Coming Up Sunday, May 17

This Sunday we will begin the conclusion of our focus on "faith stories" by talking about identity.  Almost everyone has stories about their faith -- how and why they became religious, how and why they became less religious.  As we accumulate these stories, we gain a spiritual identity, a conception of how we relate to God and how we live out our faith (or try to live it out or fail to live it out).

The challenge, though, is that we do not entirely control our identity.  Often we are influenced by other people's identities for us.  Other people who know us -- and even some who do not -- have stories about us too, from which they draw conclusions.  In their own minds they put together conceptions of us, which they may share with others, or even with us.  Eventually, we may adjust our self-conceptions based on what other people think of us (actually, we do that pretty often).

Jesus himself faced these issues.  There were lots of stories floating around about him during his lifetime, including some pretty negative ones.  So one day, he asked his disciples what other people were saying about him -- who do they say I am?  Then he asked the disciples what they thought -- who do you say I am?

We face these questions too about our own individual identity and about our identity as a church of Jesus Christ.  We need to take seriously what other people say about us -- how they define us -- both good and bad.  Sometimes they see things about us that we don't recognize about ourselves.  Sometimes they have terrible misconceptions about us, which we may need to work to clear up.