It happened during a confirmation class trip to New York City several years ago. A group of our 9th and 10th Graders had made the trek to the Big Apple for an overnight program of education, worship and fun in the world’s largest Gothic cathedral, St. John the Divine. We had some free time the following day, and so traveled south through Manhattan to Battery Park, where we boarded the ferry for a quick trip out to the Statue of Liberty. It was an inspiring and educational event for us all, as we marveled at Lady Liberty from up close, then made a quick stop on the return trip at Ellis Island, the portal to America for many of our ancestors. But our education for the day was not yet over – as we disembarked from the ferry upon our return to Manhattan, we were met by dozens of street vendors hawking their wares, selling everything from postcards to miniature Statues of Liberty to bootleg DVDs to watches and even cameras. We had, I thought, successfully shepherded the group off the ferry and up the ramp, until a quick headcount revealed that we were one confirmand short. To our relief, he soon appeared – proudly showing off his brand-new, shiny, guaranteed authentic Rolex watch – a watch, he boasted, he had been able to get for just $20.

You know the rest of the story. That watch ran perfectly – for two weeks.

It was, of course, a counterfeit. A fraud. A piece of junk, a pale imitation of the Real McCoy.

Our adventuresome and yet naïve young consumer knew what he wanted, the object of his desire was fixed in his mind. A Rolex Submariner. The perfect timepiece, the standard of excellence, a chronometer built to withstand water pressures of up to 100 feet, to keep time to within seconds each year, a symbol of the good life achieved. Or so the advertisements led him to believe.

He knew what he wanted. He ended up settling for much less.

Friends, this is too often who we think we are. A $20 Rolex. Maybe shiny and spiffed up on the outside, but inside, a counterfeit, a fraud. At least that is what our actions say about how we view ourselves and our worth. We don’t take care of ourselves and our bodies and our souls as if we were authentic Rolexes. We bang them up, neglect them, forget to wind them, expose them to hazards we would never subject the real thing to. We anesthesize them in alcohol and pickle them in pornography and let them decay through inactivity. Small wonder that we become run down, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

Maybe we do this because of how we have been taught to underestimate our worth. Maybe you were abused by someone you trusted, someone who treated you as an object to be used to satisfy their desires, and so you came to similarly undervalue yourself and your worth. Maybe you were the one always picked last to be on sports teams, and you took this as a judgement not on your athletic abilities, but on who you, at core, really are. Maybe you absorbed the message our media continually bombards you with, that your value depends on how many luxury items you possess, how wrinkle free and unblemished your skin is, how youthful and sexy you are, how successful you have been in business, how healthy you are, how able you are to get things done, how independent you are.

Maybe, in short, you have not experienced your identity as a beloved child of God. Maybe you have forgotten that you were created in the image of God, that, in the words of Psalm 8, you have been made a little lower than God, crowned by God with honor and glory. Maybe you have not come to own God’s unmerited forgiveness and acceptance of you. Maybe you have not internalized that while yes, you may be unlovable, in fact you are still loved; that while no, you may not be acceptable, in truth one has always accepted you. Maybe it has just never been made clear to you that, in the words of 1 Peter, you are not just a nobody, but a somebody, and more than a somebody, part of a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” In other words, in this culture so dedicated to individualism maybe you have been misled into thinking “its all about you”, that your worth is somehow disconnected from the communities without which life itself is not possible. Maybe, in this world where sin is so much part and parcel of us and our living, you have forgotten that God came into the world not to condemn you, but to save you. The bumper sticker has it right: “God don’t make no junk.” You are not, my friends, a $20 Rolex.

And if we undervalue our worth so easily, how much easier it is for us to undervalue others. If we hold ourselves up as frauds, if only to ourselves, how much easier it is to find others lacking according to the same criteria.

A poignant testimony about human worth was reported many years ago by The Village Voice. The great actress Dorothy Maguire was appearing on Broadway in Tennessee William’s play The Night of the Iguana. Just before curtain time on a Friday night, the theatre was disturbed by the shrill voice of a woman in the audience shouting, “Start the show! Start the show! I want to see Dorothy Maguire!” The woman was clearly emotionally disturbed, but after a moment of shocked silence, some in the theatre began to turn on her. “Listen, you old bag, get out!” someone heckled. “Throw her out! Start the show!” another jeered. The house manager came to try and reason with the woman, but she pulled away, shrieking, “All I want to see is Dorothy Maguire; then I’ll leave.”

Suddenly, through the part in the curtains, Miss Maguire herself appeared. She crossed the stage and walked calmly over to the disturbed woman. She spoke quietly to her and then hugged her. The woman, who had recoiled whenever anyone else had touched her, drew close to Miss Maguire, got up from her seat, and together they walked toward the exit. Before they left the theater, Miss Maguire paused and turned to the audience. With grace and kindness she announced, “I’d like to introduce another fellow human being.” (As recounted by Thomas G. Long in Testimony, Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian, 2004, p.64).

Dorothy Maguire testified to the truth about this woman, a truth that no emotional illness or abuse from others could take away – she was not a $20 Rolex. She was a fellow human being, a child of God, a citizen with the saints, a member of the household of God. Just like each and every one of us.

But some lessons take a lifetime of learning, and not only time, but a supportive community as well. We spend most of our days living and breathing and moving in a culture which often undercuts this affirmation of unique human worth, in a world where it can seem like there never is enough, that suffering has the final say, that life is, in the words of the famous novelist, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” And so how much more important it is that we join together in a dynamically supportive community of faith, a fellowship of caring persons who might help feed us the spiritual supplies we need for the journey, which might empower us for abundant living.

How much more important it is that we gather together each week to hear the Good News of our unique worth, to reaffirm for each other the power of the Holy Spirit to energize and empower us for living life fully and deeply.

How much more important it is that we belong to a covenant community working together to promote social justice and healing, witnessing to each other and to the world that while we do fall short of the mark, we do not need to lose hope, for the powers of the world have been overcome in Christ as revealed through his crucifixion and resurrection.

How much more important it is, in short, that we, made a little lower than God, crowned with honor and glory, gather together in church, that we might be God’s people out in the world.

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