sure enough can knock a strong man

to his knees

Paul's epistle to the Galatians 1:13-17; 2:11-21

One of our most basic assumptions also happens to be one of our most cherished tenets of life. So deep-seated is this conviction of ours that it’s even seeped its way into the faith! In today’s Scripture, though, St. Paul declares good riddance to so much bad theology. 

I’m talking about, of course, the assumption that the goal of life is improvement. These days we’re obsessed with optimization and productivity. And it’s not just the professional sphere of our lives we’re trying to life-hack our way through, either! We’re also trying to upgrade our parenting, leisure, mental health, physical health, and even faith-life!

Like Dr. Phil, I’m tempted to ask, “how’s that working out for you?” But seeing as how our compulsion to try and enhance every aspect of our lives is now affecting our children, I don’t think I need to, do I? Whoever heard of burnt-out teenagers?!? But that’s the fruit of all our labor, a bunch of worn-down human beings. 

The reason for this is, our little theory is fatally flawed! And I do mean fatally. After all, it’s patently not how life actually works! And it’s certainly not how faith works, either! The reason for this overlap, by the way, is that faith is for real life! Faith isn’t how you try and fix up reality. It’s how you actually live into it!

The problem with all our dreams of the perfectly crafted little life is just that! It’s a dream! It isn’t real! And trying to make real-life fit into some idealized framework is a surefire recipe for burn-out every time! Blessedly, the antidote to this illusion is true faith.

One of the movies that capture this dynamic best is Little Miss Sunshine. I’ve talked about this movie before, but it’s been a minute. And for me, Little Miss Sunshine captures the essence of what we’re dealing with here practically perfectly! 

Little Miss Sunshine is about a family of failures. Their problem is, though, is they can’t, or won’t, ADMIT their failures! The father, played by Greg Kinnear, is an aspiring, but ultimately doomed, motivational speaker. The son wants to become a fighter pilot, but finds out he’s color-blind. The grandfather who lives with them just wants to do whatever he wants to do, including illicit substances and salty language. The brother-in-law, played by Steve Carell, has to stay with the family after a suicide attempt. And the mother, played by Toni Collette, is just trying to hold it all together. Oh yeah, and quit smoking, too! 

The only character who’s any different is little seven-year-old Olive. Olive, too, is a failure. The only difference is, she doesn’t know, or care enough to know, any better. Rather than try and whip her corpse back to life, she lets it lie! And in so doing, she’s the only character who’s actually free! This also makes her the only character who can set the rest of the family free of their own self-imposed prisons of imagined success!

The movie’s momentum is an 800-mile trip the family takes because Olive accidentally wins a beauty contest. On a technicality. Unable to tell her she can’t go, the family embarks upon this trip in an old beaten-down, yellow Volkswagen van. Which they have to push to get started. And has a horn that won’t quit blaring! 

When they finally make it to the pageant, instead of celebrating, they all panic. In no time at all, the rest of the family realizes Olive is out of her league! All the contestants there are polished professionals, not amateurs like Olive. 

In an attempt to shield her, the family tries to pull Olive out of the pageant. Before they can, though, her routine begins. They all fear little Olive’s about to be laughed off the stage. Before anyone can do anything, though, the music Olive chose begins to play: Brick House, by The Commodores! …Yeah.

If it’s a contest, Olive refuses to play by the rules! And by doing so, she’s the only one who actually wins! Watching Olive romp and frolic her way through this contest ALLOWS the rest of the family to finally quit theirs, too! For the first time in the movie, everyone is finally having fun! 

They had all been so afraid if they admitted their failures, they’d be overcome by them. But in all actuality, what really happened was the exact opposite! It wasn’t until they acknowledged their losses that they were freed of their power! This! This is the counter-intuitive, cross-shaped wisdom of faith Paul is advocating to the folks in Galatia! And the rest of us today, too! 

Paul has experienced this dead-end of willpower for himself. Blessedly, though, God intervened! God didn’t leave Paul to his own devices! Instead, as Paul was going along his merry way, God interrupted. Unsolicited, God brought Paul’s pursuit to where it was headed all along, the grave. 

Unexpectedly, though, that grave turned out to be no resting place at all! Instead, it was right where God got to work! And what God did for Paul in that tomb wasn’t give him a manual for successful living. No, what God gave Paul in that tomb was everything Christ won by his death; LIFE! New life! Life eternal! The life that truly is life! 

And the very place God bestowed all this on Paul was in his tomb itself, and nowhere else! You don’t find grace by doing works, of the law or any other kind! The only place you’ll experience grace is in the tomb. Because it is there, and there alone, where faith is born! 

The Christian life, and just life in general, insists Paul, is life lived upside-down, backward, and inside out to the ways of the world! The only way to live real life isn’t to avoid death, but instead, go through it! Because it is there and there alone where Christ is literally dying to meet you!

So if you’re hearing this today fresh on the heels of your own setback (and who isn’t?), then rejoice! Rejoice! You’re right where God wants you! Real-life with all its rough edges is really the realm of the Gospel! Your corpse is everything God needs for God’s best work! 

Go ahead and romp and frolic your way through this pageant we call life and death; failure and success! In Christ, the only winners are the ones who are free enough to admit their failures! And here’s the last secret of this cross-shaped freedom, it not only bears witness to the Gospel, it even has the power to impart a little of that joy divine to others, too! 

What are you waiting for? Or, in the words of the immortal Commodores, “Shake it down. Shake it down now!”