2 Corinthians: A Heart for Reconciliation

Taking a break so that those readers from St. Paul's can participate in "A Heart for Reconciliation" - the 2 Corinthians study we are doing as a congregation.

Galatians 4:10-11

Galatians 4:10-11New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.

A quick thought about these two verses.  

There is something comforting to me to know that Paul got discouraged himself from time to time.  I'm sure there isn't a person active in a church today that doesn't occasionally think that work gets wasted.

We live in a church-world very different from the one of our parents and grandparents. We live with less financial resources, less people involved, more competition for time, and an increasingly apathetic - and sometimes hostile - wider culture.

There are tons of books and articles giving ideas of how to be church in this post-modern age. How to survive, let alone thrive.

And we feel pressure sometimes to cling to our traditions or pressure to try new things. Pressure to figure things out and get things right if we want to be relevant or even just stick around!

We feel pressure not to make mistakes.

We disagree amongst ourselves how to be church today. How to be relevant. How to worship. How to lead. How to be a community of faith.

And when the conflict grows, we wonder if we are wasting time on the next new thing or idea. Or the old thing or practice. 

Paul wondered if he was wasting time. The great leader of the church got discouraged too.

And my message for him, and for us, is no. We aren't wasting time.

We aren't always going to get it right. We are going to learn from mistakes. We are going to learn about God in ways that might not always seem correct or theologically sound. We are going to learn about ourselves and each other each time we just put ourselves out there.

Because God is still present in the trying. Even when we don't get it right. 

Because faith, trust...isn't about getting it right. It's about following and being engaged, even when we are going about it all wrong. Even when we are scared or doubt or feel discouraged.

The church isn't dying. We aren't wasting our time. We are in a time of great change and upheaval.

But God's got this. And in faith, we learn, and grow, and continue. Even if we feel discouraged. Even if something we try completely fails.

Because God is in the business of always making things new.

Lord God, help us not to give up when things seems to be changing at a rate more rapid that we can keep up with. Save us from our discouragement and remind us that you are always making things new and this church is yours no matter how many times the world tells us differently.  Amen.

Galatians 4:1-9

Galatians 4:1-9New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world. 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.

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?

I think Paul is tapping into something big here. It has to do with time; it has to do with scripture; it has to do with us and our consciousness.

The story of scripture to me is an ever evolving arc. From the release of the captives of Israel, through the judges, and the kings, and the prophets, the understanding of God by God's people evolved and grew.

Initially, as Paul points out, God's people were children. They needed the laws and boundaries that God gave them. And they saw God perhaps as a harsh master or angry father.  I've heard many people be taken aback and truly troubled by the violent, vengeful God they perceive in the early parts of the Old Testament. That was the God the people understood at that time. That was the story of faith they were able to give.

As time went on perhaps, God began to show new facets in scripture. Or perhaps not new ones, but ones that the people had not yet perceived.

And when the time was right - God was able to show God's self in a way that God's people could identify in a way they weren't ready for before. God in flesh. God among us.

Does our own faith journey not follow a similar path?

Do we retain the same understanding of God at 5, 15, 35, 65...

And if so...why?

We are no longer slaves to the law, says Paul. No longer slaves to a childish understanding of a harsh judge.

What are the things that have pushed and broadened your understanding of God throughout your life?

Lord Jesus, thank you for always showing us the way, even when that way pushes and challenges us to grow in understanding of you. Amen.

Galatians 3:19-29

Galatians 3:19-29New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made; and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one.

Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. 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.

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 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.

A storm is increasingly loud as I write this.  There's been thunder and rain for the last few hours and now it sounds as if it is coming close again.

Reminds me of the rule about "not being on your computer" in a storm. Or not standing under a tree. Or being in water.

It's good to have those rules. They keep us safe.

Just like the law was given to keep us safe. And show us civility to our neighbor.

But the law is interestingly paradoxical. We sometimes over rely on it - often for others. Or completely ignore it.

Often for ourselves.

OK, that's not always true. But I'll bet it's often true. I'll bet you can think of examples when it's true.

I'll bet there are laws that annoy the heck out of you when other people disobey them.

And laws that you yourself sometimes forget to regard.

It's been like that since the law came into the lives of human beings.

But then something special changed how the law - God's law anyway (you probably should still obey the civil and Federal laws in this country!).

The law became subject to the man. One man.  One man-god.

One Jesus.

One Christ.

Who took the law, and freed us from the tyranny of it. 

He didn't make it disappear. It is still there. But it isn't what our lives depend on. Jesus is what our lives depend on.

