By Greg Jones
My family goes to Maine in the summer for vacation, and we love it. I’ve been going to Maine for nearly forty years, and I would tend to say that it is an important part of who I am. But, while all that’s true, time in Maine for us is not our primary life or identity.
Like so many things in our lives that matter, that shape us that we invest with thought and emotion – they are not all primary to our life, identity or calling. Those years we spent in college, or school, or summer camp. Even our present time spent in jobs, activities or (since it’s an election year) politics: these things matter, but are they primary to our life, identity and calling?
For most people, I suppose, family comes first, then friends, then hobbies and/or work, then all our other interests and communities where we invest ourselves and spend our years. Yet, as the tears have shown us as we get older, even family, even friends, even all that is not forever.
Scripture reminds us that for disciples of Jesus Christ, what needs to be primary to our life, identity and calling is our place as baptized members of His Body, where we have entered into the divine life.
In Exodus, we encounter the rather strange story of the preparation of the first Passover, when God would by blood liberate his captive people. This has been the primary story of Jewish identity from some three millennia now. In Romans, Paul reminds us of the primary calling of the Christian community, to love with the power of God for the good of the world. In Matthew, Jesus teaches that the primary identity, life and vocation of his followers is done in the context of the Eucharistic community. This is where the presence of God is guaranteed to be amongst us. This is where we can achieve God’s will. This is how we are to do it – in gathered prayerful discernment of God’s word.
For Christians, I believe, by belonging to the Body of Christ, we find our primary significance. By belonging to a gathering of persons who call Jesus Lord, we find our primary identity. By doing the mission of God together – we find that we can make a difference to the world and in our own private lives as well.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, fellow Episcopalians, let us never forget who we really are, and what we are really called to be, and why.
The Rev. Samuel Gregory Jones (“Greg”) became a member of Christ’s Body at St. Columba’s in Washington, D.C., and he was educated at the University of North Carolina and the General Theological Seminary, where he is on the Board. He blogs at fatherjones.com.