“Now That Faith Has Come”

Meditation on Galatians 3:23-29

June 23, 2013

***

     Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 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.

***

      When we left Pennsylvania on June 20, 2011, it was hot and muggy – our usual summer weather.  Our plane touched down at the Minneapolis/St Paul airport, and the weather was wet, windy, and cool. The sun barely shone during those four days of my first visit to Minnesota. When I saw the country church, it looked on the outside like the pictures the pastoral nominating committee had sent, but since we were not here during Sunday morning worship, the church seemed empty and strangely silent. And I only met the members of the committee that brought me here—not the wider congregation.  We saw the manse, but it was in the midst of a pretty substantial remodeling project. And it was hard to picture as our home without our furnishings inside.

     What Jim and I saw wasn’t the reality of our lives when we came here to live and serve year round.  During those four days of our first visit, we had only a glimpse of what was to come. 

     And yet after we went home to Pennsylvania, and the committee called to ask me to come and be your pastor, I said yes with all confidence.  We had prayed and we knew that this was God’s will, though we couldn’t have imagined all that would happen in the future.

     Faith had come—a merciful gift from our Lord!  We had to trust in Him.  Trust that everything would be as He had promised us. No, life wouldn’t be a picnic.  The ministry life is hard work and emotionally and physically draining because it requires all of our being—and it means going against the flow, seeing things and doing things differently than the world would have us do. Doing things differently than even we Christians used to do because the Spirit is moving us ever forward in the way He wants us to go. And change at any age is never easy. 

     But God promised that He would be with us and never leave us. His Spirit would make us His church, and He would reveal His will and guide and strengthen us to do it.

     And we had to believe that everything, in the end, would be all right.

***

    

     The Apostle Paul has his hands full with the Galatian believers.  They are struggling with Christian doctrine and practice. Other teachers arrived after Paul and have led the church astray. Part of them wants to believe in God’s grace in Jesus. But another part of them also wants to hold onto the past, the so-called safety net of the Old Testament laws and the habit of separation from the wider community. They are like new swimmers, who after learning all the strokes and how to stay afloat, still cling fiercely to the edge of the pool, fearing they will drown if they let go. They lack the courage to use their new understanding of God’s love and mercy to enjoy the glorious freedom of the gospel, now that faith has come.

       Throughout his letter, Paul is trying to move the Galatians to see that nothing is the same anymore—because of Christ! Why are they turning back to the bondage of the old life, back to the frightened, hopeless people they used to be?

     “You foolish Galatians!” he scolds at the beginning of chapter 3. “Who has bewitched you?!”

    Everything is different now, now that faith has come! They aren’t of the world anymore! Not like they were before. They aren’t Jews and Greeks or Gentiles.  Ethnicity, culture, and nationality don’t matter; they don’t exist in the kingdom of God! No one is better than anyone else because ALL are children of God, heirs of salvation in Christ! Forgiven in Him, clothed by Him, and loved by Him.

     Life in God’s Kingdom begins not at our death but the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior!  And the Kingdom isn’t like this world at all!  There is no rich or poor. There are no social classes or distinctions of any kind! Even gender can no longer divide because there is no male and female in the kingdom of God.  There is ONLY FREEDOM AND EQUALITY in Christ!

    The Galatians are Christ’s church, His Body—not because they are following the laws, rules, or traditions of religion, but because a loving and merciful God has given them His Spirit that is making them One in Him!

***

    Friends, let us not fall into the same trap as the Galatians! We have the Bible—we have the Words of Jesus Christ! We have God’s Spirit with us to reveal His Will and help us to obey! We know that we are called as Christians to be gentle servants of the Lord and one another.  So let us never cling to the old, worldly, divisive attitudes—the ones we had before Faith had come.  And God’s Spirit made us One!

    Let us never forget that we are saved by grace and called to live in the same grace by which we are saved! In the Kingdom, there are no distinctions! No social classes or any other manmade category that places one person or group above another.

     Not religion or wealth. Not native language or country of origin. Not gender or education. Not age or generation.

     Not occupation or place of residence; not town, country, or city dweller.  Not immigrant or native-born citizen. Not homeowner, landowner or renter. Not family ancestry, nor history with the church.

    Brothers and sisters, that same faith that we all had to bring me here 2 years ago will be the same faith that moves us as a church of Jesus Christ past any of our struggles in the future and ever closer to Him.

    We have to make a decision today and every day to trust in Him and follow Him as He leads us on the right path.  Together!  As One Church, not torn apart by opinions, but united in Him!  We can trust that everything will be as He has promised us in His Word, though the ministry life for every Christian is hard work and emotionally and physically draining because it requires all of our being!

   And it means going against the flow, seeing things and doing things differently than the world would have us do. Doing things differently than even we Christians used to do because the Spirit is moving us ever forward in the way He wants us to go. And change at any age is never easy. 

     But friends, God will always be with us and never leave us, despite our struggles. His Spirit is now in our midst. And His Spirit—and not any of our manmade rules or traditions—will make us His Church.

     He will reveal His will to us and guide and strengthen us to do it. And everything, in the end, will be all right.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and mercy for sinners like us.  Thank you for the gift of your faith in Christ’s work on the cross for our sakes—so we don’t have to keep on trying and failing to make ourselves good enough for you. Lord, change our hearts and minds and make us more like your Son.  Give us a passion to hear and know Your Word as always relevant to our church and life today. May your Spirit unite and strengthen us as One Body, ready to do your will as soon as you reveal it to us.  Give us grace for one another so that our church will always be a place of safety, freedom, and equality for all people—where all people are respected and no one is more important than another. And our greatest ambition is to be your humble servants, loving God and neighbor all of our days.  We look forward to when Jesus comes again for His Church and your good work in us is complete.  We look forward to when everything, in the end, will be all right. In Christ we pray.  Amen.