Who Are We? Who We Are. Whose We Are.

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
September 13, 2009: Genesis Sunday

Who Are We? Who We Are. Whose We Are.
Luke 6:20-26

Look around.
Who do you see?
Women and men,
boys and girls,
people who come small, medium and large;
Left-handed, right-handed,
basketball loving, baseball crazed, football obsessed,
knitters, readers,
collectors, gardeners,
joggers, golfers,
dog lovers, cat lovers,
and even chinchilla lovers.

We are Virginians,
but our roots are in New York, New Jersey,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Ghana, Kenya, the Philippines.

We are Presbyterians,
but we are former Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans,
Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics.

We are engineers, teachers, accountants,
lawyers, nurses, dentists, researchers,
technicians,
homemakers, caregivers,
parents, children,
grandparents and grandchildren.

We are such a wonderful array of God’s children,
such a magnificent rainbow,
sparkling in all our diversity,
a rich mix that delights God.

And yet, however we define ourselves,
however we see ourselves,
however we look at ourselves,
who we are,
who we really are
is simple:
we are disciples of Jesus Christ.

Every one of us a follower of the Son of God.
Every one of us, men and women, boys and girls
every one of us walks with Christ.
We answer the question of “who we are”
by remembering “whose we are”.

And once we remember that,
all the rest of life falls into place;
Once we remember whose we are,
then we have a foundation on which we can build,
truly build, a life, an abundant, rich life.

The trouble is, of course,
it is too easy to define ourselves in any of a hundred different ways
throwing our discipleship into the mix here and there,
usually in second place behind another definition:

On Monday we find it easier to define ourselves
by the vocation we pursue, or the school we attend;
on Tuesday, by the social group we’re part of;
on Wednesday by the neighborhood where we live;
on Thursday by our political leanings;
on Friday by the sports teams we root for.

But that’s not what Jesus wants from us;
it is not what he expects from us.
He wants us to stand and declare that
we are his followers first,
his followers last,
beginning to end.
We build our lives, our careers,
our interests, everything else,
on that very foundation.

Jesus does not call us to a life of comfort and ease,
not a life of the rich and famous.
On the contrary, he tells us very clearly
that we are to take up our crosses,
and be prepared to lose our lives for our faith.
It is a life that may often be at odds
with the status quo,
with the mainstream,
with the accepted way of thinking.

Jesus calls us:
to heal the sick when no one else will;
to look after the orphan
when everyone else has turned away;
to comfort the lonely and the afflicted
when we’d really rather be doing something else.

Jesus calls us to work for peace,
peace and reconciliation
and never be content just with prayers.
Jesus tells us that we are not simply to bemoan
the existence of injustice,
we are to root out every cause,
and create a more just, more equitable,
more fair world,
for in doing so, do you see what we are doing?
we are building our small part of the Kingdom,
God’s Kingdom.

UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund,
has captured Jesus’ call with its slogan
“believe in zero”:
that we can, working together,
reduce to zero from more than 20,000
the number of children
who die each day from hunger and
preventable disease.

Jesus calls us to a radical new life;
he turns the world we know upside down.
Listen again to the text from Luke:
Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
But woe to you who are live in abundance,
for you have received your consolation.
Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude you, revile you,
and defame you* on account of the Son of Man.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

Jesus isn’t lifting up poverty,
or hunger,
or mourning.
What he is teaching us is that our focus as disciples
should be on those who are hungry,
those who are poor, those who mourn,
because that’s where Jesus’ focus is;
that’s where God’s focus is, and always has been.

Jesus reminds of the words God spoke
again and again through the prophets,
words we have always found so easy to walk away from:
“Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
(Amos 5:24)
“bind up the brokenhearted;
comfort those who mourn
bring good news to the oppressed;"
(Isaiah 61)
“no infant [should] die of illness,
nor an older person fail to live a long and healthy life”
(Isaiah 65:20)

Jesus calls us to do our part to create this world,
but we won’t if we don’t remember who we are
and whose we are;
If our focus is on being part of:
the party pack at the football game,
the must-have-it group at the Mall,
the “let them pay their own way and pull themselves up
by their own bootstraps” group of protestors.

In a few moments when we take our collection,
the ushers will also pass baskets along the rows.
In the baskets you will find small cross pins,
which you are invited to take.
(none for children, please; they have sharp pins!)
They are my gift to each of you
as we begin this new season together.

The pin is for you to wear on your lapel,
your scarf, your hat,
not to advertise your faith,
for Jesus tells us of course,
to beware those who practice their piety in public.
The pin is simply a reminder to you
of who you are and whose you are,
a reminder of the life to which you and I have been called.

I find the pin a helpful reminder
against getting caught up in the everyday stuff,
what C. S. Lewis has called the
“fussy attentiveness to your own state of mind.”
(Surprised by Joy, 233)
The pin is a reminder to me
that I am called to have a
“Jesus” state of mind.

Take your pin,
and put it on your lapel.
And then come to this Table,
come to this Table
and be fed, nourished, renewed and refreshed
by our Lord Jesus Christ,
for this is his Table;
his meal.

And then go out from here
go out to all the places you will go tomorrow
and Tuesday, and the days after,
but go out with a renewed awareness,
renewed confidence,
a renewed sense of calling
of who you are
and most important:
whose you are.
AMEN