October 15, 2022
The week of October 9-16, 2022 is the Feast of Tabernacles in the Jewish tradition. For this celebration the people take brush and branches to create a temporary shelter. That’s right, an excuse for adults to make a fort! These temporary shelters remind the Jews of wandering in the wilderness following their release from slavery in Egypt. While wandering, the spirit of God would rest on a ‘tabernacle’ (or temporary shelter) in the middle of their camp. Those who celebrate the feast spend daily time in the shelters expecting God will meet with them. This joyful celebration follows the day of Atonement. First, they assess the sin of their own hearts and lives and seek God’s reckoning through Atonement. Once trusting God to make things right, they are free to meet with Him in celebration for His grace and provision. Physically engaging this story through the tradition of the feast reminds them who God is and who they are.
This depth of story displayed about God and people is a distinctive feature of most cultural traditions. Even if your traditions revolve around the flying spaghetti monster, they remind you about who your people are and what they believe about God. But somewhere along the way we confused these traditions with individual identity or personhood. Tribalism, as reflected in art and traditions, became our way of individually defining ourselves and others. This unfortunate misunderstanding has created division between cultures and obscured God’s more personal and motivational expression of identity.
Culture and art serve a great purpose. They provide the platform for sharing our varied stories. Every culture’s traditions provide a framework for understanding how God has hidden or revealed himself in the experienced history of a people group. Meanwhile, art and artistic expression provide a universal emotional link to experiences we all can share or learn to understand. But traditional art does not define personal identity. Each individual brings a great depth of motivation and giftedness (or talent) to our community. Identity transcends how we look, the tribe to which we belong, what we eat, or the celebrations we practice.
God’s word touches on a number of identity definitions for those who are born into the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ. Those who choose this way understand their failures and shortcomings are only reconciled at the cross of Jesus Christ and through reconciliation brought about by the blood he shed. After this reconciliation they are sons and daughters of God, citizens of a heavenly kingdom.
But God also outlines a very personal identity with varied layers that account for the seed of who we are as we engage life experiences. In Romans 12:6-8 we are introduced to seven motivational gifts given by Father God to every human. Everyone could identify one or two of these gifts as the fundamental motivation from which they engage the world around them. Whether or not a person engages with God or His Kingdom, embedded in their person is a motivational gift that defines how they approach life and others.
For those who follow Christ, there are two more layers of gifts providing depth and complexity to our personalities. Ephesians 4:11-13, lists positional gifts that, when operating in a community of believers, result in maturity or growth. Supernatural gifts, accessible to Sons and Daughters of God, are listed in First Corinthians 12:7-11. These gifts display the manifest presence of God.
Can you see the complexity of identity and personhood that emerges when these three layers of gifts are woven together? An individual can engage culture and tribes with a deeply individual expression of God’s grace. We connect with others, share art and stories with emotional resonance, and express our individuality through the motivations driving how we engage our experiences. The tapestry of life becomes even more beautiful and intricate when we add our cultural practices with stories displaying who God is and how he reveals himself to other people groups.
My assignment was to write about following Christ in Human culture; but I want to challenge you to reflect Christ, as individually gifted, to those you encounter everyday. Each individual and culture reveals aspects of the relational God. Imagine the power of engaging the shared stories of who He is with the redemptive purpose of who he created you to be.