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What defines you?

11th Sunday after Pentecost Aug 24th

Jer 1:4-10; Ps 71:1-6; Heb 12:18-29; Lk 13:10-17

As I was born in 70’s, I spent my youth and young adulthood going through lots of changes. The dominant trend of the culture that I went through was referred to as Generation X. Generation X is defined as the demographic group following baby boomers and preceding Millennials. It is often characterized by its independence, adaptability, authenticity, and a desire for work-life balance. In my memory, one slogan stands out above all, a refrain often heard in commercials. “Nothing can define me” And often it was expressed with a clingy pose your arms crossed making an X.

Certainly, my parents held a very different set of values. For them, social, cultural norms, as well as their status within relationships mattered greatly. Especially, growing up in Korea, there was a strong sense of communal, and relational identity, which was reinforced by countless “should” messages.

Messages about how to be as a member of our country, as a man or a woman, as a husband or a wife, as a child or a student, as a senior or a junior, there were already preexisting norms that approves everyone and set the expectations. Of course, it provided clarity and stability at an individual level, at a communal level. But There was little space to ask why.

Compared to my parents’ generation, I grew up on a bit different soil. First, I grew up with more resources and attention. Thanks to the economic progress that my parents’ generation worked on,

I received enough care and nourishment to consider myself valued as an individual.

Second, I witnessed groundbreaking technological changes. The development of digital world served as a platform for my generation to forge new culture and values.

Altogether, my generation freely raised questions against all confining messages. And as I was able to step away from old values, a strong sense of self began to emerge. I refuse to be defined by anyone or anything else but me. I am my own. I strive for self-reliance and authenticity.

In a way, it is still a huge part of our modern culture. Particularly, as all these rebellious attempts with other factors led the world toward individualism, nowadays, becoming our own self is considered essential and desirable.

Yet, every coin has two sides. While I grew up with a growing sense of individual achievement, and the thrill of breaking free from the societal boxes, there were also moments of loneliness, uncertainty, and exhaustion from the endless search for identity and meaning. Leaving the comfort of our hometowns to find our own path, we inevitably stumble upon many obstacles alone. As we look into the growing number of psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and various forms of addiction, it makes sense in this context.

One day, still in my twenties, while attending church service, I heard the same passage from today’s reading, from the book of Jeremiah. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” As I heard this passage, it shook me to the core, as if I found what I have lost for a long time.

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you

What a profound, existential statement! We are not accidents. We do not exist alone in a vacuum,  the path of our lives is not just randomly flowing.

The passage assures that we are what God intended us to be, our lives carry a purpose that far exceeds our own plans. God knows us intimately, - who we are, what we are going to be. For me, this message answered the restless questions that I had wrestled with.

Why do I exist? What is my purpose?

As I was reflecting on this passage, I realized that I am what God desired from the beginning till the end. And there I find my joy and my purpose.

In today’s Gospel, we hear a story of a woman who was had many burdens and was an outcast. Unlike some people who were born with privilege, privilege as a man, a healthy person, a person from a wealthy or respected family, a person who had all opportunities for education and for social status, she had nothing. Actually, it was worse than nothing.

As a woman, as someone with disability, I wonder what suffering she endured. She must have felt the crushing weight of society’s restrictions.

No, you can’t do this, because you’re a girl. 
How dare you try to join this table looking the way you do.
You are not welcome here.

 Or perhaps even crueler words: Your existence is a result of sin.

 And I wonder how many times she tried to fight against these messages. How often she tried to be seen, heard, acknowledged, and appreciated against the negative look, judgmental comment, and closed arms. The passage says a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.

I wonder if that spirit is no other than people’s prejudice, cruelty, unkindness, heartlessness toward her.

But she did not give up. She appeared.  She did not hide or run away, but she persisted. When she heard of Jesus, she sought him out despite people’s expected response to her presence.

Then Jesus, the bearer of God’s good news, recognized her and called her forward. Then He laid his hands on her, while he was assuring her that she was free.

In him, through him, she was seen, she was heard, she was embraced, and she was freed. Not just liberated from all burdens she carried but liberated into all the blessings she had been deprived and denied. Jesus did not heal her so that she would be able to fit into the box, but Jesus gave her new identity, new purpose, all that had been long forgotten.

Before God formed you in the womb God knew you, and before you were born God consecrated you. You are from God, and you are blessed for God’s glory.

 Then she stood up straight and began praising God. I am sure, it was not just with her body, but with her whole self, she was straightening up while grounding herself deep into God’s love and raising her eyes with hope and anticipation. 

In a way, we are all spiritually crippled more or less. Some grew up with affirming, encouraging love but it often remains in distant memories not fully alive in us. Some are still haunted by the spirit that once crushed us, and it often lingers in the present making us feel unworthy.

Then today’s message from Jesus is given for you.

You are set free. You are from God, God has a purpose in you.

If the Sabbath is a day dedicated to rest in God and worship God, every day is Sabbath for us. as we always find rest in God, as our being fully human glorifies God’s love for us.

May the Spirit of God always remind us who we are to God, and who God is for us. Amen.