& i hope, i hope you are tired out

& i know, i know there is joy endowed

a sermon on Paul's harangue about religious perfectionism 

In today’s Scripture, Saint Paul’s talking about something we all can relate to. But he’s talking about it in a way none of us can relate to! 

Let’s be honest; all this talk of circumcision sounds so primitive, cultic, and, frankly, a little icky and TMI for people like us. You know, modern and sophisticated people like us.

However, I can’t help but remember how I was struck dumb this summer when, in Acts 17, Saint Paul walked into the Areopagus, looked around at a bunch of people more like us than him, and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely RELIGIOUS y’all are.” 

It’s as if Paul took a good long look at how the likes of us get along in this old world and couldn’t help but blurt out, “And I thought we, Jewish people, were religious! No, you so-called modern folks have us a beat by a mile. You’re the most superstitious lot I’ve ever come upon!”

The truth is, and I mean that, truth; the truth is, you and I are just as, if not more, cultic. What’s more, these aspirations we get so zealous about are way more icky than something like circumcision. And furthermore still, we, too, tend to overshare our pursuits for transcendence.

*And if you’re not so sure, just mute the television and only watch the commercials for a while. Just limit your reading exclusively to fashion and finance magazines. Or just peruse social media for longer than 30 mins. Try any of that and tell me you’re not at least a little grossed out about all those things we're oh-so devoted to. 

…Like circumcision, our lives are full of marks. Marks we think will establish our identity and even justify our very existence, too! It might be a rung on the career ladder. It might be some letters before or after your name. It might be a number on your credit score. It might be attendance at your wedding or funeral. Or it might be the lack of lines, or wrinkles, on your face. 

No matter what, though, we all have marks we think will make us RIGHTEOUS. Righteous to ourselves. Righteous to the rest of the world. And even righteous to the Creator who set fire to that love that courses through the universe and even our own veins. 

No, let’s not kid ourselves. We’re ALL hopelessly religious! And I mean that, too; we’re hopeless in our religiosity. Our religiosity in all its forms.

Because, and here’s the trouble, all of those marks we get so religious about are ultimately a lot of bad news! They’re what the old prophets called idols. In other words, the forces behind those marks may seem like gods, BUT they can’t really see, hear, or speak like a real God! 

Ultimately, all those idols of ours can never deliver! They can only make demands! That’s all power they have! And guess what? Their demands never cease! Because our idols aren’t about to admit they're a sham. 

In the end, our idols have no real power. That’s why they only make demands! Ultimately, all our sacrifices to these idols just make you and I the burnt-out corpses of all their empty promises.

…But you already knew that. Didn’t you? We all have those moving goalposts in our lives. Those achievements we think will make us happy. Those achievements that, no sooner do you reach them than all you notice is how much further someone else is out ahead of you. Or worse, those achievements you reach only to end up feeling empty, regretting all you gave up in your foolishly single-minded pursuit. 

It turns out, everything I’ve been clambering about up here on my soapbox is really just a hackneyed observation! Why it’s even embedded in a culture like ours. This sober reflection is found in iconic stories like Doctor Faustus, and Macbeth, and Scorsese’s Raging Bull, and Meryl Streep’s The Devil Wears Prada, too! 

Honestly, we all actually already know a lot about how our ambition turns on us and consumes us. Our problem isn’t that we haven’t been warned. No, our problem is that, although we’ve been warned, we can’t seem to do better! 

When we feel the hot breath of layoffs, bills, and bad health on the back of our neck, we don’t know what else to do! When our backs are against the wall, the only thing we can think to do is apply that blunt tool of toil, sweat, and tears. And while it may seem reasonable, it’s got Saint Paul all riled up! 

…What’s got Saint Paul miffed is that the Galatians are not left to their own devices like that! And neither are we! Paul knows the Galatians are running a fool’s errand! And so are we! Paul’s learned that working harder to allay your anxiety only stirs it up in the long run! 

And that’s not even the worst part! The worst part is that by trying to do it right themselves, the Galatians are really turning their noses up at Christ! And so do we. By attempting to follow the savior, Jesus Christ, correctly, we act as if Christ is no real benefit! 

The problem with doing it ourselves is that the net effect is to make Christ superfluous! It’s to live as if Christ makes no difference. It’s to, as Martin Luther put it, act as if Christ has not yet come. 

And the thing is, Christ has come! We are not left to our own devices! We don’t have to make it on our own! In baptism, by the power of Christ’s HOLY Spirit, through faith, you and I have been rescued from a life where it all hangs on our shoulders alone!

Because, let me tell you, not only is this not much of a life. It’s not even possible!

…There are no self-made women or men in Christianity! In Christianity, our lives are not what we make of them! No, in Christianity, our lives are what our namesake, Jesus Christ, has made of them! And this makes all the difference in the world!

At the cross, Jesus hung the world on his shoulders! When he declared, “it is finished,” Christ laid to rest all those inherently religious schemes where we MUST make everything come out a’right. After all, that’s what Christ promised he did by his death and resurrection!

Jesus hasn’t come to give you more religion. No, he’s come to give you what religion has been driving at all along! Christ has come to bring you to the end of all those futile religious pursuits. He’s come to bring you to the peace, love, and joy that comes from his completed work upon the cross!

And that’s the great difference between the Gospel and all that idolatry out there.

All our vain religion, it always ends the same way, doesn’t it? With our corpses. But Jesus Christ, by his, has intervened! Jesus has thrown his corpse onto our path! 

And he’s done so to rescue us! To put us off our dead-end road and onto his eternal one! Christ has come to set you free from all those self-salvation pursuits that never end well. He’s come to give you his salvation that has ended well once and for all at his EMPTY tomb!

…And this is my sincerest prayer for you today, that you might catch the whispers of this. That the sound of that doomed story you’ve been telling about yourself might fade into the background of the one Jesus is even now telling about you. 

After all, this is the way to best understand your life. Not by what you say about it. Or anyone else for that matter. But what Jesus Christ, who loves you from all eternity, says about you. How differently would the story of your life sound if you could finally hear it from the voice of the One who loves you without end?

I pray you might hear more than little of this today. That the sound of this endless love might lift you. That it might set your heart at peace. That it might fill your breast with goodwill and love for your fellow humans. That it might grant you joy and send you from here a little less burdened, too.

But even if you’re having trouble making out the sound this morning, because we all do from time to time, it’s no less true. As Saint Paul says, for now, we hope in this righteousness. For now, this is a hope. But, oh, what a sure and certain one it is!

Yes, we may not always hear this all too clearly. But on the Last Day, when the trumpet sounds, this will be the only sound left! The sound of the heavenly chorus praising God without end! The sound of Christ’s eternal love gushing forth from his divine lips! And the sound of God’s holy heartbeat pulsating everything into existence, forever and ever without end! Amen!

And so, with that promise ringing in our ears, let’s add our voices to that eternal hum of God’s endless love in Christ Jesus! Let us sing together, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling! (ELW 631)