Bedrock for Protestants
Galatians 2:15-21 is one of those
scriptures that we Protestants have an asterisk beside – but would just as soon
not try to explain. It is one of those
defining scripture passages for the thoughts of Martin Luther as he struggled
with the idea of indulgences and whether we could DO anything to effect our
salvation. “Justification by faith” is a
Protestant by-word and its roots include this scripture passage.
Richard B. Hays, Professor of New
Testament, The Divinity School, Duke University, suggests four questions to help in “unpacking” this
scriptural passage:
“1.
Who sets things right?
2. What
role has Jesus played in setting things right?
3. What
is the character of the new life that the death and resurrection of Jesus have
inaugurated?
4. How
is the truth of the gospel embodied in social practice.” [The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. XI, Galatians,
page 245]
Let’s use these questions as our guide.
1.
Who sets things right? Paul says
loud and clear that it is God whose actions set things right. That was Martin Luther big “ah ha”
moment. He had been thinking he needed
to pray longer, work harder, buy more indulgences (a practice of giving to the
church and getting time in purgatory removed on your behalf because you had
pleased God.). The more he tried to
please God the more he felt he fell short and was trapped in his own sin. It is hard for a lot of folks to get beyond
their own feelings of unworthiness.
After reading this passage of the Bible, he suddenly realized that it
wasn’t what he DID that justified him (made him right with God) but what GOD
did. It’s all about God’s Grace – God’s
action.
For Paul, as he wrote to his
congregation, it wasn’t about which half of the congregation followed Jewish
protocol and beliefs in their Christian journey and which did not. God’s action was what defined them as
Christians and not what they did or did not do or what they ate or did not
eat. They were now new creations – all
of them – because of God’s doing. We can
let go of the need we feel we have to make things right and bring people back
to living religion as we do.
2.
What role has Jesus played in setting things right? God has set things right through the
faithfulness of Jesus, not our own doing.
Faithfulness of Jesus is an appropriate focus in Lent (and throughout
the year). Read and reread the stories
of Jesus’ life on earth. How did he
speak truth to power when it was easier to just “go along”? How did he reach out to others when it would
have been easier, and religiously acceptable in those days, to avoid impurity
and walk on the other side? How did
everything he said and did move him closer to the confrontation with power that
resulted in the cross? How was Jesus
always faithful to God’s vision of what God wanted the world to be (the realm
of God)? How was Jesus always faithful
to Love made known to every person he encountered. As Richard Hayes also says: “It is unintelligible to preach Gal. 2:11-21
apart from the passion and resurrection narratives.”
3.
What is the character of the new life that the death and resurrection of
Jesus have inaugurated? We often talk
about having our sins forgiven – and that’s it.
Our “ticket is punched.” In
Galatians Paul ups the ante. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is
no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. Paul is talking about a transformation of
oneself into a person who indeed allows that person to be Christ in the
world. We are loath to change on a good
day. And a statement like this from Paul
makes us think of “goodie two shoes” folks who really make us uncomfortable
with their overt piety. Paul is not
saying that we become caricatures of a person of faith. Paul is saying that if we want to say we are
Christian then that faith ought to be authentic in our daily lives. It should impact the way we treat others,
what we call others, what decisions we make about how we live on this
planet. We are to become transformed
into service for the sake of others, an instrument of God’s reconciling love
for each person in the world.
4. How is the truth of the gospel embodied in
social practice? If you have gotten this
far, you have probably already thought about ways this question is
answered. If we are to be agents of
Christ’s reconciling love in this world then we have something to say and to be
to those who are posting hate language on the houses of worship of our Jewish
and Muslim neighbors. We have something
to say and to be to those who are ridiculing and condemning our LGBTQ friends
and family. We have something to say and
to be to those who are fleeing war and destruction and live as refugees without
a documented past and with a dubious future.
We have something to say and to be to those who define our future by
military might yet downplay the “soft force” of diplomacy. We have something to say and be to those who
privilege education for some and not for all.
The list can go on and on.
Life is “made right” – all life,
including ours – by God’s action – by God’s Grace. That action was made manifest in Jesus
Christ, in his life, in his passion, and in his resurrection. We are invited into Christ – to die to our
old ways of thinking and being in the world – and to be transformed inwardly
into Christ’s servants in the world to reconcile the world to God and God’s
vision of shalom, wholeness. Because we are no longer living for
ourselves, we can no longer long for those things the world defines as beneficial to some at the
expense of others. We must be about
living as Christ to the world, even though that’s not popular.
Grace and
Peace
Rev.
Clara
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