Person of the Year : comments

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Person of the Year

Isaiah 43:1-7

You might have wondered what I was doing during my time away. I was able to help Bette Lynn get the house ready for sale, run errands with my children, and, oh yes, become Time's Person of the Year! You are Time's Person of the Year as well, for the cover is a mirror that reflects the reader.

Previous Persons of the Year have included Presidents, including President Bush twice, occupations like the American soldier, the Apollo 8 astronauts, business leaders like Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, and even evildoers like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. All had a powerful effect on world events. Now Time turns from individual achievement to the hive mind of the internet. We've gone from public distinction to anonymous micro-contributions, that make everyone as great as any other. As a New Yorker cartoon by Peter Steiner says, “On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog” (The New Yorker, July 5, 1993 issue (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20) page 61). So on the internet, dogs are equal to world leaders.

Here is what Dr. Jean Twenge, author of “Generation Me” says in her blog:

So — the Time magazine person of the year is: You! The cover, apparently, comes complete with a Mylar mirror so you can see yourself on the cover … because we're all special! We are all famous, and we are *all* person of the year because we are all so great. Everyone wants to see our videos, and everyone wants to read our every thought on our blogs.

Remind you of anything? Yes, the self-esteem (actually narcissism) movement. I imagine, though, that the folks who conjured the self-esteem obsession would never have imagined how 21st century technology would accelerate, and be accelerated by, the focus on the self and narcissism.

The slogan of YouTube is “Broadcast yourself.” The most popular website on the Internet: MySpace (the name says it all). iPods let you listen to your own music, your own way. Cell phones mean you don't share a phone with pesky parents, roommates, or spouses. Blogs allow you to share, and overshare, everything that happens to you…

…Where does this leave us as a nation of 300 million people who are all masters of the universe?

This is Narcissism. According to the Greek legend, Narcissus was a youth that spurned a relationship with the wood nymph, Echo, who was cursed then to fall in love with himself. Narcissus pined away for a reflected image of himself in a lake forever out of his reach. Every time he reached to his beloved, the water was disturbed and the object of his affection vanished. Today Narcissus would be staring into his portrait on the cover of Time magazine, loving himself and forsaking relationship with all others. Yet it is not a Greek tragedy today, but the highest goal of the self-esteem people, to love yourself.

We have forgotten who we are and Whose we are. We do have some reminders, whispers in the gale of self-love. You heard one if you listened to the funeral of Gerald Ford in that great and ancient liturgy that witnesses to the resurrection: “In life and death, we belong to God” from Romans 14:8 “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's”

Isaiah tells us that we are special, because we are loved and claimed by God. You are mine! God paid for us with a price. In Isaiah, nations are given in ransom for God's beloved people. For Christians, the ransom is God's life itself, as God with Us in Jesus Christ, God lived, suffered and died for his love for us to redeem us, to claim us as his own. We do not belong to ourselves. We have been bought for a price, as have all of God's children. When we look into mirror for person of eternity, we see, not ourselves, but the one who loved us so much he died for us, the face of God in Jesus Christ.

Baptism tells us that we are loved and claimed by God. It also joins us with the great community of the baptized both here and now and throughout time, past and future. There is no such thing as a private baptism in the Presbyterian Church. The congregation must be present, for our specialness is not found in ourselves but in God who claims us and joins us together in a community of love called the church.

How does this work out? In his book The Good News from North Haven, author Michael L. Lindvall tells of a Christmas Baptism. I read excerpts from the book at this point; in which an unwed teen-aged single mother, Tina, with only her mother, Mildred, to “stand” for her presents her child, Jimmy, for baptism. Here is the ending:

I read the opening part of the [Baptism] service…Then I asked, “Who stands with this child?” I nodded at Mildred [the baby's grandmother] slightly to coax her to her feet. She rose slowly, looking to either side, and then returned my smile.

My eyes went back to my service book. I was just about to ask Tina the parents' questions of commitment when I became aware of movement in the pews. Angus MacDowell had stood up in his blue serge suit, Minnie beside him. Then a couple of other elders stood up, then the sixth-grade Sunday School teacher stood up, then a new young couple in church, and soon, before my incredulous eyes, the whole church was standing with little Jimmy. Tina was crying, of course, and Mildred Cory was holding on to the pew in front of her as though she was standing on the deck of a ship rolling in a great wind, which in the way, she was.
- The Good News from North Haven , pgs. 173-174

When the person of the eternity looks into the mirror at his beloved, he sees us. That is what makes us special and the same, that is what baptism means: children of God, bought with a price with a love so great not even death can separate us from God's great gracious love. Reach out to others that God loves in relationship and compassion. We all stand together. Amen.