i love you that much anyhow

can't do much about it now

A sermon on Paul's creative allegorizing 

In today’s passage, we get to have a little Bible study with Saint Paul himself! 

*That’s what the Bible offers you, you know! In Acts, you can listen to the very first Christian sermons for yourself! In the gospels, you can hear Jesus’ own parables with your very ears! And today, WE get to sit at the feet of Saint Paul as he does a little Scripture interpretation and application!

However, the master begins with a statement that sounds a little strange. At least to our ears. Saint Paul says, “Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law.” And then, as Paul wraps up his study, he concludes with an admonition that rings off to the likes of us. “Stand firm,” he exhorts, “and do NOT submit again to the yoke of slavery.” 

Hearing Paul speak like this, it’s easy to think we’re listening in on a class not meant for our ears. After all, we’re red-blooded Americans. We’re from the “land of the _______.” That’s right, the land of the free! And, as the Iowa motto goes, “Our liberties we prize AND our rights we will maintain.

Perhaps those poor saps in Galatia desire to be subject to law, but not us, we think! No, we stand firm in our liberties. We’re not about to submit to that yoke of slavery.

But! And there’s always a but. But, to take such broad exception is not only to give Paul too little credit, it’s also to give ourselves too much! Because don’t kid yourself, the folks at First Lutheran in Galatia had the same aspirations as we do. Believe me, they fancied themselves as free-persons, too.

However, when Saint Paul sizes up the situation, he apprehends something we don’t readily see. Paul, who’s been wrenched out of the usual comings and goings of life, has gained a unique perspective. And from there, he’s come to conclude that our natural inclination is not toward freedom. On the contrary, left to our own predilections, we tend to lilt toward captivity!

And the truth is, you and I have a whole lot more experience with this than we might think. 

Now to try and crack our minds open to this, I want to try a little exercise. First, let’s do a theoretical one. These days, politics is the subject we’re all obsessed with. So I want you to consider the other party. Not the one you vote with, but the other one. 

Okay. Now I want you to do something simple. I want you to think of a way or two they TRADE their freedom to toe the party line. Got it? Okay. Go!

…Easy. Wasn’t it? I know, you’ve been just waiting for someone to ask you that question. Haven’t you? But, sorry, I don’t want you to share. Keep that to yourself. 

What I do want you to consider, though, is how everyone was able to do this exercise. This means it doesn’t matter where you cast your lot. All of US trade our freedoms to try and advance some ideological scheme we imagine we can force something like reality into.

Okay, let’s try another: I want you to think of something you don’t like to do but regularly do anyway. And I want you to think about why it is you do whatever action you think of. 

Go ahead and share this with someone. It can be something simple. The funnier, the better. *And if you notice someone who isn’t sitting next to someone else, turn to them and share your example!

…Alright. Anyone want to share? 

For me, I’ve learned not to complain about hair in the drain. And I’ve learned this, not because I’m such a good husband, far from it. *However, whenever I do happen to fish some hair out of the tub and flush it with nary a word, I always think I ought win husband-of-the-year. No, I’ve learned not to complain about such things because if I open that lid on pandora’s box, I'm liable to learn about all the things Amanda overlooks for my sake. And in that regard, she comes out way ahead.

…And you know what? We’re just scratching the surface here, too! After all, we haven’t said anything about all of those other trade-offs. The ones we dare not mention. The ones we’re barely even aware of making. 

I’m talking about all those things we do to get by and get along. The compromises we make to keep the peace. The concessions we give to keep our job. And the things we do to make ends meet. I’m talking about those exchanges that are so significant that if we lost what we’re bargaining for, we couldn’t even imagine freedom being worth it anymore. 

For instance, I grew up in a home where money was tight. As such, I tend to fixate on money a little too much. Deep down, I think trading practically anything is worth being able to pay the bills. 

