Galatians 5:13-25 Freedom in Christ

Grace and Peace to you from Him who is and who was and who is to come,

       Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians in the hopes of resolving a problem that had come up in the churches in the old Roman province of Galatia, which is part of Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey. A group of new believers took hold of the gospel of salvation in Christ when they heard it from Paul, but then some visitors from Jerusalem questioned his authority. They introduced an idea that doesn’t belong in the gospel – that in order to be true Christians, the Galatians first needed to submit to the laws and customs set down in the Old Testament.

       Paul argued back that God’s promises to his people were more important than the law. Salvation and life with God comes through faith in Christ. The Heavenly Father declares that all believers are his sons and daughters. The Christian people are children of promise, not slaves to the law. Paul knew that the Christians in Galatia were passing through a spell of deep conflict, but he foresaw a happy outcome. “I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine.” This is an important reassurance. God’s Word has the power to build faith and instill the truth. The words of the Bible plant God’s promises in our hearts – trust that heaven has adopted us, that God has a plan for us and that he will make good out of every evil, that the death of Christ opens the way to a new and better life, both now and in days to come.

       Paul affirms in our reading from the 5^th chapter that Christians are free. He discusses the consequences of our liberty; he draws a picture of Christian freedom in action.

       To lighten things up, let’s imagine that two members of one of the Galatian churches are talking with each of other. The conversation is strained at first, because they have been on opposite sides of the great debate about law and promise, faith and works. But a copy of Paul’s letter arrived a few days before. They have had a chance to read it, and the persuasiveness of Paul’s arguments has inspired them to mend the breach that came between them.

       “I wouldn’t have imagined that arguments so fierce could take place in the church,” said the first of the two Christians, who had supported the ideas Paul opposed. “I thought for sure the congregation would explode and then drift away to nothing. Good-bye church.”

       “A lot of us felt that way,” the other said, “but the church is still here and stronger than ever. If you come back to worship, you’ll see a new spirit among us. We’re actually quite vibrant. New people are coming in. Everything starts with forgiveness. Jesus forgave his enemies; his death for our sake heals. The Heavenly Father smiles on us. He turns evil into good. Did you have a chance to read the copy of Paul’s letter I sent you? I’ll try to answer any questions you might have. My goal is to see you and your family back worshiping with us. I know that remarks were made during the debates that hurt your feelings. Whenever people feel pressured, especially if we’re debating what to believe about God – it’s easy to get carried away. We’re sorry about that part now. We hope you’ll forgive us. We believe the argument’s settled.”

       “I’m not so sure it’s settled,” the first person says. “I read Paul’s letter a few times; I still have some questions. I know something about life and how people behave. I’ve raised four children. We need the law to restrain us. God won’t have anything to do with us unless we’re good. We need the threat of punishment.”

“I’ve felt that way myself at times,” the second Christian says. “The law is good. It comes from God. A lot depends, though, on how we approach it. No one keeps the law perfectly, and the Lord demands perfection. The longer we live, the more sins we pile up. Only one Person kept the law perfectly. What are you and I to do then? If we search our lives, we see that we don’t deserve anything from God. We’re doomed. But Jesus kept the law where we failed. His perfect obedience when he died guarantees God’s favor toward us. That’s what Paul means when he says that we’re free. Jesus frees us from having to please God on our own. If we think we can win God’s favor by our attempts to live righteously, we end up with uncertainty. We haven’t helped anyone, only deceived ourselves.. Jesus frees us from a fruitless struggle. Our Heavenly Father declares us righteous for his Son’s sake. We wait by faith now for the great declaration of righteousness that will come on Judgment Day. 

       “Jesus lifts a great burden from our shoulders,” the second person goes on. “Especially true in my case. I lived wildly in my younger days. I roamed around quite a bit and missed hundreds of chances to do the right thing. My memory sometimes rages like a bonfire. I used to think my future would be exactly like my past, that I was trapped in a cycle of frustration. Jesus rescued me from a bad destiny. I know I’ll have many good days ahead, thanks be to God.”

       The first person thought for a moment. “I’ll never believe that God sets us free from sin. It’s not his plan for us to take the easy road.”

       “You’re right about that,” the second person says. “Our Lord frees us from the reproach of the law, the chains of legalism that tie us down. He empowers us to carry out the law willingly and cheerfully. We’re not slaves to a rule-book. Instead, we live by the Spirit.”

