Sermon Tone Analysis

Title

Identity

Outline

We hear and speak of personal identity, of identity politics, and of national identity today

Much of the time in the West is boils down to individual identity and often that identity is an identity created by the individual - you can be what you choose to be.

How different in the Scripture, where identity is collective without being uniformity and identity is found in Jesus and the Spirit

In our first reading we find that the identity of the people comes from the Torah

The Torah, the story + the laws, formed them as a people like walls and a history mark out the nature of a city

As the people listen for hours to the Torah - and notice that their wives and children are included, not just family heads - they realize how they had deviated and lost their identity in exile.

Yet they are not to live in the past, but to rejoice in the Lord’s restoring them to their identity, to their peoplehood - their strength is found in recognizing this action of God, not in their own recreation of their Jewish identity

Jesus takes identity further, to his embodying the people in the Spirit

Jesus returns in the power of the Spirit and reads the Prophets in the Synagogue

He identifies as fulfilled in his person the words of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

Here, in his person, in the Spirit’s anointing, is the restoration of Israel, is a new vision, of peoplehood, is good news to the oppressed poor.

Here is the proper continuation of the story and here is the right interpretation of the Torah with divine authority.

And in him rather than in their genealogies the people of God would find their identity.

Of course, he goes on to say that foreigners, hated foreigners at that, could and would find their identity in the people of God, which would happen in the gathering of the nations, and for that they try to kill him, for their identity has become ethnic.

Yet all this finding of identity in the one story and the one Torah with its authoritative interpretation in the one Messiah does not lead to uniformity

That is the opposite error to the idea that I can create my own identity

There is one Spirit who baptizes us into one body, but that body has many parts

A major problem of the Reformation and the Protestant spirit is that it says, “Because I am different, I am not of the body,” often with the follow-up, “And therefore I am the true body and you are not.”

But in the Catholic world there tends to be the feeling, sometimes blatantly stated, “If you do not say the mass like us” or “If you do not have this or that devotion” “you are not really Catholic.”

That is, not of the body.

The creeds and the liturgy and the hierarchy, as well as a shared story, tie us together, it is true, but only to the extent that we find our fullest identity in Christ and his interpretation of the story and his teaching of the will of God.

Furthermore, the liturgy is not an ethnic identity marker, but at heart a general structure that is shared East and West and up and down the ages.

So, Sisters, we have our blessing and our warning

The blessing is that you have been called to a particular type of Dominican spirituality and apostolic ministry that fits you within the the overall identity of the Church that it finds in Jesus as Lord.

The danger is that you might try to impose some aspect of your charism on others or demand that others follow a particular devotion that you find meaningful and thus force them into a type of Procrustean bed.

I might do that with my Ordinariate spirituality.

Rather, as we find our joy in the Lord - that is our common identity - we can invite others to try our shape of spirituality etc. to see if it fits and if not assist them in their search for what part of the body of the one holy Catholic Church they actually are.

I doubt I will ever think that an Igbo mass is “my type of spirituality” or that the Byzantine liturgy is the be all and end all of liturgy, given my British heritage, but I can rejoice as each group finds its place in the City of God and my joy and theirs can form a harmony in praise of the our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the wisdom of God that formed in body in whom we live and move and have our being.

Readings

FIRST READING

Nehemiah 8:2–4a, 5–6, 8–10

2 On the first day of the seventh month, therefore, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, which consisted of men, women, and those children old enough to understand. 3 In the square in front of the Water Gate, Ezra read out of the book from daybreak till midday, in the presence of the men, the women, and those children old enough to understand; and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law. 4 Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the occasion; at his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and on his left Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, Meshullam.

5 Ezra opened the scroll so that all the people might see it, for he was standing higher than any of the people.

When he opened it, all the people stood.

6 Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people, their hands raised high, answered, “Amen, amen!” Then they knelt down and bowed before the LORD, their faces to the ground.

8 Ezra read clearly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.

9 Then Nehemiah, that is, the governor, and Ezra the priest-scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people: “Today is holy to the LORD your God.

Do not lament, do not weep!”—for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.

10 He continued: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD.

Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!”

RESPONSE

John 6:63c

63 It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.

The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

PSALM

Psalm 19:8–10, 15

8 The law of the LORD is perfect,

refreshing the soul.

The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,

giving wisdom to the simple.

9 The precepts of the LORD are right,

rejoicing the heart.

The command of the LORD is clear,

enlightening the eye.

10 The fear of the LORD is pure,

enduring forever.

The statutes of the LORD are true,

all of them just;

15 Let the words of my mouth be acceptable,

the thoughts of my heart before you,

LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

SECOND READING

Option A

1 Corinthians 12:12–30

12 As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.

13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

14 Now the body is not a single part, but many.

15 If a foot should say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.

16 Or if an ear should say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body,” it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.

17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended.

19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.”

22 Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, 23 and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, 24 whereas our more presentable parts do not need this.

But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, 25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.

26 If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.

27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.

28 Some people God has designated in the church to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then, mighty deeds; then, gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues.

29 Are all apostles?

Are all prophets?

Are all teachers?

Do all work mighty deeds?

30 Do all have gifts of healing?

Do all speak in tongues?

Do all interpret?

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Luke 4:18

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

GOSPEL

Luke 1:1–4, 4:14–21

CHAPTER 1