Christ at the Center

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Galatians 1:1-10

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            The complaint is common, almost universal among Christians.  You may have voiced it out loud; if not, I’m sure at some time you’ve felt this way.  Reflecting on your spiritual walk, considering what you’ve done or haven’t done, what you’ve said or haven’t said; you finally come to the conclusion that you are just not a very good Christian. 

That self-assessment leads some to give up Christ altogether, or at least the outward expression of faith; because their religion is an uncomfortable reminder of just how far they’ve fallen, or how little progress they’ve made.  Others hang in there, not wanting to give up; but their spiritual lives are joyless, dry and dusty, devoid of any real satisfaction or fulfillment.  They look at the apparent spiritual growth of others; and wonder what they’re doing wrong; why prayer is so difficult, why Bible study is so boring, why compassion is so shallow.  They ask they question which seems to have no answer: “What’s wrong with me?”

            Our scripture today speaks to that question, but first, let us pray:

            Lord, it is within our nature to tinker and tweak, to strive to improve and make better.  The technology which surrounds us is a testament to this drive.  It is for that reason that we often seek to improve your gospel; to make it more attractive more palatable to others and to ourselves.  Yet, we find that “different” gospel more difficult and more draining.

            Remind us again, and again of the good news that has been given to us through Jesus Christ who “gave himself for our sin to deliver us...” (Galatians 1:4) Free us from our own bias and prejudice we ask, so that we might see more clearly as you surely do.  Amen.

            The people of the region called Galatia, are thought by many to have a Celtic background.  That is, these folks had come from the area we now know as France.  The Romans referred to them as Barbarians, because the manner of their speech offended their fine Latin ears.  By the time of Paul, they were conquered and assimilated into the Roman Empire, but they were strictly second-class citizens.

            The Gospel makes no distinctions though. God is no “respecter of persons, showing no partiality.” (Acts 10:34, Galatians 2:6) Everyone is given an equal opportunity to receive God’s salvation, “Greek and Jew, slave and free, male and female.” (Galatians 3:28) So, Paul and others made their way north; and brought with them the good news of Jesus Christ.  Brand new churches were born.

            Latter Paul writes this pastoral letter.  He begins with the usual greeting and then launches into his concern which prompts his writing:

“I am astonished (amazed, dumbfounded, flabbergasted, and discombobulated) that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel...If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.  Let him be an anathema.” (Galatians 1:6,9)

            Paul issued this warning twice for emphasis, which can be interpreted as ex-communication, as kicking someone out of the church.  This is important stuff.  It is this kind of language which set the teeth of many in our modern day on edge. (I’ll bet it had the same effect then.)  It appears judgmental, intolerant, excluding.  Faith, is thought to a personal matter with no true or false, right or wrong.  It is simply a matter of personal preference; almost like a wardrobe decision.  Some like plaid, others like paisley.  Who’s to say what’s right or wrong?

            Paul’s language though lifts the gospel above that of personal preference.  He does think there is a true and false.  He believed that one’s understanding of the gospel will influence thoughts and feelings, actions and attitudes.  It will have an impact on whether or not you “feel like a good Christian and whether you act like a good Christian.”

            So, what was this “different” gospel?  Well, it came from Jerusalem. Jesus’ ministry, as you know, was confined almost entirely within the confines of Israel, and among the Jewish people.  They had come to believe, because of the things he said and did, that Jesus was indeed their long-awaited Messiah and they embraced him.

            When they left the borders of their homeland to go out into the world as Jesus commanded, (Matthew 28:19) they brought with them their own personal religious and cultural experience.  No one can escape these things.  Your own experience and history follows you wherever you go.  You are who you are.

            So, when they brought the gospel to these gentile backwater villages they filtered the gospel through their own religious and cultural experience.  Since they had been circumcised and kept kosher before receiving Christ; they thought all believers should be circumcised and keep kosher; that all believers should become Jews.

            They made their own personal religious and cultural experience normative for everyone.  The word used to describe this group is Judaizer - that is, to make the gospel Jewish.  That’s what made it “different”.

            I don’t want to be too hard on this group, even though Paul calls them “accursed”, because their tendency to tweak and tinker with the gospel, to make it more palatable to their own experience, is one we all share.  Every missionary who ever goes to a different country, a different culture faces the difficult task of keep his or her own prejudice out of the gospel.

