Thoughts going in, Sunday June 2nd

Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle--sent not with a human commission nor by human authority, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that person be under God's curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let that person be under God's curse! 10 Am I now trying to win human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any human source, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

            During Ordinary Time (Sundays after Pentecost) of Year C, the lectionary offers us a chance to spend 6 weeks in St. Paul's letter to the Galatians--a geographic area/province in what is now modern Turkey. There are many questions regarding the background to the letter...questions that I cannot fully tackle here. In a nutshell Paul is addressing a situation that has occurred among his converts in Galatia. They had been pagans. Upon hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached by Paul, they converted. At some point after Paul left their midst, "missionaries" arrived on the scene with the news that "Paul's Gospel" was incomplete. Faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and Savior of the world was the starting point, but just as Jesus was Jewish... and just as God's covenant people on earth had always been the Jews, now those who would be saved by faith in Christ must complete their spiritual pilgrimage by becoming Jews as well. They must receive the sign of circumcision; they must keep the Jewish calendar of festivals; they must follow kosher dietary laws, etc. This message is the different gospel that Paul mentions in vs 6.

            One of the most important questions regarding Galatians is the date in which it was written. Every scholar who writes a commentary on the letter struggles with the question of how it relates to Acts 15--the first ecumenical council of the Church.

Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. 6 The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. 7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren , you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe (see story of Cornelius in Acts 10). 8 "And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. 10 "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear ? 11 "But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." 12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren , listen to me. 14 "Simon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name. 19 "Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles...

            The point is... did these "missionaries" to Galatia come on the scene before ...or after the Jerusalem council of Acts 15? If it all happened before, then the incident can be passed off as an honest mistake about a question that hadn't been solved yet. If after, however, the "missionaries" had purposely gone against not only the teachings of Paul, but also the expressed opinion of Peter and James and the will of the council from Acts 15.

            The primary issue for us as 21st century believers is to discern how the message of Galatians intersects with our lives in the here and now. Last I checked, no one was upsetting the Church with a message of Jewish legalism as a requirement for salvation. And yet, when it comes to the broader topic/issue of another gospel (vss 8-9)...here it becomes easier to discern the timeless message of Galatians. "Another gospel" happens whenever a religion, or philosophy, or spirituality, or mindset usurps the one true gospel of Jesus Christ. For the Christian fundamentalist, this would include all of the manmade rules imposed upon believers; for some sects this would include the necessity of good works to 'earn' God's grace; for others this is about preaching a generic spirituality as a legitimate pathway to God that completely lacks the cross of Jesus Christ. For still others Galatians is a clarion call away from "evangelical-nationalism" .... the idea that we in America are God's favorites simply because we're the biggest and the best.

            What I'm getting at is that the other gospel (which is really no gospel at all) of Paul's day may not be the issue we're facing, but the cold hard truth is that we have no shortage of other gospels in our own day. We need to boldly proclaim that none of those will save; none of those will square things between us and God; none of those will handle our sin problem against God's holiness. Only ONE GOSPEL can do that... and that's the good news that Jesus death on the cross obliterates our sin and guilt, and that by grace through faith alone God accepts us.

Cheers,

TM