Sermon Illustrations
"Bourne Identity": Who Am I and Where Am I Going?
In the Bourne Identity, Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne—a CIA agent who has suffered amnesia and is trying to figure out just who exactly he is. The fundamentals of his journey are not too different than our own.
In the mountains of Switzerland, Jason has hitched a ride to Germany with a young woman named Marie. He's running from the police—but he's not even sure why. He tries to keep quiet about his situation until the frustration overwhelms him. Finally, in response to her asking a simple question, he turns to her and says desperately, "I don't know who I am or where I am going."
At a truck stop along the snowy highway, Bourne starts to recount what little he knows about himself to her, reaching for clues to who he is.
Bourne asks, "Who has a safety deposit box full of…money and six passports and a gun? I come in here, and the first thing I'm doing is I'm looking for an exit."
"I see the exit sign, too, but I'm not worried," says Marie.
Bourne replies with increased desperation. "I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs 215 pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?
So many of us are running from something, and we're running to somewhere—but it's impossible to know where we are going if we don't know who we are. God's fingerprints are all over our lives, and as we search him out, the pieces begin to fall into place. Ultimately, we find out our true name—our true identity—only in Christ, and only then do we find out where we are to go with our lives.
Elapsed Time: 00:33:48 to 00:35:13; DVD scene 6
Content: Rated PG-13 for violence and language