I am going to be working mostly with the Corinthians text this morning.  Follow along while I read the translation called The Message.  Last week I talked about the importance of an identity, and most specifically the identity that we have as the beloved children of God.  Paul is talking about the same thing in his letter to the people of Corinth.  You could read this salutation and thanksgiving and think WOW, this is some congregation, and pastors would be lining up to have this call.  The people sound amazing, they sound like they are completely in tune with God, enriched in every way, in speech and knowledge.  They lack no spiritual gift, sanctified saints every one.

          But, there is, as they say, trouble in River City, trouble in Corinth, big trouble.  The people were arguing about who was just a little more spectacular in their abilities than the other, they were fighting about who had been baptized by the most credible leader --- "I belong to Paul, I belong to Peter, I follow Apollos", they were being sexually promiscuous, and ignoring the poor and disenfranchised in their community.  They were busy not being the people that God had already called them to be.  Their lives showed anything but unity.

          If we read no further than our text today, it sounds down right spectacular!  Paul, like many effective leaders, starts by reminding people who they are.

          Have you ever been sat down by a parent and heard the words, "Listen, you are a Nelson, and Nelsons don't act that way."  "You are a McCreery, and that is not the way we behave."  What does that really mean? It means there is some expectation because of who we already are, there is some identifying mark that defines us, and it is an identity that steers us toward a different way of acting in the world.  When people have no sense of who they are or who has claimed them, it is much more difficult to move into the future.  I cannot tell you how many grown men and women I have talked with who are still devastated by the fact that they never heard their mother or father say the words, "I love you."  There is POWER in that naming and in that identity.  And Paul is busy in this portion of his letter reminding the people of Corinth that they are deeply loved and joined to Christ.  He is reminding them that they have everything they need, and that there is absolutely no excuse for them to be anything else than united in their faith and service of God.

          Let me read for you what comes right after Paul reminding them who they are:  "Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose." ---1Corinthians 1:10  And the rest of Corinthians addresses every one of the areas in which they are falling short of their God-given identity.  Now, we know all about that, we fall short every day. We know who we are and what God has called us to do, we just heard the words again when Dakota was baptized --- we prayed that the Holy Spirit would sustain her with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and a spirit of joy in God's presence.  God promises that she is marked by the Holy Spirit, that just like the mark of kings made by a signet ring which sealed the covenant, the Holy Spirit has put a mark on her, on each one of the baptized, sealing the deal, affirming what God has already done.  God promises that she is marked by the cross of Christ, forever.  There is no getting rid of that sign, no matter what else happens in her life, that mark is there, and that means that she is joined to the work of Christ, the suffering of Christ, as well as the death and resurrection of Christ.  That is her identity for all time, an identity that cannot be removed, washed off, not even lasered away should the day come when she no longer wants an invisible cross on her forehead.  The deal is sealed.  And then we all said, as we do to each person baptized, welcome into this body of Christ, and into the mission we share --- be part of giving thanks and praise to God, and be part of carrying God's creative and redeeming word to all the world.  That my friends will be her job as it is ours for a lifetime.  It means that no matter what career path we choose, no matter what other accomplishments we undertake in life, no matter what other activities are part of our daily ministries, we have one common vocation, the call to make God known in all the world, by being a living sign of God's creative and redeeming work.  That means that when we, who carry this invisible cross on our foreheads go out into the world, we are like a billboard, or a living message, for what God is up to.  Your life is the place where God is creating and redeeming, and your life, joined to the body of Christ, the whole community we call the church is also the sign that God is at work, continuing to create and redeem.  These are not "One time a long time ago" activities of God; this is what God is presently doing.  Creation and redemption, breathing life into something or someone, and bringing something or someone back from the dead, bringing about a NEW THING, that is the work of God that we are asked to be part of.  

This week the nation remembers one who had a great dream for what God's creative and redeeming work could do.  In his famous "I have a dream" speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "I have a dream (and quoting the prophet Isaiah) that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.  This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.  With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.  With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.  With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."  Are we going to fall short?  Every day.  Which is why we talk about a daily dying to self, a daily reminder of who we are as the baptized children of God --- we don't always live up to our identity, and so God's work of creation and redemption is ongoing, making us new, and remaking us, every day.

          Martin Luther King was reminding this nation, Paul was reminding the people of Corinth, and as we ourselves are reminded today by this living sign of God's word and water creating and redeeming, we are a NEW creation, and as such, we will live and move and act differently in the world.  And when we look at ourselves as a congregation, the church at Lake of the Isles, or the church in Corinth, or the church in Mississippi, or North Minneapolis, the word of God is for us.

          If we are all part of this one body, does that mean we all look and think and act the same?  Not at all, Paul is famous for another section of his letter to the church at Corinth for reminding them that each different and unique part of the body is needed in order for the body to work well.  Unity does not mean uniformity.  It means that in spite of differences, there is something held in common, and for us as for the people Paul was first addressing in his letter, that commonality is that because of God's work in us, we have been set apart to carry that same work into the world.  Because we have received grace, we live that with each other and with the world.  Being set apart does not mean we are just a little bit better than anyone else, set apart is about function.  It means that we have even more responsibility for serving the broken world; it means that to whom much is given, much is expected.  Martin Luther King, Jr. began his speech by reminding the people of this country who they are, what they had already said YES to in the Emancipation Proclamation 100 years earlier.  Many good dreams for the future begin by remembering our identity here and now.

          If you are a member of this congregation, you know that we are headed into our annual meeting next week, and one of the things we will vote on is our budget for the coming year.  Our budget can be seen as so many facts and figures, or it we can see it as a dream, a vision, a commitment for how we will do ministry and be in mission as God's people who are part of God's creative and redeeming work.  We are going to be voting on the property next door to the church.  Do we sell it?  Do we keep it? We don't all share the same opinion as to how best carry out the mission of this congregation, but we all belong to Christ, and because of that, we are called to discern what God can do through us in this world, and how what we have can best be used as a sign of God's creative and redeeming work.  There are good strong caring people on each side of this issue, and all of those people are the baptized children of God, called for a holy purpose, called to bear the mark of the cross and bear the word of God into the world.  It is a huge calling, but thanks be to God, it is one that we do not undertake alone.  We are in this together, and all of us are claimed, identified, and forever marked as God's own.  Our job is to step out in faith and be part of what God is dreaming for God's church and God's world.

AMEN