      “Are you suggesting that God trusts us?”

       “Exactly,” the second Christian says. “He doesn’t lead us the way a rider leads a horse. He knows that the faith in Christ he gives us will lead us to do the things that please him. If we fall, he will lift us up. He will free us again from slavery to sin and our flesh.”

       “Again, you say,” the first person says. “I’ve tried to lead a moral life; I’ve kept myself from debauchery and great sins. But after reading Paul’s letter I thought about one thing he said – that love of our neighbors is the summary of the law. I admit to being angry at times and selfish, jealous even, though I try to keep these feelings to myself. I ask God to forgive me, but I’m afraid that the same old feelings will return. I can’t help myself.”

       “That happens to me, too,” the second person says. “It’s because part of me still walks by the law. I’m learning not to expect perfection – either for myself or other people. I’m getting better at not being full of blame and reproach. I’m sorry for some of the things I said at our meetings. I, too, see that the sinful part of my nature is at war with God’s Spirit. Paul’s letter teaches me that all of us are in conflict. We have a good side and a bad side, and the bad side keeps us from doing the good we want. We’d be crushed if we had only the law to lead us. But there is hope. Paul urges us to walk by the Spirit. As the Spirit leads us, we take hold of God’s pardon and the friendship of Christ. We forgive ourselves. God’s peace becomes our peace. He shares us victory with us. Our sinful natures, with all their passions and desires, have been crucified along with Christ. The Spirit renews us, not the law. The Spirit gives us new life. So Paul encourages us to keep in step with the Spirit.”

       “If I thought the church was going that way,” the first person says, “I’d return to worship.”

       “Nothing is ever perfect,” the second Christian replies, “but we’re moving in a good direction. We receive pardon and offer it. We’re learning to let go of the past and to welcome the Spirit. We use our freedom to seek a better way of living.

       “You probably noticed that Paul listed several qualities in his letter. He doesn’t call them works but fruits of the Spirit, the virtues we show as we walk with God – love, joy, peace, patience, and so on. Love is the most important. Someone called it the most essential product of faith, the mother of all the other Christian qualities. The way Paul uses it, the word “love” doesn’t mean just liking or affection. It means the kind of love that understands what people need and then sets out to provide it. You and I don’t simply give our children candy so we can see their smiles and hear their laughter. We give them the food that’s right for them and shoes and clothes that suit the season. We send them to school and make sure they learn the difference between right and wrong. We discipline them if their sinful nature seems to be getting the best of them. This is love – the love that is intelligent and has a purpose, the kind of love that God has. He understood how terrible the world is and took steps to make it better. He could not show affection toward the evil world, so he sent his Son to rescue it and clean it up. Jesus gave his life to save the world. He asks us to love our enemies, you see, not with affection, but with intelligence and purpose, understanding what is hateful about them and helping God to remove it. This is why Paul wrote to our churches – to encourage us not to slip back under the law, to embrace the gospel, and to walk in the Spirit. I’m glad the enemies of the gospel have left town. I hope you’re glad, too. When we first gathered ourselves into a congregation, we were all on fire for Jesus and his message. God has made it possible for us to walk in the Spirit again.”

       “Yes, it would be wonderful if those vibrant early days could be recovered,” says the person who left the congregation, “but you know what people are. We always remember the past. We hate to let go. It takes years for wounds to heal.”

       “Did you notice that Paul mentioned joy right after love?” says the second Christian. “It’s one of the great qualities of our faith. Pessimism and cynicism are pretty bad faults. Paul doesn’t mean empty-headed, superficial joy. Christian joy is steady and enduring. It bubbles up from the gift of God’s grace to us. His blessings bring us joy. Arguments and trials and tough days can’t wipe it away. The joy of Christians abounds. That’s what’s going on in our parish these days – an earthly joy that blends with the joy of heaven – the sunshine that always beams for everyone who believes in Christ. The joy will be there for you when you come back. Your return will increase our joy. Joy will be added to joy.”

       “That’s something I’d like to see,” says the first Christian. “I believe what you’re saying to me, so I’ll look forward to seeing you next Sunday. A church full of joy. My, oh, my.”

       The two Christians go on talking, but we’ll leave them, grateful to the Lord who renews and upholds his church. In Jesus’ Name we rejoice. AMEN

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, AMEN.

