i want to taste the taste of being face to face

with common grace

A sermon from conclusion to Galatians:

“May I never boast of anything… Except the cross…”

You’ve got to watch out for those exceptions. The proverbial catch, as it were. There’s always at least one…

“May I never boast of anything,” declares Paul. “Except the cross,” he adds. Almost as an afterthought….

It’s quite the thing to say. 

Not because boasting in something like the cross, a legal tool to inflict punishment, humiliation and torture would have been outrageous to the ears of any self respecting Galatian. That would have been like putting a guillotine on a family crest!

No, what’s truly remarkable about Paul’s refusal to boast in anything except the cross, is the exception he’s making form himself. The exception…

And you’ve got to watch out for them, those exception clauses…

This letter we’ve spent the last five weeks in, Paul has been telling the folks at First Lutheran in Galatia that now they must learn to look at everything differently; in light of the cross. 

The Galatians have been trying to get by with simply adding a little bit of Jesus here and there to their old lives. Paul, however, has been telling them they can’t do such a thing. —And not because it’s wrong, although it is. 

The Galatians can’t just add a little Jesus to their old ways because now that Jesus has gotten ahold of them, all that’s over. You can’t add Jesus, or anything for that matter, to something that’s gone!

These Galatians can’t add Jesus to their old lives because there’s nothing left of it now! 

Now, there’s only the cross. In light of what’s happened to them, they must learn to see things they way they are now, in the shadow of the cross. 

It’s a bold claim, I know.

But so is the baptismal liturgy…

“May I never boast of anything. Except the cross…”

Paul isn’t reverting back to the old ways here, though. Suddenly getting pious on us. After spending five and half chapters insisting something like piety can’t save us now.
That’s not what Paul is up to at all.

In fact, Paul, flipped by Jesus, isn’t being reverent in the least!

Paul’s not giving up boasting. He’s just qualifying what he will boast in, now. Which is nothing. Except the cross…

And the exception is bigger than you might think. All things considered…

Now Paul is bragging in the only thing left, in light of what’s happened.

“May I never boast of anything. *Ahem* Except the cross,” Paul adds like a seasoned salesman. 

And there’s the catch. It’s a pretty big one, too. After all, all that’s left now, is the cross!

Get it? Paul isn’t humbly refusing to boast! 

Paul’s just refusing to make empty boasts. 

And not the the empty boast of a braggart, but the empty boasts of something like the Oldsmobile. Boasts that have been emptied.

you see? That doesn’t mean Paul isn’t going to boast. It just means he’s only going to boast in certain things. Which is nothing, except the cross… 

You’ve got to watch out for those qualifiers. Those exceptions…

“May I never boast of anything, except the cross.”
Quite the thing to say. Not because of what it renounces, though. On the contrary. It’s quite the thing to say because it’s so arrogant! Now, in light of the cross. 

Paul is telling us the only way he can now, that he’s just as proud as ever - probably more so! Because now, the only thing left to be proud about, is the cross! 

So that’s what he’s going to boast in, now.

“May I never boast of anything, except the cross.”

I warned you, didn’t I? it’s a bigger exception than it seems.

Now, in light of the cross, everything else is ten feet under, as it were.
As Paul put it, Jesus’ cross has the world was crucified to him, and vice-versa!

So how could Paul boast in any of that stuff anymore? 

He can’t! And, he knows it perfectly well, the showoff!

“May I never boast of anything, except the cross.”

…Not as humble as it sounds, is it?

Because that’s the catch, isn’t it?

This is precisely how boasting sounds now, in light of the cross. In the aftermath of something like baptism.

Now, all that’s left is the cross. Literally. So now, if you’re so inclined, the only way to boast, is in the cross.

“May I never boast of anything, except the cross.” And that’s all that’s left anymore.

And that’s the Good News, sisters and brothers! Truly. 

The cross, the only thing left after Jesus’ triumph, after your baptism drowned you in the cross; is the tool of torture God transformed to be the tool liberation, freedom, new life. Your liberation, your freedom, your new life.

And that’s all that’s left now. No past life with all it’s sin. There’s no going back now. Not for you. Not now anyway. It’s too late, now.

Jesus’ cross put a decisive end to the old world and it’s way. 

The cross didn’t just happen to Jesus, or merely change the way of thinking for a sinner like Paul. 

Jesus’ cross crucified sinners like us to the world, and vice-versa, too! 

The crucifix is more than a charming emblem for the nape of your neck. It’s more like a noose around your neck!

Bold thing to say, I know. But so is the baptismal liturgy…

In this death you will find, surprisingly yes, but nonetheless still true, life. 

New life, new creation. It may be unexpected, but God’s allowed to do what God chooses. 

That’s what it means to be God. 

So boast in that, if you’re so inclined. The kind of God you have, is the kind of God who can take something like the cross, and make it into something worth boasting about. Something that can kill off our old life, and raise us up as saints!

Brag in that. Taunt in it, even! It won’t fail. 

When the devil comes along, tormenting you with your past sins —and we all have them, don’t we? Just shrug. Do like Luther. Taunt Satan. Reply, “yes I already know about those sins, you scoundrel. But you forgot to mention that time…”
…Well, you can fill in that blank.

We taunt the devil because those sins the Old Foe parades before us, belong to the Old Life. The one God put an end to on the cross, in your baptism. 

It may sound too easy. But God gets to decide how our sins will be dealt with. And on the cross, God decided once and for all: Dead. No more. Only the cross. Only new creation.

This is the significance of the cross, sisters and brothers. It changed everything. Now, after the cross, that’s all that’s left; the cross!

And now the life we live, is one in the shadow of the cross, the light of what God has done. One raised to new life, in Christ. 

“May I never boast of anything, except the cross.”

It’s a bigger exception than it sounds. Especially now. In light of the cross, in the shadow of something like your baptism. 

Because now you don’t have anything left anymore… 

Except the cross, of course.

You’ve got to watch out for those exceptions, don’t you? The qualifiers. The catch.
Especially with the kind of God you have. Because the kind of God you have is the kind of God who isn’t above taking advantage of the exception to get you.