Identity Politics & Identity Theology
Sermon for Trinity 18
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Identity politics threatens civil discourse. Identity politics rips at the fabric of our society. Identity politics is finally dehumanizing, because it teaches people to find their identity in non-integral characteristics, instead of at the core of what it means to be human.
“God calls you to find your identity in Him.”
Who are you? Across the oceans of time, God calls you to find your identity in Him. God calls you to find your identity in who He made you to be.
Today’s Epistle, from 1 Corinthians, addresses us collectively. St. Paul speaks not to a denomination, or a church gathered around a particular pastor. The church is not an association of like-minded individuals. The church is not a club. The church is not ours. The church is singular. The New Testament only speaks about churches (in the plural) when talking about locations. You see that in today’s Epistle: “To the church of God that is in Corinth.” The present condition of multiple denominations and competing churches is a scandal. It is not God’s will.
Notice how Paul equates the church with sanctification: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Sanctified means made holy. And that’s who you are: you are holy people.
Now you might not feel very holy. And you might not look very holy to others. But holy you are. That’s what Baptism did. It set you apart to be God’s people. God takes unholy people and calls them holy.
You are set apart, called to be different from the world. Is that evident?
From what have you been deriving your identity? Your looks? Your money? Your political party? Your carnal lusts? Those are your gods. Cast them down! Dig a hole and bury them deep. That’s not who you are.
You are called to be saints. Those words, saints and sanctified, come from the same root word. They’re related to the term sanctuary, which means holy place. There’s a part of the liturgy called the Sanctus, where we say call God holy three times.
God is holy, God has made you holy—set you apart—and God calls you to be holy. So how is that going to work?
In any line of work, you become something, but then you have to grow into actually being that. So you might be named press secretary for a congressman, but then you have to grow into that position, becoming what you were called to be.
I’m on the board of a college, Concordia College New York, and was up there for meetings last week. One of their premier programs is nursing, and the dean of the nursing school spoke about what makes a Concordia nurse. What differentiates a Concordia nurse is her kindness to a patient in humiliating circumstances; her compassion to those who are grieving. A Concordia nurse cares for a patient the way she would want to be cared for.
Now, any graduate of the nursing program is a Concordia nurse. But you see the adjective Concordia as aspirational for every student. In the same way, God’s Word today places you as a student, a disciple of Jesus. The reality of your baptism makes you a saint; and the aspiration is that you will be what you are already called. You are a holy people. Be who you are!
Who are you? You are someone who has received the grace of God. Grace is a free gift. God welcomes you as you are, with all your quirks and idiosyncrasies, your frailties and your sins. That “grace of God … was given you in Christ Jesus.”
But the God who gives us grace, the God who accepts us as we are does not leave us where we are. “You were enriched in [Christ] in all speech and all knowledge.” Our words change. There are some words we don’t say any more. There is a different vocabulary we adopt, like we heard last week about speaking fitting words, the right words at the right time, speaking the truth in love. Is your speech changing? What words have you spoken that call you to repentance? What words do you need to speak to build up your neighbor?
Now that we’ve started Sunday School again for the children, this would be a good time to make sure you and your children are studying the Scriptures on a regular basis. The Disciple of Jesus loves to be enriched in knowledge.
What is the knowledge of which Paul speaks? “As the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you.” The Christian Faith is based on testimony, evidence. In some churches the word testimony is used to describe how a person’s life has changed. But here it means the evidence that is submitted, like in a court room.
Mosaic at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem (Photo: Christopher Esget)
The entire Christian Faith is based on the evidence, the eyewitness testimony that Jesus was crucified under the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, that He rose again from the grave on the Sunday after Passover, and was seen by Mary Magdalene and many other women, was seen by the Apostles (such as Peter, James, John, and Thomas), appeared to over 500 men, and finally appeared to Saul of Tarsus, an ardent opponent of Christianity. He later wrote that if Jesus is not crucified, then Christianity is a sham and we are “of all men most to be pitied.”
We are Christians not because we feel like it, or have had a particular experience, but because of the testimony of the eyewitnesses.
The Jesus of that testimony, Paul says, “will sustain you to the end.” The end of what? The end of life, the end of your rope, your wit’s end, the end of the world. I don’t know if there is wealth or poverty ahead for you, a quiet retirement or a fiery trial. But the end of all things is coming for all of us, the day of judgment and the night of darkness. Jesus, and only Jesus, can and will sustain you to the end. God is faithful, and He keeps His promises.
“Your identity is in Jesus.”
Those promises are your identity. Forget about those trying to divide us into parties and factions. Your identity is in Jesus. You are His disciple. He is your redeemer. You are His saint, He is your sanctifier. The grace of God has been given to you. He will sustain you to the end.