My sermon today was a story that--for multiple reasons--I chose not to write down . In the bulletin, I had a typo that said Luke 5:8-10 (not 15:8-10) which is the story of Jesus calling Simon and telling him he would be "catching people" (sing together everybody..."I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men..." Now, if you have ever preached and heard the wrong scripture being read, there is a slight moment of panic. But as mistakes go, it was as perfect as possible...setting up for my beach story, and maybe just a little bit of "catching".
sermon by Torin Eikler Luke 7:36-50Galatians
2:15-21
This
story of Jesus’ dinner at Simon’s house is full of valuable lessons layered in
there one on top of another.As is the
case with the other narratives in the gospels, someone seems to be a master of
packing things in there.I only wish
that I could get as much into my car for vacation.But then, I would probably have just as much
difficulty getting it all back out as we do when we try to unpack stories like
this one.
One key
that I have found to unraveling this
one is to look at the two people that join Jesus in the scene - the Pharisee
and the woman.
On
one side of the picture we have Simon.He seems to have been well respected, at least fairly well off, and
since he was a successful Pharisee he probably did a pretty good job of living
righteously under Jewish law.One the
other side, we have the woman (who I’ll call Mary since the parallel anointing
story in Matthew names her as Mary Magdalene).She was probably not so wealthy despite the fact that she possessed an
alabaster jar.She certainly wasn’t well
respected in the community.And, her
life clearly would not have fit in the category of righteousness.
Everything
that happens – everything that Jesus says – is based on a comparison of these
two.
The
first thing that comes to mind – the most obvious one – is the question of
hospitality and gratitude.The righteous
Simon was pleased to invite Jesus to join him for a meal which was entirely in
keeping with the traditions of hospitality of the time.And yet he fulfilled only the letter of the
law, providing none of the niceties that would have gone along with a true
welcome.So when he showed his
disapproval of Mary’s actions, Jesus objects – not only calling attention to
Simon’s lack of real hospitality but also naming his lack of gratitude for all
the blessing and privilege that he enjoyed.Mary’s love, he said, showed that she had been forgiven much.Simon’s lack of concern, on the other hand,
was evidence that he had experienced very little forgiveness (probably because
he had never thought to ask for it).
And
so we come to another layer - the tension between righteousness and forgiveness
which Alan Culpepper describes very well....
“Does love lead to forgiveness, or is the ability to love
the result of being forgiven?”, he asks. “Jesus accepted the woman’s expression
of love as a sign that she had been forgiven much.Love is the natural response of the forgiven,
but the capacity to love is directly related to the ability to receive grace,
forgiveness, and love.Simon’s problem
was not his conduct but his attitude and self-understanding….Because Simon thought of himself as pious and
righteous, he had no idea what it meant to be forgiven and no awareness of his
own need for forgiveness.He loved
little because he had experienced so little of God’s love.[And] because Simon did not recognize his
need for forgiveness, he excluded himself from God’s grace.On the other hand, because the woman knew she
was [imperfect], she could receive God’s forgiveness.”[1]
It
is not that righteousness and forgiveness cannot go together … or that we
cannot live righteously and also be forgiven.Neither Culpepper nor Jesus is saying that.But there is a pitfall there that needs to be
avoided because there are two ways to interpret “righteousness.”As Jesus taught it, righteousness meant
nurturing healthy, whole relationships.But religious authorities often seem to understand it as doing what is
necessary to keep ourselves morally “pure.” If we make Simon’s mistake and try to follow a
set of rules, then we fool ourselves into believing that we can fulfill
righteousness on our own if only we can control our lives well enough.
Another
step deeper – the issue of control.
I
just finished reading “The Shack.”It is
the story of Mack, a man who is suffering from what he calls “the Great
Sadness,” who feels like his life has spun out of control, and who has begun to
question the existence (or at least the “goodness”) of God. The reason for all of this is the death of his
youngest daughter who was kidnapped and murdered by a serial killer.That’s reason enough to feel angry and
betrayed by God, but as it happens, Missy was taken from the family’s campsite
while Mack was rescuing a son who had been trapped under a canoe.So, Mack also feels like it was all his fault
– that if he had only made different decisions or controlled the situation
differently, none of it would have happened.
Two
years later, Mack receives and mysterious invitation to travel to the cabin
where Missy was killed and meet with someone calling himself Papa – which is
his wife’s name for God.After some
struggle, he makes up his mind to go and see what it’s all about.He finds himself face to face with the three
persons of the Trinity, and even though he is seminary trained, he quickly
finds that he has very many mistaken ideas about this God.
