For The Good Of All

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Pentecost C6

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA

Galatians 6:1-18

My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. ²Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. ⁴All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. ⁵For all must carry their own loads. ⁶Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher. ⁷Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. ⁸If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. ¹⁰So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

¹¹See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! ¹²It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. ¹⁴May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! ¹⁶As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. ¹⁷From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body. ¹⁸May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen

You know, I read scripture passages, and then I watch or hear the news, or read today’s headlines, and it is at the same time comforting and DIScomforting to realize that human nature has remained essentially unchanged for at LEAST the last two thousand years. 

It is comforting because the familiarity of the situations that Paul faced and that Jesus faced means that it’s been done before… we’re not in uncharted territory when it comes to dealing with human emotions, motivations, and failures.

The flip side of that coin is what is DIScomforting.  Namely, we’re STILL DOING and thinking and failing at the same exact things that people were doing and thinking and failing at back when this whole business of being followers of Jesus started. 

We would like to think that we are worlds apart from what those errant Corinthians or Galatians, or any number of later 1^st and early 2^nd century church members were finding to misunderstand or misinterpret, or who took some teaching of Jesus and morphed it in with some cultural understanding they already had and called it ‘Christian’… but in truth, we are so like them that I think if Paul were to drop in on us today he’d spend a little bit of time looking around and then find the nearest brick wall to begin to bang his head against. 

Let’s recap:  Galatians were mostly if not entirely former pagan followers of Jesus, thanks to Paul’s preaching and teaching there.  Paul’s teaching, as he recounts in this letter, centers on Jesus’ sacrifice, and on God’s love expressed through that. His message was to love God, love one another, and share it with everyone around you.  LIVE DIFFERENTLY. Period, end of sentence.

Some time after Paul leaves, folks come and say, “Yes, what Paul told you is true, but that’s not all.  Here’s a list of things that you have to do (Read: circumcision, festival observance, and dietary laws.) in order to REALLY be considered ‘in the loop’.”

This likewise was a way of living differently, but with a much less radical potential.  Yes, it DID mean for some RADICAL changes for those who decided to FOLLOW that route, but it had a tendency to stop there.  The laws, the observances, the diet, that was all good and well, but it served more to distinguish them rather than to … engage people who were not a part of the fellowship. 

We can think of groups that pique our interest, any number of fringe groups, who have odd but to the general public, unappealing practices that are interesting to observe, but which don’t immediately draw us in and make us want to follow suit. 

Paul was telling the Galatians that the message that he brought them – the message of the freedom to be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – freedom from bondage of ANY kind – to sin, to expectations, to prejudices, to presuppositions about who could do what or who was responsible for what – all that went out the window when you chose to follow Jesus.  At it’s heart, the Gospel – the Good News – REALLY IS that God loves us.  No matter who we are, what we are, where we are.  No matter if we call ourselves American or Iraqi or Iranian, Senegalese, or Argentinean, Swede or Russian. 

Paul’s point from chapter 3 (verse 28) is to be extended to any given distinction we can come up with.  That idea that we are all one in Christ Jesus is more radical than we can begin to understand. 

   

It is in the unpacking of that idea that we begin to see how human nature really hasn’t changed over the last two millennia.

I’ve shared with you before how much I love to VISIT Lolly, my sister, in Washington DC – and how much I can’t STAND the traffic up there… the reason I love to visit is the diversity that can be found everywhere.  There are people of all races and ethnicities living and working side by side.  There are folks from all over the world who have come and settled in the area, so that makes for a wonderful variety of stores and restaurants to choose from, but it also makes for a microcosm of what our nation looks like as a whole.  

We live in a society that is, in sociological terms, pluralistic.  That means that, as a country, we are made up of more than just one “type” of people, more than one people ‘group’.  If we were to drive into Richmond, or just an hour or two up the road, from Fredericksburg on up to the Washington area, we’d be reminded of this everywhere we look. 

The Gospel’s message is that God’s love is for each and every one of those people – no matter how different, how unlike us they are … there IS, in fact, no more ‘us’ and ‘them’.  That’s the whole point. 

But we insist on finding ways to MAKE an ‘us’ and ‘them’.  We don’t sing like that, or those kinds of songs.  We don’t dress like that for preaching.  That’s not an instrument we use in worship. 

Do you hear it?  The ‘we’ implies that there is a ‘them’ … it doesn’t have to BE about circumcision, or dietary laws.  We can make walls out of just about anything. 

When Paul says in verses 14 and 15:

¹⁴May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!

He was underscoring the fact that the only thing worth standing on as a matter of principle and faith is the cross of Christ. 

When he went on to say in verse 15 that ‘a new creation is everything’ he was telling us that the only way we’re going to break out of the mindset that builds these walls of distinction between us and our fellow human beings WHOEVER THEY MAY BE is to become just that – NEW CREATIONS. 

And the only way to do THAT was through being regenerated – reborn in the image of Christ. 

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church, on this hot Fourth of July Sunday, 2010?

Look around the room.  Are we representative of the plurality in which we live, much less the plurality that is to come when we get to heaven?  Is our worship a celebration of the depth and breadth of God’s love, or is it a place where we can come and feel secure and unchallenged when we are surrounded by people who look just like us? 

I’m not saying that our worship is NOT worship if it’s not the former, but I AM saying that it could be so much more.  I love the way we join on Sundays, don’t get me wrong.  The hymns of faith that taught me to love God and to love others will NEVER be replaced in my heart.  But there is room for more. 

Will we be open to the Spirit’s calling, to the Spirit’s leading to make that room available, and to share it joyfully and lovingly? 

  

Let’s pray.