& i can't get back without you

be my love

A sermon from Paul's Letter to the Galatians:

Have you ever tried to change some big part of your life? (Now be honest)

And how’d that go? (Anyone have any stories they want to share?)

No?

Lately, every morning, I find myself praying to be more joyful and less judgmental. 

And I have to pray, because nothing else seems to be working…

And I bet you know what I mean…

I began college studying journalism. It was a fluke. I was an okay writer and a better reader, so I had potential. And it turns out, I had ambition, too…

So it made a good enough of match. At Kirkwood, I became an editor and wrote a bunch. We even managed to win some Iowa College Media Association awards. Beating out four-year colleges. The kind I would end up transferring to; like Grand View…

I transferred there with a big enough of a head. I had managed a paper that won more awards, written some good stories too, and even interned at a daily newspaper. So when I came, I pushed them to do things the way I envisioned.

And what I was especially successful at, was getting on the wrong side of basically everyone…

All my ambition was only making the students hate me, hold my stories, ignore my ideas. 

Suddenly the ambition that had served me so well at Kirkwood, was now making a mess for me at Grand View. What had begun by promising me life, had ended up killing me. 

…Well, needless to say, my third year of college was beginning miserably…

The trouble was, I didn’t know what else to do…

I told my folks I was thinking about transferring, and they said they’d kill me. So that was off the table. I met with the campus pastor, and he said I’d be fine. Even though I knew he was lying through his teeth!

To make a long story short, I ended up taking a break from journalism that next semester. I spent the end of my third year in college, not taking journalism classes, but theology ones. 

And it turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened for me. 

And I bet you know what I mean…

Because there’s this thing that happens in life; when everything else is gone, we’re freed for something new. A life we never could have imagined before…

It’s a part of this life. We’ve all experienced it. There are even best-selling books and movies about it. Musicians sing about it all that time. 

It’s just a part of this life, something that happens when everything else falls by the wayside. A new life emerges.

This morning I’m standing here to reveal why; why there’s this thing in life. This happening, when everything else dies, that something new happens.

Lean in, listen carefully because it’s a revelation. It’s impossible to figure out on your own, you can only encounter this truth. 

Here it is: This new life happens because of what God’s love looks like. The way God’s love looks.

The love of God that’s revealed in Jesus Christ. 

Jesus, who shows God’s love by giving himself away. Jesus, who’s faithfulness looks like trusting God so deeply that he gave his life away for others, sinners even. 

For us. For you.

And when God raised this Jesus from the dead, nothing less than the fundamental nature of reality changed. Human nature itself underwent an unalterable remolding.

It’s a big claim, but it’s true. 

Jesus’ death didn’t just affect him, or the disciples, or the church, it changed everything. The way the world is. The way life is. You.

No longer are you left to your own devices. No longer is the future something you have to carve out. 

Now you have been given the life you weren’t looking for, one you never could have created. You are given the very life of the of the Son of God. Jesus is now your pulse now, the breath in your lungs. 

We always think life is something we have to earn; but it turns out real life only comes by dying. 

This is why you and me, Paul, folks who go to NA, and all the writers of those books and movies can attest to this feature of life. This thing that happens when everything else goes, how something new -really new, finally happens. 

But here’s the rub; despite that fact of life, we don’t often think of losing everything as an opportunity. It’s certainly nothing we ever volunteer for; even when our death-grip on the way things are, is killing us… 

And that’s why Paul goes after Peter, the Galatians and you and me this morning; because Jesus has come and changed everything. Not some things. Not even most things. But everything. Reality. Life. ALL of it.

But yet Peter, the Galatians and us too, we still wants to go around acting like the old rules still apply. That we still have some life of our own. 

Acting, in effect, as Paul puts it; that Jesus died for nothing.

Because when it comes to Jesus, it turns out, everything is at stake. That there’s no part of this life that his doesn’t claim. 

Turns out, it’s not just that Peter, the Galatians and all too often us, are wrong to try and play by the old rules. It’s that, now that Jesus has been raised from the dead, you can’t go back. 

And Paul should know. Because if anyone ever excelled at the old rules, the way things were, it was him. 

But for all that, all he has to show now; is Jesus. 

An apocalypse Paul never could have planned left him empty handed. And it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. That the crucified messiah he was trying to stamp out, showed up in the middle of his old life and brought it to an end. 

And not to get revenge either, but to give new life. 

And the truth of that, was indisputable. 

From a vision he didn’t conjure, his old life came to an end. Literally. And from that moment on, nothing could be the same anymore. 

His old life ended, and his new life came as a gift. A gift he never could have imagined. In fact, it wasn’t even his life, it was Jesus living in and through him.

And there could be no going back from that.

So now, every attempt to cobble together our own life, is old hat, done for, over. And there can be no going back to the way things were before, when we were on our own. 

Not just because trying to would be wrong, and it is; but because it’s impossible. 

You can’t go back to the death Jesus has been raised from. 

That’s why folks who have been getting along just fine, will suddenly undergo some drastic change. And they will look back and say, ‘it was the best thing that could have happened.’ 

That’s why folks who have run their life into the ground, will start going to NA and then after months of meetings, will wake up one morning with to something new. And they too will look back on the bottom they hit, and declare, ‘it was the best thing that could have happened to me.’

Because now that God sent Jesus, and Jesus has faithfully witnessed to this God, and God has raised this Jesus from the dead; reality, life itself has fundamentally changed. 

And you can’t go back to the way it was before….

And that is no less true for Paul as it is for you today.

Perhaps you think you’ve messed up too much for God to give you Jesus’ life. Or maybe you think you’re just fine, and you don’t need any favors. Or, more than likely, you’re somewhere in the middle.

Either way, you’re dead wrong. 

Because there’s no part of your life, Jesus’ life and death and resurrection hasn’t touched, hasn’t transformed, hasn’t claimed. 

Now the life you live, comes as a gift. And it’s not even your life anymore. It’s Jesus’ life, the life of the Son of God’s. The life of the one who, having been raised from the dead will never die again. The life of the one who lives in perfect obedience, perfect harmony with God.

And here comes the revelation that’s as good as it is hard to believe; All that is yours. Jesus’ heartbeat, his breath, his body and blood are yours. They’re yours now.

And nothing can change that.