I
picked up the book because Linda recommended it to me after my Pentecost sermon
where I told the story of the church from the point of view of the Spirit.It reminded her of the way William Young
developed the three personalities of the Trinity.And I found it to be a good read.But, I am sharing it with you because of this
conversation between Mack and Sarayu (the name of the Holy Spirit in the
book).Sarayu begins….
[2]“My goodness, you didn’t
think you could live the righteousness of God on your own, did you?”
“Well, I thought so, sorta,” [Mack replied].“But you gotta admit, rules and principles
are simpler than relationships….You
know how truly grateful I am for everything, but you’ve dumped a whole lot in
my lap this weekend.What do I do when I
get back?What do you expect of me now?”
…
“Let me answer that by asking you a question.Why do you think we came up with the Ten
Commandments?”
“I suppose, at least I have been taught, that it’s a set of
rules that you expected humans to obey in order to live righteously in your
good graces.”
“If that were true, which it is not, then how many do you
think lived righteously enough to enter our good graces?”
“Not very many, if people are like me,” Mack observed.
"Actually, we wanted you to give up trying to be righteous
on your own.”
“Are you saying I don’t have to follow the rules?”
“Yes.In Jesus you
are not under any law.All things are
lawful.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Mackenzie, … trying to keep the law is actually … a way of
keeping control.”
“Is that why we like the law so much – to give us some
control?” asked Mack.
“It is much worse than that,” resumed [The Spirit].“It grants you the power to judge others and
feel superior to them.You believe you
are living to a higher standard than those you judge.Enforcing rules … is a vague attempt to
create certainty out of uncertainty ….Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.”
Ultimately,
this scene seems to be about “letting go and letting God.”You can tell the way that I use those finger
quotes that I’m not entirely comfortable with that phrase.It seems like people use it mostly as a way
of denying or refusing their own responsibility. They say those words, take themselves out of
the center of their own lives, and sit idly by and watching as things happen
around them – watching and not engaging on the pretext that it is all up to
God.
That
is definitely not what I mean when I use those words.Letting go and letting God is not a ticket to
passively wander through the world as life goes by.For me, it means that we need to let go of our
need to control the future – our need to decide how things should turn out and then manage every detail that we can so that
everything turns out the way we planned.That is what we need to turn over to God.As hard as it is … as scary as it may seem …
as insecure as it makes us feel, we need to turn over the future – our future –
to God.We need to let it go and trust
that God has a broader perspective and will lead us where we need to be.
We
also need to be intensely involved in the present.That means letting go of the past as well as
the future.We can learn a lot from the
past.Sometimes, we can even catch a
glimpse of where God’s plan is headed if we read it the right way.But mostly we don’t.Mostly when we look back all we see are the
mistakes we have made and the failures of others.That brings on guilt and judgment that only
lead us farther away from God, and that is not what God wants.God wants … God deeply desires restoration for us and for all of creation.
And
now we have reached the foundation of our story.I think that, at its deepest level, this
story is about restoration and the love of God.I think that because this is the point where the comparison between our
two characters stops being a contrast.It is not as if Jesus wants to see restoration for Mary and not for
Simon … quite the opposite.All of
Jesus’ teaching … all of the comparisons … all of the chiding seems to have
been aimed at helping Simon realize what he was missing.
Mary
had found the love and forgiveness of God.She came to Jesus in gratitude, and he publicly proclaimed that she had
been forgiven.In a very real sense,
that act was like a resurrection for her.She who had been cast out of the community of believers because of her
sins against the law, she was now forgiven those sins and should be welcomed
back into the fold – restored both to God and to the community.
I
don’t know what happened to Simon after his dinner guests left, but I like to
imagine that he changed….That he
changed radically thanks to the grace offered around that table.Now, “Unless we see something of ourselves in
the character of [Simon], we are so blind to our own need that we have failed
to hear the story.”[3]And if we have failed to hear the story, then
we may remain stuck – as Simon was – stuck in the pitfall of our own pride and
our need for control.
God’s
unfailing love is always surrounding us, guiding us, and working in our lives
to bring restoration.I like to imagine
that we all change every time we receive that gift, because once our lives have
been touched by an experience of God’s grace, God’s love becomes the controlling
force in our lives, and the gratitude of the forgiven is also the source of new
life.Ultimately, that is what salvation
is all about.
