Sermon Sunday 22 June 8 and 10am – Galatians 3:23-end, Luke 8:26-39

Let’s talk this morning about some unhelpful advice that I hear all the time, and sometimes I give it. It is the advice to, just be yourself. 

There are two different meanings to this advice. The first is, make yourself comfortable, feel at home, don’t worry too much about how you come across. And that can be quite helpful, and I hope you all feel you can be yourselves in that sense in this church.

But there is a second meaning. It goes something like this: Who are you, who do you feel yourself to be and who do you want to be, what are your wishes, desires and instincts, and then live them out, express them. Be yourself! Be yourself in this sense is closely related to other pieces of advice such as, follow your heart, find your own truth and do what feels right to you.

I’m not even sure we really mean it when we say this to people. Do we really want people to be themselves if our natural self is selfish, impatient, ungenerous, unkind? I know I have those tendencies, it’s why I don’t want to ‘just be myself’. 

But also, receiving this advice makes everything about myself, me being happy, me fulfilling my potential, me following my latest love-interest, because I’m worth it. I deserve to be happy. I am in charge of my own life.

It is the air we breathe in our society, and actually, when we think about it, it’s not a terribly healthy air.

Because, it turns out that doing what we want, our own choices, are often not so good for others, especially not for the most vulnerable, unborn infants, children, the ill, and the world’s poorest. And actually, very often what we thought was good or fun, or something we simply wanted, doesn’t turn out to be good for us either, and when the thrill has worn of it leaves us sad, lonely and confused. 

The man possessed by demons in our Gospel reading is an extreme example of what this existence on our own terms can look like. We may even recognise some of this man’s condition in our own life, or in the struggles many have with loneliness and their mental health. The man is isolated from society and even from family and friends, he is lonely, he struggles get through life, oppressed by actual demons, or in our case more likely oppressed by troubled relationships, regret about past life choices, or our mental health. And this man hungers for an encounter with someone who can set them free from all that. Longing for someone who is stronger than all that. For an encounter with Jesus.

And maybe someone who is here today or is watching online is feeling like that today, and needs to hear that Jesus is stronger than whatever you’re going through or whatever force oppresses you. And all of us can do with being reminded that He is with us this morning as we gather as a Christian community, as we reflect on his Word and as we receive Holy Communion. He is here to meet and restore each of us.

The encounter with Jesus leads to a remarkable transformation in this man. From naked, wandering around among the graves and in the wild, and with a confused mind, at the end of our Gospel reading he is found sitting at the feet of Jesus, now he is clothed and in his right mind. He becomes a disciple – that is a follower and friend of Jesus – who goes to tell everyone what Jesus has done for him. How Jesus has set him free, and how He has the power to set others free.

In the encounter with Jesus, his life is thoroughly reset, he is no longer left to just be himself, he finds now the true meaning of his life by letting it revolve around Jesus.

Similarly for us, God does not only set us free from what oppresses us, he does not only set us free from those things we keep on doing even though they harm us and others, he also fills the vacuum with a new purpose, our new identity as followers of Jesus.

This is exactly what Paul is talking about in his Letter to the Churches in Galatia. He is talking about baptism and how through faith we all become children of God. We receive a new identity, we become a child of God by receiving the identity of Jesus. And that when we are baptised we are clothed with Christ. Clothing, perhaps more than anything else, is a way to express ourselves and our identity. And as Christians, we clothe ourselves with Christ. What does that mean? Well, Jesus is the one who is always in right relationship with God his Father, and loving and serving those around him. And stepping into Jesus’ shoes, into Jesus’ clothes means living in that way. 

And possibly Paul is here even quoting a text that was used at baptisms in the very early church, ‘there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.’ Very different people, but all united in wearing Jesus’ clothes. 

This doesn’t mean that we no longer have our old identities, it means that they receive their proper place, part of our personal story, part of our life, our journey, and our gifts, but it is not our defining characteristic. The only thing that can carry the weight of being our defining characteristic is our identity as a child of God, our identity of being with Jesus. But God never wipes out our own stories, we are all called as unique people to follow in the steps of Christ, and we stay unique as each of us also becomes like Jesus. 

Last Sunday we had 10 people who were baptised and confirmed in this new identity, who denied the temptation to ‘just be themselves’, and who committed themselves to instead be clothed with Jesus Christ and to follow Him.

In the early church, one of the things they did with adult baptisms was strip the candidate naked – please remember that baptisms used to happen in separate rooms/baptistries, the candidates were separated by gender, and of course they were part of a strong public bathing culture – as a way to signify the old life being stripped off, and then after the baptism they would be dressed in white robes – something that is still done in many baptisms – as a sign of taking on that new identity of Jesus Christ, and the starting of a new life that is no longer about ourselves but following in Jesus’ footsteps.

And remember the demon-possessed man in our Gospel reading who was naked at the start and then clothed at the end of the story, sitting at Jesus feet, as a disciple, a follower and friend.

Strip off our old clothes, our old identities and have the courage to put new clothes on, a new identity: to dress ourselves with Jesus Christ. To live in that right relationship with God and others.

Not to be left to life on our own terms but receive meaning and purpose by living our life on His terms, stepping in Jesus’ shoes, Jesus’ clothes, and show in our society that so desperately needs it what Jesus looks like in Cranleigh in 2025.

Amen.