Who are you? To whom do you belong? Ruth 3:1-12, Mark 1:9-11 Jan 26 2025 Meetinghouse Churc

Who are you? To whom do you belong? Ruth 3:1-12, Mark 1:9-11 Jan 26 2025 Meetinghouse Church

Rev. Dr. Kathy Monson Lutes

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

    be acceptable to you,

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

From the time I was about 15 until about 10 years ago, as the elders of my family grew old, I attended and actually really enjoyed our Monson family reunion. We would gather at Monson Lake State Park near Sunburg Minnesota, the City Park in Glenwood Minnesota, and eventually on the farm in Murdock Minnesota. These places are all close together with the cemetery in Sunburg being the pilgrimage point. I listened to my aunties and uncles tell the story of my dad’s paternal Norwegian ancestors who came to this country after their home was destroyed in an avalanche, and my dad’s maternal Norwegian ancestors who left because the farming was so awful. I grew to know and love my identity as a descendant of Norwegian immigrants, and I’ve made the trip to both parts of Norway to see the land and the people that make up my DNA. It was an amazing experience to walk on that land and know that that was part of my identity, and I have chosen to let this family story be a part of who I am. 

In those same years, I was raised up in the church, listening to the stories of the beloved people of God, also my people. People who were created in God’s image and called very good. People who turned their backs on God, people who decided to worship the idol of power rather than the God who created them. People who were blessed by God. People who God forgives over and over again. People to whom God came in the flesh and blood of Jesus, to show the way of love, forgiveness, compassion, and mercy.  This is also my identity, one of those whom God loves, in all my messiness, brokenness, in all my belief and unbelief. 

I was baptized as a baby, my parents took seriously their promises to raise me, and my 7 siblings, as a follower of Jesus. They didn’t always know what that meant, and the path wasn’t always clear, they, and I, fell down a lot, and yet, on some level, I always have known that Jesus has claimed my life and that my identity rests in that reality. I am God’s beloved, marked and claimed as God’s own forever. God’s faithfulness engenders my following Jesus, even when I find that hard.

We listened to Jesus’ baptismal story today so that we could again hear the words, “You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  Jesus hears those words as he is baptised, as he is enveloped in the water and raised out of the water to hear the voice of the spirit. We need to hear those words also, all the time, we need to know that you and I are beloved by God, that is our identity. We are beloved in all our brokenness, in all our messiness, with all of our bad decisions. We are beloved even when we want to be in control, and pretend that we are God. We are beloved even when we are addicted, vulnerable, grieving, as well as joyful. Because, we are not perfect, but God loves us perfectly. 

Ruth knows who she is, Ruth is comfortable in her own skin, comfortable in her identity.  In Ruth’s story that we read today, Boaz asks her, “who are you?” This question presents Ruth with the opportunity to name herself. And it is Ruth’s faithfulness, not her ancestry, that becomes a determining factor in the shaping of her identity. Ruth continues to be fierce and faithful, and as we will see, Ruth, who was a stranger in a strange land, becomes the great-grandmother of David. 

Who are you? Where is your identity? What are your family stories around your identity? What part of that story do you choose, what part of that do you discard? 

And what does your life say about who Jesus is? What does the life of this church say about who Jesus is? 

People who follow Jesus are people who belong to God and who belong to one another. Our identity is a beloved child of God, we are marked as Christ's own forever, we are in relationship with our creator and the rest of creation. If you find your identity as God’s beloved, what does a life as a follower of Jesus look like? Jesus answers that question with love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. What does this love look like? 

Today I want to remind you of your baptism, many of you were baptised as an infant or child, some of you were baptised as an adult, and I would guess, some of you have never been baptised. Our identity, as followers of Jesus, is wrapped in baptism. I am not suggesting that being baptised is the only way you can follow Jesus; I am saying that in baptism God’s grace is conferred as a lifegiving, holy spirit. And by remembering our baptism, we come close to remembering who God has created us to be, we remember our identity as God’s beloved.

One of the things we do at baptism is to name the child, or to name yourself. Just like Ruth who has the opportunity to name herself. Names are important, and are to be honored. What name were you given at baptism? My baptismal name is Kathleen. As you have grown into yourself, grown into the person God has loved into being, have you thought about changing your name, have you changed your name?

The other really important thing that we do in baptism is to get wet. Water, oil, and fire are the three holy symbols of baptism. Using theological language, we die with Christ in the waters of baptism, so that we may rise to the new life that is made real in Christ. I’ve been rereading Traveling Mercies, by Annie Lamott. Using a bit less theological language, Annie writes, “Christianity is about water: “Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” It’s about baptism, for God’s sake. It’s about full immersion, about falling into something elemental and wet. Most of what we do in worldly life is geared toward our staying dry, looking good, not going under. But in baptism, in lakes and rain and tanks and fonts, you agree to do something that’s a little sloppy because at the same time it’s also holy, and absurd. It’s about surrender, giving in to all those things we can’t control; it's a willingness to let go of balance and decorum and get drenched.” p. 231

And isn’t that what a life in Christ is like. Isn’t that what love looks like? It’s very messy, and it looks like getting drenched. It looks like diving in, not having all the answers, just a lot of good questions. It looks like loving your neighbor, even when you’re not quite sure what their politics are, or maybe even disagreeing with their politics. It looks like loving the whiners, the bullies, and the people who think they’re better than you. It looks like sticking up for the innocent. It looks like feeding hungry people. It looks like forgiveness, even when you don’t think you should have to forgive. It looks like making room for the stranger, because we are all strangers in a strange land. Love looks like a community of faith that takes care of one another, even when that is hard. It looks like a community of faith that reaches out into the places and spaces beyond the walls to be the light that shines in the darkness. 

This is who we are, and whose we are. This is what love looks like. This is our identity, our name, God’s beloved. And from this identity, from these waters that drench us, waters that ruin our makeup and hair, waters that remind us who we are, we enter the world. We enter the world imbued with mercy, and compassion, and love. 

And remember, in the rain, turn your head to the sky and say, I am your beloved.

God,

Lover of all your creation,  

Sometimes being your beloved feels very hard. Loving ourselves and loving others feels very hard. Compassion and mercy seem elusive and remote. 

Help us to remember who we are, we are yours, and we are beloved.

Amen.