{"id":8184,"date":"2022-08-09T16:29:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T23:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8184"},"modified":"2022-08-09T16:29:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T23:29:22","slug":"who-am-i-i-am-thine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8184","title":{"rendered":"
\u201cWho am I? I am Thine.\u201d <\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galatians 2:20<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ultimate question is: What is really, really, really real? What is truth? Of course, that says something about who you are and who I am, but it\u2019s really the ultimate question: What\u2019s really, really, really real?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no other Gospel. Paul is very harsh about that. He uses the strongest language: Even if an angel from heaven preaches another gospel, let him be damned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says in Galatians 2:5 and 2:14 that \u201cthe truth of the gospel\u201d is what it\u2019s about. Then in Gal 2:20 he points out exactly what that means for you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we ask: What is truth?, most of us think of Pilate and his question: \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d (John 18:38). And the paragraph ends. Who knows? As the poet Swinburne wrote: \u201cPilate asked: \u2018What is truth?\u2019 and did not stay for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common idea among us is that truth is anything and everything. Who knows what\u2019s really, really, really real? Isn\u2019t it all a matter of opinion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two hundred and fifty years ago there was a movement called Spiritualism, the conviction that the physical world is populated by multiple worlds of spirits. Even Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) was interested. The great magician Houdini, who himself had done amazing tricks of magic, spent the last twenty years of his life investigating the Spiritualists. He was always able to show how their claims were fake, how they tricked people into believing. Of course, that didn\u2019t bother the Spiritualists at all because they had so many followers, so many believers. It was during this time that G. K. Chesterton wrote: \u201cWhen people stop believing in God, they don\u2019t believe in nothing, they believe in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting in the 1960\u2019s, the Pew Foundation did a fifty-year survey and found that the number of people who claim to have direct spiritual experience rose in that period from 22% to 48%. That\u2019s a big change. Why? What\u2019s going on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul writes in 2 Cor 11:14: \u201cEven Satan appears as an angel of light.\u201d But to those who claim to have had spiritual experiences, that can\u2019t apply to them! Everyone thinks: \u201cMy experience is real. It\u2019s other people who are deceived, mixed-up. My experience is real.\u201d For these people, what\u2019s really, really, really real is my experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should that be true? The flip side of making my experience final is the claim that everybody has a right to his own opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is opinion, and there is that which we can measure, and that\u2019s real. You are welcome to your opinion, but what is really, really, really real is what can be observed and measured. That\u2019s what\u2019s really real. And those who believe that reality is what we can measure think that it\u2019s only a matter of time before we can measure accurately and know for sure. They\u2019re more like the Spiritualists than they realize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA\u2019s James Webb Telescope recently released stunning pictures of outer, outer space. The Telescope is reaching into millions of other galaxies and points to more beyond what it can now \u201csee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People think that scientists, physicists, astronomers, and the like can just go out there and measure things. But really it\u2019s like playing blind-man\u2019s bluff. It\u2019s as if you go into a room which is completely dark and you can\u2019t see anything. It\u2019s absolutely dark and when you touch something it may be moving or not. And you try to measure it and try other such experiments and guesswork, trying to figure out what\u2019s there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does Galatians say is real? In Galatians 2 Paul talks about confronting Cephas. (\u201cCephas\u201d is Aramaic for \u201cPeter.\u201d Peter ironically meant \u201cRocky.\u201d Peter was rocky, somebody who wobbled; for example, he denied Christ three times.) In Galatians 2:11 Paul writes: \u201cI condemned him.\u201d He doesn\u2019t say: \u201cWe disagreed.\u201d Paul says in effect: I condemned him because he was against \u201cthe truth of the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is \u201cthe truth of the gospel\u201d? Paul writes in Gal 2:20: \u201cI have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.\u201d \u201cGave himself\u201d means gave up on the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point we come to a fascinating point of grammar: the difference between the \u201cobjective\u201d and \u201csubjective\u201d genitive. In many languages there is the genitive case, the \u201cof,\u201d belonging to or pointing to. You can\u2019t tell here whether it is it \u201cthe faith of Christ\u201d or \u201cthe faith in Christ.\u201d We have the idea that it means faith in Christ so everything depends on our faith. It cannot be determined by the grammar. Both could be true. If it\u2019s a subjective genitive, then it\u2019s Christ\u2019s faith. If it\u2019s an objective genitive, then it\u2019s my faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same question arises in Galatians 2:16 and 2:20. The context is decisive. Remember that Paul had poor eyesight and sometimes he dictated letters to a secretary or stenographer (6:11). Look what happens in Gal 4:9: \u201cNow that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God.\u201d He had started out: \u201cNow that you have come to know God\u201d but immediately realized he misspoke and he corrects himself, rather \u201cthat you are known by God.\u201d That tells us that it isn\u2019t our faith; it\u2019s what God has done through Jesus Christ that produces faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He makes this point not just this one verse but in other places, too. Go to Philippians 2:12-13: \u201cWork out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.\u201d (Some recent translations try to obscure this point.) He does it. He does the willing. He does the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go to Philippians 3:12: \u201cI press on to make it my own, because Christ has made me his own.\u201d He has already made me his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A modern echo of this gospel truth is found in a poem by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In World War II Bonhoeffer was part of a plot to kill Hitler. The plot failed and Bonhoeffer and others were imprisoned and eventually executed. While Bonhoeffer was imprisoned, he wrote letters and essays to people. In 1944 he wrote a poem \u201cWho am I?\u201d He asks: What\u2019s it all about? Where is it all going? After several verses he concludes with these two lines: \u201cWho am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is exactly what is said in the sixth chapter of John. After the feeding of the 5,000 the people fall away, everyone except Jesus\u2019 inner circle. John 6:44 states: \u201cNo one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.\u201d And then in John 6:65: \u201cNo one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.\u201d Or John 1:13: \u201c[But to all] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who am I? I am the one who has been made his own no matter what my experiences. No matter what my measurements. What is finally real, what finally counts, is that he has made you his own no matter what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it says in John 10:29 (the Shepherd chapter): \u201cMy Father . . . is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father\u2019s hand.\u201d That is \u201cthe truth of the gospel.\u201d Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

Galatians 2:20<\/p>\n

The ultimate question is: What is really, really, really real? What is truth? Of course, that says something about who you are and who I am, but it\u2019s really the ultimate question: What\u2019s really, really, really real?<\/p>\n

There is no other Gospel. Paul is very harsh about that. He uses the strongest language: Even if an angel from heaven preaches another gospel, let him be damned.<\/p>\n

He says in Galatians 2:5 and 2:14 that \u201cthe truth of the gospel\u201d is what it\u2019s about. Then in Gal 2:20 he points out exactly what that means for you and me.<\/p>\n

When we ask: What is truth?, most of us think of Pilate and his question: \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d (John 18:38). And the paragraph ends. Who knows? As the poet Swinburne wrote: \u201cPilate asked: \u2018What is truth?\u2019 and did not stay for an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8184"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8190,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8184\/revisions\/8190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}