmist in Psalm 8 writes:”O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet, you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You have given them dominion over the works of your hands, and put all things under their feet.”   Astounding.  Amazing.

The Bible makes an outrageous truth claim: You are a special creation of God.  Why special?  Because you alone are made in God’s image.  Because you are unique, one of a kind, without parallel.  Because Genesis tells us that God breathed into us, you and me, the breath of life, and we became living beings.  God didn’t breathe the breath of life into animals.  You are not an animal.  You are far more than a physical creature.  You are a human being created in God’s image.

You are not only a material being, flesh and blood, composed of amino acids and DNA, but a spiritual being.  This is what separates us from the animal kingdom.  God created animals, yes, but animals aren’t made in God’s image.  God didn’t breathe his spirit into animals.  Our human spirit comes from the Spirit of God. 

Like God, we have an intellect, we can think and reason and interpret and solve problems and acquire knowledge.  Like God the creator, we have the capacity to be creative, imaginative and innovative.  Like God, we can bond with others and form friendships and deep interpersonal relationships.  Like God, we have a moral consciousness; we can ascertain the difference between right and wrong, between that which is moral and immoral, just and unjust.  Like God we have the capacity to love others.  Like God, we are free, yes, our freedom is limited by our circumstances, but within those limitations, we are free to make choices and decisions and in our freedom we are a bit like God.  
Let’s turn to the psalmist in Psalm 139 who answers the question in a slightly different way.  He speaks about this very God who made you and me in His image and who breathed life into us.  God is not an impersonal force but a personal being.  God didn’t just create us and then disappear. God knows you.  God knows you well.  You are not anonymous.   You can’t toss your exam in the pile and get away.  God knows when you sit down and when you rise up. God discerns your thoughts from far away. God searches out your paths and is familiar with all your ways.  God knows what you are going to speak, before you utter a word.  God’s knowledge of you is complete and it’s wonderful.  You are known intimately by God the one who made you.

Our New Testament lesson answers the question in yet another manner.   You are the Lord’s.  You belong to the Lord.  Whether at times you feel like a failure or a success, whether you are liked or disliked, whether you are lonely or not, whether you are rich or poor, whether you are happy or unhappy, whether you live or whether you die, you are the Lord’s.  For if we live we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.      

The late scholar William Barclay writes:  “In this life Christ is forever a living presence.   All life is lived in His eye.  A man can no more escape from the Risen, ever-present Christ than he can from his shadow.  There is no place where he can leave Christ behind, and there is nothing which he can do unseen.”

In this earthly life, as a believer, you are responsible to the Lord and accountable to the Lord first among all others.  In this life, you are to honor the Lord by your words and by your life.   In this life, you are not to live for yourself only but to live for others.   We are to live for the Lord.   Why?  Because you belong to the Lord.  Because you are the Lord’s.

I close with this poem from Peter J. Gomes:  “You are formed by God.  You are nourished by His love. You are preserved by his mercy. You are open to his promises.  You are expectant of his future.  You are the human expression of the Divine hope.”   That is who you are.  That is who I am.  You are one whom God knows intimately and loves passionately.  Let us reflect for a moment upon this biblical truth, as we prepare to come to our Lord’s Table.  Amen!