Our God, questions of identity confront us daily in our lives – daily we are confronted with the question of who we are and of who we are becoming. In some ways we may not even have the answer to these questions – we don’t fully know ourselves – we are shaped by emotions and motivations and desires that we can’t fully explain. In some ways our own identity is a mystery to us.

Very often our God, when we do think about ourselves, or try to intentionally define ourselves, we find it easy to do so without reference to you or our life with Christ. We may define ourselves as a mother, or as a professional of some stripe, or as a retired person, or as an individual with some disability or sickness, or as a student, or as someone with certain plans for our life. Of course these may all be genuine aspects of our identity – they are part of who we are.

Our gracious God, as we remain at the outset of this New Year, we have come to worship this morning – we have gathered as this community of your people – because we would be and become your beloved children. We would find our fullness of identity as those who share in the resurrection life of Jesus. We would define ourselves decisively as those who live in his way of compassion and justice and truth. Our God, as we worship, and as we share together in prayer and friendship, remind us who we are as your children, and lead us more fully into our identity and life in Christ. We pray in His name. Amen.