There’s a TV show that has as its theme song: “Who are you?” sung by, of course, the group called THE WHO. (As near as I can tell the show determines who you are only after you are dead by examining bodies with cool gadgets but let’s not go there.) It’s a good thing to know who you are, right? If we played twenty questions and go around to each one here we’d be able to determine a lot about one another. Who are you? I’m a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend, an older male, a pastor, a preacher, a Trinity missionary, a licensed theologian, a US citizen, a Chicagoan, a walker, an amateur cook, a fan of the Baltimore Orioles, an inveterate reader, a pray-er, a forgiven sinner, a Bible lover, a human being and a child of God. Listing those things might say something about me, but mostly they don’t say who I am. Who you are is much more profound than any list of external characteristics. John the Baptist knew who he was: I am the voice. I am the one who speaks to the weary a word that will rouse them. I am the one who testifies to the light. I am the one who points out the one among you whom you do not recognize. I am the herald of good news. I am the one who says prepare the way of the Lord by straightening the highway, filling in the valley, making low the mountain and smoothing out the rugged land. His identity as a person was wrapped up in the mission that he had received from God. To understand John the Baptist – and to understand ourselves – requires that we see ourselves as coming from God and going to God. Like John the Baptist it is not simply a matter of who we but of whose we are.
The Priests and Levites in the first chapter of the fourth gospel asked John the Baptist, “Who are you?” Instead of answering directly JB (all his friends called him that) starts off with some negatives. “I’m not the Christ, I’m not Elijah, I’m not the prophet.” Knowing who you are is a good thing but it is also good to know who you are not. What are some of the things we are not? We are not God. If we were God we would certainly do something to get this pandemic over with. But since God is God and we’re not, we must learn how to live in God’s world and not imagine that we could make a better one. The God who spun the galaxies and created 10,000 different species of beetles can be trusted to know how a world should be run. We are also not the Messiah. There is only one Messiah. So often when someone that we care about – a family member or friend — is having some trouble or difficulty we are tempted to ride in on our white horse and fix whatever is going wrong. That is what a Messiah does, not what we do. Our job is to let those we love know that we care about them, that we are with them, that we will accompany them when they have to go through the valley of darkness. Again, we are not the Supreme Court, determining who is good and who is bad, who is right and who is wrong, who is worthy and who is not. We act like the judge when we have difficulty accepting things the way they are. Instead of viewing reality as it is, the judge prefers to simply reject those people and things they feel are threatening. A judge will frequently divide people into stark categories of “good” or “bad,” with the latter being subjected to criticism. Jesus is the judge, we’re not. We shouldn’t even judge ourselves. For example, after we have gone to confession and Jesus has pronounced us a forgiven, we must stop judging ourselves to be bad or unworthy and accept God’s forgiveness and mercy. Stop judging, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, for you are precious in my sight.
It is a blessing to know one’s identity – who one is and who one is not. But we also must know what to do, how we are to act. St. Paul tells us: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.” We are called to the three “always:” rejoice always, pray always, give thanks always. Rejoice always. We tend to rejoice when the Bears are winning, when the price of food goes down, when the doctor says the blood pressure is under control. That doesn’t happen very often, (especially the first one), so joy eludes us. We find it easy to rejoice when things go well — but that is not what the Bible says to do. St. Paul says, “Rejoice always.” Rejoice whether it’s rainy or sunny, whether the tank is empty or full, whether the check comes in the mail or the bill does. We can do so because we know who we are and who we are not. We are beloved of God, safe in God’s hands, and it’s not up to us to produce a happy ending. We don’t know how the story will unfold but we can rejoice because we are confident in God’s plan for us.
Pray always, pray without ceasing. Prayer is not a sometime thing, a hobby we do if we have the time. Prayer is a lifestyle, a way of being. Since in our core identity we are children of God we are always in God’s presence. Prayer is acknowledging how close God is to us. Our whole lives all we are doing is moving from one piece of holy ground to another.
Give thanks always. In all circumstances give thanks. It might not be steak – give thanks for the beans. You might grieve a deep loss – give thanks for the time you had. We might not be able to go to a concert – give thanks for the song of a bird. Rejoice always, pray always, give thanks always for no matter how things seem to be going, we know who we are and whose we are, beloved of God, precious in his sight, glory-bound. AMEN.