A Question of Identity

One of the great questions for religious people concerns identity, which is really at least a two-fold question: how do I identify with my religious group? and how do I identify with those outside of my religious group? For a radical sect, the answer is "I identify exclusively with those in my religious group." But, for those religious groups that don't identify exclusively with the insiders of their religious group, how is the question of identity answered?

H. R. Niebuhr wrote a book called "Christ and Culture" that proposed five typical answers given within the Christian tradition: 1) Christ against culture (Tertullian); 2) Christ above culture (Aquinas); 3) Christ of culture (Schleiermacher); 4) Christ and culture in paradox (Luther); 5) Christ transforming culture (Calvin). In parentheses, I've put examples of leading theologians of these ways of understanding the relationship between Christ and culture in the Church.

I have always been actively involved in this question since my late teenage years in which I was drawn both to the religious and the secular parts of life, and since I have always felt very close to believers and non-believers, and have always found it natural to speak of faith to those who don't believe - but, I don't mean speaking to try and "change/convert" these people, who were usually good friends.

To make my position clear: I am first a human being, and second a Christian. I am first a member of my family, and second a member of my church. Now, that may sound strange to some, make a lot of sense to others. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Christoph Blumhardt said so well: God means for us to be true human beings, and being a Christian is only a means to that end. If there is another way to get there, then praise God for it. The only way I know is to follow Christ.

But, this identity thing. I remember my young adult days, especially in college. I always felt like I wanted to say "shit" or something worse or at least fart to lighten things up when I attended Young Life meetings or Intervarsity meetings when I was young. I was a lot more comfortable in my faith going out for a couple and talking honestly with a friend than going through all of that. And, I don't mean to disparage everybody in Young Life, because I have a couple of old friends who are absolutely wonderful people and great ministers of the Gospel who work for Young Life. Jim Branch and Brett Allen - they are as good as ministers get. But, back on track, what really bothered me in high school and college about these groups was that they conformed so well to the surrounding environment. And, neither group knew shit about the Bible. I could argue them into complete despair within a few minutes when I went to their Bible Studies. For them, life was all happy and wonderful and authorities were fine, and beer and sex were the great evils. Well, not to say that beer and sex can't be really bad, but, then again, they can also be really good - of course, sex would have to be rated a lot higher than beer when its good, and a lot worse than beer when its bad.

The issue that really set me off in college (that was almost 30 years ago) was fraternities and sororities. The fact that Christians participated in all that bullshit that was so anti-Gospel just cranked up my mind and heart. I kept raising this issue about excluding people and faith and several of my friends at Wake Forest quit their fraternities or sororities, and, for the ones who didn't, they stayed with a sense of Christian responsibility. I've got a sermon I preached once that sort of touches on that. I might even put it on this blog. I preached it when my daughter was a freshman in college.

I started out talking about identity, and this has been a determining thing in my life. My Mom and Dad who were Christians would never cut themselves off from non-Christians or from people who were just a little on the wild side of life. I may just blog about Christmas Eve parties at our house when I was growing up. Those parties shaped me as much as any sermon I've ever heard. My parents sheer graciousness and openness and love and deep sense of solidarity with people of all sorts, not just on Christmas eve, but throughout the year - that is the determining factor in my life. That is the faith God has blessed me with. That is how Mom and Dad understood the Gospel, and that's who I am.

And, that leaves me to say: God's grace in Jesus Christ unites me with every damn person on this earth, and more closely with those others would cast out, whether they are Christian or not. That is my faith. That is my identity in Christ. I am so grateful to my Mom and Dad for showing me this by the way they lived, because it is the truth - it is the way of Christ.