A New Identity

John 1: 6 – 14

 (preached on December 13, 2020)

 December is a big month in my family, and not only because of Christmas.  Several members of my family have birthdays in December.  My dad’s birthday is on the 11^th, my middle granddaughter’s is the 16^th, and my niece’s falls on the 18^th.  December can be a fun time for birthdays, but one little girl didn’t like having her birthday in December.

The girl was the daughter of a man named Henry Ide, who was a good friend of the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson.  Ide once joked with Stevenson that Christmas was not the happiest day of the year for his daughter Annie because it was also Annie’s birthday.  She always complained that she got cheated out of a separate birthday party.  Stevenson came up with an unusual idea.  He gave Annie his birthday, which fell on November 13.  He drew up a legal document, transferring all the “rights and privileges” of his birthday to Miss Annie H. Ide.  From that day forward, Annie celebrated her birthday on November 13.

In our gospel passage for today, John affirms something similar.  He says that Jesus has, so to speak, conferred all his “rights and privileges” to us.  That’s what John is getting at when he says, “to all who received [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”  We might say that Jesus gives to all who believe in him a new identity:  all who receive him and believe in him know they are children of God.  When you know you’re a child of God, you see yourself as part of God’s glorious creation, created in love.  When you’re a child of God you want to live by God’s loving ways, showing love to God, your neighbor, and yourself.  And when you’re a child of God, you’re free of fear because you trust that, whatever happens, the future is in God’s hands.

This new identity as children of God is something we make official in the sacrament of baptism.  In baptism, we proclaim the one we baptize to be a member of the family we call church.  When someone is baptized, they are set on a course of Christian discipleship.  They are officially welcomed into the circle of people who want to follow Jesus, a circle that is always widening.

As Christians, we believe that God loves every person.  God doesn’t require that we be baptized before God will love us.  But in baptism, we accept God’s invitation to follow Jesus and take our place in the ever-widening circle of God’s family.  Being baptized doesn’t mean we have everything all figured out.  We don’t have all the answers.  We may continue to doubt and question. But being baptized means we’ll ask our questions as people who love Jesus and want to follow him.

Baptism proclaims who we are.  It’s a statement of identity.  That’s why, right before I baptize a child, I ask the parents, “By what name will this child be called?”  And I say the child’s name loudly and clearly.  The name of the child is linked with the holy, healing purposes of God.  Baptism says the child is now a member of the family of God we call church.

Because names make a statement of who we are, a statement of identity, they are very important.  In other parts of the world they do this differently, but here, long before the baby is born, parents think hard about what they will name him.  Long before they know what the baby will look like, before they know the sound of her voice, mothers and fathers are mulling over different names.

I always find it interesting to learn why parents have chosen a particular name.  It seems that names go in and out of style.  For example, when I was growing up, many of the boys in my generation were given short, one syllable names like Rick and Doug and Chuck.  We were the first generation after World War II and I wonder if the parents of those baby boys, with the tumult of war still fresh in their minds, wanted to give their sons decisive sounding names.  Maybe they hoped that the sound of those clear cut consonants would shape a boy’s character to meet the challenges of putting the world back together.  My parents were traditional about names.  My sister was named Lucinda after one grandmother, and I was named Elva after the other one.

Times have changed of course.  I recently learned that the most popular names for girls are Sophia, Olivia, Riley, and Emma.  For boys, the most popular names are Liam, Noah, Jackson, and Aiden.  These days it seems as if popular names aren’t linked to the past.  Many parents choose names that ring with new hopes and dreams for the people their children will become.

Parents think long and hard about what they will name their baby.  But Mary and Joseph didn’t have a choice about what to name the baby boy born to them.  The angel Gabriel is very definite that the boy’s name is to be Jesus, a name that means, “He saves.”  He is to save the people.  His identity is determined, not by his parents, but by God, so that “All who receive him and believe in [him will be saved by the] power [he gives them] to become children of God.”

Many different things determine our identity.  The place we were born, the kind of work we do, the talents we have, can all shape our identity.  But when we follow Jesus, all those other things flow from our identity as children of God.  When you’re a child of God, you see yourself as part of God’s glorious creation.  When you’re a child of God you want to live by God’s loving ways, showing love to God your neighbor, and yourself.  And when you’re a child of God, you’re free of fear because you trust that, whatever happens, the future is in God’s hands.

Today, as we celebrated the Advent Wreath, we lit for the first time the candle of joy.  We are filled with joy at the One who comes to give us power to become children of God.  When we receive him, and believe in him, and take him at his word, we claim membership in God’s family.  We take on a new identity as children of God.

 

Rev. Elva Merry Pawle

Advent 3

 

“In the Bleak Midwinter”    – Eric Thiman

Maria Ferrante, Soprano