May
it be so.
[1] Culpepper,
R. Alan. “The Gospel of Luke: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The
New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume IX
(Abingdon Press, Nashville) 1995.172-3.
[2]
Young, William P. The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity.
(Windblown Media, Los Angeles). 2007. 198-203.
In the movie Dan in Real Life, funny man Steve
Carrel is a widower and father of 3 girls.He writes a syndicated advice column called Dan in Real Life and seems
to have the perfect advice for everyone’s problems but his own.Not least of these is his 14 year old
daughter’s rush to maturity in dress, attitude, and relationships.On a weekend on the Rhode Island Coast with
aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, Dan discovers his daugther’s
boyfriend has snuck all the way up from New Jersey to be with her. Dan puts the
love sick boy in a car to head home in spite of the young man’s profession of
love for Dan’s daughter.In his
frustrationDan says “ you are too young
to feel love”
to which the boy says “Love isn’t a feeling, Mr.
Burns.It’s an ability”
Dan scoffs at the immaturity of this young man.But then, later, comes to use this wisdom in his own defense.
Love isn’t a feeling.It’s an ability.
It seems to me that
much that has to do with the life of faith--
if not life in general—
are less feelings
than abilities.
Compassion, for one.
Compassion, as Dan’s young friend might also say,
isn’t a feeling.
Compassion is an ability.
Actually I should correct myself,compassion is a feeling,
but the sort of feeling that isn’t satisfied if it
stays tucked up nice and cozy in your soul
with a nice blanket and a cup of tea
Compassion is an ability that requires so much
of ourselves…all
of ourselves.
Compassion tries our mental state, and physical
energy, our time,
our emotions.
Compassion is an ability we want in others and hope
for in ourselves.
At the heart of Jesus’ ministry is this very
ability.
Not the individual abilities to raise the dead, or
turn water into wine
or a little bit of bread into a whole feast.
Rather the miracle stories, like the one we read
today point to
the power of Christ’s compassion above all else.
And I have to say that this gives me hope.
Because God knows I can’t perform miracles.
None of us can.
But we can practice compassion.
We can hone this innate ability to care for one
another,
feel for one another
and while we may
not raise the dead or heal the sick as Jesus did,
we will impart the loving presence of Christ,
which will bring healing in its own, mysterious way.
In fact, I think so much about the Christian walk
is less about being part of some club,
or saying you believe the right things,
but more a commitment to hone and practice
the divine abilities placed within us.
Christianity is a practice
And compassion is one of the most important practices
we take on when we choose to follow Christ.
In Hebrew, the word compassion and womb has
the same root.In some way, we can say
that compassion is womb love.
It is seeing another as a sibling, one that was
shaped and formed and grown and birthed
from the same womb.
The German write Dorothee Soelle emphasizes this idea by
telling a story of a rabbi who
asked his students how do you to recognize the
moment
hen night ends an day begins
“Is it when, from a great distance, you can tell a
dog from a sheep?” one student asked.
No. said the rabbi.
“Is it when rom a great distance, you can tell a
date palm from a fig tree?another
asked.
No.said the
rabbi.
“Then when is it?” the students asked.
The rabbi replied, “It is when you look into the
face of any human creature and see your brother or your sister there.Until then, night is still with us.”
When we look into the face of any human creature and
not see
a
homeless man, a mother on welfare, an immigrant someone living with AIDS, a
conservative, a liberal
a
peacenik, a solider, a homosexual, a redneck
But when we see a brother or sister.Or a daughter or son,
we
have begun cultivating the art of compassion.
But as you can guess, this isn’t easy.I mean, if I were to look how brothers
love each other, we’d be putting everybody in
time out, forcing apologies out of everyone, and
sending the world to their rooms.
But with practice and awareness and
bringing our consciousness to Christ’s compassion that innate ability can rise within us.
Tex Sample, a storyteller and seminary professor,
told a story at the beginning of one of our Sunday School sessions.(If I could replicate his southern accent it
would make it all the better…)
He talked about a young man dying of AIDs in a
hospital When it was clear this man was going to die soon, the hospital staff rushed to find a pastor or
chaplain who would pray for the man. When they found a visiting pastor, the pastor would
not come into the room, but stood outside the room and shouted a prayer asking God’s forgiveness for
this man’s terrible sins. And he turned on his heel and left the hospital The staff were beside themselves and tried to find
someone who could be pastor to the man. They found a theological student who was doing an
internship and when they told her she went to the room as
quickly as she could She rushed in through the door, went over to the man
and sat down on the bed next to him. She stayed with him the last hours of his life. He did die that night. Later someone asked her,“What did you do?” She answered We prayed.I
read the Bible.We sang songs. But mostly, mostly I just told him how much God
loved him.