  

Galatians 3:23-4:7 Maturity in Christ

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

       The epistle readings for the past two Sundays have come from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which is very short but full of meaning because it touches on questions that are important for every Christian. What does it mean to be grown up in Christ? What does it mean for a community of Christians to be mature in the Lord? When a Christian or a congregation are mature in faith, they become the blessings to others God wants them to be.

       First, some background. Galatia was one of the many provinces of the old Roman Empire. Paul founded several congregations there during his travels. The gospel he preached brought many new Christians to the Lord and at first the people focused on Jesus whole-heartedly. But it wasn’t long before outsiders tried to convince them that in order to be Christians they first needed to adopt Old Testament laws and customs about food and holidays and such like. Paul went into a fury. He urged the people not to go backwards and make themselves slaves to the ceremonial law, which is really like a tutor to children. Paul had something specific in mind when he used the word “tutor”. A wealthy father in the Roman empire assigned his son a guardian who would walk back and forth to school with him, teach him manners, and make sure he behaved himself and didn’t fall in with bad company. The son might have been the future heir of lands and property but as a boy he lived under the supervision of his tutor, who was training him to be a gentleman. The boy’s situation – with a guardian at his side all the time – was a condition to grow out of. It’s a good thing to grow to the scope and freedom of adult living.

       Paul compares the ceremonial law – and in fact all laws – with a tutor or guardian. The law comes from God, it is good and necessary, but it hems us in because we aren’t perfect. The law, moreover, terrifies us and accuses. It restrains sinners, and we all need restraint. But the law doesn’t rescue us from sin; it doesn’t save souls; it doesn’t give life or free us from bondage; it is not the final stage of our development to maturity. The law drives us to seek the mercy of God. We don’t look for rigid perfection but for faith in Christ, who is, in fact, looking for us. He claims us in our baptisms as his brothers and sisters. We’re adopted children of the Heavenly Father. He gives us the confidence to act in freedom and take hold of the satisfactions of mature faith – that life will work out, that our actions please the Lord, and that we’re blessings to others.

       Paul is an example. He began his public life as a persecutor of Christians, eager to uphold the letter of the law. But the Risen Lord came to him in a dramatic way while he was traveling to Damascus and turned his life around. After years of study of God’s Word, he worked as vigorously as a missionary for the Lord as he had once worked against him.  The point is that he acted in faith and freedom. No one forced him to give up the comforts of a settled life and take on hardships and frustrations. Paul was a free man in Christ; he even had the freedom to drop out and follow a more easy-going life. He chose to live as a child of God, however, and spread the message of faith and freedom and the forgiveness of sins in Christ, so he became a blessing to others. Our families, friends and neighbors benefit when they see our confidence in Christ, our trust that we’re God’s children, our joy, our happiness, our freedom in the Lord. To be grown up in the faith means that we rejoice in God’s grace.

       Now, the world is always legalistic. It loves to spread guilt and shame – the news, the comments of our neighbors, sometimes, and the spirit of competition – all work to take us away from the gospel. The world tries to push us back under the dominance of the spirit of the law. Souls can shrivel, consciences ache. This is not where God wants us to be. It is slavery, not maturity in Christ. Jesus offers us his friendship; he washes our sins away in his blood. If our memories rise up to taunt us, we have only to say, “Oh, yes, another sin that Christ has forgiven.” The Savior empowers us in his name to defeat Satan’s tricks and cut off the spiral of excessive self-reproach that some brains are susceptible to. The most important part of repentance is to take hold by faith of Jesus’ pardon and his boundless love for us. Jesus is in us. He shares his joy with us.

Paul, as we said, is an example. He zealously followed the old legal tradition in his early days. He must have said and done things that were cruel and mean-spirited. Memories of his early life didn’t incapacitate him, however, when he took up his new life in Christ. He trusted with heart, soul, and mind that God pardoned him and that the Savior knew him and loved him. He was mature in the faith – a blessing to others.

God’s love for his people makes us mature, loving, joyful, patient, kind. We don’t reproach ourselves to excess nor do we find fault with others. Instead, we are blessings to our neighbors. We encourage. We build them up. Correction is sometimes appropriate, of course, as we offer it in a spirit of love, as the Lord did, hopeful that our admonitions bear fruit. We bring good to everyone we come to.

