"Not Yet Perfect”

A Sermon by Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett

Pleasantville UCC, July 10, 2011

Galatians 1:1-12

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”
(Galatians 3:26-28)

Ever since John the Baptist dunked Jesus in the Jordan River, baptism has marked the threshold of the Christian spiritual journey; the entrance into the Body of Christ.  In the early church those who were baptized were adults.  They had been prepared for this rite of initiation through long periods of instruction, prayer, and fasting.  At the time of baptism, they stripped off all of their clothes, entered into a pool or river to be completely submersed in the water (a ritual which represented a symbolic dying of the old self) and when they came out of the water and put on a white garment, the one who baptized them reminded them that they had now "put on the garment of Christ."  They had stripped off their former self, washed clean in the waters of baptism, and put on a new self -- a new identity as they entered into the body of Christ.

What a wonderful way to enact what it means to be "in Christ.”  That is the symbolic power of baptism.  The Apostle, Paul put it this way in his letter to the churches in Galatia:

“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”
(Galatians 3:26-28)

            Today is the third week of our intentional focus upon the apostle, Paul’s, letters to the churches -- next week we’ll take a bit of a break from Paul while we welcome a guest preacher to the pulpit – our own and dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Steve Treat.  Steve is a member of Pleasantville Church, an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, a Marriage and Family Therapist, and for the last 16 years Steve has served as Director and CEO of the Council for Relationships.  I hope you’ll be here.

Paul’s letter to the Christians who were in the region known as Galatia is brief – less than 150 verses.  But those 150 verses have had an impact on the life and thought of the Christian church far exceeding its modest length.  Paul’s letter to the Galatians had a profound influence on Martin Luther.  He found it immediately relevant to the situation of the church in the sixteenth century and he wrote what is considered to be the most influential commentary on the letter.  This small but passionate letter may be largely responsible for the Protestant Reformation.

Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you that it was important to pay attention to the beginning of these letters?  Well, this letter is where we really see the reason why. 

Let me remind you of how Paul spoke to the Thessalonians:

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And let’s see how he spoke to the Corinthians:

1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord* and ours:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to my* God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind—⁶just as the testimony of* Christ has been strengthened among you—⁷so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ…” ⁸ (1 Corinthians 1:1-8)

jjjjj And now, let’s take a closer look at how Galatians begins:

Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—2and all the members of God’s family* who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel* from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!  As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

Galatians is the only Pauline letter in which the traditional prayer of thanksgiving is omitted.  Nowhere in the beginning of this epistle does Paul express his gratitude for, or make a word of affirmation about, his readers.  At the point where this would normally occur, Paul says, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ.”  He unbraids the Galatians for deserting the one who called you – and by this he means not himself, but God or God through Christ.

The need for this letter is clearly stated in the first chapter:  The Galatians had accepted a new teaching; a “different gospel”; one that was incompatible with Paul’s instructions.  Paul had visited the churches at least once and perhaps twice prior to writing this letter.  His initial stay in the area was in part connected to an ailment.  The Galatians had received him warmly and were prepared to make great sacrifices to tend to his needs.  He preached the gospel to them and they responded with much enthusiasm.  But sometime after his first or second visit to Galatia other itinerant missionaries arrived and began to advocate a different message.  In addition to preaching Christ, they urged that the predominantly Gentile congregations adopt the Jewish practice of circumcision in order to secure themselves a place among the people of God.  In this way, the Christian experience could be brought to perfection. The Galatians, who were struggling with the demands of living out their calling in a pagan environment, were vulnerable to the security and guarantees offered in the message of circumcision. It was in response to this situation that Galatians was written. 

The issue was, at base: was it necessary for Gentiles to become Jewish in order to be Christian?  Was it necessary for Gentile coverts to practice the laws of Judaism – observing dietary rules and regulations and – for men – bearing in their body the mark of the covenant?  For a male Gentile who entered a religious community which traced its origins back to Abraham, this was not an inconsequential matter.  Circumcision provided a measure of security.  It was a visible sign that the one circumcised truly was a member of God’s family.  Circumcision identified him as one of the people of God and it represented a far more tangible sign than mere faith could ever do.

