Reflections

By Rev. Rogers

Have you ever had an identity crisis? Wondered who you were and why you were here? I had such a situation over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

I have…er, had a 1979 black and red Chevrolet Malibu Classic car which belonged to my Dad and was made the same year as our son Andrew. But it was younger daughter Kathryn who fell in love with the Malibu, originally of Nashville, Tennessee.

Her Christmas list this year was simple: (1.) Time with my wonderful family (awwww), and (2.) The Chevy Malibu to drive back home to North Carolina (what?).

After the shock wore off, through much thought and prayer, I relented. Picked her up from the airport, stood in line at the BMV, and they would not notarize my signature. Why? Because my name on the auto title and my drivers license did not match. One said “J. Roger” and one said “John R.” They did not know me.

So we had to drive back to Huron, present myself to the local banker who does know me, to have the title transferred.

Our identity is all about relationship, isn’t it? And being known.

So if somebody would ask you, “Who are you and why are you here?” without using your name, how would you answer?

Mary and Joseph had to present the baby Jesus to the Temple priest 8 days after the infant’s birth, for Jewish ritual purification. They could only afford a pair of turtledoves as offering. But the Holy Family was assured of Jesus’ identity as a member of the faith community. Especially when the priest Simeon and prophet Anna testified that Jesus was the Messiah foretold.

Simeon was not the scheduled priest on duty that day, but the Holy Spirit beckoned him to come.

As we step out into a new year, how often still, as we listen to God’s inner voice, does the Holy Spirit guide us to a place that we had not intended to go. But where we intersect with a blessing unforseen that changes our future course.

Such was the case when I was a student at the American University in Washington, D.C. in the 1970’s. I was introduced to Andrew Young, who had been a top associate of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rev. Young was running for Congress in Atlanta, and invited me to join his campaign staff (since I could still speak Southern, y’all).

On the desk in his office was an identity name plaque which said simply, “Andrew Jackson Young – Just Another Child of God.”

How did this gentle soul walk into the office of a racist Alabama Sheriff Bull Conner and negotiate successful parade permits?

How did Andrew Young face down fire hoses knocking people down attempting to drown their dreams of freedom?

How did this non-violent minister look squarely into the snarling jaws of German Shepherd police dogs, straining at their leashes to tear him apart?

How did Andy kneel down in prayer and close his eyes amid the obscenities pelting him with taunts and threats?

And why would he reach out to take under his wing a young ministerial student named Roger – a white Southern boy whose great-grandparents had owned slaves?

Because over and above all else – accomplishments, jobs, family, friends and fame – he knew his true soul identity – who he was and why he was here – that he was “Andrew Young – Just Another Child of God.” He will celebrate his 90th birthday this spring.

We talk a lot in confirmation class about peer pressure, the struggle between doing the right thing and keeping your friends. But are they really your friends, if you risk losing them by doing the right thing even if it’s unpopular? And if you stand up for a principle, swim against the tide as a child of God…even if your peers feel obliged to ridicule you in public in order to placate the same, so-called “friends”…would not everybody really respect you more? Not to mention God and the one who looks back at you in the mirror?

The power to form our real, true soul identity as children of God lies with the Holy Spirit. If our New Year’s resolutions are only backed by human desire and will power, they quickly dissolve before our gym membership expires. We have to re-make the same resolutions every year, over and over again.

But when the Holy Spirit renews our relationship that began for us at creation, God appears with the real power to change. We’re drawn into circles of fellow believers from all places and times, that forge our true soul identity as “just another child of God.”

Henri Nouwen put it this way: “The one who created us is waiting for our responses to the love that gave us our being. God not only says, ‘You are my beloved’. God also asks, ‘Do you love me?’ and offers us countless chances to say, ‘Yes!’ ”

+ Rev. Roger Skelley-Watts, Pastor, Huron United Methodist Church.