Friendly Persuasion

          The Apostle Paul was a master rhetorician.  That is, he used the power of a formalized persuasive speech to state his beliefs and understanding of the gospel and the core of Christianity.  We see this most clearly in his letters which at times seem to go around in circles as he attempts to prove a point.  The center of his letter to the churches in Galatia is no exception!

          After establishing his bona fides and letting his readers know he is really angry about even having to address the questions about membership requirements for the Christian Church (should pagans/Gentiles become Jews as a prerequisite to becoming a Christian?), he decides to lay out his argument in his own style of persuasive argument.

          Galatians 2:15-21:  Here is my foundational belief.  We are justified by faith in Jesus.

          Galatians 3:1-5:  Remember your own experience.  Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?

          Galatians 3:19-25:  This is what the Law really means, its true purpose.  These verses (and their varied interpretations) are examples of Paul being his particularly convoluted self.  However, if you take Paul’s basic argument at face-value (salvation/justification comes through faith in Jesus Christ), then  in verse 22 – you get his premise.  The Law had its validity for a time.  Its purpose was a form of “holding pattern” until Christ came.  It gave us form and structure to navigate on this earth.  But now that Christ has come, we have been set free from that holding pattern.                               

           Galatians 3:27-28:  We are one in our baptisms.  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

          Can we look at one another across denominational lines, across church tradition lines, across “conservative” or “progressive” lines, across conflicted church lines?  Can we see each other as one in Christ Jesus?  Can we listen to one another through our baptisms?  Can we, united in our baptisms, be united in discipleship to the world in Christ Jesus?  Can we humble ourselves so Christ might live through us?

          May it be so.

Grace and Peace

Rev. Clara

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

Remember the Poor

          Galatians 2:10  They asked only one thing that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

          The Apostle Paul continues his account of his ministry in chapter 2 of the Book of Galatians.  In particular, he was recounting his version of the events at the Jerusalem Council.  Paul’s account differs with the version found in the book of Acts of the Apostles.  Paul’s account is the earlier record and it was Paul speaking about events in which he participated.  The account in the book of Acts is about 50 years older and is second hand.

          The Council of Jerusalem convened around the year 48/50 CE in response to an incident in Antioch which questioned the necessity of non-Jews undergoing circumcision in order to become Christians.  The book of Galatians struggles with that question.  In that struggle we learn other things that are more pertinent to the 21^st Century.  One of those things is the verse quoted in this blog post.  After much rancor, the Council sent both Peter and Paul out to preach the good news of Jesus without the entrance requirement of circumcision.  However, they were instructed to remember the poor.

          Can we hear those words amid the contentiousness of our daily life?

          What might those words look like?

          For one thing, to “remember the poor” is to build a relationship with those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.  Peter and Paul were not being instructed to administer a detached charity relief program.  They were being commissioned to be in ministry with the poor ones.

          Again what does that look like?  Read Matthew 25:31-46 to find out.

          Miguel Manzano and Jose Antonio Oliver wrote the lyrics for one our newer hymns.  It comes to us in Spanish and is translated into English by George Lockwood.  It is #624 in the hymnal used by St. Paul’s UCC.  This is what Peter and Paul’s commission to go out and preach the Gospel and remember the poor means.  It is a shared ministry of living into God’s Vision for our world.  Here are the lyrics:

When the Poor Ones

Cuando el Pobre

When the poor ones who have nothing share with strangers,

          when  the thirsty  water give unto us all,

when the wounded in their weakness strengthen others,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us.

When at last all those who suffer find their comfort,

          when they hope though even hope seems hopelessness,

when the wounded in their weakness strengthen others,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us.

When our joy fills up our cup to overflowing,

          when our lips can speak no words other than true,

when we know that love for simple things is better,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us.

When our homes are filled with goodness in abundance,

          when we learn to make peace instead of war,

when each stranger that we meet is called a neighbor,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us,

          then we know that God still goes that road with us.

They asked only one thing that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.  That was the commission to Peter and Paul from the Council of Jerusalem.  That is our commission from Jesus.  Together with the poor we will bring into reality the Vision of God.

Grace and Peace

Rev. Clara