Galatians 5:1-6

Galatians 5:1-6The Message (MSG)

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

I'll bet it doesn't take much for us to think about what it is that we are slaves to. Not circumcision, no.

But we are slaves, aren't we? Set free by Christ, we still find other masters in our lives.

Masters like time, work, money, status, family, iPhones, other "stuff."

Stuff is a big one in our society where the idea that "he or she who has the most toys wins."

But we've already won.  In Christ we are already winners.

Sometimes we are even slaves to things that seem as if they are appropriate - as circumcision was for the Jewish Christians. 

We can be slaves to traditions in our churches - how we worship, how we organize, how we lead. Who gets to be on which committee. How we decorate. Where we meet.

What music we sing.

What liturgy number we use.

How we get communion.

Are we slaves to any of that?

Christ has set us totally free. And when we lose sight of that prize to focus on our other masters, we forget just how good God's grace is!

Gracious God, set us free from our bondage to sin and to stuff and help us see your freedom with new, clear eyes! Amen

Galatians 4:21-31

Galatians 4:21-31The Message (MSG)

Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law? Abraham, remember, had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The son of the slave woman was born by human connivance; the son of the free woman was born by God’s promise. This illustrates the very thing we are dealing with now. The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. It corresponds with what is now going on in Jerusalem—a slave life, producing slaves as offspring. This is the way of Hagar. In contrast to that, there is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother—this is the way of Sarah. Remember what Isaiah wrote:

Rejoice, barren woman who bears no children,
    shout and cry out, woman who has no birth pangs,
Because the children of the barren woman
    now surpass the children of the chosen woman.

Isn’t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless connivance (Ishmael) harassed the child who came—empowered by the Spirit—from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: “Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.” Isn’t that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Are you a child of the law, or a child of promise?

There is, as Paul tells us, a distinction.

Now this does not mean we have no use for the law. Laws are good and helpful things that give a society boundaries.

But laws also get broken. And manipulated. And used as weapons. And twisted. 

Law can be enslaving. 

Instead, we are people of a promise. A promise of Spirit and life.

A promise of freedom and truth.

A promise of love.

A promise born of God's ways rather than human beings' ways. 

God's promise of freedom is expansive and open to all.  It invites and shelters. It does not, like the law, exclude. Instead, it opens up and draws in.

Are we children of the promise?

We are.

So open your arms and invite the world into God's loving embrace!

God of promise, you have set us free! Praise your holy name! Amen!

Galatians 4:12-20

Galatians 4:12-20The Message (MSG)

My dear friends, what I would really like you to do is try to put yourselves in my shoes to the same extent that I, when I was with you, put myself in yours. You were very sensitive and kind then. You did not come down on me personally. You were well aware that the reason I ended up preaching to you was that I was physically broken, and so, prevented from continuing my journey, I was forced to stop with you. That is how I came to preach to you.

And don’t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God—as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you? What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time? There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me—that is how deeply you cared! And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can’t believe it.

Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.

"It is a good thing to be ardent in doing good, but not just when I am in your presence. Can’t you continue the same concern for both my person and my message when I am away from you that you had when I was with you? Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn’t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.

Back after a break while my church of St. Paul's did a study on 2 Corinthians. And here, with the Galatians, I am reminded of a recurring theme.

False teachers spreading a false gospel.

Does that happen today?

I've decided to use The Message Bible for a while.  I like its straightforward, easy-to-understand approach. Paul becomes even more alive and relatable to me.

So, is there a false gospel today?

I read an article this week where the writer bemoaned the fact that when polled, 87% of the general population thinks that the primary quality they see in Christianity is judgment.

Christianity, the harbinger of good news, has become known as the religion of judgment.

Might that have something to do with declining numbers in our churches?

I admit that for me, judgment is impossible to completely let go of. I do it constantly. Even when I'm not really thinking about it. It is as easy as breathing.

And admittedly, to survive, we have to make some judgments in our life about things that are good for us or bad for us.

But when it comes to people, judgment "shuts you out of the free world of God's grace."

Grace and judgement don't make easy bedfellows.

Paul was calling the Galatians to the Gospel of Christ. We are called to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. That gospel is wide and scary and beautiful and open.  It has grace to cover a multitude of sins, and is open even to those we judge and might wish weren't included.

How would the world view a faith that was known for its radical grace rather than its judgment?

Lord of all, you are the judge and redeemer of Creation! Open our minds and hearts to share your radical love and grace! Amen

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.