Sixth Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 21st, 2017click here for past entries
Loving God, you call us to yourself by the power of your Spirit, giving gifts of faith and hope and love. Teach us to trust in you for all things and to live to the praise of your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Those of you who are astute may have noticed that this week we are hearing about some of the same things as last week. Last week it was the Council at Jerusalem that was front and center, which addressed the question of whether Gentiles had to be circumcised and become Jewish in order to belong to Jesus. We also heard from Peter that everybody, whether Jew or Gentile, is saved by grace through faith.
This week, we hear about some of the same things, except from Paul’s perspective. You may have noticed that there is still a group called the “circumcision faction” that shows up in Antioch, and that advocates following all of the Jewish laws (Gal. 2:12). However, today we hear Paul writing about some of these things based on his own experience.
We hear a little bit about Paul’s history - how he grew up as an observant Jew and was far more serious about his religion than many others of the same age. In fact, we hear that Paul was so zealous for the traditions of his ancestors that he violently persecuted those who believed in Jesus and tried to stop them (Gal. 1:13-14).
However, all of that changed when Paul encountered the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Even though Paul had thought that he was being faithful to God by persecuting followers of Jesus, Paul discovers that he was actually working against God. From that time forward, Paul realizes his own sinfulness, and knows that it is only by God’s grace that he has been saved through Jesus.
This is at least part of the reason why Paul feels so strongly that Gentiles who come to believe in Jesus should not be compelled to be circumcised and to follow the Jewish law. Paul knows that, at least in his case, all of his efforts in that department did nothing to save him. Rather, it was God acting in grace and mercy and revealing Jesus to him that allowed Paul to believe in Jesus and to inherit the hope of eternal life.
Today, however, I’m not sure a lot of people ask the question as to whether we are put right with God through faith or through works of the law. Some people, though, do ask the question of who belongs to Jesus. Who is in, and who is out? Who will go to heaven in the end?
Some Christian groups have come up with some fairly obvious signs as to who belongs and who does not. In some cases, you can tell by how they’re dressed - for those who belong all dress alike. In other cases, you can tell by who has had the proper kind of baptism, or who can speak in tongues, or who comes to church the most often. In other cases, if you’re married and have lots of children and behave correctly, you belong. In still other cases, you can tell by who can quote the Bible most readily, or who gives the most money, or who volunteers the most time. Many of us find faith to be a rather nebulous thing to define, so we like to come up with some far more obvious signs of who belongs and who doesn’t.
In God’s case, however, who belongs is defined more by what is in the heart than by any outward signs. As Peter said in last week’s reading, those first Gentile believers had their hearts cleansed by faith, as God poured out the Holy Spirit on them as God’s own sign of approval (Acts 15:8-9). And Paul talks about Christ living within him (Gal. 2:20). In other words, his heart belongs to Christ.
The Bible is full of passages that talk about the heart, and especially the relationship between the heart and outward appearances. Way back in 1 Samuel, we are reminded that human beings look at outward appearances, but God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Jesus also has a fair bit to say about the heart. He talks about how good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit, and how “it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks” (Lk. 6:43-45).
And so, what is in our hearts does come out. However, you can’t always tell what is in somebody’s heart by how they are dressed or how they look or even where they hang out. Just as Jesus did not judge by appearances, we are not to judge by appearances, for God looks at the heart.
As far as faith goes, though, it seems that sometimes we are not so sure what it actually means to believe in Jesus Christ. Some people, when they talk about believing, actually mean that they know about Jesus. So they believe that he lived and that he was crucified and that he healed people and maybe performed some miracles. Others, when they talk about believing, mean that intellectually they agree that Jesus is the Son of God, and was crucified, died and rose again, and that he ascended into heaven. And so, for them believing means being able to say “yes” to the things that are in the Creed.
However, the kind of faith that Paul writes about means actually trusting in Jesus. This is what he means when he talks about living “by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). And so, every decision that he makes, and how he acts, and even the joy and peace that he experiences in the midst of persecution, all come out of trusting Jesus. He believes that Jesus is with him by the power of the Holy Spirit. He believes that he belongs to Jesus both in this life and the next. He believes that God will provide all that is needed because he is living for Jesus. This is what it means to live by faith.
“The life I now live in the flesh,” says Paul, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). This is how Paul knows that he belongs, and this is how we know that we belong - by faith in Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us. And this same faith will bear fruit, by the power of the Spirit - fruit like love and joy and peace and patience and generosity and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Thanks be to God! Amen.
Easter 6 (NL 3) Galatians 1:13-17; 2:11-21
May 21, 2017
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison
© 2017 Lynne Hutchison All Rights Reserved
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