there are nights where it all comes on a little bit too bright

there's a cross & in the center there's a hot soft light

A sermon from Galatians:

As a young seminary graduate, staring down the very real possibility of, against all odds, being trusted with the mantel of pastor; I received what I have come to realize as the worst possible advice. 

“Just be yourself,” was the suggestion.

Just be myself???

I am sure I am not the only one to have received, and attempted to follow, such flimsy advice. 

Just be yourself…

Earnest fool that I was, though, I took that advice to heart. When I was confronted with one trial or another, I tired to thy own self be true…

Only, things didn’t get better…

In fact, more than a time or two, things actually got worse!

Let’s just say it took me longer than I’d like to admit to realize that was why; the advice! Being myself wasn’t making things any better. Honestly, ‘being myself’ was part and parcel to the problem!

So much for that “advice.”

This common advice, reveals our loss of confidence. There isn’t much we’re willing to trust anymore. And we imagine we have to be the truthful ones. We think we’re all we have. So for better or worse, we must be true to ourselves —no one else will be, we think. 

The last currency we have left, is our so-called authenticity. We fools ourselves, thinking our own integrity will keep us true.

The church has known better, though. The church has always held a healthy suspicion of our own authenticity.

After all, if you stop to think about it, (and I’m not suggesting you do something like that) it turns out it isn’t even actually advice!
Be myself? Really???

I mean, what choice do I have?

But worse than that. Suppose you decided to be generous and let the sentiment pass as advice. More often than not, such advice turns out to be decidedly bad advice. 

Like in those moments when you can’t help yourself. When being yourself makes matters worse. Those times when what you need to be isn’t yourself, but instead loving, patience, kind and understanding. 

“Being ourselves” turns out, at best, to be overrated. And more often than not, it’s little more than a recipe for disaster. 

Given the circumstances, though, it’s the best advice we can come up with —left to our own devices.

Deep down, we all know “just be yourself” isn’t that good of advice. 

The trouble, though, is we don’t think there are any alternatives. We imagine there’s nothing else for us to be than ourselves. So, we might as well make our peace with the way things are. 

In the end, “just be yourself,” turns out to be little more than call to accept the fate we’ve been dealt. “Just be yourself” is the mantra of a people who can’t imagine anything else than the way things are…

Just be yourself? Are you sure?

Yet today, we hear something as strange as, “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Today’s scripture tells of, not merely an alternative to the fate we’ve been handed; but the very end of it.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me?!?

This is no mere fatalism wrapped up in the guise of advice, sisters and brothers. 

These are the words of a man who has seen, for himself, just what kind of a dead-end “being ourselves” really is. These are the words of a man caught up in what Christ’s death has actually done. These are the words of a man bowled over by the difference Jesus really makes!

Just be yourself? 

No. The self has decidedly met its end in Christ and his cross. And now, all that’s left after that cataclysmic event, is Christ and his cross.

This is a scandalous claim, sisters and brothers.

It flippantly flies in the face of everything we’ve been taught to expect. It gladly casts aspersions on our most cherished ideals! Not to be yourself! 

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

To die to yourself, to be raised in Christ. Not on the last day, but right now!

Don’t fool yourselves, folks. What you’ve stepped into, it’s more than you bargained for. I’d be willing to lay a bet on that. 

Here you were only thinking you’d do what you do every week. Or maybe, for the more ambitious of you, to do the right thing, to be faithful.

God, however, has other plans for you. 

God has decided to take your habits, your ambitions; and upend them completely. To bring an end to them. To bring an end to you. 

We’ve all fallen for the modern adage, “be yourself.” 

We’ve probably come here, looking for something to help us “be ourselves” a little better. Or maybe we’ve made our peace with the way we are, and church is little more than another way we “be ourselves.”

Today, though, scripture puts away that little game. Today scripture tells you, your self has no future. It’s dead. 

But that’s not all. From that grave, God is busy raising you up. Not as you were, but as Christ.

That’s scandalous. Or another way to say it is, it’s hard to believe. It’s certainly more than we could ever dare to ask for. It’s definitely not what any of us were expecting, either.

Probably you were expecting a little conventional wisdom. Maybe a motivational saying to help you on your way. Instead, you got this. Instead you got Jesus. 

You can’t squirm off the hook on this one. 

Scripture is talking about you, to you.

This is what it means to call this Gospel-drunk letter canonical. This is what it means to come in to The Church. God has made you an example, a witness to the world that there is an alternative to what passes for advice. To have the kind of God who comes to folks like us, folks who can do no better than “be ourselves,” and give us something much better; Jesus. 

So take something better than advice; take Christ and his life. They’re yours. 

Now you get to join Paul in saying, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”

In fact, why don’t you say that with me: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Keep saying that, because if you’re going to have half a chance at believing it, you will need to practice confessing it.

You, who have been baptized. You, whom God has gotten to. You who are, otherwise doing nothing more than sitting there thinking about what you’ll have for Sunday lunch; you do not have to “be yourself.” 

In fact, your self is gone. It died with Jesus on the cross. 

Your self died when your folks thought they were just making grandma happy and had you baptized. From that moment on, you no longer belonged to yourself, you no longer had a self, even!

Now, you belong to Christ. 

There is no longer a “you.” Instead, it is Christ who lives in you. You are freed; from yourself, from the law, from fate. You are freed to live with Christ. That’s who you are. That’s to whom you have been called to be true. 

And here’s the cool thing, even when you fail to be true, and we do; Christ will be true to you yet. 

We spend our lives, like the Galatians, turning from this thing God has done. But God still sends apostles into our midst to shout out, “quit beating that dead horse! Literally. You’re dead! You have no self! It’s Christ who lives in you now. It’s always been, and it will always be!”

Be yourself?

No.

Be Christ. That’s who you get to be. That’s the one God has given you. Finally, and frankly, it’s who you are now. Be Christ.