Friday, October 23, 2026, St James of Jerusalem, brother of our Lord, Martyr (d. c. 62)
Ephesians 4:1-6
I have heard more than a few terrible graduation speeches in my time, but the worst has to be one I heard given by Taylor Swift. In an effort to try and motivate the graduating cohort of a North American University, she left them with these parting words:
“How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t. The scary news is you’re on your own now.
But the cool news is you’re on your own now.”
They say if you want to know a peoples’ religion, listen to their artists. And this is the civilisational water we are swimming in: you’re own your own. It is terrifying. Try and fool yourself into believing this is good news.
Contrast this with the good news of the apostle:
4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Jesus Christ reveals to us that we are not, in fact, alone. You are called into his body, which is one, by the Holy Spirit, who is one, through your faith, which is the one true faith, by the one baptism sufficient for salvation, to the one God and Father of all. Individuality is subsumed into the oneness of God.
Spotify’s most-listened tells you that it is your difference that is important. What makes you unique? What makes you stand apart? That is what makes you special.
Contrast this to the apostle, who asks: what makes you unique? What makes you stand apart? Those are only gifts, given to you by God, that you must bring into subject under God’s authority, in order to serve God and his kingdom.
Our identity is, therefore, in a tug-of-war match between: the flesh, the world, the devil, and Taylor Swift on one side; and God on the other. One side is trying to convince you that what makes you different is what makes you special. The other side is the revelation from heaven that what makes you special is the fact you belong to God. And so we all must wrestle with this in ourselves. We are not safe from this because we are Christian; in fact, we are even more prone to attack on this front because we are Christian.
Consider the gifts you have. Intelligence; persistence; creativity; confidence; generosity; conscientiousness: whatever has come down from on high into your nature to make you who you are. It is not you who are made special by those gifts. It is the God who gave you those gifts who makes you special. You are special not because of who you are, but because of whose you are. We so often clutch and snatch onto our individual uniqueness and become selfish and self-centred, losing sight of the glorious Lord of all who gave us ourselves in the first place!
Further to this, it is a great comfort to know we are, in fact, not on our own. To be on our own is terrifying; in this, Taylor Swift is correct. But it is the opposite of “cool”. It is horror in the true sense of the word (in fact, an entire sub-genre called “cosmic horror” has been created just to open up this horrific idea that we might be alone in the universe). But into that horrific idea steps the glorious light of the Lord Jesus Christ, this man born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago to the blessed virgin Mary; who grew in wisdom and understanding and did all things well; who revealed himself by many signs and miracles to be God Almighty; who died for our sins, removing the greatest burden humanity suffers under, our moral failing; and rose again, demonstrating that there is no longer any condemnation for those who place their love and trust in him.
And to all who have done so have come into something bigger than themselves. Instead of stumbling in their outer darkness trying to find a part of themselves apart from God that they can call their own, we have joined the glorious wedding feast of the Lamb, to have joined the communion of saints and angels who, under Almighty God’s benevolent providence, rule creation in his name and by his power.
The scary news is that we are not, in fact, alone. But the cool news is that we are not, in fact, alone – and he loves us very much, and has promised to keep us by his side forever and ever, to him be the glory, amen.