2nd Sunday before Lent, 7 February 2021
A couple of weeks ago, I reflected in my sermon on questions of identity. And I’d like to continue with the same theme this morning. Who am I? What is my purpose in life? They are questions felt acutely during teenage years. But also at other times in life: when facing change, during mid-life, when our children leave home, when we retire, when facing illness. Or when experiencing, as we are now, a global crisis caused by this pandemic.
And in a world where social media is powerfully prevalent and increasingly significant, if you attempt to construct your identity, based on fleeting ‘likes’, you’re going to run into difficulty. It’s one of the reasons there is a such anxiety and mental health challenges today.
So, who am I. Who are we? This leads us into the terrain of theological anthropology. What is it to be human?
We have heard some extraordinary words from Colossians: ‘He [that is Jesus] is the image [the Greek word is eikon] of the invisible God…’ There’s a well-known icon on your service sheets today. If you cast your mind back to the Hebrew scriptures and to Genesis, you will remember the creation story. It culminates in God making women and men in the image [the icon] and likeness of God (Genesis 1.27).
We are created in the image and likeness of God. What might this mean? God’s icon or image doesn’t just refer to the soul or spirit or the rationality of humanity. It means to the whole person – the totality of who we are, including our bodies. This is so important because the body features so prominently in forming modern identity – from those who experience self-loathing of their nose or bottom or breasts, to magazines that manipulate images of models to create some person’s idea of an impossible perfection.
The Judaeo-Christian faith affirms that each person should be afforded a non-negotiable dignity. This is the Christian answer to who we are – every human person is an icon and epiphany of God. And we all have the vocation to discover and become all that we were created to be – and for every person this is entirely unique.
The Genesis story also includes an account of disruption, often referred to as the Fall. It describes humankind taking a wrong turn; of relationship with the divine being broken; of the icon, the image of God, being marred. In attempting to become free we became enslaved. And with this comes a loss of freedom since we become entangled in various compulsions or addictions.
In searching for our identity, we look elsewhere, anywhere but to the source of life and love. And if we become who we worship, our gods, our idols are things such as food, power, prestige, pleasure, possessions. And with it, a fragmented and fragile sense of self.
What is the way back to a loving relationship with God? The early church fathers saw baptism as being the key. Gregory of Nazianzus depicts baptism as the occasion during which the eikon is transformed, washed clean, and restored to her former potential. Baptism is the beginning of a process that describes a cosmological change, alongside a lifelong process of growing more and more into the likeness of Christ. Baptism is a one of event, yes, but it instigates a lifelong process journeying to union with God.
One other thing I’d like to highlight from the early church fathers: they saw the human person as being vulnerable or porous to God. This challenges the body mind dualism of modern thought. The Incarnation affirms, as we’ve heard from John’s Gospel today, that the Word became flesh. The Word didn’t become an algorithm or even a book, but flesh. In addition, it includes the idea we are, the whole of us, not just our thinking minds but our bodies too, porous to God.
Returning to baptism, it affects a profoundly real change. It’s a profoundly physical sacrament. One of the real challenges of lockdown has been a lack of human physical touch. I long to hug my parents rather than sticking out my elbow in greetings. I’m sure you long to do so with your loved ones. We can’t at present physically meet, we can’t physically receive the sacrament at the eucharist.
Because the eucharist nourishes us in a way is more than a piece of bread and sip of wine. In a way that we’ll never really understand, the eucharist nourishes our souls and our bodies. And it draws us ever closer into the very heart, the very being of God. This is the journey of faith.
We dear friends are an icon, and epiphany of God, including our bodies, in all of their glorious idiosyncrasies.
I’d like to finish with a quote from St Gregory of Nyssa, a father of the fourth century who wrote:
“You alone are an icon of Eternal Beauty, and if you look at him, you will become what he is, imitating him who shines within you, whose glory is reflected in your purity. Nothing in all creation can equal your grandeur. All the heavens can fit in the palm of God’s hand… and though he is so great… you can wholly embrace him. He dwells within you… he pervades your entire being.”
Embrace your baptism, say ‘yes’ to living out the virtues, grow day by day into the likeness of Christ, and know that your deepest self is known and embraced by the one who loves and cherishes you. It is here that you will discover your truest self.
Reference:
Dr Philip Kariatlis
Academic Director and Senior Lecturer in Theology,
St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College