And Saint Paul has come to understand that all those exchanges we make aren’t neutral. On the contrary, we make these trades because of what they promise us. All our trades are really about trying to secure a future. In other words, they’re religious in nature. 

The movie Brittany Runs a Marathon captures this well. In the movie, Brittany’s a lost young adult. And as she runs into dead-end after dead-end, she stumbles into running. And in running, she finds a pathway to a new and different FUTURE. 

The movie depicts so clearly how it wasn’t really about exercise for Brittany. Rather, it was always about the future running proffered. For instance, when Brittany’s forced to stop running and so maybe lose some of the gains she’s made, she cries, “I was someone people held the door open for.” 

It was never about running, exercise, or any of that! Instead, it was all about what running promised! Brittany was willing to trade her time and energy to win a future running promised that was “safe and secure from all alarms.”

And it’s no different for you and me, says Saint Paul. We, too, regularly trade in paltry alternatives in an attempt to secure one future or another. Like the Galatians, we, too, are always hedging our bets—trying to win that fate we think will assure our well-being. 

Paul, though, who’s been pulled out of that gravitational pull, tells us all we gain in these Faustian bargains is the loss of it all. 

This is the corporate nature of the faith! We never walk alone. We never travel uncharted courses. There are always those who have gone ahead of us! Those who can help explain and interpret those strange twists and turns of existence on this side of eternity. 

And Paul’s a reliable guide, too. After all, he was so twisted by the gospel he had to change his name! When Paul diagnoses us, he’s doing so as someone who stood on both sides of it all. And when he does, he sees the futility and foolishness of all those barters we make to try and get ahead. 

…Okay. I know that I’ve been harping on our folly. But this is because you and I have a sort of Stockholm syndrome with our captivity. We have an unnatural attachment to our chains. Or at least their promises. Our confinement holds such dazzling returns for us we don’t really see what we’re doing. And as such, we mistake captivity for freedom. 

For the Galatians, it was an explicitly religious activity. For you and I, though, it’s a bit more opaque. To us, it looks like we’re just trying to get by. In reality, though, we’re really making exchanges for the same thing, the future. And that means we’re trading in the realm of Christ’s work. And therefore, any exchange we make is a bad one!

Now, of course, there are other ways to address this issue. I could paint a portrait of the freedom Christ gives in such a way so as to try and attract you to it. And Paul has done this. And he will do it again. Today, though, he’s showing the foolishness of our trade-offs. 

Paul’s revealing that the problem isn’t just that we make poor trades, although we do. No, the problem is that, in Christ, what we’re all after has already been won! And he shows this with a little Bible study!

Saint Paul opens scripture for US to show US how the future was never won through performance. Rather, it’s always been opened through the promise! CHRIST is the hinge to the doorway of your future! And in Christ, the door is always wide open! 

Whatever it is that stands on the other side of all those bargains you’re making with your very spirit has all already been won in Christ! And that’s not all, either. No, Christ also stands before you and holds it all out to you already, right now even! 

Christ does so at this very moment in these very words! These words the Holy Spirit is making into more than words! And Christ did so at YOUR baptism! Your baptism by which you were wrenched out of this old world and plunked down into the Kingdom of God! And Christ will do so again at this very table, too!

This table, where you will be invited to come forward and lay it all down. And although it may seem so small and insignificant an act, in all eternity there’s really nothing more noteworthy! At this table, Christ gives you everything that belongs to him in exchange for everything you bring to this table. Your accomplishments, yes. But ALSO your failures. And your desires and longings, too. Your dashed hopes and broken dreams.

And in this happy exchange, you ARE truly freed from all those other bad deals out there! In Christ, at last, you stand to receive everything GOD has set out FOR you from all eternity! But that’s the beginning of a new sermon -- the sermon of your oh-so-subtle renewal, your ever-so-gentle regeneration, your passing bit-by-bit from one world into another, your initiation into a new and unknown existence. 

Yes, that might be the subject of another sermon, but our present one is ended.