One
of the major insurance companies is currently advertising that they provide
coverage for identity theft. If someone obtains your social security number,
bank account numbers and credit card numbers and, in essence, uses your
identity for his or her own gain, the insurance carrier will presumably
reimburse you for financial losses – but how can they ever reimburse us for
emotional losses? It is not uncommon for people who have had their identity
stolen to live with the consequences for five or more years. Identity theft is
a hideous crime because not only are there financial ramifications – which may
or may not be repaired – but there is the emotional and psychological damage of
knowing that someone is actually pretending to be you…when you know all the
time that you are you…even if no one else believes you are you.
What card in our purse or wallet do
we carry that indicates who we really are? What if Anne Arundel County didn’t
believe that I am who I am?
I think there are a lot of us who
aren’t sure who we are. A lot of folks grew up thinking their name was “stupid”
or “dumb” or “loser” or “klutz.” Some of us had more complicated names like,
“you’ll never amount to anything,” or “you’re just like your father, or mother,
or Uncle Joe,” or “why can’t you be like your brother or like the
next-door-neighbor?” Whatever the names – they can be like a 5,000 pound
elephant and we wonder if we can ever get it off us.
Some of us may not have had names
like these placed on us like name tags, but they were nevertheless communicated
to us in various ways by family members, teachers, peers, or bosses. And so in
addition to all these cards we carry in our wallets we’ve got all these other
names and perceptions that we carry – invisible cards if you will – and the
invisible cards are more lasting and more important than my passport or
driver’s license or major medical card.
Who are we? Who are you? Who am I?
About a year ago the owner of the
company I worked for was trying to start a youth camp and he asked me to review
a brochure that he was using to promote the camp. The brochure had been
produced by an advertising agency. As I read the text of the document I saw the
recurring term “self-esteem.” The purpose of the camp was to promote
“self-esteem” in young people.
About 40 or 50 years ago someone
figured out that if telling little Bob that he was a “loser” was bad then telling
little Bob that he was a “winner” must be good. Therefore, if we can build
little Bob’s self-esteem we can make him a happy camper and hopefully a
well-adjusted member of society.
There is, of course, an element of
this that is not rocket science. Anyone who knows dogs knows the difference
between a dog who is loved and one who is taught fear.
But we are not dogs…are we? We are a
bit more complicated…we have other dimensions to us…other elements…because we
are created in the image of God…and that means that self-esteem has its
limitations – because unless my self-awareness is rooted in my Creator – God,
it has no foundation in reality – it is transient – it is dependent upon what I
think and feel and usually also on what others think and feel. And in this
respect, high self-esteem is every bit as dangerous as low self-esteem – for
both rest on a faulty premise, the premise that my own thinking and my own
feeling defines who I am.
If that is the identity card that I
am carrying in my purse or wallet, it is a card which can change with the
seasons and moods of life – it is the chameleon of all ID cards.
Why do people use terms such as
“stupid” and “you’ll never amount to anything”? While there are probably more
than a couple of reasons I want to suggest two: control and manipulation is the
first; their own lack of identity is the second.
People use the leverage of fear and
insecurity to control others. They also attempt to manipulate others and put
them down because their own sense of who they are is built on sand – so they
can ill afford to see others succeed and enjoy fulfillment in life.
Have you witnessed this in families?
How about in school? I’m sure you’ve never seen this on the job, have you?
Here we are in the holiday season,
from Thanksgiving through New Year’s, and we all know that for many people this
is not a time of rest, relaxation and enjoyment, to the contrary, it is a time
of high stress – high stress because folks have to be around other folks who
have messed with them all their lives – so they will go to this dinner or that
gathering out of a sense of obligation, and suffer through it and cause their
immediate family members to also suffer through it – and while movies are made
about this for us to laugh it, many of us laugh at the movies because the
reality is too painful to bear.
Let’s look at our text. Who is Paul
writing to? Ah, he’s writing to saints. Now who are these saints? Yes, people
just like us.
Now then…where are these saints?
Well yes, they are in Ephesus…but more importantly where are they? Ah…they are
“in Christ.”
So then, if we were to ask an
Ephesian Christian who she is…what would she produce in terms of
identification? She would produce Ephesians 1:1-14, where, as our handout of
the text shows in red letters…12 times we are told that we are in Christ.
Let’s scan those statements
together…let me read them…..
EPH 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will
of God,
To the saints in Ephesus,
the faithful in Christ Jesus:
EPH 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ.
EPH 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual
blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him
before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure
and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he
has freely given us in the
One he loves. 7 In
him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in
accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and
understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his
will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in
Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times will have
reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
EPH 1:11 In him we were
also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out
everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in
him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his
glory.
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