             So, when missionaries came to this country centuries ago, and preached to the native Americans already living here, they added to the Biblical requirement of confessing “Jesus as Lord”, (Romans 10:9) a cultural expectation that they would forsake their native customs and dress and embrace European culture with all of its faults and fallacies.  In other words, these wilderness preachers told the Cherokee and Sioux that in order to be good Christians they had to become good Europeans. The fact that many did embrace Christ despite these additional encumbrances only reveals how powerful the gospel is.

           

            What is Paul’s view of the simple gospel message?  In his letter to the Church in Ephesus he puts it this way:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not by your own works lest anyone boast.”

2:8-9

            That is “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

            This simple message is not so hard to understand; but for many it has been difficult to accept.  The wall people hit with this gospel message is built with the bricks which we think build this world.  Let me give you an example.

            Many who follow baseball are familiar with the name, Harry Cary.  He is now recently deceased, but he was for decades the voice of the Chicago Cubs.  His signature was his enthusiastic but always off-key rendition of the “Take me out to the Ball game”; which he sang during every seventh inning stretch.  He was well loved not only by Chicago fans; but by all of baseball.

            He wrote a book, appropriately titled, “Holy Cow” because that was what he yelled whenever a Cub home-run left Wriggly Field. In it, he reflects a common theology.  He wrote:

“I am not a religious man.  I’ve made some mistakes in my life, but I’ve always believed in Almighty God.  I’ve always believed that if you live your life as a decent person, the umpire in the end will say you did it right...will call you safe.”

            There is a theology which seems to make sense, which reflects the thoughts and feelings of a lot of people.  Believe God exists, admit mistakes, try to live a decent life, and you’ll be called safe.  What could be wrong with that?

            You develop a good record, get good grades, and hand your report card to God; and He has to give you a passing grade.  This seems right.  It’s the way our world pretty much works; it’s what I taught my children about their school work; but it is not the gospel.  It is not good news!

            For this theology depends on us always knowing when we’ve done wrong so that we can “admit the mistake”; and it depends on us always doing the right thing; or at least doing the right thing most of the time; or at least doing more right than wrong; or at least doing more right than our neighbor does wrong, or at least not being as bad as someone else you know or have heard of. 

In other words our salvation depends on us; and our view of what is decent or fair.  And if there is one thing I’ve learned in thirty-six years of ministry it is that people, me included, are not always dependable  If there is one thing I’ve learned, it is that people have radically different ideas about what is “decent” or “fair”.  So how can you know?  How can you know for sure? The Bible says, “there is a way which seems right to people, but the end thereof is destruction.” (Proverbs 14:12)

            The good news of the Gospel is this.  We do not develop a good record and give it to God.  God develops a good record and gives it to us. “Our righteousness, the prophet said, is as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6) The righteousness of Christ is unblemished and without sin; and the Bible says that it is through the lens of Christ’s perfection that God looks at us.

            Can you appreciate how freeing that is?  We don’t have to work on our grades to earn the love of God.  God loves us before we’ve done one thing which could merit such attention.  “The good news is that if anyone wants our Christian life to be infused with joy rather than guilt, it is God.  He wants us to practice every spiritual discipline with the freeing knowledge that His love for us won’t diminish if we blow it.” (Discipleship Journal, Issue 47, 1998.pg 9 )

            That is why our understanding of the meaning of the gospel is so important, so essential.  It is why Paul speaks so forcefully against this “different” gospel; he knows that when we try to add to what Jesus did for us, our trust moves from Christ, and to ourselves.  He knows that when we try to tweak and tinker with the gospel we end up infusing it with our own prejudice and cultural bias.  It becomes only a pale reflection of our own experience and not a revelation of God’s.  So, we naturally conclude that we are not very good Christians because our personal experience is so anemic; and we may give up altogether; or our faith may simply survive, stagnant, with little joy.

            The Good news is that “for freedom Christ has set us free; so stand fast...” (Galatians 5:1) Our prayers, our offerings, our good works, our generosity, our compassion, our spiritual walk follow God’s welcoming embrace; they do not precede it.  And that belief, that faith frees the soul so that we can “fly as on wings of eagles.” (Isaiah 40:31) That is the Good News!