Good morning. We need the rain. Thanks be to God!
This morning’s lessons are tied together in an interesting way. Jesus is trying to warn the apostles about how easily the Pharisees and Sadducees can undermine the message of God’s new kingdom, but the apostles miss the point. He uses the example of how just a little bit of yeast can inflate a lot of bread. In speaking to the Galatians, Paul uses the same metaphor: “A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.”
In both cases they are talking about trying to undermine God’s gospel of freedom with the rules and rituals of humanity’s religious insecurity. For some reason we find it easier to believe in a system of rules that we can’t follow anyway than to accept the gift of God’s grace that brings us forgiveness and new life.
Paul’s language is pretty strong, but then Paul believed in God’s grace and accepted God’s forgiveness. Some people worry that we can too easily misinterpret God’s grace and think that it means we can do anything that we want and God will forgive us anyway. If you really want to find your justification in rules and rituals then what you are really doing is saying that you can save yourself. And you can’t!
Paul makes it clear that God’s freedom is not an excuse for bad behavior: “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Is this really so confusing? At the heart of Paul’s message – and Jesus’ gospel – is the distinction between sacrificial love and some sort of mindless obedience to rules. When we love one another, we are willing to forego certain selfish pleasures or useless possessions for the sake of the one we love. To God it makes all the difference in the world if you do not kill one another because there’s a law that says you shouldn’t and you don’t kill one another because that’s not what people who love one another do to each other. That doesn’t mean that the laws are bad. It means that our motivation for following the laws is something more than “Because….” It means that God searches our hearts not our scorecards.
Paul is saying that you shouldn’t be dragged back into a system of mandatory rules and rituals. He’s pretty clear: “You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” If you are looking for a set of rules to assure your redemption, you are substituting the grace and gift of Jesus for your own efforts. Truly accepting God’s grace may be the most difficult thing that we are called to do.
Truly accepting God’s grace may be the most difficult thing that we are called to do.
Truly accepting God’s grace is where your faith journey will begin.
Prayer: Lord God, we thank you for the love that You have showered on us like a parent reunited with a long lost child. Our faith in You is rooted in the trust that You have come to us, that You have erased the past, that You have called us to join You in the kind of lives for which You created us. Forgive our wavering doubt and insecurity. Accept our gratitude as in love we turn back to You. Amen.
Today’s readings are the Morning Psalms 96 & 147:1–11; Ecclesiastes 9:11–18; Galatians 5:1–15; Matt. 16:1–12; and the Evening Psalms 132 & 134.
Blessings.
Pastor Jim
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