Sacred Belonging: Re-visiting Our Identity in Christ!
Our sacred identity is rooted in the biblical declaration that we are the “image of God,” not because we have won auditions, beauty contests, or out-performed anyone. The cues and clarifying clues of our identity begin with the testimony of the patriarchs, prophets, the apostles, and our Lord. Sacred identity, that is, identity that is holy and not deluged and tainted by the culture’s system of hierarchical placement, is about belonging. It is not about an ability to out-achieve or ascend up a hierarchy of significance or superior performance. It is simply about belonging.
Sacred identity as belonging is the foundational hub of our sense of self-hood. Again, it is not about achievement and the mixed motivations that are involved in securing our place in a social (I’m more popular), intellectual (I’m smarter), or spiritual (I’m closer to God) hierarchy. That is why it can be called the “sacred hub” of our identity: it is about holy belonging, not striving to secure or improve ranking, not “climbing” any ladder of social significance.
In contrast to our culture’s emphasis on identity being dominated by various hierarchical orders of prominence—be they family hierarchy, social and work hierarchies, or the cult of celebrity’s hierarchy—the Bible does not associate our identity with our place in any corporate “ladder.” In Scripture. the emphasis of belonging dominates issues concerning identity. It is, primarily, “I belong; therefore, I am.”
First, we belong to our Creator. Our value is not tied to our placement along a hierarchical ladder of spiritual prestige. Our value as humans is tied to our belonging to the human family, as belonging to God and the unique task for which He has placed us on earth—to cultivate and take care of the garden. This belonging to God, as is all biblically-informed belonging, is gloriously waist-deep in the graces of the past. This includes identification with the wisdom and folly of our earliest spiritual forebears and their journey in discovering the necessity of faithful belonging. Our identity is deeply tied to belonging to the work of God amidst and through people since our first parents.
Second, the Bible describes believers as, most importantly, belonging to Christ. Practicing the necessary art of thinking wisely about our identity requires regular pondering on our belonging to Christ. This will mean even thinking about our shared history, the clarifying impact on identity of being “crucified with Christ,” baptized into his death, and risen with him. This is an identity detached from hierarchical ladders of significance and acclaim. Our identity emphasis is not dominated by aspirations of rising up charts of ministerial renown. As the Apostle Paul notes, our belonging to Jesus Christ has the believer “seated with Christ in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 2: 6). In other words, we are invited to the ultimate wedding reception because we belong to Christ—and there is no seating chart!
The predominance of identity being chained to hierarchical placement seems implicit in various portions of the first century church, not just amongst the Pharisees Jesus chided. The Apostle tells the Galatian church “if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” It appears that the apostle is warning against self-inflated assessments of identity and hierarchical status. Being “something” and expending energy to confirm that “something” status is not only a waste of time, but demonstrates a lack of self-awareness. It is an admonition contextualized by Jesus’ parable of the seating charts of significance at the wedding banquet (see Luke 14: 1-11). Such presumption, putting it mildly, is not humanity at its best.
Paul goes on: “Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load” (Galatians 6: 4,5). Hierarchical status—whether a circle of friends, a community of artists, or leadership teams on a church staff—is confirmed by an emphasis on comparisons. Among other things, this could mean comparing wit, philosophic insight, performance in conversation, in the field, or on stage. Of course, this is a human habit and, at times, a necessity. However, it was problematic enough in the Galatian church two thousand years ago for Paul to address it as a concern. The Apostle Paul provides both a diagnosis (too much competitive comparisons of talents, gifts, and contributions) and a prescription (cultivate the mental habit of self-examination, not confirmation by comparison).
The habit of comparison as a primary instrument of identity should be moderated and minimized. If not, the habit can plunge us into one of two danger zones. First, if the mental habit of comparison causes us to feel superior and confident in our heightened status, we can find ourselves in the blinding spell of arrogance. On the other hand, if comparisons with others are regularly evoking a sense of inferiority, we can find ourselves with a dwarfed sense of who we are and our task in the world.
The core of our identity is tied to Christ Jesus and belonging to Him! We are called to practice the comfort and confidence of this sacred belonging!
Paul D. Patton, Ph.D., is a professor of communication and theater at Spring Arbor University in Michigan. He has graduate degrees in Guidance and Counseling, Religious Education, and Script and Screenwriting, and a doctorate in Communication with an emphasis in theater arts. He has been married to his wife Beth for over forty years and has three daughters (all actresses)—Jessica, Emily, and Grace, three sons-in-law, David, Joe, and Eric, and four grandsons, Caleb Rock, Logan Justice, Micah Blaze, and Miles Dean.