God Reminds Us Who We Are
L-ER Ministerium Evening Prayer – March 18, 2010
When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do with my brother & sisters was to watch movies together on the VCR. And you know how kids are – they have movies that they just love to watch over and over again. And one of those movies for us was The Muppets Take Manhattan. Now in this movie, the Muppets have just graduated from college (yes, for some reason they went to college), but before they graduated, they put on this big show, a big theatrical, musical production, and it went so well, that they decide that they're all gonna move to the big city, to New York, and see if they can't get it on Broadway. Well, of course, that turns out to be not as easy as they hoped. But eventually, Kermit the frog goes off to meet with a producer who wants to produce the show, and Kermit races off from the meeting, so overjoyed in his excitement that he can't wait to tell the whole gang! And what happens? He's so excited that he's not paying any attention to the world around him, and Kermit gets hit by a car. Now, never fear, he's not serious hurt, not physically, but when he wakes up in the hospital, he has no idea who he is. He's got amnesia – no memories of his life before or what he was doing. So Kermit ends up falling into a job at an ad agency, making up a name, and taking on a life and personality and identity that aren't him, trying to build a new life, even though it doesn't quite fit. It's a case of forgotten identity.
Well, that's kind of the situation the people of Israel were in when tonight's passage from the book of Isaiah was written. Because this part of Isaiah was written after the Israelites were taken off into captivity, lead off into exile from their homeland. The Babylonians had come in and taken over their land, and part of their strategy was to move the people they conquered. So there they are, far from home, living in Babylon, a foreign land, among strange people with strange customs. And no, they don't technically have amnesia like Kermit, but they are in danger of forgetting who they are. They are at risk of forgetting who God had created them to be, at risk of trying to be something they were not as they tried to build a new life after the old one was lost to them.
It resonates with us too, this possibility of forgotten identity, of losing sight of who we are and who we were created to be. It's not because of amnesia or because we've been hauled off into exile. I know many folks who have lived here in Lynbrook & East Rockaway and our surrounding communities for years. Some were born & raised here, many moved here and raised their families here. I'm sure that's the story for a lot of you. And yet even if you haven't moved, sometimes it feels like the world has. Sometimes it feels like we are living in a foreign land, because the world around us has changed so much, is changing so much everyday. Change comes faster and faster, and what we thought we knew for sure doesn't always seem so certain any more. And this changing world tells us everyday who we are, who we ought to be – and usually the message is that we're too fat or lazy or dumb, that we're not pretty enough or cool enough or rich enough. And as we look at the world around us and listen to its ad campaigns, we can start to wonder, who am I? Is this really my life? Is this really me? We are in danger of forgetting our identity.
That's where we left Kermit, back in that ad office, trying to come up with a slogan to sell Ocean Breeze Soap. But in the meantime, his friends, Miss Piggy & Fozzie and Scooter and Gonzo and the whole crew are out searching the city, looking high & low, calling his name, “Kermit! Kermit!” Even though he has forgotten who he is, they haven't, and they won't stop until they find him. And when they finally do, in a crowded restaurant, the only reason they see him is because he is using the water glasses to tap out the melody of one of their show's songs. Deep down, Kermit hasn't forgotten who he is – he just needs someone to remind him.
So did the people of Israel, and so do we. And so into this 4th week in Lent comes this poem, this song of God, to remind us of who we are. And it's sung by none other than God - “now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel... Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;... do not fear, for I am with you.” When the world around you is changing, when you aren't sure who you are any more, do not fear, for your life is rooted and grounded in the God who creates us and forms us. God says to us through the words of Isaiah, “you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.” And because of this, God says, “I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.” Like the Muppets hunting everywhere for Kermit, this poem reminds us that there is nothing God won't give or do to find us, to win us back, to remind us of who we are, even to giving peoples and nations, even to giving God's own Son, who takes on our human identity so that we might take on his! No matter what else we may be, from the beginning of our lives to the end, we are God's – precious, honored, beloved, redeemed – created and formed and made to live as God's children. Lent is about returning to that identity, about diving into that relationship, about embracing life in the One who loves us that much. As we continue through these next few weeks of Lent, as we follow Jesus to the foot of the cross and beyond, may we hear God calling each of us by name, and may we truly remember who we are.
Amen.
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