Faith

Whoever wants to have a half-Christ loses the whole – Tuesday, 28th Week in ordinary time – Galatians 5:1-6

A WORD OF CAUTION : This text of Paul must be read in the larger context of Galatians and not out of context. 

Paul was certainly not out to win friends and influence people, at least not the way we understand it to be today. The world pushes itself to be as pleasing and accommodating. Paul would certainly not fit into our world but interestingly he did not fit into his world. This was a community he loved and now they did not love him back. He begs and pleads and curses and rants; it’s the whole nine yards. But one thing Paul will not do is back away from the truth of the message he has come to believe; the law cannot save you and neither can circumcision.

Galatians was written by Paul because a dispute had broken out in the Churches of Galatia over the issue of circumcision. Paul has already insisted that freedom in Christ is freedom from the requirements of the Jewish law. In Galatians 5:2-12, Paul insists on one of his central points throughout the letter that Christian freedom is freedom from the requirement of male circumcision, as well as from the required keeping of the whole Jewish law.

Chapter 5 is a final appeal to walk in the liberty of Jesus. in light of all that Paul has previously said, he now challenges the Galatians to walk in the truth he has presented. He asks them to ‘stand fast’ in ‘freedom’ given to us by Christ and not to be entangled in the yoke of bondage.

Significantly, it is Christ who has made us free. We don’t make ourselves free. Freedom is a gift of Jesus, given to us and received by faith. When we struggle to free ourselves, we just become more entangled again with a yoke of bondage. But the freedom that Christ gives us is not a freedom to do what every we want. It may seem as freedom but is a false liberty. Christ does not just offer us freedom but he offers us ‘the’ freedom from having to earn our way to him. He offers us the freedom from sin, from guilt, from condemnation. So the Galatians must put in every effort to ‘stand fast’ and not be swayed by the false teachers or else they will be entrapped in the yoke of bondage.

The Jewish teachers spoke of the law as ‘a yoke’ and they used this term in a favourable way. For them the law was good and to be yoked by it was a good thing. For Paul, the practice of law could only be a yoke of bondage. The law could not make them free, rather it enslaved them. This is why Christ offers us his yoke, which is easy and light and not burdensome. Christ gives us his law of love rather than a slavish relationship to the law of Moses which had more than 613 prescriptions that had to be kept. Keeping every prescription of the law was truly slavery.

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The heart of a pastor – Monday, 28th Week in ordinary time – Galatians 4:22-27,31,5:1

In chapter 4:12-20 Paul makes a passionate appeal to the Galatians. He does this not from any scriptural background or a theological standpoint but simply from his heart; he is emotional and passionate. He wants the Galatians to renounce the supposed advantages they think they get from the false teachings that focus on the necessity to follow the law and the traditions of the Jews.

Paul is truly perplexed by the behaviours of the Galatians. This was a community that gave him a warm welcome when he first came to them, this despite very trying conditions. They found his message worthy of their fullest commitment. Such was their affection for Paul that he testifies that they would have given their very eyes should he have asked. Yet all that had changed because of something he had either said or done or was accused of.

Paul is anxious and upset, worried about his congregation who have been agitated by trouble makers. He is frustrated about his inability to rectify the situation. He has used strong words several times in this letter to no avail. He wished he could make a personal visit to convince them personally but that it seems was not possible.

So far, Paul has used every sound logical reason to prevail upon the Galatians not to fall prey to the Judaizers and their perverse teachings. He gave them the analogy, that of a minor child. He explained to them that a man apart from Christ, living under the law was like a minor child for whom the inheritance is only prospective. That child is no better than ‘a slave’ for he is not free to inherit what has been promised. Paul does not mean that men without Christ are slaves to the law but rather they are slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. Remember that Paul is giving us an analogy and contrasting life in Christ ( in freedom) with life under the law (bondage).

In today’s text Paul uses another analogy or rather an allegory based on scripture. In fact he returns to the previous analogy that he made in Galatians 3:6-29 when he spoke of the story of Abraham. He wants to show us that this freedom given to us in Christ is also found in scripture. He harkens to the account of Abraham’s two wives.

The legalists who troubled the Galatians protested that they were children of Abraham, and therefore blessed. Paul will admit they are children of Abraham, but remind them that Abraham had two sons. Sarah was a free woman and her son Isaac was born through a ‘promise.’ This word promise has been used earlier in 3:8,14 and 16-18 to refer to the gospel. But Hagar was a slave and her son Ishmael was born not according to a promise but according to the flesh. Ishmael was indeed Abraham’s son, but he was the son according to the flesh and unbelief. He was a classic example of one trying to make their own way before God. To inherit the promise, it is not enough to be just a descendant of Abraham, as Ishmael was. To inherit the promise, it is necessary to be descended as the result of promise, like Isaac; it is necessary to be a spiritual descendant, not just a genealogical one.

The point Paul is making is that it is not enough to be descended from Abraham, as Ishmael and many Jews claimed. Paul tells the Galatian Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are children not of the slave-girl (of the Law) but of the free-born wife (the Spirit of Jesus). There is no need for them to continue following the old ways of the Law. To do so is to renounce the freedom which came to them in Christ.

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If Christ has saved me what is the purpose of the law? Saturday, 27th week in ordinary time – Galatians 3:22-29

Let me begin by saying that this text and a couple to follow can be a strain on the brain; so don’t expect to understand it at first reading. I am also presuming that you have read the previous explanations on Galatians this week.

Let’s tackle the issue. Paul who had been a zealous keeper of the Jewish law and traditions encountered Christ on the road to Damascus. It is now his stated position that he was justified by faith alone and what Jesus did for him the law could not do. In traditional Jewish thinking, you’r standing before God was measured by your obedience to the law. To truly be close to God, to be considered sons of God, you had to be extremely observant of the law, just as the Scribes and Pharisees were (Matthew 23). Paul now down plays the importance of the law as secondary to faith in Christ. The Catholic reader is bound to ask a rather valid question; why do we then observe the ten commandments? What then is the purpose of the law?