Now, Paul does really well using words to try to explain how that works. And that's fine. But making sure you understand how it works correctly isn't really the issue.

Living as if you know it is true and glorying in that. Relishing in that freedom in love. 

Now that's something!

God of love, you have set us free.  Help us to live into that freedom in love and always be mindful of the freedom of our sisters and brothers as well.  Amen.

Galatians 3:10-18

Galatians 3:10-18New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, “And to offsprings,” as of many; but it says, “And to your offspring,” that is, to one person, who is Christ. My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.

This is one of those meaty passages from Paul that could really be sliced and diced and dug into theologically to parse out to make some sense of it.

But that doesn't seem really devotional to me.

Instead, when I read this passage, I look at what jumps off the page and for me it is this:

That God is and has always been in the habit of making and keeping promises.

Long before the law was given, God promised Abraham life. That life came to fruition through Christ.  The law does not undo or change that in any way, and when we focus too heavily on the law, we miss that glorious promise of life that is right there in front of us.

Can the law save? Paul says here we are cursed when we rely only on the law. If you are going to rely on it, you rely on all of it. Who among us does that? Picking and choosing which of God's laws are right, and yet ignoring the laws we break ourselves gets us into a tangle.

We see this curse played out in media all over: in both mainstream and social media. How many condemnations have been lobbied by one group of Christians against another that you've seen lately? Whether the issue is LGBTQ rights, taxation, abortion, racism, or any other ism you can think of, the law is used to back up one understanding of it against another. When we live by the law, we die by it.

But it is Christ who gives life. Not because of law. But through faith. Through God's promise.

Can we rely on that promise more than any of our supposed understandings of the law?

God you have set us free. Help us to remember to live into that freedom.  Amen

Galatians 3:6-9

Galatians 3:6-9New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.

We can see through Abraham how to believe, as Paul uses it, means to trust or follow, rather than intellectual exercise.

There was nothing intellectual about what Abraham - from smack dab in the middle of modern day Iraq - did in following God's promise to the place God told him that would be the promised land.  God said go, and Abraham went.

OK, things didn't go always go smoothly, that's true.  There were bumps along the way.  Times that trust wavered. Time the path he followed got a bit zig-zaggy. 

And yet, ultimately, through faith, he trusted God...and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Through trust, his relationship with God declared whole by God.

And for Paul, this means that trust in God trumps genealogy. Trust in God makes us a decendent of that desert wanderer.

Not where we come from. Not which church we go to. Not our denomination or even religious heritage.

Trust in God.

Trust is hard. And trust wavers. 

Yet through it all, God has claimed us and called out to us: Follow me.

Where is God calling you to follow?

God of Abraham, God in Christ, help me to see the path you have set before me and trust that you've got me. Amen.

Galatians 3:1-5

Galatians 3:1-5 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

3 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! 2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. 5 Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

It's important I think to remember that when in the New Testament we see the word "believe" or "believing," whether from Paul or Jesus, what they mean is "trust."

Living as we do in a Post-Elightenment Western society, it is hard for us to divorce the word "belief" from some kind of intellectual exercise.  At least, I admit it is hard for me.  My brain seems to be the part of me I rely on more than any other part.

And maybe it is hard for us to divorce the word "trust" from that as well. 

But for me, trust is something purely instinctual. It is a letting go of relying on your own intellect in a way.  

It is following.  Walking the path. Being part of a way that might not make sense logically, but when trusting, your spirit leads you toward it regardless.

Paul's hearers would have understood that.

It was hard for the Galatians to let go of the works of the law - cicumcision in this case - because years of practice had embedded the importance of it in them.

We hold on to things as just as important today for believing in God - intellectually.  These days we are confronted with a huge upheaval in the Church.  "Laws" we have taken as critical for belief are being challenged. 

Through it all, God says "don't trust the works of the law. Trust me."

What must we let go of to trust where God is leading us?

Lord of life, show us the way.  Amen.

Galatians 2:19-21

Galatians 2:19-21New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is 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. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

This passage is one that we might overlook just a bit.  I've had many conversations with Christians over the years - both Lutherans and non-Lutherans - about how grace and faith exist in our lives. The question can come down as an accusation to Lutherans: "well, if you think all you need is grace and forgiveness, what prompts you to do good things?" I've heard Lutherans themselves tie themselves in theological knots trying to figure out how those good works can still be important, if all they "need" is God's grace and forgiveness?

Well, the answer is here.

We live in Christ.  We are baptized into Christ's death and so Christ lives with us. So then, as a teacher once said to me, "the old self, or Old Adam, in us is in is death throes for our whole life...slowly dying." Christ died to make us free. To make us new creatures: creatures of love and grace and forgiveness.

