Who are we?  Our identity is what is inseparable from us as we go from one sphere to the next.  It defines what we cannot cast aside and what we must take with use everywhere in order to remain whole and complete people.

The homosexual community certainly understands this.  They have gone to great lengths to capture the bully pulpit in large corporations — beating the drum that their preference for same sex attraction is part of their inseparable identity.  As a result, many fortune 50 corporations now sponsor such things as Gay Pride Month and host on their intranet pages guides on how to “Transition Your Gender”.

The homosexual identity is seen as an inviolable part of the workplace and to keep homosexuals from freely expressing their identity in the professional setting is seen as stifling and bigoted.  After all, this is merely who they are.  It is their core and inseparable essence.

The Christian church should take lessons from the homosexual community.  If our affiliation with Jesus is something so easily discarded that we can part ways with him like checking our coat and hat at the door, then Jesus was never truly part of us.

If we find that when we enter into spheres where Jesus is not welcome that we can easily check him in at the door, then Jesus is not part of our inseparable identity.  The world believes we can be happy and whole without Jesus.  Is it any wonder that the world thinks that our Christianity is something that is purely reserved for behind closed doors and that it is only for private observance?  We have been so assiduously seeking to divest ourselves of anything offensive, that we have made Jesus offensive and purely a part of our private lives.

In an era where Jesus is consigned to the coat closet and homosexuality has been fully taken out of the closet, Christians must re-examine their conception of Christian identity.

How does the prayer of Jesus impact our identity?  John 17:20-23:

20  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.