Who are you anyway?

Intro

A few years ago I came across this biography of a girl called E. From a very early age it was obvious E was gifted. She was incredibly smart, and creative, could do things that seemed like they should be impossible for someone so young. While her parents loved her, they struggled to understand her.

From a young age, E’s life was a delicate balance of concealment and control. Her gifts, though beautiful and awe-inspiring, were also intimidating. An accident involving her younger sister left E wracked with guilt and fear. This event led to a decision that would shape her formative years: the sisters were separated, and E was taught to suppress her gifts, to “conceal, don’t feel.”

Later as a young adult, E’s giftedness was even more profound. Although she tried to hide it, she found it suffocating. She really tried to be who everyone else wanted her to be. But at one very public moment, her anxiety and nerves got the better of her, she couldn’t hide any more. After being publicly humiliated she left her hometown, and essentially became a recluse - living in this remote mountain area by herself.

Here, though, living alone as a recluse she finally found the freedom to be who she really was. Instead of listening to all of the voices around her she decided to only listen to herself. ‘No right or wrong for me’! I’m free!

‘let it go’

Anyone know what E’s full name is? Elsa.

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If you hadn’t realised yet, this is the story of Disney’s Frozen. By far, the most popular movie they’ve released for decades. Frozen resonates with so many children, and their parents because we know what it’s like to be surrounded by voices telling us who we ought to be, telling us their definition of right and wrong, telling us we have to conceal who we are and so often it is unbearable!

How do we figure out who we really are when there’s just so many voices, so much noise, so many people trying to tell us who to be, trying to control us, use us for what they can get.

Now, you might be surprised but this is exactly the problem that the Galatians were facing when Paul wrote them this letter. People trying to tell them who they were, what they were meant to be, and use them for their own ends.

They’d started so well. Against the backdrop of all of the ancient gods, all of the pressure from Rome, all of the peer pressure to conform, they’d heard the gospel, they were free....

1. A temporary ‘mute’ button

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Galatians 4:8 NRSV

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods.

These Galatians were pagans, idol worshipers. They had ‘gods’. Temples. But Paul shares the view of the Old Testament prophets, that there’s only one God.

But while Paul thought these ‘gods’ didn’t really exist, that doesn’t mean he thinks that other ‘gods’ aren’t dangerous.

Galatians 4:8–9 NRSV

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?

As I’ve said before, the bible’s view of idol worship is subtle. An idol is anything we love, what we desire most - more than god. So idols could be the ancient gods, Zeus, Artemis etc, but Jesus says that money can be an idol, power can be an idol.

And some of you might be aware that many of the gods of the ancient world were associated with things like money, or power.

The gods had specialties, and for a fee, they could dish out wealth, or a good harvest. Offer the right prayers, and your business deal would go through. Perform the right ritual, and you could have success over your enemies.

Sometimes. They were a bit fickle, like poker machines. But the promise was always there - pay your dues, and you might just get a reward.

But this was the way everyone thought back then. The gods were fickle, but you could do business with them. But that said something profound about humans doesn’t it? Human beings were perhaps tolerated by the gods, maybe they were used by them, but you and I - we’re not really worth much.

And Paul says, formerly, when you didn’t know the one true God, you were slaves to these ‘gods’. Despite the fact that they turned you into just a means to an end, just a way to get money, or respect, or ‘sacrifices’, you guys were just like the guy who can’t walk away from the pokies, putting in every last dollar in the hope of some payout.

Now, isn’t it a good thing that we modern folks aren’t like that. We don’t make sacrifices like that. We don’t let big voices tell us who we are, or shape what we aim for in life do we?

Illustration

In her frankly terrifying book Shoshana Zuboff [The age of surveillance capitalism] outlines the way in which big tech firms now have so much data on us that they not only predict our behaviour, but also shape it. We like to think we are individuals, making our own decisions, but for a long time, advertisers have known how to ‘create demand’. That’s the title of one of the most popular advertising books. But it’s now at a point where it’s so effective, so psychologically powerful, and just unavoidable, that we don’t even know we’re being manipulated. Our weaknesses and biases are used against us to keep our attention and generate advertising revenue, all the while shaping our understanding of who we are, what we are for, and why we have any value.

Now, I’m not wanting you to join me on some luddite revolution here where we all smash our smart phones and go back to hand writing letters and only using cash. Though, a regular tech sabbath is probably a good idea for your mental health.

All I’m trying to say is that while we may not think of Google, or Apple, or NewsCorp, or Bayer as ‘gods’, all of these things have voices telling us who we are, what we are for, and why we matter.

