The myth of the self-made person

For the first time ever, the title of the blog post comes from what might amount to a mini-rant in the middle of a sermon.

The sermon title is “What do we need?” and is intended to give us some insight into how important it is to see that there are a number of things that we simply cannot do for ourselves. There is a pernicious notion in our culture that the best people are self-made people, which might be true if there ever was such a person. No one is “self-made” in the stereotypical human sphere and that is even more the case when it comes to spiritual things. No matter how much we study or work or meditate, there are some things that only God can do for us and Paul gives us just one example in Ephesians 3:18, 19. It isn’t that we won’t do the work to discover the “breadth and length and height and depth” of the love of Christ, it is that we can’t.

Knox Presbyterian What do we need?

St. Mark’s Presbyterian What do we need?

I can’t remember which sermon has the “best” example of the rant but if you find one of them more “rant-ful” than the other, let me know.

Blessings,