Who Are You?

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, February 3, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Galatians 1:6-12.

            If I asked you to tell me who you are, what would you say?

            There are probably a lot of ways to answer that question.  We might start by giving our names.  Then we might say what we do for a living.  Then, probably, talk about our spouse and our kids, if we have any.  We might say where we live.  We might say where we grew up.  And maybe a few other things, too.

            But you know, when you think about it, none of those things are really who we are.  They give facts about us.  They give a little pertinent information.  But none of that is really who we are.  My name is not who I am.  My job is not who I am.  My wife is not who I am.  Where I live and where I grew up are not who I am.  Those things are relevant, of course.  Those things contribute, to some extent, to making me who I am.  But none of that is who I am.  You could know all those things about me and still not really know who I am.  And that’s probably true about you, too.

            It’s really hard for us to reveal who really are.  There are a lot of times when I don’t do it.  I reveal more than I used to, but there’s still a lot that I don’t reveal.  I think that’s true of a lot of us.  We throw out distractions.  We put up a wall to hide behind.  We use, as the old Bruce Springsteen song says, a brilliant disguise.  We’re hesitant to really be our true, authentic selves.

            That’s not a problem little kids have, is it?  Little kids just are who they are.  If they’re outgoing, if they’re shy, if they’re cheerful, if they’re sad, whatever they are, that’s just who they are.  They don’t put up a wall to hide behind.  They don’t use a brilliant disguise.  Little kids are their true, authentic selves, whatever that authentic self happens to be.

            In Matthew Chapter Eighteen, Verse Three, Jesus said that unless we become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  As we look at the ways in which we need to become like little children, I think this is one of them.  We need to be willing to be our true, authentic selves, like children are.

            How do we lose that, do you think?  Well, things happen to us.  We get criticized for being who we are.  Sometimes people make fun of us for being who we are.  Sometimes people hurt us, whether physically or emotionally, for being who we are.  And all those things teach us something.  They teach us that it’s risky for us to truly be who we are.  We don’t like the things that can happen to us.  And after we’ve been criticized a few times for who we are, after we’ve been made fun of a few times for being who we are, after we’ve been hurt a few times for being who we are, we decide it’s not worth the risk.  

And so we put up those walls.  We hide.  We don’t let anyone know we really are.  And then, you know what the saddest thing of all is?  We stop even letting ourselves know who we are.  We hide from ourselves.  We’re afraid to be who we are.  And so we become something we’re not.  We put on that brilliant disguise.  It seems safer.  It seems easier.  It seems less risky.

That’s sad.  It’s sad to not be who we are.  I think it makes God sad when we’re not who we are.  Don’t take that the wrong way--I’m not saying God gets angry with us or punishes us for it.  God understands why we do it.  God understands the hurt and the pain we go through.  After all, Jesus went through it.  Jesus was criticized, and made fun of, and hurt, for being who he was.  God understands what that’s like, and God understands why we decide we don’t want to go through it.

But it’s still sad.  Because God created us to be who we really are.  God created us to be who we truly and authentically are.  God does not want us to use a brilliant disguise.  God created us to be our true, authentic selves.  And that’s who God wants us to be.

            In our responsive psalm this morning Psalm One Hundred Thirty-nine, we read, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

            Think about that.  You are wonderfully made.  God made you, and God thinks you are wonderful.  You.  Not some other person.  Not some person you think you have to try to be.  You.  The real you.  The authentic you.  You, as you, are wonderfully made.  And the best way we can honor God is if we are that wonderful person, that real, authentic person that God made us to be.

            If you want further proof of how wonderful you are, look at Genesis Chapter One, Verse Twenty-seven.  It says, “God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”

            You are created in the image of God.  You.  That wonderful person that is your true, authentic self.  That person, you, was created in the image of God.  Not some other person.  Not some person you think you have to try to be.  The real you, the authentic you, was created in the image of God.  And again, the best way we can honor God is if we are the person God created us to be.

            You see, when we try to be somebody we’re not, what we’re really doing is trying to create ourselves in some image other than God’s image.  A lot of times, it’s in the image of society.  And when I say “society”, I’m not just talking about the world at large, although that’s part of it.  “Society” can be the people around town.  “Society” can be the people we associate with.  “Society” can be the people we work with or go to school with.  A lot of the time, those people have an idea of who and what we “should” be.  And as we said before, we can get criticized or made fun of or hurt if we don’t go along with that idea of who society wants us to be.  But if we do go along, what we’re doing is creating ourselves in society’s image.  And that’s a lot different from being created in God’s image.  It’s a lot worse than being created in God’s image, too.

            In our reading from Galatians for today, Paul writes about that.  He says, “Am I now trying to win human approval, or God’s approval?  Or am I trying to please people?  If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

            The only way we can truly win God’s approval is if we are who God created us to be.  If we are that wonderful, true, authentic person who was created in God’s image.  That does not mean we’ll be perfect--only God is perfect.  We’ll still make plenty of mistakes.  We’ll still have plenty of times when we mess up.  But God won’t mind.  God will know that we’re doing our best, because it will be us who’s making those mistakes and messing up.  The wonderful, true, authentic us.  Not people who are trying to be someone they’re not.  Not people who are trying to create themselves in someone else’s image.  Us.  Ourselves.

            Little kids have no problem being who they are.  We lose that along the way.  We try to become what someone else wants us to be.  But we can never really be happy being who someone else wants us to be, and we can never really please God by being who someone else wants us to be.  Again, it’s not that God will punish us for that.  It’s that God created us to be who we really are, and God knows the only way we can truly be happy is to be who we really are.  It seems to me that a lot of our journey as Christians is a journey to try to get back to being who we really are, who God really created us to be.

            You know, when Wanda and I decided God was calling me to be a pastor, I wondered if that meant I should make some changes in my life.  Did it mean that I should stop following sports so much and spend that time in more religious ways?  Did it mean I should stop listening to my old seventies music and just listen to Christian music?  Did it mean I should stop telling bad jokes and be a more serious person?

            I thought about it, and prayed about it, and I decided the answer was no.  If, in fact, God was calling me, it meant that God was calling me.  As me.  As the best me I can be, but still as me.  After all, God knows me better than I know myself.  God knew what He was getting when God called me.  If God had not wanted that, if God had wanted someone else, God would’ve called someone else.  God called me.  God wants me to be me.  The true, authentic me, created in the image of God.

            That’s what God wants from you, too.  Because God has called you, just as much as God called me.  Not to be a pastor, necessarily.  But God has called you to serve God in some way.  And that means God is calling you.  As you.  As the best you that you can be, but still as you.  God wants you to be you.  The true, authentic you, created in the image of God.

            So, who are you?  Think about it.  Think about who you are.  Then ask yourself, is that you?  Or just a brilliant disguise?

            Let’s put away our disguises.  Let’s be the wonderful people God created us to be.  Let’s be our true, authentic selves, created in God’s image.  That’s the only way we’ll ever be truly happy.  And it’s the only way we’ll truly be the people God wants us to be.