On Discovering Who We Are

 

On Discovering Who We Are

Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Sorenson

for

Richmond Beach Congregational United Church of Christ

Shoreline, Washington

October 16, 2022

 

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:27-34; Genesis 32:22-31

 

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

 

Your church is in a time of transition. Of course, I don’t know anywhere near all of the details of your life as a congregation in recent times. I used to be a member here a long time ago, but I left in about 1996 for reasons actually having more to do with what was happening in my life at the time than for I reason I gave, though at the time I didn’t know it. More about that anon. I know that Paul’s pastorate here was not a success, but I don’t know much about why it wasn’t. For my purposes here this morning I don’t need to know why it wasn’t, though I’m sure you do need to know why. All I know, and all I need to know, is that you are in a time of transition from what was to what will be for RBCC.

One of the crucial issues for any person or organization in transition is the issue of identity. Both of the scripture lessons this morning can be read, I think, as speaking about that issue of identity. Jeremiah has God say that God will put God’s law within the people and write it on their hearts. I don’t think anyone has had all 613 laws of Moses put within them or written on their hearts. I am convinced, however, that God has put something within each of us and has written something on our hearts. Whatever else it may also be, that something is our identity. Our identity is who God calls each one of us to be. It is who we really are.

In our passage this morning from Genesis the patriarch Jacob wrestles in the night with a man who turns out be none other then God Godself. This man/God changes Jacob’s name. He says you shall no longer be called Jacob but shall be called Israel, which means “struggles with God.” We might think, what’s in a name? As rose by any other name would smell as sweet, as Shakespeare has Juliet say about Romeo. In the ancient Jewish world, however, that’s not how they thought about names. To the people of that world a person’s name and the person’s identity were essentially the same thing. Name was seen as inseparable from being. When God changed Jacob’s name from Jacob to Israel, God gave the man formerly known as Jacob not just a new name but a new Identity. Jacob/Israel became a new being who was now not what he had been before.

Each of us has such an identity, such a being, such an essence that is who we really are. That identity is who God has created each of us to be, and God calls each of us to discover and live into that identity. I know from my own personal experience how hard it can be for us to discover who we really are. I think that’s as true of an institution like a church as it is for us as individuals, and perhaps a shortened version of my own story of discovering who I really am will illustrate the point.

Some of you who were here when I was a member back in the 1990s may remember that at that time I wasn’t a minister, I was a lawyer. While I was a member here, in 1992, I left a job with a downtown Seattle law firm and opened my own law office in Edmonds. At first having my own solo law practice went well enough. But by 1994, while I was still a member here, I started to run into big trouble with my attempt to be a lawyer, something I had been doing since 1981. Some of you may remember the Rev. Dr. Dennis Hughes, who was this church’s interim pastor after Pastor Steve left. I was Moderator of this church at that time and worked closely with Dennis. Dennis would eventually become a great friend and mentor of mine in ministry. Dennis was a Presbyterian minister, but he was also a Jungian psychologist. One day, probably because I had shared with him some of my struggles with my profession, he gave me a book that introduced me to a psychological exercise called Active Imagination. It’s something you can do to help you with whatever it is that you are struggling with at the time. One day as I sat in my law office being quite thoroughly unhappy, I did that exercise. I sat down, cleared my mind, and asked myself, “Why am I having so much trouble practicing law?” Instantaneously, with no time having passed in which I could have thought of an answer to my question, an answer came booming up out of my unconscious mind: “You’re not a lawyer!” I was stunned. I argued with the answer: “Of course I’m a lawyer! I'm sitting here in my law office with at least some law work to do! My Washington State Bar Association number is 11977. There’s a sign on my office door that says Thomas C. Sorenson, Attorney at Law. Of course I’m a lawyer!” Once again the answer came instantaneously, loud and clear: “You’re not a lawyer!” I thought, well, that’s ridiculous, but the answer wasn’t going to change, so I said, “OK. The what am I?” Again, with no time having passed, an answer from deep within me came booming up, “You’re a preacher!” Again, I was stunned. A preacher? You’ve got to be kidding! That’s not even a word I use. I’ll call some one a minister or a pastor but not a preacher. I was sure the answer “You’re a preacher” was nonsense, but I could tell there was no point in arguing with whatever or whoever it was that was giving me those ridiculous answers. So I ended the exercise and went on trying, quite unsuccessfully, to practice law.

And here I am standing before you as a preacher, as an ordained minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the United Church of Christ. Not long before she died of cancer my wife Francie (of blessed memory) said to me, “I’m so glad you finally are who you really are.” She was right. It had taken me 55 years to get there, but I finally was who I really am. Thanks be to God!

This church has some identity, some way of being, some mission, that is who you really are. I believe that your task in this time of transition is to discern what that identity is and how you are going to live into it. I understand that you have already done some of that work. Good. Let me just suggest one thing for you to keep in mind as you continue your discernment. Don’t make the big mistakes I made as I struggles with my identity. Don’t refuse to look intentionally and seriously at the question of identity. It took me three years from “You’re not a lawyer” before I looked at myself seriously in an attempt to figure out who I really am. Don’t be afraid to consider any of the answers to the question of your identity that any of you may suggest. What at first may seem a ridiculous suggestion of who you are or are not, like “You’re not a lawyer,” may turn out to be exactly what you need to hear. Don’t suppress any possible answers. Talk to each other. Listen to one another. Each of you has a role to play in discovering who this church really is.

Of course, if you already know who this church really is you can ignore most of what I’ve said this morning. Yet identity is a question to which we must each return again and again. As the circumstances of our lives change, so can our identity. Nothing in life is really static, and that includes how we are called to express in the world the core identity God has placed within each one of us and within this church. And don’t make another mistake I made. Don’t neglect your prayer life as you do your work. As Paul says, pray without ceasing. Tending your connection with God can only produce good results for you, and it is what we Christians should be doing anyway.

God has put an identity within you. God has written it on your heart. God wants you to know what that identity is. God wants you to discern how you are to live out that identity in the world as faithful followers of Jesus Christ. I know that God will hold, guide, and bless you as you continue the sacred journey of discovering and living into that identity and discerning what it means for your life together and for your life in God’s world. May it be so. Amen.