Thinking Anew – the importance of identity

There was genuine sadness when the death of David Bowie was announced recently. Tributes poured in from all over the world acknowledging his status as an international star. The Archbishop of Canterbury having been a fan since the 70

s said that he was very saddened by the news.

The President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, also paid tribute to Bowie. How opinions change given that Bowie was seen to be somewhat anti-establishment.

In an early TV interview he declared to be the spokesman for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men; young men with long hair were quite suspect at the time.

It is said that throughout his career he reinvented himself on a number of occasions but in an interview in 1993 he said that he always worked with the same subject matter: “The trousers may change, but the actual words and subjects I’ve always chosen to write with are things to do with isolation, abandonment, fear and anxiety, all of the high points of one’s life.”

That gloomy perspective on life was evident in his performance of Lazarus, recorded when he was terminally ill. "Look up here man I'm in heaven/ I've got scars that can't be seen." Bowie admitted that he had difficulty coming to terms with his own mortality. His efforts to reinvent himself could not affect the reality of who and what he was.

The readings for tomorrow, the first Sunday in Lent, have important things to say about identity.

The reading from Deuteronomy reminds the Hebrew reader that he has a past, that his story has deep roots in time and events beginning with the journey down to Egypt, enslavement there and then a journey of discovery in the wilderness.

Promises

Such recall of events is not mere nostalgia; rather this is a remembering of a past where promises were made by God and kept. The Promised Land was no pipe dream; it existed, the God of the wilderness experience could be trusted.

In his recent Reith Lectures on BBC Radio, Prof Stephen Hawking said that to lose one's history is to lose part of one's identity. We should remember that when confronted with arguments to remove any acknowledgement of God from civic life along with the Judeo/Christian values that have been handed down through the generations and which have served society well. In her book The Fire of Your Life Anglican Mystic, Maggie Ross writes: "We are all journeying into the wilderness of faith, and we are all, though it may remain completely hidden, given one of the greatest gifts God gives of himself: the gift of Abraham – to go into the Promise, into the vows we have made by our baptism, knowing that we are called out of all that is familiar, to bless God for it, to bless the unknown, to bless finally even our own death. The future is always unknown, but in these latter days there are no longer even any inklings of what will be asked of us."

In tomorrow’s gospel reading Jesus, in the desert faced questions about his identity, who he was. He is offered a false identity focused on himself and things that seemed attractive. To achieve them he must leave God out of the picture and turn his back on his past and his vocation.

The Rev David Runcorn sees the desert experience not as a barren land but potentially as a place of personal growth especially in times when we face anxiety or loss and are faced with the realisation that we are not, and never were, all powerful and self-sufficient.

“In the desert there is no room for luxuries and no respect of human status or strength. To contemplate the desert is to understand the call to walk by faith in God alone. It is a place that simplifies us, down to our true selves, until we are ready to meet the God of life and death.”