Sermon. 10^th June. St Mary’s 9.30: Colin Hull

Galatians 1:11-end

Theme: Living the right gospel

Introduction - Lucia and the visitor

Lucia a Roman convert in region of Galatia (modern day Turkey). She and her husband responded to the preaching of St Paul and a little church meets in her home. She was excited because Barsabus, a Jewish Christian from Jerusalem, is visiting her. He had met Jesus in  the flesh in Jerusalem. For the first time she can speak with someone who knows the apostles and can tell her more about Jesus.

But Barsabus is alarmed at her not doing the washing rituals before food and alarmed her converted husband has not been circumcised. How can she be a real Christian without keeping the Law? What did Paul say that converted her? Barsabus says she only has half the truth. She and her husband must become fully Jewish and obey the Jewish laws and traditions if she is to become a full follower of Jesus and part of the great and ancient promises given to Israel. Lucia becomes convinced by Barsabus’s words and her husband Markus is circumcised. The little church that meets in her house start learning all the Laws of Moses and trying to practice them.

Paul gets to hear of it and sends off an urgent letter. Just what does she think she is doing? …

A fiction …

Well this is a story I made up but it illustrates the kind of problem Paul wrote about in his letter to the Galatians. Gentile Christians there had been told by some well meaning Jewish Christians that they had to accept and obey the laws of Moses and that the men had to be circumcised according to Jewish custom.

The letter..

Paul wants his readers to know that he gained his understanding of the gospel of Jesus from a special revelation from Jesus on the road to Damascus, part of his own conversion. Paul had been previously zealous as a Jew to stamp out the sect of Jesus’ followers, believing he was doing the right thing as a Jew in defending his faith and his people from a corrupting influence. He was well advanced in his Jewish practices and defence of the faith and traditions.

But Christ had turned in all upside down in the vision on the road to Damacus. If Paul had been so wrong in his zealous persecution of Jesus followers what did all this mean for the Jewish people? His understanding of the law and prophecies must have been faulty. He had to have a new way of thinking.

Paul says he did not tell anyone or speak to anyone about this.

It was three years later that he went to Jerusalem and met the members of the church there including Simon Peter and James the Lord’s brother. People were amazed at the change in him and praised God for it. Later he was confirmed as having a special ministry to the Gentiles that the church leaders recognised and endorsed.

As a matter of history…

There had been a church council that had agreed that no great burden of laws should be placed upon the Gentiles. But some from Jerusalem still opposed this. Gentiles everywhere were finding they could be united with Jesus and be endowed with the HS without needing to become Jews.

More about the letter…

Whether the letter was before or after the Jerusalem council is not clear. But Paul was so certain of his special revelation that he had to tell Peter off for being different with Jews than he was with Gentiles. Peter should have known better after his experience in visiting the Roman Cornelius and seeing him filled with the HS.

Paul argues further in the letter that the great and ancient hero of the Jews, Abraham, had not found favour with God by following laws but by having faith in God. A new way of faith in Jesus as their saviour was what really mattered , not obeying rules and regulations and traditions. It was through faith and following Jesus and being united with him in baptism that enabled them to be adopted as sons and daughters of God. It was a concern of course to all Jews, including Paul, that the Jewish law had laid down certain codes of behaviour. But if they had found true faith in Jesus they would be guided by the Holy Spirit in them who would tell them what to do and avoid sinfulness. The actions of sin are obvious, but the fruits of a new life in the HS are obvious too; love, joy, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. This was the real essence of the holy life, not circumcision and law keeping.

So what now?

We can see that the letter was written in an emergency and as a matter of principle. It was to do with the relations of Gentile converts with Jesus. It was part of a long battle for the acceptance of Gentiles within the church and the differences of opinion in the church raged for many years. We no longer have such a battle. So what are to learn from it? Paul is trying to defend a his understanding of the gospel of Jesus against other teaching that he regarded as damaging to the church. In  our own day we also have a variety of “gospels” competing for people’s hearts and allegiance.

Four modern “gospels” of our age

1) Atheism

There is no God to choose from. All religion is bad. Depend on what is rational and provable by science and human knowledge. Depend on human reason and technology to answer all the questions of life and solve all our problems. For all of us with faith this is becoming an intellectual battle ground. (Maybe I feel the effects of this more than some because of my work place).

