mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning

Born of the One Light Eden / saw play

A sermon on the conclusion of the Epistle to the Galatians:

I’d like to begin today’s sermon with a confession. I will turn 40 this month. Yes, you heard me right—40. Soon, I will be 40 years old.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “That’s just a baby.” And I will grant you, in the grand scheme of things, 40 isn’t that old. But, considering I knew enough to know what you were thinking, perhaps I’m not as young as you imagine. And anyway, it’s beside the point. It’s beside the point.

The fact is, we’re all helplessly trapped in our own existence. 40 is as old as I’ve ever been. For me, 40 is old. And I’m sorry, but just because you’re older doesn’t mean I’m not, too. Or, for that matter, the 6-and-a-half, thank you very much, year old.

Like you, life has changed under my feet. And the strange thing is, it all happened without my awareness, too. Yes, I knew the days were passing. BUT I was totally unprepared for the way they would accumulate. 

I first noticed this a little over two years ago. I can’t help but wonder if I would have noticed sooner had it not been for Covid. Regardless, one day, the routines began to turn into ruts. And just like the water in the river valley we live amongst, that path just sped the waters of my life by faster and faster.

One day, the past started to pull away. But the odd thing was, the past didn’t seem so far off to me. What’s more, the future began to rush toward me, too. Suddenly, the days began to blur into one another until a week passed just as quickly as a day. 

All the while, the present got lost in the shuffle. It was as if my ability to savor the moment diminished as time caught up with me. Plus, even when I could find the time to take some time, it was all tinged by this apprehension of just how fleeting it was. Meanwhile, all the same old demands kept making all their same old demands.

It was like that Talking Heads song, Once in a Lifetime. As David Byrne had predicted, I had to ask myself, “Well, how did I get here.” “And the days go by." Sing it with me! "Water flowing underground.” No?

…Mostly, I got by with an awful concoction of panic and lethargy. I wouldn’t recommend it. As far as I can tell, the only thing I have to show for it is less hair. But, thanks be to God, here I am. 

And I do owe God many thanks. Honestly, I believe church has been my saving grace. Week in and week out, I knew I had a place to land. And each week, I heard that, although the devil may have been in the details, GOD was in the numbers—even as they kept creeping up.

Plus, the church put me in the company of you saints who have lived through what I was experiencing. Each week, I gathered with folks putting one foot in front of the other amidst that uncanny passage of time. What’s more, the church also introduced me to theologians who considered time, not from our time-bound perspective, but God’s. You only need to listen to Robert Jenson riff on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the very flow of past, present, and future itself to chill out about time’s mysterious passage!

It all served to reassure me. This plodding along we all do day after day after day is what real life really consists of! The aim of existence isn’t glamor. It’s veracity. And if you don’t believe me, go back and reread today’s Scripture. Paul’s guidance is nothing if not realistic.

But I mention this, not to do some “true spirituality is life in reality.” Although, I could. No, I mention all this simply to notice that you can feel the same way about today’s Scripture as one does of middle age. Can’t you? You read this passage, and you can’t help but wonder, "Is this all it has come to?!?? I quote the Talking Heads once again: “Same as it ever was.” Same as it ever was.

It was only last week that we heard the Great Commission. And this week, it’s petty squabbles about customs and conventions! Furthermore, this passage was written less than 25 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. For heaven’s sake, I’m older than that! But, in that short amount of time, Christianity has devolved into this. 

Sure, it’s nice to know the unusual contours of life are not all that unusual. But on the other hand, it can all become a little oppressive, too. Can’t it? There comes a time when you just want to brush away all the detritus and indifference and actually start living for one blessed instant!

Today, though, it appears not even Christianity itself is immune from the wear and tear of time. Why, even Saint Paul, that renegade of the Gospel, is unable to resist time’s all-flattening force. He, too, falls prey to intramural squabbles and factionalism. Or so it would seem. Or so it would seem.

…Today’s passage is the very end of Paul’s epistle to First Lutheran in Galatia. And as he concludes, he can’t help but offer a little advice. God save us from well-meaning pastors and their so-called suggestions. I don’t know about you, but nothing ruins a sermon for me faster than advice. If I were just here for advice, I’d consult artificial intelligence! God save us from advice, period.

But then, it gets worse! To conclude, Paul takes the pen from his assistant. Wanting to emphasize his point, Paul makes it in his own hand. Only it doesn’t come off as profound. Does it? No, it seems unhinged!

Paul is so worked up about so little an issue! And it’s a personal one at that, too! Methinks the pastor doth protest too much. Perhaps Paul’s just too stuck on his own position and so has lost the forest for the trees.

But then Paul goes on. “Don’t you get it,” he cries. Don’t you get it? It’s all utterly beside the point! Circumcision. Uncircumcision. It all amounts to nothing more than a hill of beans. 

Or, as our passage puts it, “It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision.” Or, as the trusty NRSV puts it, and this is a little closer to the original Greek: “For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything.” Or, as the good ‘ol King James has it, and this is even closer to the original Greek: “Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision.”

…Nor uncircumcision?!? As Luther says, “This is an amazing way to state the issue, when Paul says that “in Christ, neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything.” It would seem that instead it should have said, “It’s either circumcision or uncircumcision, one of the two is of value,” seeing that these two are in opposition. BUT now he denies that any of the two have any value at all.” End of quotation.

You would think that here, at the end of his argument, Paul would impugn one practice and champion the other. BUT that’s not what he does! Is it? No, instead, he says neither matter one whit! 

