1. Series Introduction This morning we are beginning a new series on Identity: My Story in God’s Story. In this series we will reminded that each Christian needs the Bible, because the Bible tells us the story of God, who shows his love to his people from the beginning. Each sermon will include some verses from the first chapters of Genesis, where God’s people first understand their identity, then also include verses from the New Testament, where we begin to see more fully. Scripture is the story written by humans and inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, the only thing that we can fully depend on as we seek to understand God’s truth about us and his good purposes for us! 2. Identity in Community with God (Genesis) We are made for community, made for relationship, and made for communication. This is why I told Barbara and Marvelous this week, as they prepared their testimony, that the purpose of a testimony is not to list all the facts about your life. It’s to tell the story and connect the dots about God’s work in your life—in order to bless you and encourage the congregation. All scripture is communication. It’s not a fact book or a literal history, making down every event one after another. It’s a literary history. The Bible tells the story about God’s work in the lives of his people. And the authors of the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tell that story to God’s people at a particular time and place. I say this because our western culture these days is particularly preoccupied with sexuality. In the church, you can add marriage to that. So we read these verses in Genesis 2 (or even Ephesians 5) and we might quickly jump to our modern ideas about sexuality and marriage. But Genesis is written to an Israelite people who were not at all wondering about these things. They were wondering about identity. Biblical scholars think that Moses wrote most of the book of Genesis, but that it was read widely by the Israelites after they settled in the promised land. When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, they were wondering, “Who are we?” “Are we really special? Are we really loved by God?” “What is God’s plan for us?” While they were asking those questions, they would have read again and again, the story of creation. God building the world and making everything good! Again and again they would have read about the sun and moon, the earth and water, the plants and animals; even about humanity! And again and again they would have read, “it was good!” But then in Genesis 2 they would come across these words, 18 The Lord God said, “It is NOT GOOD for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” And so the Lord God did that! He made a woman from Adam’s rib. Jewish Rabbis taught that God did not make Eve from man’s head, lest she be over him. And God did not make Eve from man’s foot, lest she be below him. Instead, God made Eve from man’s side, so that she might be a partner alongside him. Genesis summarizes God’s work here to people who were very clearly already very familiar with marriage! The text explains, 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. The union of marriage in the Old Testament was a picture of a new identity: two people becoming one as they pursue God. But marriage was never God’s ultimate plan for a person. Again, it is western culture which imagines that either sexual expression or marriage is God’s best for a person. God’s picture is Adam and Eve together in community, in God’s presence, and experiencing no shame. It is a simple picture, and it is a small community. But it is a rich reality! 3. Identity in Community with Christ (Ephesians) The New Testament adds a great depth of meaning and greater understanding about God’s purposes from the beginning for community without shame. Paul starts one part of his letter to the church in Ephesus by saying, Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. He continues, again writing to people who are well acquainted with marriage and sexuality: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Paul’s point here is very clear, but we miss it if we only stick to our assumptions. Marriage is common and familiar to Paul’s audience, so he uses something they know well to explain to them something they don’t know. This is how analogy works! You know how marriage goes—a husband loves his wife as himself, he cares for her, he puts food on the table, he sees her as beautiful, even when she doesn’t see it herself! You know how marriage works, Paul says, but I am talking about a profound mystery—I am talking about Christ and the church. Christian, do you know how much God cares for you—Christ loves you as he loves himself! Christ feeds you with his own body and blood through the Lord’s Supper. This is not physical food, but something far greater! Christian, do you know that God sees you as beautiful and that he makes you holy and pure—even when you cannot see it yourself! Christian do you know that you stand, every day, naked before God. I do not mean God sees through your clothes like some cartoon x-ray vision. I mean that nothing you do, nothing you think, and nothing you are is hidden from him—and yet you do not need to be ashamed! Paul says, as a part of this analogy “after all, no one every hated their body!” Sadly many of us know people who hate their own bodies. Some of us are people who for many reasons, even reasons related to sexuality or marriage, hate our own bodies. We are ashamed. But Paul’s point is that someone who hates their body does not care well for it. Someone who hates their own body may have surgeries or self harm to change how they feel about their body. Such people deserve compassion, respect, and Christian love from others. 4. Identity as a Church Today Paul’s point is not about individuals, however, nor about marriage. It is about Christ and the church! Christ loves the church and gave himself up for us! When you look around in our church or any church, there are many people who will do harm to others in the church, even in the name of Christ, and blame others. Using Paul’s analogy, we know that we will not respect a husband who always cutting down his wife or mistreating women. Likewise, we cannot be a part of actions in the church by some who would push others out or force others down in order for some few to save themselves. The sin of Adam and Eve was to do what they thought in their limited view was best only for themselves. Christ shows us a profound mystery of how to walk in the way of love in community: “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Eph 5:2). When you are wondering about your identity. When you are struggling in your relationships, even if and when you hate your own body—look for one person, look for one thing: who is giving himself up for you? Which leader in our church is giving himself or herself up for you? Listen to that person, follow them. Which family member is sacrificing themselves in love for you? They are showing you the way, even as they provide for some need. Even if you can find no imperfect person near you or around you, look to Christ and his perfect example—call out to him, “Jesus, save me!” When we call out to Jesus to save us or bless us, we acknowledge our poverty, our need, and our utter dependence on him. When we give up ourselves, our time, our energy, our money, and our skills to serve God and serve others—then we can stand in awe of God’s many blessings to us—giving us so much that we are strong enough also to serve and love others, in some small shadow of how he does. Brothers and sisters, this is the church! This is us. Let's Pray.