2) Agnostic

Don’t know and not particularly bothered. There is a lot more of this about. Maybe there is a God of some sort but there is no proof and no reason to support any particular creed or other. Just try and be reasonably good and neighbourly, please yourself and have as good a life as you can make it. Maybe there is heaven or paradise but if we are good perhaps we’ll get there.

3) Market-place- Pick your choice

This is slightly one step on from Agnostic. All religions are the same. It does not matter what you believe. It’s up to you to make your own decisions about beliefs. A bit of this faith and a bit of that as you choose. It’s a nice comfortable religion.  There are lots of philosophies and religious ideas to choose from. New forms of ancient paganism as New Age with beliefs in life forces in  rocks and mineral, occult or bits of other traditional faiths like Islam, Buddhism or Hindu. Actually we can all be prone to this! Picking the bits of gospel and Christian faith we like and avoiding the difficult and challenging bits we might find inconvenient. 

4) Fundamentalism

This is at the other end of the spectrum altogether. There is a variety of religious groups, Christian and others, with strict doctrines , strict rules and ideas.

Fundamentalism of all kinds offers simple solutions and simple views of the world in a time of uncertainty and change. Many believe they alone are right and others are damned if you don’t believe their particular way. Many forms of fundamentalism are exclusive, and everyone outside is the enemy. Fundamentalism can be a narrow world view that divides people in to “us” and “them”, and as we know well at  the extreme even is an excuse for violence against the “unbelievers”. It has happened in the past in Christian history and at the moment is most prevalent in various expressions of Islam and continuing cause of conflict in the middle East. It’s care is about the True Believers, not the rest of the world.

Discerning a true gospel

It is in this spiritually mixed environment that a true and practical gospel of Jesus needs to be discerned. We have to judge and test the truth of what the gospel is about and what image of God and Jesus we hold. We must discern what things we accept and seek to live by and what we discard because it paints a wrong picture of God and Jesus.

For me some good tests about what genuine Christian faith are about are it’s actual effects on our lives. Critics of religion will point to the nasty things religious people have done or still do. So my test is this: Do our beliefs about God and what we do add to the goodness of the world or do they bring more ugly conflict with the abuse of God’s name?

Jesus life and acts are the measure of this goodness. So are our beliefs and our lives in accord with the values and actions of Jesus, revealed in the NT?  Is our faith and life based on His ministry, death, resurrection  and sending the Holy Spirit?

For me the gospel of Jesus is about the change and transformation of all the human race, to overcome our selfishness and hostility to others. It is to build bridges between people of different cultures and nationalities. It is overcoming some of our basic instincts like animals and growing up to be a New Humanity with the character of Christ. As Paul pointed out in his letter the gospel of Christ is about being united with Christ, to take on his characteristics of love, joy, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. The genuine gospel of Jesus is wholesome and healing, reconciling and forgiving. The gospel is fearless against wrong and abuse of power and the abuse of God’s name for selfish ends.

The gospel of Jesus is sacrificial. The life lived with the gospel of Jesus is inwardly selfless and not about appearance in the sight of others, or superiority. It is not about keeping particular rules and religious practices. The gospel of Jesus is about newness and a transformation of human nature into a new pattern of living.

One of my favourite hymns by Charles Wesley:

O thou who camest from above

The pure celestial fire to impart

Kindle a flame of sacred love

On the mean altar of my heart

Jesus , confirm my heart’s desire

To work and speak and think for thee.

Still let me guard the holy fire

And still stir up thy gift in me.

Conclusion

Paul had to fight for a gospel of Jesus that would change people, not tie them down to particular laws and traditions that were superseded by the Love of Christ and the inward action of the Holy Spirit. Our challenge is also to know and live a life- changing gospel under the influence of Christ and the Spirit.

So as we come week by week to communion, and as we seek to pray and live out our commitment to Jesus, is our faith and our gospel changing us to be like Jesus or is it just another rival set of beliefs that we fight over with others? Are we really being changed by what we say and sing and do? Is it the goodness of Jesus Christ we are presenting to our neighbours?

A-men