Who's ever heard of arguing like that? No one, that’s who! Cutting down even your own argument?!? Nobody does that! But Saint Paul does. Doesn’t he? And he does so because Paul is speaking of something utterly unheard of and altogether new!

As our passage puts it, “It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God IS doing, and he is creating something new, a free life!” And I like that. It spells out what Paul compacts. 

However, I think Paul wants to compress this final, explosive proclamation. The NRSV gets it pretty decent: “For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!” And the King James is even closer: “Neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” 

For my money, though, the Greek itself is best of all: Neither circumcision is any thing, nor uncircumcision, but *WHPH* new creation.” That’s it! “Alla kainee kitis” in Greek. But new creation. Nothing else. Nothing more. But new creation.

Paul plants it like a bomb in the middle of all the tired ol’ infighting! It’s all folderol, says the battle-weary Gospel preacher. And then, before anyone can take cover, *BANG, Jesus Christ himself EXPLODES unto the scene *Whammo! New creation!

…*Woah! Talk about new! Who’s ever heard of this?!? No one, that’s who! This is new like Sunday morning! But NOT Sunday as in the beginning of a new week. No, Sunday as in the beginning of new creation, new existence, new life, new you! 

This is why Sunday used to be called the Eighth Day. Sunday is time out of time! Sunday is the dawning of a new age! Sunday is the stroke of eternity itself, intruding onto the present order! 

Sunday is like that great scene Ordet when the mother is raised. Remember that one? Brought back to life, she and her husband passionately embrace. As everyone else looks on, not knowing what to think or do, the youngest son goes to the clock and sets the pendulum to a’swinging again. Time itself has changed! NEW creation!

This is why a lot of baptismal fonts have eight sides, too! Our’s doesn’t. But I think that’s just some good old-fashioned Lutheran pragmatism at work. Who needs eight sides when you can do it with six?

But the point still stands! In baptism, you are born out of yourself and all that old business. In baptism, you are born out of yourself, and, in turn, you are reborn INTO Christ! Christ, the firstborn of creation. Christ, the first fruits of the resurrection!

This is why Christ is often called the new Adam. In Christ, existence itself recapitulates itself. But, INSTEAD of that tired ol’ story of futility and rebellion, Christ enacts a new one of obedience and liveliness! This is why Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life. He’s not making ultimatums! Oh no, he’s making promises! Promises with the power to redo YOU in him!

In Jesus, life actually happens for once! And, in your baptism into Christ Jesus, you have recourse to the life that really is life! As Saint Irenaeus said, and some of us have recently read about him, but as Saint Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is humanity fully alive.” “The glory of God is humanity fully alive.” Irenaeus could say this because Christ, the glory as of a father’s only son, fully lived. And by his death, he died all our deaths himself. BUT, by his resurrection, he gave us NEW birth into HIS new life fully lived in God!

And there it is all over again. Isn’t it? New life. New birth. New you. New creation. Full-stop. Period. *Boom. 

And at the center of this nova stands Jesus Christ himself. Jesus, the nuclear core of God’s burning love. Jesus, the nuclear core of God’s burning love, humming with the white-hot fire of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, that bond of love between the Father and the Son. The bond of love so energetic and spirited it radiates OUT of itself. The Holy Spirit, that bond of love between the Father and the Son is so complete that radiates OUT of itself to embrace, and so, redeem and recreate ALL of creation itself.

New creation. Nothing else. Nothing more. New creation. That’s it!

…You know, earlier, I said something that wasn’t entirely true. I said we’re all hopelessly trapped in our own existence. And sure, that used to be true. It used to be true. But it’s not anymore. And it’s not because of Christ.

In Christ, you can step out of yourself. In Christ, you can step out of yourself and into LIFE. In Christ, you can step into the life that really is life. In Christ, life itself happens to you! And in Christ, it all happens to you, all over again, for the first time, once and for all!

As we will sing in our hymn, “Morning has broken, like the first morning.” In Christ, creation itself comes back to you. Only now, it comes as the original GIFT it’s been all along! In Christ, apocalypse now! In Christ, Eden forever! In Christ, new creation.

That, finally, fellow children of Christ, our mother, was the problem Saint Paul had with the circumcision faction. And it’s our problem, too. It wasn’t that they had differing opinions. No, it’s that they just wanted to make something out of their life. And, like good believers, they wanted to use religion.

Paul knew better, though. Paul knew that’s really just the surest way to never really live one hot second of this glorious existence. And worst of all, it’s the best way to miss everything God has given, Christ has won, and the Holy Spirit has redeemed, too! 

However! However, hidden in that loss is everything Christ won! And Christ is a prodigal giver, too! He never tires of welcoming home his lost children. And so Christ does for you TODAY, too! But BEFORE you can even get a word of your rehearsed apology off your lips, Christ smothers you in his warm embrace! And all the while, HE calls for the great feast of salvation! The feast of salvation of which he’s the sacrificial lamb for you.

And it all happens now! TODAY is the last day of your life! And it’s your first moment of eternity, too! Smash your watch! It’ll do you no good here. It’s all, suddenly, oh so very new! *WHPH* New creation!

…There’s nothing more to say. The rest, and it’s all rest. The rest is all music. So let’s go for it. Shall we?

Our Hymn of the Day is hymn number 556. Morning Has Broken. Hymn number 556. Morning Has Broken. Reborn all over again, let’s sing, fellow newborns in Christ!

Morning Has Broken, ELW 556