       So we are grown-up, then, when we live by faith in Christ, who makes us strong and free and blessings to others. The same principle applies to Christian communities. The congregation that clings to Christ in faith receives God’s rich blessings. It is strong and grown up and full of vitality.

       Paul, as we said, urged the Galatian Christians not to go backwards and make themselves slaves to laws, because they do not save or bring life. The people should remember that Christ redeemed them from captivity to the ceremonial law and cling to him. The Heavenly Father had adopted him as their children; the Holy Spirit lived in their hearts. Once they had come to know God and be known by him, how could they ever turn back to weak and beggarly spirits, whose slaves they wanted to be? Paul said that Christ set them for free for freedom. He urged them not to submit again to the yoke of slavery. They were not to cling to the law the way children cling to a tutor. They were to be free and responsible and grown up. They should live by faith working through love.

       Although he was confident that they would adopt his point of view, Paul foresaw what would happen if they followed the old legalistic ways – they would begin to quarrel. “If you bite and devour one another,” Paul wrote, “take heed that you are not consumed by one another.” The whole law is fulfilled in one phrase, he reminded them: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ They serve God best by using their freedom for love, acting as servants one to the other.”

       We don’t know what happened in Galatia, but we do know that many Christian communities, including the Lutheran Church-Canada, have taken Paul’s guidelines as their own. They live by the faith that creates love. Instead of trying to win God’s favor with good works, we open our hearts to receive his pardon and strengthening. By God’s grace, we make a stand against legalism, we don’t create an atmosphere of blame and reproach, but of forgiveness and encouragement to live according to God’s will. We don’t find stony faces in the church, but God’s love and the friendship of other Christians. Christian maturity of faith honors God, strengthens us, and spreads a good influence in the world around us.

       We stand up for Jesus in a legalistic environment, where there are always many spiritual casualties. The church offers a refuge. The Savior reaches out through his Christian people. Paul wrote in another letter that the Lord Jesus Christ comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

       It’s easy to scold and reproach and carry in our hearts a scrapbook of wrongs done to us, but we Christians offer a better message to our neighbors – words of mercy and consolation from God that raise crushed spirits and heal bruised souls. We live in the radiance of God’s free grace. We may be tempted to fall back into legalistic customs and ways, but we confess our sins, which God washes away. He brings us back to our standing as grown-up Christians. We are forgiven, we forgive others. We have received comfort; we offer comfort to our neighbors. Anyone can cling to customs and traditions and man-made laws. We cling to Jesus, who brings us maturity and freedom. In His Name we give thanks. AMEN

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of..

John 7:36 - 8:3 Jesus Brings a Woman to Faith

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

       Jesus met a lot of people during his three-year ministry, and you and I would think of many of them as exceptional cases. He healed a man born blind, for example, and raised Lazarus from the dead. He cast out demons – a much different affliction, by the way, than mental illness – and then there was the woman in this morning’s gospel, who expressed her gratitude and her love for Jesus in a dramatic and emotional way. She’d lived a hard life, full of sin. Her neighbors held her at a distance; a guilty conscience tormented her. She expected her life to be an everlasting round of sin, guilt, and shame – though she might not have used those words to describe her plight – until she met Jesus. Maybe she heard him speak that very day. He taught her about the joys that would come to her if she repented of her sins and accepted God’s pardon. She followed his command and welcomed him into her heart. He freed her from the low opinion she had of herself; her mind and soul were no longer tortured. Jesus brought her into his kingdom and she knew that he was her friend. He encouraged her to keep on trusting him and to hope for a better life – of forgiveness, love, and faith.

       Martin Luther once pointed out that the Pharisee was wrong to have called her a sinner. It would have been more accurate to say that she once lived an openly sinful life, but now she is a believer, a Christian, someone who loves God and other people and who know looks ahead to blessedness and well-being in her present life and in eternity. Jesus has given her a new understanding. She has moved from the realm of sin and death into Christ’s kingdom of life.  

       Her case is extreme, as we said, but it is an illustration of the way God works to build up faith and love. The Holy Spirit uses God’s laws to make us aware of our failings and some of the ways we have displeased him. We are sorry for our misdeeds. The Spirit uses our understanding of our weakness and error to awake in us a desire for rescue, a craving for a savior. God then leads us to trust in the Savior that he sent. He invites us to cling to Jesus for the salvation we need. Then by a movement of our souls that God creates and that he alone understands, we receive Christ and his offer of deliverance. We welcome Jesus as our friend and Savior. We rejoice that forgiveness, faith, and love have come to us. We are new people, born again. We don’t hunger for the world but want what God wants for us. We become faithful and loving, eager to perform works of love.

