Lent 1 - God Knows Who You Are

Gen 9:8-17; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15

Here we are once again in Lent, the liturgical season when we spend a lot of time thinking about what we have done, or have not done, that has grieved God and brought about destruction of life in one way or another. Those of you who were able to be here for Ash Wednesday participated in a longer version of our Confession and Forgiveness, in which we acknowledged that we have not loved God with our whole heart, mind, and strength, nor our neighbours as ourselves. We confessed to over-consumerism, and to exploiting both people and resources. We confessed to neglecting those in need, to acting indifferent in the face of injustice, and to ignoring the needs of future generations in order to secure our own present. In short, we confessed that we have sinned by “what we have done and by what we have left undone.”

And so, many Christians, in response to these confessions, take up a Lenten practice. Most take up some kind of Lenten fast, and refrain from some particular thing or another, putting their energy into addressing “what we have done.” Giving up chocolate is pretty common. Or fast food. Some of my friends give up social media for the forty days. For several years in a row, I gave up complaining for Lent. Some congregations give up meetings, or any kind of party-type thing. And, of course, we all give up saying that liturgical word that starts with A that means praise of God, that I can’t say now because it’s Lent.

Other Christians, instead of giving up something for Lent, take on something. They look at “what we have left undone,” and focus their energy there. Their Lenten discipline might include more prayer-time, or giving the money they would have spent on Tim Horton’s coffee to a charity, or doing extra volunteering. Most congregations take on more worship services, with a mid-week evening service, or an extra weekly Bible study.

And these Lenten disciplines can be wonderful. There are lots of Scripture passages that recommend self-discipline as a path for discipleship and becoming closer to God. I have benefitted greatly from my own Lenten fasts from complaining. 

But I don’t think I need to convince you of the importance of a Lenten practice. Instead, this morning, I want to offer a caution about the way in which our emphasis on what “we have done and left undone,” and our subsequent Lenten practices, can run counter to what God has already accomplished in us in baptism. It can be the case that our Lenten practices become a pathway to self-justification through our doing, rather than leading us to a deeper trust in God’s actions on our behalf.

Essentially, when we focus on Lenten disciplines, we focus on what we do (or don’t do), to the detriment of who we are. It’s an important distinction. What we do is not the same as who we are. We often confuse this in our culture of doing––one of the first things we ask someone we’ve met is “what do you do for a living?” or “what do you do for fun?” We define ourselves by our jobs, or our hobbies, or our interests, all things that we do.

And the trouble with that is that what we start thinking that what we do is who we are. We start saying things like, I am a pastor. Or I am an electrician. Or I am an engineer. Rather than, I am someone who pastors, or I am someone who works as an electrician. This is a real problem for people who don’t work––who are retired, or unemployed. If you define yourself by what you do, and you don’t do anything, you have no identity anymore.

When it comes to sin, the result of mixing up what we do with who we are is that we begin to confuse our sinful deeds with ourselves. We begin to believe that the terrible things we do are who we are; we begin to believe that we are terrible people. After we confess the things we have done, we begin to believe that we need to confess who we are––that deep inside, we are horrible, ungrateful, sinners who just suck. And this defining belief about ourselves then goes one of two ways. If we are convinced we are terrible people, we either sit in a total paralysis unable to do anything because we are convinced that whatever we do will turn to dust. We do nothing, because we know we’ll fail. Or, on the other hand, we continue doing all kinds of terrible things because there’s no point to stopping, since we’re rotten through and through. Kids do this, especially if they’ve been told they’re liars: they’ll just keep lying because that’s who everyone thinks they are. Elementary-school teachers will tell you that they can pick out those children who aren’t supported at home by their behaviour in the classroom. They behave like “bad children” because they’ve been told they are bad children. And I know this is a simplistic portrayal, but I think it’s true. You act according to who people say you are. You act according to who you believe you are.

But what we do is not who we are. It does not define us. Rather, who we are shapes what we do. And who we are as Christians is profound, because we are baptized children of God. I think this is why we start Lent with a Gospel reading talking about Jesus being baptized. It’s not like we haven’t heard this story already this year. We celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord only six weeks ago. Most preachers treat Jesus’ baptism as an intro to his forty days in the wilderness, and use it to talk about what we should do during Lent, but it’s important not to rush past the baptism. Jesus’ baptism is the beginning of his ministry, not his time in the desert. Jesus is God’s Beloved, and so Jesus does great deeds. God calling Jesus God’s own Beloved Son fundamentally shapes everything that Jesus does after, including resisting the temptation in the wilderness. Jesus’ baptism is not a prologue to the temptation. The temptation is an epilogue to the Baptism. 

And so this baptism, and God’s deliverance of Noah and the Ark through the waters, and 1 Peter’s reminder that Baptism is what saves us, are told us at the beginning of Lent because it is who we are as baptized children of God that defines our Lent, not what we do or don’t do in these next forty days. Because we are baptized children of God, which is why we’re called saints. Now, Luther called us both saints and sinners, and I want to argue with him a bit about that. I don’t think we are both saints and sinners. I think that we are saints who sin. We are saints, baptized and redeemed children of God, who do sinful things, yes, but those sinful things were taken by Jesus and put to death on the cross. For that reason, what we do can never have more power over us than who we are. To believe otherwise would deny the power of God in the event of the cross and resurrection.

This is our Gospel, our Good News, and this is the focus of Lent: because of Christ, in the eyes of God, who we are is far more important than what we do. Above and beyond all of things you do or don’t do during Lent, or any other time, you are baptized children of God. And notice that I don’t say you have been baptized. I say that you are baptized. That is who you are. In baptism, God fundamentally changed who you are, and made you new in your very essence from that day forward.

There’s a movie that my kids love, and I confess I love it too: Moana. TIt’s about a girl, Moana, who has to save her people from an evil volcano-demon called Te Ka. Te Ka appeared after the goddess of life, Te Fiti, had her heart stolen, and Te Ka kills all life by burning it into ash. Moana’s job is to defeat Te Ka by restoring Te Fiti’s heart to her. And there’s all kinds of adventures, and things happen, and a weird side-kick chicken, and at the climax of the movie, Moana finally comes face-to-face with Te Ka, all volcanic fire and destruction, who stands between Moana and the spot where she needs to restore Te Fiti’s heart, in a scene that embodies what I have been trying to say this morning. And I really tried to find a way to describe the scene to you, but I can’t do it justice, and so we’re going to watch it on the screen.

In Lent, we focus on what we have done and left undone. But these things do not define us. They are not who we are. Our baptism is who we are, and through it, God sees you the way Moana saw Te Ka. Not as what you do, but as who you are. God knows who you are. Thanks be to God. Amen.