Compassion is the ability to show people that God loves them. Whether through word, or action, or Songs or touch. Marching in the streets or sitting beside someone
who is dying.
But the tricky thing about compassion is that
there is no formula for giving it.
It’s not: one part patience, three parts humility,
and two parts courage.
Because everyone we meet, every situation we face has context. There is a relationship. How we enter into compassionate relationship with a
dying man is different than how we struggle to find compassion
for the
pastor who showed him none How you practice compassion with a family member
is different than how you practice compassion to the checkout girl at Kroger.
Compassion, like any other art, or discipline, or
ability
needs preparation in order to bloom into its fullest
potential
I have appreciated a gift that Cindy Lewellen gave
me
CDs of guided meditations by Sharon Salzburg.
Salzburg spends a lot of time on compassion,
which she calls lovingkindness.
I don’t know if it is because so much of my life in
these past few years
have been living “outwardly”—
raising children, pastoring a congregation,
parenting groups, volunteer projects
but I have been thankful to have times to
have someone guide me in going internally.
Because I know as much as I may talk about
compassion,
even compassion as an ability,
it isn’t something that just happens.
Compassion and lovingkindess has to be
cultivated, and grown, and remembered
and strengthened within.
So I would like to spend a few minutes
and guide you in a meditation that you can
take with you to help you cultivate
compassion as a daily practice.
I will try the I can invoke the soothing presence of
Sharon Salzburg in this lovingkindness meditation
Lovingkindness
meditation
sit comfortably
close your eyes
in this practice we don’t pay attention to the
feeling of the breath
as you might in other types of meditation
but instead we allow certain phrases to emerge from
the heart
which are the object of concentration
These phrases are hopes we have for the betterment
of our own lives
Traditional phrases are things like,
may I be safe, be happy, be healthy, live with ease
I will be using these four phrases as I speak,
but you can substitute them for any you feel is
appropriate
The phrases are meant to be big enough or general
enough that its like a
gift we can offer ourselves not just today
and ultimately offer to all of life, the
boundlessness of life
May I be safe, be happy, be healthy, live with ease
Take a moment and let one or multiple phrases rise
within you
that have meaning
---
Gather all your attention behind each phrase at a
time
And, if you haven’t begun to already, focus them on
yourself
Say your phrases silently one at a time
May I be safe, be happy, be healthy live with ease,
whatever you choose
(silence)
Then think of a friend, first friend that comes to mind
Bring them here
get an image of them
say their name to yourself,
get a feeling for their presence and offer your phrases
of lovingkindness to them
the things you wish for yourself
May you
be safe, be happy, be healthy, live with ease
whatever your phrases are
(long silence)
Think of someone you know who is not doing so well
right now
Someone who is frightened or lonely or ill.Bring that person here.
Offer your phrases of lovingkindess to them
(silence)
And then someone you barely know
checkout person, dry cleaner, attendant at a gas
station
you may not know them, but try to recall a
face.
Offer your phrases to them.
Be safe, be
happy, be healthy, live with ease.
(long silence)
Then all things everywhre, all people creatures,
systems,
known and unknown near and far.
May all things be safe, be happy, be healthy, live
with ease
When you feel ready, you can open your eyes and
relax
--
Take this spirit of LovingKindness into your
practice of being a Christian this week
See if it can help you uncover your innate ability
of compassion, as Luke 6:36 invites us
be compassionate, as your Father in Heaven is
compassionate.
sermon by Torin Eikler Luke 7:1-10Galatians
1:1-12
Galatians
is one of my favorite of Paul’s letters to his far-flung congregations.It has the section comparing the fruits of
the Spirit to the fruits of the Flesh, which has been powerful and inspiring to
me as I struggle to work through the anger and impatience that have, at times,
seemed to overwhelm me.It echoes Jesus’
call to reconciliation and forgiveness in the hopes of restoring communities
and relationships with gentleness.And
in this letter, when Paul speaks of the freedom that comes freely from grace
rather than from the impossible task of living the righteousness of God … I
actually feel like I understand it.That
gives me hope.
