Col. 2:6-19; Lk. 11:1-13
Buried with Christ, raised with Christ, both through baptism, but nothing else than God’s mighty deeds. When we were buried with Christ in our baptism, we were also raised with Christ through faith in the power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.
Justified, redeemed, created, by grace. Daily regenerated. Called by God.
All who through baptism become members of Christ's Body become fully and intrinsically part of him, and as such fully and intrinsically part of all the other members; it's a bond promised, effected and guaranteed by God himself, and it doesn’t depend on outward differences.
Baptism is the place where we all become.
Who do people say you are? Who do you say you are? Who would you like people to think you are? Who would you like to be?
To be, to exist, to become. Baptism in the death and resurrection of Christ, who so often told his followers, I AM.
I AM -in capital letters- spoke to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3).
Our society is one of identity and identities, real and fake.
We belong to so many organisations and institutions, so many communities, and these intersect, are multilayered. However, many people truly feel they don’t know who they are. So many people are struggling with their identity, or are erased by other people’s struggles with their identity. So many people find it easier to say who they’re not.
I AM therefore you are also.
This is exactly why our identity as ‘those who were buried and raised with Christ’, as Christians, may never be abused to exclude others: our persecuted brothers and sisters in other parts of the world know what discrimination and exclusion really feel like, what they really mean, sometimes even unto death. Our Christian identity may never be a reason for exclusion, on the contrary, it must be a rallying cry for all, also for seekers, doubters, outcasts, those we don’t like. Christians should heed God’s call to minister to all, while lifting up in prayer, without ceasing, all those suffering because of their identity, whatever identity that may be.
In baptism we share in Christ’s high priesthood, Christ’s unceasing intercession. You have to acknowledge someone before you can intercede for them.
Being a Christian is an identity that’s a gracious gift received at baptism, and it must be lived out with the same grace and responsibility.
Being a Christian is the greatest good work there is, a work that can only be carried out because of God’s promises and commitment, God’s power.
Our identity as ‘those who share Christ’s death and resurrection’ must flow through our entire being, like the waters at baptism.
We can be so terribly angry, terribly disappointed when people turn out to be someone else, turn out not to be who they said or promised they would be. We can be equally offended and outraged when groups we belong to, where we get our identity or part of our identity from, let us down. When sin distorts our intersectionality, upsets or blots out our many layers.
It confuses us, disorientates us, buries us.
Who am I, who are you? The resurrected one.
Who are we as Christians, as followers of Jesus, both as individuals and as a community of faith, which is trust in God’s promises?
If the answer is a positive one, if people regard us as a group of funny oddballs who nonetheless are kind and open and loving, then we can all say: thanks be to God.
But if people regard us negatively, as closed-minded bigots they rather avoid, then we haven’t been listening to what Jesus has been teaching us, because just like him, it’s our calling to minister and serve those whom we love and those whom we don’t love even more, just like the God we claim to worship, the Christ we claim to follow, is love.
“But who do you say that I am?” Jesus asked Peter.
Who do you say you are?
I AM is my name, I’m existence itself and I call you to be you. I’m the Christ and I have come to make sure you’re forgiven, recreated and free to become who you’re supposed to be. We share this existence because in baptism I claimed you for my own, to be my own.
Be human, be a Christian, find your identity in love, hope and faith. Let your baptismal identity be a gift and a good work to the world.