Identity, belonging and holiness

Sermon for 2nd July
Doubting Thomas - Ephesians 2:19-end, John 20:24-29

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we see classic Pauline theology in action – Paul is explaining to the Ephesians (Gentiles) that they are fully accepted into the household of God and full members of it. The implication is that they are unsure about their place. Paul is clear that their tradition and history is rooted now not only in the Patriarchs, but also in the Apostles and with Jesus Christ as the corner stone. It is the Apostles in Jesus who invite them to full membership. No longer is holiness and worship centred on the Temple in Jerusalem but, rather, the individual believers are spiritual temples and the group of believers an ‘habitation of God’.

Paul, as we know, had been fully committed to his identity as a God-fearing Jew; his life and ritual practice confirmed his sense of superior identity before God. He was saved because of his birth right and due to his strict adherence to the Law. The encounter with Jesus fundamentally changed his understanding of what it meant to be chosen by God; what it meant to be saved; and also his understanding of exactly how salvation is enacted. Paul’s radical conversion convinced him that Jesus had radically exploded the prior categories that he had grown up with. Such was the dramatic impact of his conversion experience that Paul came to have a completely faith-based understanding of identity, belonging and holiness.

The classic story of Thomas’s doubt, presented as it is in John’s Gospel, affirms Paul’s insistence on the new functionality of faith. Faith, ‘belief’ in the resurrected Jesus has replaced the whole of the Jewish Law. Jesus of course said that he had not come to obliterate the Law but to fulfil it. Jesus for Christians becomes then the fulfilment of the Law – and believing in him becomes the entire work of faith.

What mattered to Paul was that the Law no longer defined:

1) who you are - identity

2) who is included - belonging

3) ritual purity - holiness

Firstly, Jesus now gave everyone a new identity, an identity derived from God through himself and the Holy Spirit; this was not confined to one group of people, nor enacted through particular behaviours (Sabbath) or actions (circumcision). This identity as a child of God was freely given and bestowed, not earned. It was enacted through faith in Jesus, the Resurrected one.

Secondly, Jesus enabled everyone to belong; through faith in him any individual could become one with him, part of his body, the church. It was the Apostles and Jesus himself that thee new communities were being built upon. Belonging becomes about personal transformation (spiritual temples) and drawing together in remembrance (the church and communion).

Thirdly, holiness was now redefined as friendship with God. It was not a matter of ritual purity, but grace through the eternal sacrifice of the Son. Jesus makes us holy, and it is participation in his life and death that draws us back into relationship with God the Father.  

These are teachings that we desperately need to hear afresh today. Those who wish to police the ritual purity of our church do well to remember that our holiness comes from Jesus and not from our own attempts to ‘be holy’. Holiness cannot be derived from our own attempts to be perfect, morally or otherwise.

Identity is at the core of much contested ground in the church today and also in our culture. The fault lines of how we used to think about identity are being thrashed about – a person whose personality is changed through dementia, for instance, or a person who decides they want to undergo gender re-assignment. Marriage is being redefined as between two people of the same gender. Where is God in these knotty and complicated areas that stretch our thinking and understanding? One thing we can say for sure is that God is able to give us a new identity through his Son – not one that takes away our other identities, but one that underpins and strengthens our experiences. Whatever happens to us, God is able to be there at the root of who we are. A person who cannot remember who they are is still a beloved child of God; a person who changes from a man to a woman, is still a beloved child of God. It is their common identity in Christ, to which they are grafted in by faith that confirms them.

We cannot take away that in Jesus we are made anew. Similarly, we belong – not by virtue of being good, nor by being respectable, nor because we ‘fit in’- but by virtue of the fact that Jesus has invited us. Jesus invites so many people to sit at his table – but often ‘we’ and the ‘church’ can get in the way of that invitation. But, the invitation remains Jesus’ to give, not ours; Jesus consistently invites those who are not worthy. He invites those whom others would neglect; he invites the lost, the forgotten, the judged, the condemned, the troubled and the broken.

So, listening today, you may need to hear anew that:

·        You are created and loved by God: whatever particular identity struggle you may be having, your identity is in Christ and that is what gives you dignity and self-worth. IDENTITY

·        You are invited to be part of God’s family through his Son – I have not invited you here, Jesus has and whoever you are you belong by virtue of his invitation. BELONGING

·        You are saved by the grace of Jesus, you are held in his hands and you are made holy through his saving love revealed most fully on the Cross. HOLINESS

This is how identity, belonging and holiness look in the kingdom of God – identity is given, you are included and Jesus has purified.