Becoming Somebody

              Becoming Somebody -
I Peter 2.4-11
Intro: Will you help me begin the sermon of the morning? Will you say
with me, "I am somebody!" Once more. You are somebody. That means you
are not a no-body. To be a somebody means you take up space, you have
certain dimensions to your "somebodiness". Those dimensions may be larger
than you like, and sometimes you may wish the space Where distributed
differently, but you are somebody.
You are somebody that can be described by the IRS, your doctor, your
dentist, your psychologist, a sociologist, marketing analysts, educators,
and politicians. You are a somebody with opinions. Your somebodiness
changed Channel 7 viewing limiting Dick Caveat appearances and returning
Jack Paar; it confirmed Johnny Carson's position and long age spelled the
demise of Merv Griffin.
You are a somebody with tastes. Your somebodiness likes, and dislikes.
Because your somebodiness is unique. You are not just anybody. Your
perceptions are unique, your fingerprints, your blood type. There is
within each of us to become somebody. We want sameness with other bodies,
but want to be ourselves. We have images of ourselves toward which we wor
for personal fulfillment. When we lose our drive to become somebody our
personalities take on wierd forms.
I. What is your authentic "somebodiness?" What defines you?
A. Whatever defines your determines how you look at yourself.
1. "A self-balancing, 28 jointed, adapter-base bipod; an electro
chemical reduction plant, integral with segregated stowages of specia
energy extracts, and 62,000 miles of capillaries. 60 pounds of air
cycles through each of us, in a lifetime some hundred tons of solids,
liquids and gases will cycle through us." Is that your somebodiness?
Why then can a man falling love with a few inflated dollars' worth of
chemicals arranged in a structure to which he murmurs, Darling?
2. What do we say about our somebodiness? A somebody for whom
dial ton s are more familiar than the crickets' sound technology's
ubiquitous whirr more natural than the sound of wind; the whistle of
the jet against the cold night's air more natural than the hoot of
an owl.
3. Jesse Jackson: I may be poor, but I am somebody. I may be in
jail bat I am somebody....Tomorrow is Martin Luther King 's birthday
Had he lived he would have been 44. His life was directed to helping
people becoming somebody. Not only was his concern with blacks whom
he urged to step to the front of the bus. But white could not become
somebody until they extended to others what they enjoyed. Unless the
freedom one possess is Shared with others that freedom is precarious
and in a sense no freedom for anybody at all.
3. What defines you? Is that the legacy we wish to leave to our
children? Is that for which we wish to be loved?
B. Authentic humanness.
1. Where shall we look for it? Karl Marx? Sigmund Freud?