But
the letter starts off on quite a different note.Paul usually begins his writings with a
greeting followed by some words of thanks to God for the congregation he is
addressing and an expression of his confidence in them.This time, he lets go with a rebuke that
comes to a head with a powerful curse.Not a good way for things to start.
And
yet, the body of the letter does not show anger.Despite the harsh words, Paul does not seem
to be raging at the people.What he does
express is his disappointment, his frustration, and his worry that these
gentile believers are being led astray by other missionaries who have missed
the heart of the gospel by focusing too much on details.(The particular detail in question is the
need for believers to be circumcised in order to fulfill Jewish righteousness…
which I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for other scholars who spend a lot of time
focusing on the details of scripture.But, they assure me that it is so.)Paul disagrees quite strongly with that requirement, and accuses them,
basically, of being blind to good news of Christ’s grace.
It
reminds me a bit of the Hindu story about six blind men who thought themselves
very wise and knowledgeable until, one day, they got into an argument.The
object of their dispute was the elephant. Now, since each was blind, none had
ever seen that mighty beast of whom so many tales are told. So, to satisfy
their minds and settle the dispute, they decided to go and seek out an
elephant.
They hired a young guide and set
out early one morning in single file along the forest track, each placing his
hands on the back of the man in front. It was not long before they came to a
forest clearing where a huge bull elephant, quite tame, was standing
contemplating his menu for the day.
The six blind men became quite
excited; at last they would satisfy their minds. Thus it was that the men took
turns to investigate the elephant's shape and form.
As all six men were blind, none of
them could see the whole elephant and approached the elephant from different
directions. After encountering the elephant, each man proclaimed in turn:
'O my brothers,' the first man at
once cried out, 'it is as sure as I am wise that this elephant is like a great
mud wall baked hard in the sun.'
'Now, my brothers,' the second man
exclaimed with a cry of dawning recognition, 'I can tell you what shape this
elephant is - he is exactly like a spear.'
The others smiled in disbelief.
'Why, dear brothers, do you not
see,' said the third man -- 'this elephant is very much like a rope,' he
shouted.
'Ha, I thought as much,' the fourth
man declared excitedly, 'This elephant much resembles a serpent.'
The others snorted their contempt.
'Good gracious, brothers,' the
fifth man called out, 'even a blind man can see what shape the elephant
resembles most. Why he's mightily like a fan.'
At last, it was the turn of the
sixth old fellow and he proclaimed, 'This sturdy pillar, brothers' mine, feels
exactly like the trunk of a great areca palm tree.'
Of course, no one believed him.
Their curiosity satisfied, they all
linked hands and followed the guide back to the village. Each now had his own
opinion, firmly based on his own experience, of what an elephant is really
like. For after all, each had felt the elephant for himself and knew that he
was right! And so indeed he was. For depending on how the elephant is seen,
each blind man was partly right, though all were in the wrong.
Of
course, we tend to assume that Paul had the whole picture and it was the
missionaries who had the wrong end of the … tail?But, before we judge them too harshly, we
should probably look at ourselves.I,
for one, am a detail person.I may head
into any given situation in life with a fairly good understanding of the larger
picture, but once I get going, I often get lost in the details.And more than once I have gotten so caught up
in following the little things through to their end that I find myself
completely off-track when I finally step back again for a more holistic
perspective.
I
don’t know if any of you have experienced the same thing, but I have noticed
that our society, as a whole, and many of the smaller groups that we are part
of quite often seem to get distracted by pesky little details.Take, for example, the discussion among
scholars of the story we read from Luke today.Each person seems to focus of one aspect of the story and make that
particular piece the center of its meaning.I suspect that they all see things differently in the light of their own
life and experience, and so we get this “sturdy pillar” from E. Louise
Williams:
Authority and power have a primary place in the story of
Jesus and the centurion; in fact authority is a recurring theme throughout
Luke’s Gospel.
Roman centurions were accustomed to trading on their
authority and power.They could command
their servants and order those under them to do whatever they wished.They could enhance their own honor by
associating with important people.And
when they did a favor for someone, they knew they could ask for one in
return.It was the culture of the day,
and they had a place of authority in it.
The centurion’s first approach to Jesus regarding his sick
servant was exactly what one would expect in such a society.The centurion had been generous to the Jews
in Capernaum and had even financed their new synagogue.Now, in return, he asked their leader to
approach Jesus on his behalf.It was an
honor to Jesus to have such important people make the request and to have them
name the centurion as someone worthy of Jesus’ favor.
