Freedom in Christ
Zechariah 12:8-13:1
Psalm 63
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 9:18-24
Tim
Christoffersen
St. Anselm’s
June 24, 2001
Who
knows the issue or issues that Paul addresses in the letter to the Galatians?
There is turmoil in the church because some leaders, apparently from outside
the community at Galatia, are urging the Galatians to adhere to the Mosaic
Law and practice circumcision as well as keeping other requirements of the
Law. They tell the Galatians they must adhere to the Law to be justified before
God. Paul’s frustration and anger about what is happening is captured
in his statement "I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!"
The broad issue was whether a Gentile believer in Jesus also had to keep the
Jewish or Mosaic Law. Paul writes the letter in a forceful, chastising tone
and retells his own story of once being a leader among the Jews who persecuted
and killed those who professed faith in Christ. He is obviously greatly perturbed
by what is happening in the church at Galatia. But the root of the issue involves
the entire early Christian community, both the Gentiles to whom Paul has been
an apostle as well as the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and the surrounding
area to whom Peter, John and James, the brother of the Lord are preaching
the Good News.
Early in the letter, Paul writes that he became an apostle to the Gentiles
from his conversion on the road to Damascus. He did not confer with any human
being until three years later when he spent 15 days with Peter and James,
the brother of the Lord. It was not until 14 years later after at least two
of Paul’s missionary journeys that Paul went to Jerusalem and met with
James, Peter and John, "acknowledged pillars" of the church. Paul
tells us they acknowledged his mission to the Gentiles and extended the right
hand of fellowship to him.
After that Peter came to Antioch and ate with the Gentiles. A short time later
several persons associated with James came to Antioch and Peter suddenly stopped
eating with the Gentiles as this was a violation of Jewish Law. Paul tells
us he confronted Peter in front of everyone and said to Peter, "If
you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel
the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
Paul does not tell us about the resolution, but we know from the 15th chapter
of Acts, that the divisive issue of circumcision and adherence to the Law
of Moses was resolved at the Council of Jerusalem. It was clearly a ‘fork
in the road’ for the early Christian community. Had the faction holding
out for circumcision of the Gentiles prevailed, believers in Jesus as the
Messiah might just be a sect of Judaism today. The freedom in Christ Paul
proclaimed would be only a historical footnote to adherence to the Law of
Moses.
Paul goes on in Galatians to give a soaring contrast between the law and the
gospel. He reminds the Galatians how they are no longer subject to the Law
but they are justified by their faith in Jesus Christ and not by works of
the Law. Paul says, "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."
Paul paints a compelling distinction between the law and the gospel. The Law
was given as a guardian to the people of Israel because they repeatedly turned
away from God in sin. He contrasts Esau, the son of the slave Hagar, to Issaac,
the son of Sarah. Hagar’s children through Esau symbolize those in earthly
Jerusalem who are still in slavery to the Law while Sarah’s children
through Issaac symbolize the heavenly Jerusalem who are born in freedom.
But freedom in Christ has a price. When I turn to my own daily life, the choices
and decisions I must make don’t always seem clear. I don’t even
know sometimes what persons and what considerations should be taken into account
when some decisions or choices confront me. My mentor in seminary, a professor
of Ethics, said the ethical question is: "What am I, as a believer in
Jesus Christ and a member of his church, to do?"
My own natural instinct is to turn inward and decide myself, and only seek
counsel or input from others if I feel stuck. I forget that it is patterns
of behavior we learn from the life and ministry of Jesus that are important.
I forget that I am a member of his church, the body of Christ, and how much
I learn from the behavior of others in the body of Christ
.
So in a sense, for you and I today, the body of Christ, the community of faith,
even our parish family helps us to shape our life according to the life of
Jesus Christ. Paul tells us later in Galatians to become slaves to one another
in love, to bear one another’s burdens. But it is still easy for us,
who are subject to sin, to turn away from God’s presence in our lives.
For the last few months prior to ordination I had the sensation or awareness
on a number of occasions that I had ‘nowhere to hide’. It was like
I finally realized that God was present in my life and I could not hide from
Him. I shared this awareness with my mother the afternoon of my ordination.
She smiled and asked me if I remembered what I used to say when I was three
or four years old and I got reprimanded? I told her I did not remember at
all. She told me that I used to tell her I would hide and she would not be
able to see what I was doing. She said she replied to me that I could not
hide from God. She said I then told her I would hide in the closet from God!
There have certainly been periods in my life when I thought I could hide!
We each learn different things at different points in our lives. The tragedy
for many is that they never learn that God is present in their lives and that
Christ died that they might live as a new creation. This is the good news
that we can share with others.
But as we learn from Jesus’ words in the reading from Luke, our path
will not always be a straight and easy one. "If anyone would come
after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for me will save it."
Jesus is contrasting a life in the Spirit as a new creation to a life that
is centered on the self and the values and the illusive ‘prizes’
offered to us by the world in which we live.
His words to Martha in the gospel of John are more direct. I am the resurrection
and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies and whosoever
lives and believes in me will never die." To Martha and to us Jesus
says, "Do you believe this?"
AMEN.
