Fifteen years ago, I was in my senior year at a liberal arts college, headed to the physical education class I needed for a graduation requirement. I arrived at the gym ready for ballroom dancing.
But no one danced that day.
Everyone in the building was huddled around the small computer screen at the front desk, in awe at the events unfolding in New York City.
Do you remember where you were the morning of September 11th, 2001? Many of you do. Some of you don’t. You were in the wilderness or living abroad, you slept late or were sick that day, or perhaps you weren’t born yet. Maybe you have a hard time remembering anything these days, and where you happened to be on an early fall day 15 years ago just doesn’t make the cut for your precious memory bank.
An event like the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, can be an identity-forming moment. In fact, identity-forming moments don’t have to be public and dramatic – the same phenomenon can happen when we witness a car accident or a friend endures cancer or a relative passes away. Even if we don’t or can’t remember where we were that morning 15 years ago – there have been identity-shaping events in everyone’s life.
In times like those, people suddenly know or discover who they are – someone who dives into the fray to help, who sends money to support those diving in to the fray, who prays hard from where they are, who brings laughter or music or a comforting touch to those who can’t find those things on their own. While we don’t always know how to react to intense situations, our instincts kick in and we react anyway. And we discover who we are.
These identity-forming moments can be the times in which we see most clearly how to use our God-given gifts. We remember wherewe were and who we were when something important happened. In a sense, we were found, like that coin that was found by the woman sweeping her whole house until it was unearthed and rediscovered to be something precious.
Like the Israelites. The Israelites thought they had found themselves after they had escaped from slavery in Egypt, and they had discovered that they were important enough for God to protect them, and provide them with miraculous food on their journey. They had their identity – they knew who God wanted them to be.
But the Israelites took it too far. In Exodus 32, we hear about how a people’s sense of being found – of knowing who God wanted them to be – eventually became lost to the power of their own sin, which showed up in the form of a golden calf. Instead of continuing to listen to God’s guidance, and draw into closer relationship with God, the Israelites allowed the good of self-identity to deteriorate into the sin of idolatry. Instead of continuing to form themselves as a nation guided by the word of God, the Israelites started worshipping their own pride and self-sufficiency.
Having a national identity is good. Worshipping that identity in place of God is sin.
The Israelites are not the only people susceptible to such sin. Our own nation has been embroiled in this battle, particularly for the past 15 years. We might have a solid memory of being found, like the coin in the woman’s hand. But after a while, our identity is put to the test, and either we lose it or we start to worship it in place of God.
We are lost.
Milestones might give us a sense of self-identity. The challenge is to remember where and who we were when our identities were formed, and keep from losing ourselves to the sin of pride. The good news is that God will keep helping us to find ourselves again, until we finally know who we truly were created to be as children of God. God will seek us until we are as secure as that found coin in the woman’s hand and until our idolatry is destroyed. Thanks be to God.
Adapted from a sermon preached on September 11, 2016. See Lake Edge Lutheran Church for the full sermon text.