"Justified"

Galatians 2:11-21

Right about now you may be thinking: "Why are you subjecting us to a summer sermon series on the Epistles?"  To be honest, we pastors first considered a series on the Lord's Prayer, but that sounded a little too predictable.  Ben wanted to do a series titled: "The scriptures that I wish weren't in the Bible."  We may do that one someday.  Initially, it's easier to think of the problems with a sermon series on the epistles than it is to think of the benefits.

For one thing, very often Paul's line of thinking is difficult to follow.  He uses terminology that isn't readily accessible to the modern mind; terms such as we heard this morning--the truth of the gospel, Gentile sinners, justified by faith, works of the law, crucified with Christ—these obscure words tend to bounce off our brains like marbles off a tile floor. 

This is why in recent years you've likely heard many more sermons based on the Gospels or Old Testament texts than from Paul's letters. Paul fell out of favor with preachers several decades ago when the so-called narrative sermon came into vogue. After several decades of "three points and a poem," preachers discovered that congregations love story. Accordingly, sermons were increasingly drawn from the narrative portions of scripture--the parables of Jesus, episodes in  Jesus' life, colorful Old Testament stories, and the like. These plot-centered, character driven scriptures became the primary source material for the preacher. Sermons based on Paul's letters, on the other hand, tended to be labored explanations of theological doctrines or concepts, and such explanations are usually tedious, hard to follow, an excuse to count the panels on the chancel wall.

Add to these problems a modern inclination to vilify Paul.  Some have asserted that Paul is responsible for taking Christianity in the wrong direction. That is, he took Jesus' simple message of love and turned it into a doctrinal system. Others have dismissed Paul as an opponent of women's rights, an obstacle to empowerment of women and minorities. Even if these accusations are not entirely valid-- and I don't think they are--I still wouldn't blame you for questioning the judgment of your pastors.  Why then a sermon series on Paul's Epistles?

I'm not sure I have a good answer to that question.  To be honest, our decision to preach on Paul this summer is mostly intuition, more of a hunch than a certainty. Our intuition is that there is a word of grace embedded in these letters of Paul that we need to recover. Through his vision of the risen Christ, Paul became convinced that --in spite of so much evidence to the contrary--the whole cosmos is being rectified, healed and set right?  Paul proclaims in his letters the good news that in this person of Jesus Christ God is setting right everything that has gone so terribly wrong with the world.  Now there's a conviction worth checking out.  Since our world today appears ever more imperiled, violent and divisive, aren't we hungry for a hopeful vision of our lives, our world and our future?  Intuition tells us that Paul's letters are the place to look for such a vision. Admittedly, we have no guarantees of success, and our efforts will surely require patience and perseverance. Still, with the help of the Holy Spirit let's see if we can hear a fresh, liberating word in these old letters from Paul.

Now in our reading this morning we kept hearing variations on Paul's famous phrase, "justification by faith."  Five times in our passage today he mentions that we are made right with God and reconciled to our neighbors by an act of God's grace and not be works of the law. We've all heard about justification.  Justification by grace through faith was the slogan of the Protestant Reformation.  It was so prominent in the minds of Luther and the other Reformers that it became known as the "Protestant Principle."  This Pauline declaration that we are saved by grace alone and not by works is for many the soul of the gospel. The problem is that this central doctrine of the Christian faith is like a gem that, over time, has become encrusted by layers of misinterpretation, of existential distance from present day concerns.  Perhaps the best way to put a shine back on this theological gem is to set the doctrine firmly in the context of Paul's letter, something that Luther and many others have failed to do. Paul raised this matter of justification by faith in order to address a particular situation in the church in Antioch.

Briefly, here's the situation Paul addresses. Initially all Christians were Jewish Christians.  They believed that Jesus was God's promised Messiah through whom all the promises of God found their fulfillment. But things became more complicated when Paul, also a Jew, began to proclaim the gospel to Gentiles. Up to that point,  Jewish Christians believed that a Gentile who became a Christian must also become a Jew.  That is, new male converts must receive the rite of circumcision and adopt the other Jewish observances of the law.  This matter was taken up at a Jerusalem council in which Paul and the other apostles reached an agreement. They all agreed that Peter, James and John would continue to carry the gospel to the Jews, while Paul and Barnabas would go to the Gentiles. For awhile this arrangement seemed to work.  Peter even joined in Table fellowship with Gentile believers, which technically violated Jewish laws forbidding Jews to eat at the same table with Gentiles. But then for unknown reasons, Peter had a change of heart.  Apparently James and other members of the so called circumcision faction convinced Peter that such fellowship with Gentile believers was wrong.  So Peter separated himself from Gentile believers implying that membership in God's family had to be based on ethnic identity and observance of Jewish law.

But Paul was aghast.  He considered Peter's actions a denial of the Gospel.  He says in his letter that he openly opposed Peter in the presence of others. Picture a red-faced Paul raising his voice and shouting: "No, Peter!  No!  You know good-and-well that Christ has done for us what the law could not do. It's the faithfulness of Jesus Christ who gave himself for Jew and Gentile alike that makes us one.  Why are you reconstructing barriers of separation that God in Christ Jesus has broken down?  We both know that God wants to create one human family, so how can you not welcome as equal members of God's family everyone who believes this good news be they Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free?  Peter, your refusal to sit at Table with Gentile believers is nothing less than a rejection of the Gospel.  If our fellowship with God and one another is based on some requirement of the law, then Christ died in vain, and God's grace is unnecessary. I don't understand you, Peter," Paul concludes, "Only one thing binds us together, and gives us hope for the world's redemption--the grace God has shown the world in Jesus Christ."

As I thought about this situation in the church in Antioch, and how Paul responded with what we now call the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, I couldn't help but think about the situation in the church today.  As you know in practically every denomination, there is internal conflict and threats of division.  Some Christians are willing to sever fellowship from other Christians on the basis of differing views on human sexuality, interpretation of scripture, political ideology, and even disagreement over petty matters. Have we forgotten that we are justified, forgiven, reconciled to one another not be any measure other than our response to God's free gift of grace in Jesus Christ?  Such grace is the only basis for Christian unity today.

Well, I don't deny that Paul's letters are difficult for us modern readers. Yet they inspire us to think anew about the wondrous thing that God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Of course, our goal in not merely to think more about Christ, but to live more fully into the life of Christ. "For the life I now live," writes Paul, "I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Friends, may the Holy Spirit awaken in us such faith, such hope, such love.