And Paul says, prior to the gospel, you Gentiles - you and I, you were enslaved to these gods. You were defined by them. You served them. You were a loyal, repeat customer.

But in the gospel, God has come to rescue from all of them. Remember at the start of Galatians he says, Jesus died to rescue you from the present evil age - the one with a cacophany of voices yelling at you, defining you, berating you, seducing you to do what they want you to do.

We’ll come back to that in a moment. Because this wasn’t the case for Jews.

See, Paul says, the God of Abraham knew that human beings are vulnerable to this kind of thing. He knows how easily we are enticed and enslaved by these voices - whether that of Artemis, or the big tech algorithms, or just plain old peer pressure.

God in his love gave the law as a kind of temporary ‘mute’ button, to protect his people against this very thing.

Jews protected from these things, but still not free

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Galatians 3:19 (NRSV)

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made...

I know, I can’t skip this, Laura promised I would deal with it.

What Paul says in these verses is pretty dense and not the easiest to work out, but it boils down to this:

Because we human beings are vulnerable to voices telling us who we are - we see that right at the start of the bible in Genesis 3 - God gave the law as a kind of ‘mute’ button. A temporary silence.

And he uses two metaphors to say this, protective custody, and having a babysitter.

In verse 22,

Galatians 3:22 NRSV

But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

The Romans used to put people in prison while they waited for the courts to decide what to do with them. That’s kind of what the law did for the Jews. It highlighted what sin was, it showed the problem of what idolatry leads to, and ‘brought a case’ against them.

But the other metaphor Paul uses is that of a babysitter. He says that in verse 24, and then picks in up at the start of chapter 4 again.

In Greco-Roman culture, there was a slave whose job it was to do nothing other than ensure that kids got to school. They would walk them from the house to the school, make sure they stayed there, didn’t wag, didn’t get distracted, didn’t get mugged, and after school, they’d walk them home.

I gather Greco-Roman culture was a bit like modern parenting in that way - not like the old days where ‘we used to walk 5 miles to and from school by ourselves, rain, hail or shine’.

If you try and let your kid do that today you’ll get a visit from a social worker.

The point was to God gave the law to protect his people from all of the things that want to enslave us. It was like a big ‘mute’ button.

And for the Galatians, facing the voices of the ‘gods’, the voice of the Roman emperor demanding worship, their neighbours, it was tempting to become Jewish just to shut all of them up.

Explain

And I suspect, if we’ve been Christian for a while, and we feel the pressure to conform to the world - all the voices of peer pressure, of consumerism, the forces that try to influence, it can be exhausting. And if God gave the law to mute all of those voices, it can be really appealing to use it.

How do I silence the voice that says, your next door neighbour just went on another OS holiday. They must be doing better than you. How do I shut that voice up? Easy, the law says, thou shalt not covet.

How do I silence the voice that says,...

The first problem with that, as even the most cursory reading of the OT will tell you - is that no one ends up following the law. Everyone who has ever tried that eventually turns the sound back up, then listens to whatever the voice was saying. That’s what Paul means when he talks about being imprisoned, and he fleshes this out much more in Romans.

But the bigger problem is that, Jesus has come. The trial has happened, Jesus fulfilled the laws, we’ve been acquitted, and we’ve reached the point at which we no longer need a babysitter.

Transition

God’s solution is not a giant mute button. But a better voice.

2. One voice who welcomes you

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In the gospel, we’ve heard God’s voice.

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Galatians 3:26–29 NRSV

for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Explain

What’s this saying?

Whoever you thought you were, whatever anyone else said about you, however anyone else defined you - because of the gospel none of it counts. You have a new identity in Christ. You’ve been clothed with Christ.

Often the way we think about Baptism, we think of it as a wash. A fresh start. All of the grime and dirt, the sin, the evil we’ve done, the injustice we’ve been a part of, the crumby way we’ve treated people - it’s all washed away. Jesus takes all of it to the cross, we come out clean.

But there’s something else that happens at Baptism, when you become a Christian that is even more important that just getting a fresh start. You get a new family.

illustraiton - adoption

Years ago I lived with a family who had decided to adopt a little girl. They were anglo aussies and they’d struggled to have kids for a long time. They had one son, now 13 but they desperately wanted more kids and after years and years of beuracracy, paperwork, endless waiting, they finally got the news that they were able to adopt this little girl Bo from Thailand.

