Galatians 6 kind of reads like a Ten Commandments 2.0 -- “Don’t do this, do that…” -- which might seem a little ironic for us, given this is the weekend we celebrate FREEDOM in our country, not legalism. But I want to take a second look at this text of Paul telling us what to do line-by-line, because what he eventually gets to is that it’s not about us -- it’s about God, it’s about the cross of Christ. What he’s calling us to, is precisely the thing we’re celebrating: true freedom in God’s mercy and peace.
Listen to Eugene Peterson’s faithful translation --
Verse 1: Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore that one, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. 6:2 Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. 6:3 If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.
Have you ever thought about forgiveness as a creative endeavor? Forgiveness as an art? [pause]
Verse 4: Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. 6:5 Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
This is about being free. Paul is giving us the gift of freedom in God by commanding we stop comparing ourselves, thinking ourselves better and superior -- all that’s a lie! But we can do it all the time, right? Accept Paul’s letter, friends in Christ. It’s an absolute gift this Independence Day Weekend!
Verse 6: Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.
Don’t hoard this grace that we’ve all learned about in church all for yourself. We are all are privileged in that we’ve already heard about God’s grace. I’m afraid we can take it for granted and even reject it. Not everyone’s heard about it: Camp- some kids experiencing grace for the first time…Share all that goodness -- it helps you enjoy it more, like when you have a delicious desert or a tasty beverage. Isn’t it even better when you pass it around let others try it, and celebrate it?
Verse 7: Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, that one will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others-ignoring God! -- harvests a crop of weeds. All that one will have to show for their life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growthwork in them, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.6:9 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. 6:10 Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
Friends in Christ, I bet we’ve all gotten tired of doing the right thing. Paul is calling us back with farming imagery: patience and community. Let the crops grow; let the process go. (Farm at camp this week…the patience of Melanie our farmer...and the peace and attraction of that...) Let us work for the benefit of all -- starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith. What Paul is not saying is, “Let’s just take care of our own.” This is not license to focus inward. Paul is writing to Christians fighting with Christians, people inside the church fighting with people inside the church. Y’all are tearing each other down with gossip, sarcasm, suspicion, segregation, in-groups and out-groups -- who’s got the right rituals and who’s wrong. “Let us work [instead] for the benefit of all,” he writes, starting right here at home and then going outward. Isn’t it like he’s writing to us in our day, and even in our personal lives?
Verse 11: Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. 6:12 These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. 6:13 They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!
6:14 For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. 6:15 Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do-submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and God is creating something totally new, a free life! 6:16 All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God--that is, God’s chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
You are God’s chosen daughter or son, when you live free. When you’re not bound to pleasing others and fitting into the patterns that are dictated. You are God’s chosen one, free in Christ, when you simply accept this grace that has been handed to you, and then turn and share it with your neighbor...when you don’t hoard it. (Today I think we ought to commune one another...)
You are a free and chosen son or daughter of God when you work for the benefit of all, when you love your family and love your enemy, as Jesus asked us to. You know how free you are when you love your enemy? We can be enslaved to war with our enemy; only true freedom comes when we love our enemies and pray for our persecutors, our attackers.
You are free, in Christ, sisters and brothers! This is not a passage about legalism, it’s a passage/letter about freedom. Paul gives us commands in order to guide us down a narrow, but liberating path. That path is yours this day, in and through Christ Jesus. Let’s travel it together, caring for one another, bearing one another’s burdens, for the rest of our days. Let’s not weary in doing what is right...
For peace, freedom, and mercy is upon us, and will never leave us. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment