A Change of Identity

When people ask me where I’m from I always say “Northern California,” even though I haven’t lived there since 1977.  It’s where I grew up, where much of my personality was formed, and I still think of myself as a Northern Californian.  Identity is important.  We want to know who we are and where we belong.  

I think this explains the appeal of identity politics: I believe their approach is seriously wrongheaded and leads, among other things, to increased tribalization and division between competing groups.  But the appeal is a sense of connection and belonging; in our fragmented culture, people long for this, having an identity in relation to others.

I had a startling realization of this when I arrived for boot camp in San Diego in 1974.   We were lined up in front of a sign that stated: “You are now men of the United States Navy” and went on to say that we would be expected to act accordingly.  They wanted us to know, right at the beginning, that our identity as members of the Navy was to impact our actions.  It was jarring at the moment, but I also remember that it was very inspiring, providing both a sense of identity and purpose, of belonging to something larger than myself.

In Joshua 5:9, the people of Israel are receiving a change of identity.  They are to begin looking at themselves differently than they have done up to now.  They are no longer slaves, as they had been in Egypt, but are now free people.  “Today I have rolled away the reproach (or “disgrace,” NRSV) of Egypt from you.”

But the thing I find interesting about this is that they had been delivered from slavery at the Exodus, more than 40 years before this.  None of the people hearing these words had actually experienced life in slavery.  Their parents had, but they had left that behind 40 years earlier.  So why did it take so long for their disgrace to be “rolled away?”  And why now, at this moment? 

This isn’t the first time they’ve been on the verge of entering the land.  Their parents had arrived at the entrance to Canaan before this but had rebelled against God and refused to enter.  The 40-year gap was a judgement.  And despite the leadership of Moses throughout this time, it appears not to have been a good time spiritually for the nation, and they had, in fact, not practiced circumcision on those who were born in the wilderness. They had seen God’s judgement on the gods of Egypt and His miraculous deliverance from a life of slavery, and they had seen God revealed in many ways in the wilderness, but for the most part they were not responding in obedience and faith.

After crossing the Jordan, but before conquering Jericho, the first thing they do upon entering the land is to circumcise the whole nation.  This seems unnecessarily risky to me.  Why not do this before crossing over, since while they’re healing they are vulnerable to attack?  But God calls them to do it this way and provides for their safety during the recovery.  And it is after they have successfully crossed the Jordan and have been circumcised that God says He has “rolled away the reproach of Egypt.”

This is when they have truly formed a new identity, no longer as slaves but as free people who belong to God.  They are no longer in Egypt, the place of slavery, nor are they on a journey in the wilderness; they are now in their own land, which God had promised, and are set apart as people who belong to God.  The rolling away of the disgrace of Egypt is not only being freed from slavery — as in the Exodus — but forming a new identity as the people of God, set apart for Him in the place He has provided.  Their identity is not just a negative one — “not slaves” — but a positive one — “the people of God.”

So what does this story from ancient Israel have for us as Christians today?  At least two things come to mind.

1) Our identity is not a negative one.  I remember, as a young Christian, hearing lists of behaviors to be avoided.  But Christians are not primarily people who refrain from certain activities.  The whole thing begins with a negative step, that we have died to sin with Christ, but this is followed by the positive step of living a resurrection life with Him.

2) Living into this identity is a process for us, even as it was for Israel.  Eugene Peterson said in a sermon, speaking about the words we’re considering: “When this wide range of God-experience, this temptation-testing, had been assimilated, they left the wilderness and began a new life in Canaan, a life of salvation freedom.  There was no way, it seems, for them to go directly from the Red Sea baptism to Canaan freedom” (“With the Wild Beasts” in As Kingfishers Catch Fire.  Learning to live in the light of our new identity will be a process, just as it was for Israel.

The details of this will be different for each of us.  We start out in different places, and so my learning process will not be identical to anyone else’s.  One of the dangers of judging the actions of others by saying “I don’t think he is a true Christian; how could a Christian act like that?,” is that we don’t know the full story.  We don’t know where this person started out on the journey and what difficulties and setbacks he’s experienced along the way. I enjoy the novels of Evelyn Waugh, but he was reportedly a very difficult person.  According to one story, he was rude to a hostess, and when she confronted him ‘“How can you behave so badly – and you a Catholic!” Waugh replied: “You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being.” (Quoted in “Seduced by the ‘Devil’ Hitler” by Francis Phillips in “The Catholic Herald).

Paul says that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free,” but living a free life in Christ does not happen instantly.  We need to be patient with others and with ourselves, knowing that learning to live a free life in Christ is a process that will occupy the rest of our lives.