Upon hearing of the situation, Paul addresses this letter to the congregations of Galatia. He expresses his astonishment that they could be persuaded by the teaching of the agitators and he makes his case for the gospel of grace.  To submit to circumcision is to turn one’s back on the freedom given in Christ, in favor of a rite which no longer has relevance and can only lead back to slavery.[1]  Paul’s letter is written with emotion and intensity: he refers to the itinerant missionaries as agitators, trouble-makers who had a selfish motive in advocating circumcision.  Paul does not hide his feelings of frustration and anguish for his readers or his anger toward the agitators because he sees how completely they have misunderstood the heart of the Christian faith, and his letter is a careful and passionate response to that error.

So what does all this have to do with us in the 21^st century?  If the issue is circumcision, then the men in the crowd are thanking Jesus that adult circumcision is no longer a criterion for church membership, and the women are wondering what this has to do with them.  But the thing is it really does.  Because what the proponents of the “other gospel” were really saying was that, Christ’s sacrifice for us was insufficient.  That, Christ’s death on the cross was not a big enough ransom for our sins and that what was needed was yet another sign; another payment for our justification – that is, our righteousness before God.  They are saying that Christ’s saving atonement needed to be augmented in order to be effective and circumcision was that efficacious act.

Their error is rooted in a profound misunderstanding of the gospel and Paul means to correct it.  They are working at the wrong end of the relationship with God – they are focusing on what they can do to assure inclusion in God’s family; what they can do to cope with the power of the flesh; what they can do to fulfill the law. 

The answer, in fact, lies at the other end – what God has done in Christ and how he has done it.  “Grace,” is not a “thing” God gives.  Rather it describes the manner in which God gives himself, the personal relationship he establishes with his people.  Grace is the unmerited and unconditional way in which God has made and continues to make his move toward sinful humanity.  This is God’s act; God’s initiative; God’s amazing grace – and it is given to us freely – even if are completely convinced we do not deserve it.

The theological importance of Galatians lies in the radical interpretation Paul makes of the meaning of God’s grace.  It is more than a doctrine; it is an experience.  At the same time, it is the doctrine which undergirds all that Paul fights for in this letter.  The agitators who come into the Galatian congregations are not opposed to the idea that God is gracious.  It is just that grace is only part of the story.  Faith, the human response to grace, begins a process which circumcision completes.  And that notion Paul refutes.

Paul wanted to keep this point ever before our eyes.  He wanted to remind believers that we are saved by the grace of God – not by anything that we do or accomplish on our own. 

We are saved by God’s seeking and saving love – not by any special privilege that we have as the result of wealth or skill or intelligence or a marking of our flesh to prove that we are worthy. 

We are saved by God’s power and might -- not by anything in the secular world that tries to seduce us into believing that it has the power to save us.

The doctrine of grace continues to be a wildly difficult thing for us to get our heads around especially in an achievement-oriented society.  Circumcision has its religious and secular counterparts in the various ways in which we determine that God’s free gift of himself is inadequate, and we prescribe for ourselves or others a particular accomplishment in order to feel that we are worthy of God’s love.

The proponents of the “other gospel” were trying to convince the Galatians that a marking of the flesh would perfect the salvation that Christ’s sacrifice had begun.  But the thing is, perfection is not what we’re after. Perfect is not what we’re supposed to be after.  We are not yet perfect, and that is how we were made to be.  We are not yet perfect – and God gave himself for us anyway.

 The fact that Christ died for our sins means that, among other things, he has actually taken our place and assumed the responsibility for all our personal failures. We need no longer languish in our guilt nor pummel ourselves or one another with recriminations or remorse.  Christ died for our sins, and thus we need no longer cling to them.  Whatever guilt has done for us (whether protect us, or haunt us, or accuse and convict us) -- in the face of the gospel it is no more than a fleeting fantasy.

So what is the appropriate human response to this kind of radical grace? It is of course, faith.  Faith -- not as a way for us to get God on our side because He is already on our side. The appropriate response to this kind of radical grace is a faith that allows us to trust God; to turn our whole selves over to His care and keeping; a kind of trust that leads to a thorough reshaping of who we are so that we may become what Paul described as a new creation.

It’s really not about whether we are able to follow all the rules to the letter. And it’s really not about whether we feel we deserve to be loved by God.  It’s not about any of these things because it’s really not up to us.  We are not yet perfect; and God can work with that.  I don’t know about you, but I for one am infinitely grateful for this amazing grace.  Amen.