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Who Do You See in the Mirror?

The Rev. Thomas W. Simmons

The other morning I watched as my son George, who will turn three in a few weeks, gazed at himself in the full-length mirror in our bedroom. He was checking himself out, up and down, back and forth and whispering something to himself under his breath.

I just watched in silence, wondering what was going through his head, and delighted to be given this moment to behold my son’s identity and self-image taking shape right before my eyes. 

Self-image is such an important thing.  Who you see in the mirror is decisive in your potential for success and happiness in life and your ability to effectively care for others and serve God.

It’s good to understand this both personally and as a congregation, because our mission is Building Christians for Service. A huge part of being a Christian is a matter of building a Christ-centered self-image, seeing a new person in the mirror, seeing yourself as God sees you.  It is a life-long process.

That’s exactly what Paul is doing in our Epistle reading this morning. He is trying to shape what the Christians in Rome see when they look in the mirror.  The first thing he says is, “You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit.” “You are…!”  That’s what Paul says, and I guess identity doesn’t get much more basic than that.  You are not this …you are this. 

I think Paul in these verses is Building Christians for Service, by very forcefully trying to build the identity of the Christians he is writing to. He’s coaching them out of a set of misperceptions they have of themselves and into a new self-image.  He wants them to see themselves in a whole new light – well, two new lights, actually. 

First, he says, “you are in the Spirit.” Second, he says “we are children of God.”  Let’s talk about each. 

Paul says, “You are in the Spirit.” Well, what does that mean? Paul calls this Spirit “the Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ.” …He’s the Spirit of both?  Paul is describing what we call the Trinity.

You see, God is not a solitary Being inhabiting the void of eternity.  God is a community of Beings, Father Son and Holy Spirit, living and loving each other for all eternity. That’s what St John’s saying, “God is love” means.

Their love for each other is so perfect and complete that it unties them as one Being, one God. Marriage is that way, too. Two individuals come together in love to become “one flesh.”  The relationship between husband and wife, in fact, mirrors the love between Father Son and Spirit.  We are created in God’s image. 

In this Divine fellowship, the Spirit has a unique role. In Eastern Orthodox theology – which I hear Andrew Archie taught you all – the Holy Spirit is the Living and Eternal Love that binds Father and Son.  Think of the Spirit as the arms with which Father and Son embrace.

So here are the Father and the Son united in love in the Spirit. And Paul says, “You are in the Spirit.”   Can you see the wondrous significance of that?  We as Christians, through baptism and faith in Jesus, are in the Spirit. We are caught up and included in the Divine love affair of God.  We become participants in it, or as St Peter said, “partakers of the divine nature,” one with God.

Paul is telling us that this is who we are.  When you look in the mirror, do you see yourself this way? Just imagine if you did. How would it impact your life? Just think of the implications for every aspect of your life!  Paul names one.

He says “you are not in the flesh.”  By this he means that we are no longer inexorably bound by our lies, cravings, addictions, fears, compulsions and hatreds. “The flesh,” as Paul calls it, is the sin within us that makes us self-destructive, self-serving, violent, rude, arrogant, intolerant, envious, deceitful and stinky.  You know, it’s the stuff you hate to see in the mirror.

Being “in the Spirit” means that, though these things are still present in us, they don’t run the show like they used to.  One More Powerful has come into our lives and we can obey Jesus now rather than our lusts.  The Spirit brings us new life and freedom so we can now “put to death the deeds of the flesh.”  

The Spirit also brings adoption.  That’s the second new light Paul shines on our identity: “we are children of God.”  We are children by adoption.  Jesus is the Son of God, but in the Spirit we are adopted into the family.  With the Spirit dwelling in us, the love (and the inheritance!) of the Father for the Son is extended to all of us adopted sons and daughters.

The Beatles said, “All we need is love.” And though they didn’t live it out very well – they broke up a year later – John, Paul, George and Ringo were right. We need love. Whether we are a newborn infant or an ailing octogenarian, what we need most is to be loved and to love. 

This is what people spend their whole lives searching for, but they are often “looking for love in all the wrong places.” (Hold it, I used that one last week!). A lot of what we see in the mirror is the sad result of that unrequited quest.

But you know what? Through our adoption we are loved with the eternal love of the Father for the Son. It is inviolable, unstinting, eternal and all for us.  This is the love God created us to enjoy.  It is so sad to see people missing out on it.

When I look at George looking at himself in the mirror, I pray that he will experience God’s love like this and that it will become an inseparable part of his identity. I pray the same thing for me and Tait and for all of you.  If we are serious about Building Christians for Service, we need to pray that for each other.  Adopt someone in the congregation and pray for them. 

I began this sermon describing my son looking at himself in the mirror.  Let me close with another mirror-gazer: Stuart Smalley.  Anyone remember him from Saturday Night Live? He was one of those touchy-feely, “wounded healer” types, a self-help guru with a TV show.

To coach himself and his audience in healthy self-image Stuart would look in a mirror and repeats this mantra: “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough.  And doggone it, people like me!”

What do you tell yourself when you look in the mirror? What is the mantra of your self-image that you keep replaying in your head? Whether it is self-serving or self-loathing, let me tell you, it controls your life.  As you think, so shall you be. 

We as Christians have a mantra of our self-image.  We actually have many.  The Lord’s Prayer is one. The Creed is another.  Or perhaps you have a favorite prayer or Bible verse that is never far from your thoughts.  When I began courting Tait I was impressed that she had Scripture verses taped to her mirror to remind her who she is in Christ. She was taking this mirror thing literally!

Though Stuart Smalley is corny comedy, we can learn something from his coaching methodology. We need a good mantra. We need to coach ourselves with it.  We need to see ourselves as God sees us.  As Paul says, “you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit…And all who are being led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” 

Know it. Believe it.  Live it.  And pray that others might as well. Amen.