One mid-winter morning during the sabbatical I channel surfed during a coffee break and heard the familiar voice of the evangelist Billy Graham reciting John 3:16, as he often does, "For God so loved the world…." I remember feeling saturated and toxic that morning with the escalating tally of car bombs and corporate criminals, suspected terrorists and deadly cross-border incursions, murders on the streets of San Francisco and revelations of corruption in the United Nations "Food for Oil Program."

Graham’s recitation of that enduring biblical truth was a luminous affirmation in the midst of gloomy news on a rainy, overcast morning. Against every darkness radiates the central Christian message, "God is love!" Into every open heart, no matter how tiny the opening, comes the reminder that regardless of what is happening in our lives or in the world the central truth of all life is God’s love.

The first of two fundamental questions frame the morning lesson in which Jesus fed the five thousand. Just prior to the feeding, Herod, the Roman ruler of Galilee who beheaded John the Baptist, was agitated and confused upon learning of Jesus’ work. He demanded, "Who is this man I keep hearing about?" Days later, in a quiet moment after the feeding of five thousand, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do the people say I am" and "Who do you say I am?" While Jesus looked beyond himself to learn who others thought he was, he clearly knew the answer for himself: he was the messenger of God, the embodiment of Divine love and compassion.

There are two basic questions that we must answer for ourselves: first, "who am I," and, second, "what am I here to do?" In our tradition there are five truths that form the foundation for our answer to the first question, "Who am I?"

1. We are created by God,

2. In our youth we are children of God,

3. In adulthood we are adults of God,

4. God loves us unconditionally, and

5. God accepts us as we are.

First, many theologies teach that we are fundamentally and continuously flawed and sinful. Such teachings create what psychologist Tara Brach cogently identifies as "the trance of unworthiness." Those who take these theologies to heart live with a gnawing sense of deficiency, feel inadequate, are routinely self-critical, and believe that something is wrong with them. They are shut down by such theologies and prevented from finding the truth of who they are.

Second, teachings that portray God as a scorekeeper who bestows rewards and punishment for conformity to laws and rules, negate the core identity of God as love and compassion. Scripture and experience, however, teach that God wants us to liberate ourselves from the "trance of unworthiness" so that we can claim our identity and know what we are here to do. A scorekeeper god is a god of co-dependence in an endless cycle of failure and achievement, punishment and reward. The God of love and compassion is the God of our ultimate freedom and wholeness.

As we squarely face our personal "trance of unworthiness," jettison a god of flaws and failures, and experience the God of love and compassion, in the words of Tara Brach, "We free ourselves from the prison of trance as we stop the war on ourselves and, instead, learn to relate to our lives with a wise and compassionate heart." Thus liberated, a wounded, small, false, and externally, culturally forged identity is replaced and shaped within the identity of God: love and compassion. In Divine freedom we storm the barricades and become who we are and know what we are here to do.

MEDITATION
It helps me stay on track if I check-in with myself periodically – sort of like Dr. Phil’s drawling perfect question, "So how’s that working for you?"

• In a moment of quiet try to sense how you felt when you let go of a particular "trance of unworthiness."

With the unfolding of who we are and what we are here to do, love adds to its expansive repertoire the quality of a verb. As we are transformed by and internalize love, we are able to reflect outwardly the love and compassion that have come into us from Christ.

This congregation is strong on the verb side of love. Most people have found at Westminster a place to act on their answer to "what am I here to do?" You roll up the sleeves to be compassion and to do justice: feeding the hungry and filling food barrels, building houses with Habitat or with the youth in Mexico, healing the sick who are ignored and without care in Ecuador, Haiti, and Guatemala, working on an orphanage with the Sisters of Charity, creating shelters for the homeless, serving on non-profit boards and in their activities, and asking out loud the hard questions that the God of love and compassion places on your hearts and minds.

There are not, I repeat, there are not uniform, formulaic answers and activities for the question of what we are here to do. What we are here to do depends on our temperament, background, interests, gifts, talents, and sense of calling. Let us roundly and gratefully applaud the multitude of ways you live your answers to the question of what you are here to do: many do love and compassion raising children, and others do so through the ethical and moral practice of their vocations and careers. Some pray and others sing. Some teach and others go on mission trips. Some heal and others feed. Some visit the sick and imprisoned. Some study and write, others offer wise counsel and discernment. The lists go on and on in a wild celebration of the embodiment of love and compassion.

Intentional mindfulness of who we are and what we are here to do is central to keeping the "trance of unworthiness" at bay and to daily living in Christ consciousness. It is very helpful to regularly check-in with ourselves:

• is what I am doing coming from love,

• is who I am and what I am doing coming from my heart,

• is my plan or my action consistent with what I know I am here to do?

If not, why not?

MEDITATION

Let’s quiet ourselves for a sensing meditation:

• With graciousness, tell yourself who you are.

• Where you experience yourself as Love! the verb?

• Sense how do you feel about yourself when you know who you are and what you

are here to do.