       This process can take place in a very short space of time, as was the case with the woman in this morning’s gospel. She saw Jesus; she was filled with sorrow for her sins; she understood that she needed a Savior and that Jesus offered her salvation. She accepted him joyfully, with tears of gratitude. She looked ahead to a life of loving relationships, beginning with the Lord, that would last forever.

       Luke’s account of this brief episode in her life holds our attention. There aren’t many people in her situation, with her past. We’re all sinners, though, and the point is that Jesus offers everyone the kind of relationship he offered her, one of forgiveness, faith, and love. St. Peter’s people accept the Lord’s offer. We believe in him and welcome his love and return it and spread it. We’re not perfect, of course, but we do bring Christian love to other people – in our families, in the community, and in the church. We forgive our neighbors; we encourage them; we help them carry their burdens. Jesus has built up among us the kind of love that John described in his first letter: “We love and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him...this commandment we have from God – that he who loves God should love his brother also.”  So God has given us the kind of community that others want to be part of.

       The church is different from the set-up the Pharisees in this morning’s gospel had in mind. The Pharisees were among the spiritual leaders of Jesus’ time – admirable people in many ways, pious and devout, who worked as hard as they could to live within the framework of their many laws. As far as conduct and behavior went, the Pharisees were far above other people of their day. What’s more, they made their guidelines available to others so that they, too, could escape, supposedly, the corruption of the world. In the Pharisee’s opinion, the woman who came to Jesus should be avoided, because she hadn’t done her best to lift herself out of the corruption of the world. She was – according to him – a sinner. He judged her because he believed in a religion of works, which teaches that we win God’s favor by trying to live by laws, and the better we do, the more favor we receive. One outcome of this kind of religion is not repentance and faith and joy in the Lord and loving relationships with others but self-righteousness: “I’m better than you are.” This sort of attitude turns people off and turns God off, too. Even Jesus, who had a right to, never spoke like that. He came as a servant, who wanted to heal, to deliver lost people from the clutches of sin, death, and the devil, and to make the kingdom of God’s love available to everyone. “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy-laden,” he said, “and I will give you rest.” So he forgave the woman’s sins and praised her behavior toward him because it proved she’d received him in her heart. She’s full of enthusiasm for her Savior and rightly so. It was a high point in her life.

       But what about her situation a few a few years later? Was she still on fire for the Lord? The Bible doesn’t tell us but we can use our imaginations.

       Let’s say she faced many challenges and temptations, like everyone else, and that she endured moments of anguish, but because Jesus offered her the healing of pardon, and because she welcomed him as her friend, she never sank back into the hopelessness that was once the hall- mark of her life. Jesus claimed her; he rescued her; he set his seal on her. He made it possible for her to move ahead boldly and confidently and take up the works of love that he had planned for her.

       The same is true for us. Jesus strengthens us to cope with life. We have our challenges and temptations, and some of them may have the potential to discourage us – illness, unemployment, losses of various kinds. Jesus doesn’t expect us to repeat again a process that we have already passed through. He asks us instead to call on his help and build on the gifts of pardon and friendship he has already given us. And as we call on him, he helps us overcome the obstacles that get in our. We don’t slip back. We move forward. We run with confidence, as Paul says, the race that is put before us. Whatever happens, we have the assurance that God has called us, that we are his chosen people, his elect.

       We turn to Jesus again and again for guidance, for building up, and for absolution. There are moments when we struggle with temptation; we sometimes wrestle with God in prayer. All the while we trust that he’s building us up, that he uses our trials and tribulations for our good and his glory and that he will answer our prayers and meet our needs. We don’t let discouragement get the best of us for long.

       The woman in this morning’s gospel sets an example. Forgiven and uplifted, she ignores everything that works to discourage her and lead her to sin and focuses entirely on Jesus. The eagerness that springs from single-hearted faithfulness shows us that she is born again to new life. As we keep hold of forgiveness and eternal life in Jesus, we ourselves will have our share of eagerness. We pray, then, that the Lord keep on lifting us up with his never failing gospel so that the our zest for Jesus won’t stay still but flourish and grow. AMEN.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.