Whoville: I Am A Disciple Series

Back in November the worship team introduced the song “Who You Say I Am”, maybe you remember. And as the team was singing, I had an epiphany. An epiphany is defined as: a moment of sudden revelation or insight.

And maybe epiphany is a little strong but considering that many Christians celebrate today as “Epiphany”, it seemed an appropriate word to use. If you are wondering, in some traditions Epiphany is celebrated, on January 6th, as the day the Christ Child was visited by the Magi. And people eat cake.

And Epiphany shouldn’t be confused with “Old Christmas” which is the day Christmas was celebrated before the Gregorian Calendar was adopted. Old Christmas is celebrated by the Orthodox Churches on January 7th. That was free, kind of a value added for the first Sunday of the year.

So if it wasn’t an epiphany I had, maybe it was just a Denn thought. And I immediately texted Stefan, because I’ve come to the age if I don’t do it right then I’m likely to forget. And that text included one word: Whoville. To which he texted back LOL.

I didn’t get a chance to speak to Stefan between services so as the team started to sing the song in the second service, I texted Stefan again saying; Whoville, Get it? And no response. After the service I asked him, Whoville, get it? He shook his head and said “not a clue”.

Hmmm, maybe it wasn’t as obvious as I had thought it would be. So, I tried again, “Who you say I am . . . Whoville. . . our identity in Christ?”

And then he got it, because you have to have a twisted mind for sermon series if you are going to work for Denn.

So, combine the song “Who You Say I Am”, with all the advertising for the new Grinch movie, which takes place in Whoville. And Denn has an epiphany, or at least a Denn moment.

Coming out of Christmas most of us know, at least peripherally about Whoville from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Either from the Dr. Seuss book or the animated TV special that has aired each Christmas since 1966, or the two Grinch movies.

But Whoville was first introduced to us in Dr. Seuss’s 1954 book “Horton Hears a Who”. Where Horton the Elephant discovers a tiny world that lives on a speck of dust and he vows to protect the residents of Whoville with the mantra, "A person is a person no matter how small"

And so, over the next couple of months our focus is going to be “Who We are in Jesus”, or more personally if you are a Christ Follower, who you are in Jesus.

By the time we are adults our identities have been shaped for us by experience, by what others have told us and by what we’ve told ourselves.

And too often those descriptions are verbalized in the negative, I’m too fat, I’m too skinny, I’m a loser. I can’t do that because I . . . and you can fill in the blank.

And self-talk defines us in many ways, as we tell ourselves, “I always do this” or “I can never do that.”

Author Elaina Marie asks “If you wouldn’t say those things to someone else you love, why are you saying them to yourself?”

While Beverly Engel, advises us to “Turn down the volume of your negative inner voice and create a nurturing inner voice to take its place. When you make a mistake, forgive yourself, learn from it, and move on instead of obsessing about it. Equally important, don’t allow anyone else to dwell on your mistakes or shortcomings or to expect perfection from you.”

But while the negative self-talk might describe who you were, it’s not who you are as a Christian.

It doesn’t matter who you were before you became a Christian, when you accept the forgiveness and grace that Jesus has to offer you become a new person, the old is gone the new has come.

Because the reality is that Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Ultimately, it’s not what others say about you and it not about what you say about yourself it’s what God says about you. And that’s where we are going to park for the next couple of months, in Whoville.

And that’s what Whoville is all about, the new you.

So, let’s talk a little bit about what Jesus says concerning those who follow him.

If we go back to the scripture that was read for us earlier, we hear Jesus telling those who followed him, John 8:31-32 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”