hold this thread as i walk away

watch me unravel, i'll soon be naked

A sermon from Galatians 3:

The moment is as precious, as it is fleeting. It takes everything we have to keep the moment from slipping through our fingers. 

And the moment, the present, is all we have! 

The past is just that, and the future is never guaranteed. Therefore, we must learn to savor the now, the present. At least, so goes the conventional wisdom.

After all, consider the alternatives…

To lose the moment, the now, can only mean one thing for us, Death. Capital “D,” Death. The end of it all.

This letter of Paul’s that we just read from, then. You know, the one you were daydreaming during the reading of; it ought to terrify you.

No doubt it sent a shiver down the spine of the Galatians. As Paul went through everything the Galatians had counted on, only to shout “no longer.”

What the Galatians had, Paul looked at in the light of the cross. And in light of that, declared all of it was now gone. 

No longer! 

We tend to think Jesus just came along to help us complete our little self-help projects. To be more polite. More profitable. More pious.

Yet Paul is over in the corner, waving his arms, shouting, “No! No longer!” Instead of talking about how to get on a little better, Paul’s describing our greatest fear realized. 

No longer!

Folks, you got to love that you belong to a community as strange as the church!

Today we gather around a book that says something as threatening to folks like us as, “no longer.” Instead of wondering what kind of fool wrote these words though, we insist they’re holy. And that’s not all, either. Because then the church insists these words are not just holy, but that you are thankful for them even!

Well, often it’s not until life forces the words from our lips that are we able to realize how true they are. 

So although you were undoubtedly doing something as dangerous as mindlessly going through the liturgy; I am going to take you at your word. To trust the church’s ability to make you thankful for Paul’s frightening word today. 

• Who knows, maybe by the time I sit down, you will be thankful…

Today, scripture casts a suspicious eye on our “be in the now” philosophy. 

No wait, that’s too gentle. Today, scripture declares something as frightening as there is no longer a now to be in. 

“There is no longer.” 

Let me try and put it another way; “now, there is nothing.” Now, there is nothing. Or, there is no longer.

Make your peace with these words. They aim to collapse your world, literally. While you’re just sitting there as if your pastor is telling idle tales, scripture is up to something: There is, no longer!

Today, scripture speaks of what precious little we thought we had, the present. Only to insist it’s gone. “There is no longer!” 

Today, scripture takes what we’ve been doing our darnedest to preserve, the moment. Only to shrug it off. “There is no longer!” 

Today, scripture leaves takes what we had, this, and leaves us defenseless before this thing God is up to. “There is no longer!”

We’re tempted to think if we just come to church often enough, pray a little and try and be good people, God has to hold up the other end of the bargain. To protect us from all that threatens our present.

Yet the holy writ says otherwise. 

That there are no bargains to be made with this God. That this God isn’t all that interested in something as small as preservation. That this God is actually taking apart our present. There is no longer!

Paul speaks of Christianity as something strange. Not as an armor, or a life-saver. Not as a way to get along at all, actually. But rather the end of it all.

As having it all come to an end. To have nothing anymore. Nothing; except Christ. To wind up so completely empty-handed we wind up wearing Jesus, even!

This is what it means to belong to the church, to belong to Jesus. 

Frankly, as far as Paul puts it, belonging to Jesus isn’t a way to make our present any better. It’s to have it come to an end!

There is no longer…

This is what it means to have a savior who was crucified, and then on the third day raised by God. It is to find that The Present came to an end on that fateful day. Or as Paul puts it, that there is, no longer anymore. 

When we took the Son of God and murdered him, something cataclysmic happened. Because when God raised the crucified one, everything ended. Now, there is no longer!

In light of that, the present —the only thing we thought we were guaranteed— came to an end. That now, the present is finished. 

In other words, when Jesus died, the world ended; literally. 

There is no longer!

This is what it means to be a Christian. To be one of Christ’s people. Not to live in the moment. But to live after it. 

After the end of what we’ve been trying to savor.

This is no faith dedicated to getting along. This is a faith that speaks of something else. What happens after all that. When something as unimaginable as “no longer” actually happens. When our greatest fear comes to fruition. When our world falls apart and we can’t figure out how to even begin trying to put it back together. 

We’ve all had those moments, haven’t we?

Here’s what happens in those times and those places, it’s what’s happens right now. God does not leave us stranded. Instead God raises Jesus. 

Not as he was, but as the one who had comes from the other side of the present. The one with the power to defeat the Death that lurks at the corners of all our moments. The one with the authority to give us a future. Not by preserving the present though, but by giving us something else; his past. 

This is what it means to be a Christian. To have no present. To have no longer. To only have a future. A future which is, incredibly enough, Christ’s past. 

That’s right. Wrap your head around that. 

Wrap your head around that time warp because that’s how things are for you. Now that you no longer have a present. Now that you no longer have anything, except Jesus.

We cling so desperately to the present because we fear that if lost it; we would lose everything. That it would mean, Death.

Christ, however, has suffered that loss in our place, and has been raised victoriously. Truly. 

This is no metaphor. No figure of speech. Such things are not capable of actually saving you. This is a description of reality now that Christ has been raised. Now that there is no longer anything Christ hasn’t covered. 

No longer can the loss of the now threaten you. Jesus, the one you are wrapped up in, has returned from that place, and delivered his resurrection to you.

Now your savior comes to the void of your present, and gives you a future, his past. His death and resurrection. He gives you this not by preserving your present, but by ending it. 

This is no longer!

For you who are clothed in Christ, these words, “no longer” are not a threat. These words, “no longer,” are the words of promise only a savior like Jesus, who died and was buried and after three days rose again, can make to you.

There is no longer anything to fear. Christ has clothed you with his past, his death and resurrection. Now truly there is no longer.