Service on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UelBQUfi0pk
It was a work day, I think, and I was finishing up my sermon at a coffee shop at the Brookfield Corners. I was minding my own business, keeping an eye on people. There was this couple, he was reading from the book of Psalms, which is definitely caught my attention… while on its service might be an ok thing, it made me I stayed aware of them. I was wearing my rainbow glasses, which don’t have to be gay but are a little gay, and the wife complimented me on them… so it could have gone either way.
Until she asked what I do, I said pastor and she was, ooo, and she asked me, if I know how someone gets to heaven.”
And while I wasn’t convinced she wanted my opinion, I told her such things are above my pay grade.
Which is when she told me how to get into heaven. Which I suppose was very helpful of her.
She said it wasn’t about a prayer, or right words, or being a nice person; it’s about each person believing in Jesus.
It was helpful to have that information.
From Paul, to Augustine, to Martin Luther comes this woman asking me if I know how to be saved and go to heaven.
While there are many letters written in the name of Paul, only some of them are considered authentically Paul, Galatians is one. It was probably written between the end of the 40’s and early 50’s. It was before the destruction of the temple, before full divide between the Jewish communities and the Jesus following communities, before things had settled.
Paul had been travelling, starting and supporting Christian communities, and when he traveled on he got word of what was happening, he wrote letters to clear up any issues.
And there were issues.
It needs to be clear, Paul wasn’t talking about Judaism in general, but about the Jewish followers of Jesus–this text has been used to talk about how the Law, the Torah, is unnecessary or general anti-Semitism–that’s not what Paul was trying to do.
In the real time of the letter, there were some… disagreements going on. First, there had recently been what we call the First Jerusalem Council, when the leaders of the Jesus movement came together and decided what to do with these new gentile followers. The followers of Jesus were still a subset of Judaism, so some were arguing that all (male) gentile Jesus followers had to be circumcised. And Paul argued for the other side. Paul won out. Now, in this letter, we learn that those who were learning about Jesus from James (Jesus’ brother?) had arrived near Galatia and it seems that they would have been really happy if they could have forced the gentiles to convert… or not be part of the community at all.
A government is democratic, Schmidt argues, if it bases its legitimacy on support from the people’s will. But this depends on how you define the people and choose to assess their will. Every democracy depends on excluding some people, most notably foreigners, from participating in the selection of its leaders. That means, by definition, no democracy rests on universal human equality before the law. Instead, the idea of equality and democracy really means equality amongst the people in a political community that shares a certain identity and core agreements.
There has never been a democracy that did not recognize the concept foreign and that could have realized the equality of all men, he wrote in a 1926 preface to the second edition of his book:
Every actual democracy rests on the principle that not only are equals equal, but unequals will not be treated equally. Democracy requires therefore first homogeneity and second, if the need arises, elimination and eradication of heterogeneity. -Carl Schmitt
They seem to have given Peter a hard time for eating with gentiles, or because they were in town Peter just stopped eating with the gentiles. It seems they were trying to prove that the gentile Jesus followers were not as good as the Jesus followers who also followed the law. It seemed they were convinced that following the Law was the whole thing, was the beginning and end, the point. That the gentiles need to be compelled to follow the Law.
Paul had lived that way. He gives us his credentials at the beginning. He wasn’t related to Jesus. He hadn’t traveled with Jesus, but he had experienced the risen Christ. But before that Paul was committed to his religion. He said he excelled at it, he was the best at it, and he could prove it. Like the kids that win at Bible Bowl, memorizing verses, or winning Bible Trivia. He could win at religion, he could check things off his list.
But that is not what the law was for, it was to build a community, a response to loving God, not to prove it.
Paul brags about how he thrived, was accomplished as a Jewish leader. It makes me think about some of those Bible games. Jeannie brought us Bible Trivia for game night, which we’ve never played, because it’s hard. Or when folks do Bible memorization or who can find the Bible verse first. Or who prays the longest with the best words, who reads the Bible an hour a day. Who can prove they are the best.
That’s what I think that Paul was talking about–he was the best, memorized, followed all the rules. It wasn’t that that was how the Law is supposed to be, it is what it became to him.
I’ve heard folks talk about it with running or music or something–it was once enjoyable, fun, that brought joy, and then it became a task, something that required striving, competition, hard work, and lost the joy.
And so you stop. Stop running, stop playing, and find something else.
He believed the best and the hardest. If there were gold stars for being the most… he would have had so many stars. I’m sure he was a lot. possibly too much. so much that may be lost the joy and the mystery and the passion of it.
And it seems, for Paul, meeting Christ on the road allowed him to find the joy again. The risen Christ interrupted his daily experience and shot it through with the mystery he had intellectualized away, or check-list-ed away, or strove to be the best at instead of just meeting God.
That isn’t to say that there weren’t those in the Jewish community that didn’t have that experience of God without meeting Jesus, it’s that Paul no longer could.
Like those who are good at running, run for enjoyment, and then there is training, hard work, competition, striving. And some people thrive on that, but for others, it becomes how they prove their worth, or for some, running loses its joy.
I wonder if for Paul, the Law was something to prove he was the best, it lost its joy, the mystery of God, the passion, and the love of it. Maybe that’s what he discovered in following Jesus, the chance to lean into the mystery, the passion, in new ways.
Like an artist or musician or dancer who was classically trained and now find joy in pour paintings, in new instruments, interpretive dancing. They need a new way to engage the old ways.
He had to make space in “belief” for something else.
Belief is a complicated word. If we stop to think about it, belief is both the opposite of doubt and a thought we decide on, something we think about, a cognitive decision, statements we affirm or not. Belief seems to be a choice. Something we do. So, in that way it is an action.
Somehow it makes religion is something we do.
Here’s the thing about Paul’s writing and the word belief–it could have been translated as trust or faith, they are all the same word in Greek–and when I think about belief it’s something cognitive–a thinking thing, faith is a
For Paul it had become a problem, it was a problem he was trying to keep everyone else away from.
Here’s the thing about translation and language… It’s imperfect, we do our best.
Not only is the word believe, faith, trust all the same Greek word, there has been some… disagreement on the translation.
That the tenses of these words might not say faith in Jesus, but rather faith of Jesus. That is the faithfulness of Jesus in which we are part of the community, in which we are made whole, have life and life abundantly, to be made right to God.
You are enough
you already belong
You already belong to God
You are enough. The world is going to make you want to strive. To make you want to prove yourself. To make you want to check the list, compete, to win.
Paul hopes that in the joy of belonging, you will love others and creation, to show them they belong too.
you are God’s love in action
You are enough. You are the walking embodiment of God’s faithfulness, of the faithfulness of Jesus, and God’s love.
You do not have to prove yourself.
you are loved, you belong, you are enough, you are love.