Living in Community

This morning we conclude our study of Galatians, a letter that Paul wrote in response to agitation that had come along behind him all through Galatia. Someone had made the Gentiles who had come to believe in Jesus as Christ that what Paul had taught them was not enough. Paul had taught these Gentile Christians, these “not-Jewish first” followers of Jesus, that they did not have to convert to Judaism to follow Christ. All they needed to do, was
1. See that the way the world is right now is evil, not in line with God’s will.
2. Believe that God is for us, that God wants relationship with us. God wants us to choose God over sin, and we just can’t do it.
3. Believe that Jesus chose to give himself to set right the workings of the creation.
4. Anticipate that: Creation, when it runs the way God intends, in line with God’s will, will bring glory – praise – to God.
That’s it. There are no other requirements to be part of the community, the body of believers. The sign of whether or not a person is part of the community of faith is not circumcision, but a changed spirit. If a person has come to believe the gospel, their spirit, Paul wrote, will be changed and nine attributes will define their lives. That person will be a person of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And all who believe are children of God, no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for all are one, clothed in Christ.

But, you know, that temptation to divide and categorize and make yourself feel just a little bit better than somebody else is really strong. As Ann read from Acts this morning, early in the church’s history, in Jerusalem, the pecking order of the social scale was a problem. The Jewish widows who had Greek (Gentile) ties were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. The Jewish widows who were born and raised Jewish, the ones who were Hebrew, were not having that problem. So, the 12 disciples conferred and decided that 7 would be chosen – the criteria would be how their lives displayed the fruits of the Spirit and wisdom – and they would be responsible for overseeing the daily distribution of food to all who were vulnerable in the community.

So, Paul concludes his letter to the Galatians with a warning, “My dear siblings, if someone is going against God’s will, you should gently correct them. But be careful correcting people because it is really easy to set yourself up for temptation” when you are busy “helping someone else” not sin. The temptation? To believe you are a little less sinful, just a little better – it’s pride.

The remedy, says Paul, is to carry each other’s burdens; that’s the way to fulfill the Messiah’s law. If you come alongside me and let me shimmy some of my struggle onto your shoulder, you’re not going to wind up standing over me tsking about how incredibly sad it is that I am such a sinner. Afterall, that is what Jesus did. Jesus wasn’t a sinner. Jesus didn’t come into the world to tell us all what we ought to have done or to shame us for what we did. Jesus came alongside, and bore the weight of our sin. He goes on, “If one of you thinks you are something, looking down on others, you are using the wrong standard of measurement and you are only fooling yourself.”

Which, Paul goes on to warn has consequences. None of you is without sin, and each of you will have to carry your own load. Every single person will face judgment. Paul isn’t just slipping back into his law-abiding, law-enforcing days as a Pharisee. He is calling attention to the day that Jesus promised when he will come in glory.

On that day Jesus will sort all the people of all the nations, and the measure won’t be how this one stacked up against the other ones. The righteous, the sheep, will be rewarded for feeding Jesus when he was hungry, offering Jesus water when he was thirsty, welcoming Jesus into their home and their lives when he was a foreigner, giving Jesus clothes to wear when he was naked, tending Jesus’ needs when he was sick, and comforting Jesus when he was in prison.”

An aside, in the 1st Century, most people were in prison because they were poor and couldn’t pay their debts or because they had challenged the powers of the authoritarian government. All that was provided in prison were walls and bars…food, water, clothes, everything you needed or wanted had to be delivered to you by friends or family members.

Jesus said, “On judgement day, of course, the righteous won’t recall doing any of this, because for them this is just what you do, and they will ask when they did them, and the answer will come from Jesus: “Whenever you saw a brother or sister hungry or cold, whatever you did to the least of these, so you did to Me.”

Then Jesus will turn to the others, the goats and say, “Get away from Me, and claim your inheritance—the pits of flaming hell where the devil and his minions suffer. For I was starving, and you left Me with no food. When I was dry and thirsty, you left Me to struggle with nothing to drink. When I was alone as an alien in your land, you turned away from Me. When I was pitifully naked, you left Me unclothed. When I was sick, you gave Me no care. When I was in prison, you did not comfort Me.

They won’t realize that they did these things to Jesus and will demand to know “when did that happen?” To which Jesus will answer: “Whenever you saw a brother hungry or cold, when you saw a sister weak and without friends, when you saw the least of these and ignored their suffering, so you ignored Me.”

So these, the goats, will go off to everlasting punishment. While the sheep, the righteous, will go into everlasting life.

Paul writes, “What you sow is what you will reap.” This is where the Bible says “You reap what you sow.” It is not prosperity gospel. It does not mean if you do good things, good things are going to happen to you. It does not mean that bad things don’t happen to good people. It does not mean that when a bad thing happens to a person they must be being punished for something. What it means is that how you choose to live your life now has eternal implications.

Paul writes, “Those who sow seeds into their flesh, those who depend on circumcision and the law, will only harvest destruction.” You are not going to reap an eternal harvest if rely on your own ability do what is right 24/7/365 all the years of your life and never sin.

Pause here… We all deserve to be judged goats, none of us is righteousness. Our confidence is in the judge, Jesus himself is our judge. We don’t do good things under some delusion that we can earn our salvation – our salvation is all grace. We strive for righteousness to confirm God’s grace working in our lives, faith active in love. When we plant our seeds in the Spirit of God, we are fundamentally changed.

As Paul concludes the letter, he writes, “God’s new creation is what counts, and it counts for everything.” And he isn’t naïve. He knows that this new way of life – doing what is good and right, showing concern for the poor and oppressed, living a life filled with the fruits of the spirit – can seem just plain foolish, but, says Paul, so is the cross.

It seems foolish to those who have not accepted the new creation. The prophets promised a day when the former things would be no more, it wasn’t to be just a renewal or a restoration, God would bring forth a new creation – and that day has come. It exists now concurrent with the old creation.

Paul writes, “Circumcision, you see, is nothing; neither is uncircumcision! What matters is new creation.” The distinctions no longer matter. Where once there were those who were in and those who were out, Jews and Gentiles, where there were two groups and there was generational hostility and division between them, now there is unity, all are one in Christ Jesus. Community. The old order is gone. No longer does it matter “who your people are.” No longer are people valued based on the color of their skin or their country of origin or their sexuality, or their educational background or social class or economic status. No longer is there boasting or measuring based on comparison with one another. The standard now is grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Paul closes the letter, “May that grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus, infuse your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.”