But then, just when the centurion was ready to receive a
home visit from someone who would enhance his prestige and who had a reputation
for healing – he sent a second unexpected message.First, the centurion confessed his own unworthiness.Second, he asked Jesus not to come to his
house….
The centurion took the lower place, and Jesus praised him
for it.This Roman gentile had grasped
something that Jesus’ own disciples were having difficulty understanding….The centurion glimpsed an authority that was
like no other authority he’d seen, and came to faith without ever meeting Jesus
or hearing him speak.[1]
And
this “rope” from Jeannine Brown:
Centurions show up rather frequently in the
Gospels and in Acts. This in itself is not surprising, since centurions would
have been a part of the Roman occupation force in Judea and Galilee in the
first century. What is surprising is that these representatives of Roman
occupation are portrayed in quite positive ways.
The centurion in Luke 7:1-10 fits this surprising
profile. He is a Gentile (and presumably Roman, although not all members of the
Roman army were ethnically Roman), who seeks Jesus out for the healing of his
slave. This oppressor of the Jewish people initiates a conversation with a
Jewish healer. He sends Jewish elders to speak on his behalf to Jesus to prove
that he has been a patron of the Jewish people. Then he sends his friends to
keep Jesus from coming to his house, expressing confidently and with an analogy
from his own role in the Roman army that this Jewish healer, Jesus, is able
heal from a distance….
Somehow, it seems fitting in this surprising
story that Jesus himself is surprised and amazed at the trust this centurion
demonstrates. He is surprised to find faith in a centurion that surpasses what
he has seen in anyone from Israel. And we can learn something from Jesus’ own
surprise at the specter of an enemy soldier proving to be a model of faith for
the people of God.[2]
And
this “fan” from Carol Cook Moore:
Healing is not a result that can be bartered
any more than can increasing one’s patience, joy, or charity. The work of
healing is a sacramental work through which the power of life coming from death
interfaces with the brokenness of body, mind, or spirit. We cannot explain
healing any more than we can explain the presence of the risen Christ in the
breaking of bread and the drinking of wine. So what does it mean to trust that
Christ is present especially when there is great evidence to the contrary? You
see, the Centurion demonstrated allegiance and faith in God. Yet this is not why
the servant is healed. On the contrary, it is the gift Jesus finds in the
midst of being interrupted on his way somewhere. It is the example that he can
lift up for those who are watching and listening as the power of God marches
through human barriers that allow us to think we do not need to help someone
because they are not one of us, they are on the outside or they are undeserving.[3]
All
three of these commentators are right in their own way, and the details they
have pulled out are important.The story
is about authority.It is about
including people from all nations in the grace and love of God – even our
enemies.And it is about the free gift
of healing and life that comes without a price or any expectations.Yet, while all of them are “partly
right, [all are also] in the wrong” –
not wrong in that there is no truth to what they are saying, but wrong in that
they have missed the larger picture.
At
the heart of this story is the good news of God’s new way of living, and it
includes all three of those pieces … and more.What it tells us (and this is, I suppose, my own interpretation) is that
in the realm of God all people are equal and equally welcome to share in the
freely-offered, live-giving grace and love of God.
All
people are equal and equally welcome to share in the freely-offered,
live-giving grace and love of God.
That’s
the gospel that Paul preached to the people of Galatia, and it is the freedom
of that message that they were being urged to give up.And to give it up in favor of a view that
said reconciliation and grace had to be earned through acts of righteousness
according to human rules.I think, in
that light, it’s no wonder that Paul would be so worried about his friends and
so upset with those misguided missionaries.
What
I do wonder is what Paul would think of us … and I say this without any sense
of judgment at all.Are we a people who
get so caught up in the details of living out our lives together that we lose
sight of the hope and the promise at its heart?Or are we holding onto that promise of freedom, reconciliation, and
grace?Do we follow the path of worry
and performance into the cul-de-sac?Or
do we trust God’s love and step forward in faith to ask for God’s healing word?
I
think those are important questions to ask, especially as we continue the
process of working out the vision and priorities that will guide us and the
structure that we think will support that mission.
[1] E.
Louise Williams, “Living by the Word,” Christian Century, May 29, 2013. 20.
[2]
Jeannine K. Brown, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1678
[3]
Carol A. Cook Moore, http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=47