Now, I lived with this family for a year and when I first met Bo, she pretty much only spoke Thai - very little English. She would put her hands together and tilt her head to say thankyou. She liked her new family but was naturally a bit nervous around them - it was all so new. When I went and visited this family years later, Bo was obviously much bigger, now completely fluent in English, and was very obviously secure in her new family. She belonged just as much as her older brother belonged. It was still obvious looking at her that she was different, but it didn’t matter. Because her parents said ‘you are our child.’ We love you. No matter what.

In our baptism, we take on Christ. We’re adopted into God’s family, because we share Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.

This new outfit (Christ) is the thing that counts.

For Christians, the clothes really do maketh the man or woman.

Galatians 3:28 NRSV

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Our baptism, the new clothes we put on is God’s way of silencing all of those other voices that tell us who we are, why we do or don’t matter.

See this is how the gospel is so much better than the thinking behind Frozen and every one trying to ‘just be true to themselves’. Elsa, and everyone like her thinks that the only way to be truly free is to block out all the other voices and live your own truth. But in a world where we can’t even figure out where our own desires come from - are they from us? Are they from someone else? And even if they are from me, are they good? And even if I want to just live my own truth, what if history has something to say about who I am? (as it happens, Frozen 2 seems to realise this).

The gospel, our baptism offers a way to be truly free. Because it doesn’t just block out the other voices, it doesn’t ask us to make it up ourselves - as if that were truly possible.

No, in our baptism we hear a voice telling us who we are - but it’s the voice of the one who loves us, who made us, who deeply desires us, and who went to the ends of the earth to rescue us.

in our baptism, those voices who say you exist to remind us of what a sinner is, those voices who say, your only value is your looks, or your ability to have kids, those voices who say, you were made to serve me. All of them are drowned out by God’s voice saying you are my Son. You are my daughter. You are an heir.

Apply

Our leadership positions on Parish Council, in small group bible studies, in paid ministry vocational ministry, in senior leadership of the diocese, are open to men and women.

The reason for that is not because its 2024 already. Not because our culture believes in equality - though how much it actually believes in that is up for debate. The reason our leadership positions are open to anyone is not because it’s “self evident that all that all men are created equal” That’s not self-evident at all. Says who? Plenty of voices disagree with that.

No, it’s because the gospel demands it. It’s because in the gospel, God refuses to count anything other than our baptism. We may still be male or female, of a particular ethnic background, part of a particular SES, but none of it counts. You’re adopted. In the family. You are an heir. You belong, just as much as Jesus belongs!

Transition

And that means, you have a voice.

3. An invitation to use your voice

Illustration

I’ve only ever been in court once. I wasn’t the defendant!

But there are conversations that you just can’t have with a judge.

If you’re a defendant, you might hope that the judge will say ‘not guilty’. But never in your wildest dreams would you expect them to say ‘I love you’. What are you supposed to say to that? ‘your honour, I love you too!’??

But the gospel says, if we are in Christ, if we are ‘wearing him’, then whole new conversations are possible.

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Galatians 4:4–7 NRSV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

God the Father is not just willing to forgive us, he welcomes and embraces us as his children, never to send us away.

Would the Father ever send Jesus away? Would he ever tone down his love for Jesus? Would he ever change his mind about Jesus?

Of course not!

And here’s the thing, Paul says God’s plan was always to adopt us as his children, and to give us his Spirit.

“In the fullness of time, God sent. “

That’s what he wanted to do. No one twisted his arm. No one had to convince him. It’s not like he does it through gritted teeth.

It was always the plan.

It was always the plan for us to be in the family.

God has always wanted to hear us say ‘Abba! Father!’

No payment is needed. There’s no pound of flesh to be extracted. There’s no need to sell your labour, your data, your flesh or your soul.

There’s just an invitation from God to call on him, to use your voice, and he will answer. Because a good father answers the child he loves.

Conclusion

You and I were made to find our rest and satisfaction in God’s all-satisfying fellowship.

Our problem is not so much that we have behaved wrongly, but we have been drawn to love wrongly. Drawn by voices telling us we were made for something else. That everything comes down to ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’.

But God doesn’t want us to be valued customers. He wants us to be family!

Who are you?

You are not your gender, you are not your sexuality, you are not your nationality, you are not your wealth, you are not your age, you are not what you eat, you are not what you wear, you are not your postcode, or your highest level of education, you are not your good days, you are not your bad days, you are not your past, you are not the sum total of your social media followers.

In Christ you are God’s dearly loved child. You belong in his family. You are set to inherit everything. You exist to enjoy God. Which means you are free.

Pray