“For the only prayer of mine that rises above the roof is the prayer of what I am.” – J. Edgar Park
When I was in seminary, one of my fellow students led a class on dramatizing the book of Acts. It was not a seminal work, but it was a whole lot of fun. As we are going through our Easter lectionary in the book of Acts, I am continually reminded of the ways in which we re-invented this book for the stage. Some stories we kept pretty straight forward, such as Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch. And some we took a lot of liberties with, like turning Saul/Paul into a blind blues vocalist, with sexy back up singers, or turning Paul and Barnabas’ missionary travels into a Hope and Crosby “On the Road” movie.
One of the stories in Acts that I was charged with writing and performing is the lectionary text this week, or a portion of it: Acts 16:16-34. I was intrigued with the story of the slave girl with the spirit of divination. And while I know it is psychologizing what is not in our text, I can’t help but wonder what happened to her. Most interpretations say she was freed from demonic power. But I’d say that they were psychologizing what is not in our text as well. It never says she is loosed from something she wishes to be freed. Paul just takes it away from her. He never asks her, he never helps her afterward. He just takes away her gift or whatever you want to call it, and leave her as a slave to men who no longer find her useful. She remains a slave without a purpose.
I always seem to find the down side of things, right? But still, the fact remains that she is no longer what she was. Her purpose in life is radically changed and therefore her identity within her community shifts and not for the better. She had status, she had a gift, she had a place and she new it. Her identity is no longer the same.
I think back to all the identities I’ve had in my life and how tumultuous it was when the sand shifted beneath my feet. To shift from child to adult took years of testing, trying, mistakes, denial, anger, and finally release. And that was just the teen years. Shifting again from college student to young working woman is another sometimes overwhelming transition. To grasp the freedom along with the responsibility takes a deft hand, as you discover how to weave your way into a career and at the same time pay bills and maintain an abode. Moving from a single person to sharing your life with a significant other takes even more work as you learn that communication is more than just talking and intimacy is more than sex. Belatedly, I found that out when I entered the identity of being divorced. And becoming a parent is more than just an identity, it is calling that you’ll never fully realize because you never feel worthy to do the job but you stay with it because it is the deepest love you’ve ever known.
With all of these identities come the blessings and baggage of those who’ve modeled it before us. There are those of us who look forward to the identity of minister because of how we were nurtured by ministers in our lives, and there are those of us who are scared witless because of how our ministers have abused their power. Some of us find ourselves repeating our last relationships over and over again, never to break the pattern because that would mean a new identity for us when the old one is comfortable even if it hurts sometimes. We become our parents when we have children, there’s no getting around it. And for many of us that isn’t such a bad thing, but for some of us it is dangerous for our children and ourselves.
What does the slave girl become besides a slave girl? Who do we become when we find ourselves bereft of who we thought we were? What grounding do we have to shake away the baggage and embrace the blessings of our mentors? Who are we at the core?
You are a child of God. A child of God. A CHILD OF GOD! At the core of who you are is the blessed and beautiful and talented creation of the Divine, in God’s own image, no matter what. When all is awry and we don’t know who we are, that is our starting point and we can always go back there to start anew. “Child of God” is who we are. The rest is just set dressing. Jesus was a son, a carpenter, a rabbi, a political leader, a fugitive, a executed criminal. But Jesus never swayed from his real identity as Messiah of God. That is the difference. He started as Son of God and the other bits were just part of being human.
We are human and we are children of God. We are doctors, ministers, sales clerks, students, electricians, maids, teachers, social workers. We are wives, husbands, mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers, sons. We are straight, gay, transgendered, bisexual, lesbian. We are enslaved, addicted, tortured, terrorized, abused, misunderstood, victims. We are enslavers, pushers, enablers, torturers, terrorists, abusers, pundits, thieves. We are free, blessed, healers, comforters, saviors, friends, supporters. We are the image of God, however distorted by The Fall, we are still the image of God. Know it. Now and forever, amen.
