I was able to celebrate one year of being in Seeley Lake the first of January. I’m not sure where the year has flown to, but despite my best efforts it has come and gone and though in many ways I am still a stranger here, I am feeling right at home. Scotland is still a beloved part of my life, and still, I have many connections each week back to Brechin. It is a challenge at times to be American, then Scottish and now trying to become American again. Then try to add the twist of becoming a Montanan. So, who am I really?
I have been preaching through the epistle of 1 Peter and finally arrived at the ninth verse of chapter 2. It got me thinking about the world we live in and a realization that so much of our problem is that we don’t know who we are. We have a million identities that divide and split us apart more than unite us. The text in my message gives Christians an identity that should unite not separate. After talking about Jesus being a rock, both of great value, but also of judgment and offense, the declaration of Peter is: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His (Jesus’) chosen people.”
Does that sound like a description of people living day by day in our increasingly secular society? I don’t think so. From the time of creation to today, our world has had fighting mixed with murder and mayhem. Cain and Abel as the first brothers couldn’t even get it right. And sadly, our world is no different today. It all adds up to chaos and confusion.
Sadly too often people tend to cling to a wrong identity. If I am chosen, royal, holy and special and know it, it should change my behavior towards others. What would that identity change about your life? How might it reshape our community? My evangelical side cries out that Jesus is the changer of identity.
I can identify many ways because of my background, but my identity is not in what I do, what church I am part of, what social clubs, what high school I cheer for, what car I drive or even who my friends are. Rather, my identity has to be founded in a relationship with the God of scripture, with the savior Jesus Christ.
We need to know who we are before we can become who we should be. Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners. But Christ can give us hope in Him. He can remake us into being a chosen people, into royalty in a holy nation, a people that have moved from darkness to light as God’s gift of mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)
What do you want your identity to be? It won’t be a church or organization that changes you, but rather a relationship with a person called Jesus.
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