For Paul, the law was part of God’s plan as a ‘first response’ to sin. The function of the law was to define man’s legal standing before God. The law protects us by showing us God’s heart. It protects us by showing us the best way to live. It protects us by showing what should be approved and disapproved among men. It protects us by providing a foundation for civil law. However, this is the be all and end all of the power of the law. So, to put in another way, the law serves a purpose to help us evaluate sin before God. However, the law is incapable of justifying us, of making us right before God. The law can tell you what you ought not to do and can evaluate your life but the law cannot transform our relationship before God. The law can only tell us what we have done and what is the penalty for what we have done. What takes us further is faith in Jesus and his grace.

Does the law have a place in salvation history? Yes, says Paul, but for a limited function. The function of the law was to prevent, to impede and hold down sin. The Law of Moses can show us clearly our problem and God’s standard, but it cannot give us the freedom that only Jesus can give. But with the coming of Jesus and when we believe in Jesus Christ, we receive righteousness. Righteousness is given to those who believe in Jesus Christ. (verse22) So, with the coming of Christ, the law (Jewish law and traditions) which was secondary, bound by a purpose and inferior; have served its purpose. Now that THE offspring has come, the grace of Christ takes over and we should harken to it.

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Oh, you idiots of Galatia! – Thursday, 27th Week in ordinary time – Galatians 3: 1-5

Missing the woods for the trees or catching the bull by its tail is what this passage could end up for many people as it did for those who championed the Protestant reformation. The text must be situated in its context or else it becomes a pretext to further personal agendas and ‘perverse teachings.’

At the heart of the matter is the relentless campaign of the Judaizers to convince the Gentile Christians of the need to follow the Jewish law and the traditions. Their name and shame campaign was so effective that Paul admits that even though the Judaizers were far away from their headquarters in Jerusalem they successfully managed to get Peter ‘the rock’ and Barnabas, ‘the son of encouragement’ to succumb and withdraw from eating and associating with the Gentile Christians (2:13). Paul would have none of this and Peter was at the end of Paul’s tongue lashing (2:11)

So, it all comes down to one word; justification! For Paul who was the brightest of the best in the Jerusalem school of Gamaliel, all his fidelity to the Jewish law and traditions did not save him from sin. What did win his soul was Christ hanging from a tree for our sins. So man’s right relationship with God (that is the meaning of justification) is not won by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. For Paul this truth cannot be  compromised even in the slightest way. However this text must be read in its context and with the letter of St James.

For the Jews, the Gentiles were ipso facto sinners because they did not share in the Jewish national heritage of the law and the covenant. But for Paul, all men and women, Jews as well as Gentiles, slaves as well as freed men, all are sinners! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and hence all are equally dependent on God’s grace. This grace is received not by keeping the tradition or the law(which he refers to as works of the flesh) but by faith in Jesus Christ (works of the spirit)

Fearing that the Galatians and no less Peter and his group (2:11-14) were in danger of falling away from this truth, Paul addresses them in the opening lines of today’s text with sharp words. He calls them “foolish Galatians!” “Are you out of your minds?” he seems to asks them? Had someone put some kind of spell on them? In calling the Galatians foolish, Paul did not mean they were morally or mentally deficient. He did not use the Greek word moros, instead, Paul used the ancient Greek word anoetos, which had the idea of someone who can think but fails to use their power of perception.Paul was implying that these Galatians had distracted themselves from the core issue of the Gospel and that was Jesus Christ who was crucified.

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Holding up the mirror of truth – Wednesday, 27th week in ordinary time – Galatians 2:1-2,7-14

Perfect and flawless congregations do not exist. If you find a ‘perfect’ Christian congregation please do not join it or else you will make it imperfect by your presence! So, while the Catholic Church is and always will be perfect, (because it is the mystical body of Christ), its members (clergy and laity) are imperfect and flawed.

I say this because preachers often speak of the early church as if they were a ‘perfect’ congregation living a perfect Christian life. They present the life of the early church as hunky dory as if all the members were on some spiritual high. While the Acts of the Apostles may through some examples give us such an impression, several letters of St Paul would demonstrate otherwise. There were congregations that were either errant in behaviour or in their teaching; St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians and Galatians being a case in point.

The Galatian Churches that were evangelized by Paul during his first missionary journey were on the verge of what was a schism. There were Judaizers who wanted the Gentile converts to follow the Jewish law and traditions in order to enter into this ‘new sect’ of Judaism. Their assertions were that Paul was not an apostle and his Gospel not faithful.

This was no small community disagreement. The letter of St Paul to the Galatians makes it amply clear that the matter at hand had rocked the infantile Church and Acts 15 tells us that the dispute had to be settled by a council which came to be called the ‘Council of Jerusalem.’ The Council had two opposing sides. Paul asserted the freedom from the law that the grace of Christ gives us. For him, the traditions and the Jewish law were ineffective and the mark of circumcision could not save anyone. Those who opposed Paul’s view, the Judaizers, insisted that the Gentiles must follow the Jewish law and traditions, in particular circumcision.

Paul’s detractors left no stone unturned. They followed him on his missionary trail ensuring that the day he stepped out of a city, they stepped in and in some case their paths coincided leading to major arguments that almost led to a riot. (Read Acts) The Judaizers had now reached the Galatian Churches. In order to negate the validity of the conversion and baptism of the Gentiles, they made personal attacks on Paul and called into question his authenticity as an apostle. If he was not an apostle then how could he make a claim to the Gospel that he preached?

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