So those good works? They are then a natural part of that process. They are like breathing. 

To borrow from another devotional I read this week (can't remember who to give credit to!), it isn't simply that we are freed FROM something - sin and death - so that our good works mean nothing.

It is that we are freed TO something. 

To new life. To a full, abundant, joyfully giving and sharing life.

A grace filled life where God's grace grows grace in us to share with our neighbor.

In a week where we celebrated the freedom of the United States from Britain, it is a good reminder I think that freedom isn't simply freedom from.

Freedom is freedom to. Freedom to something higher, holier, nobler.

Something we are created for, and that the Christ that lives in us moves us toward.

What is it that you are being moved by Christ toward?

God of freedom, show me where your grace would lead me. Amen.

Galatians 2:15-18

Galatians 2:15-18New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. 

One of Paul's famous passages on justification.

It's good I think to parse out of these passages some of the themes that might cause confusion for those who don't think about justification every day!

First, it's important to remember that what started Paul here was the idea of the Jewish Christians of Galatia demanding that new Gentile Christian men be circumcised.  That was the specific law that began this thread of thinking for Paul in this passage.

That is not to say that it doesn't not apply to other things and ways today that we try to justify ourselves.

Which we do do - all the time, really.

What is justified anyway?

It is being made righteous with God. Being vindicated. 

For the entire Jewish history since Moses, there had been a code of laws that had done that justifying, but Paul wants it clear that all of that is meaningless now. In Christ we are fully free.  The wrong has been righted.  Christ took all the violence and sin human beings could throw on him and died with it on the Cross.

And then in his resurrection, he showed how meaningless it all is.

But, Paul shows how we still forget.  We still build up those structures of trying to produce our own righteousness.  We might not require circumcision anymore, but I'll be you can think of things we require of other Christians in our tribe that we see as righteousness.

What might those be?

Lord we have been deemed righteous by you. Help us to remember that and to live that righteousness out in true freedom and love. Amen

Galatians 2:11-14

Galatians 2:11-14New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Poor Peter.

After denying Jesus, Peter was probably at his lowest point. He wept in fact at his own failure. He probably didn't think there was any coming back from that.

In some ways, Peter's story from there sounds like a fairy tale.  With Jesus' resurrection and then ascension, Peter moves into the leadership role. At Pentecost, he has his shining moment. He seems to move from lowest of the low, to highest of them all.

We love stories of people who persevere and get redeemed - bad boys made good.  We love our stories of heroes and often with those heroes, we can often ignore the human fallibility that still lurks beneath.  

For Peter, all it took was Paul to come around a knock him from his pedestal. The hero had clay feet after all.

Peter wasn't perfect.

Rather than being on a linear trajectory following Jesus' resurrection, Peter in fact was still human.  As tempting as it is to think that once he became the first leader of the church, he no longer made mistakes, the truth is that Peter still made the wrong call sometimes as a leader.  He still fell into peer pressure.  He still misjudged his calling.

And he had Paul right there to call him on his mistakes!

Starting a church isn't easy. Leading a group of people isn't easy, and sometimes the leader everyone looks up to is going to make the wrong call.

Yet, despite his imperfect leadership style, the wonderful community Peter started with Paul is still going strong.

What wonderful thing can you get started despite your own imperfections?

Lord, remind not to put leaders or anyone else on a pedestal - and when someone gets knocked off of theirs, help me to show them grace. Amen.

Galatians 2:1-10

Galatians 2:1-10New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us— we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you. And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those leaders contributed nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

There's a lot here from Paul about explaining how he came to his ministry - and peer leadership along with Peter and the other disciples, now apostles.  For 14 years he practiced his ministry, and so when he went to them, he had some authority now behind him.

And he had Titus - a gentile not circumcised.

When I think of all the contentious meetings I've been part of over the years in churches, it comforts me to think that at the very beginning, Peter and Paul stood toe to toe - each coming from different visions of how Christ's church needed to go forward. And with Peter, the initial leader, ultimately learning from Paul, the outsider who showed him a new way.

Can we then perhaps be gentle with each other when we don't agree on an issue, whether it is budget issues in a council meeting, or issues regarding race or homosexuality? Or whether we need a new boiler, or how to worship - in a traditional or contemporary fashion?

In the end, Paul and Peter - even as they initially disagreed - began from one mutual starting point: that the church remembers the poor.  What does it say that that issue was agreed upon when others in the early church weren't?

Lord of life, help us to hear each other on points of disagreement and always remember those issues that should bind us together - care for those who have less than we do.  Amen.