Author: FUMCWP Admin

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5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. ⁵ For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:1-6

On this Labor Day Monday, I am reflecting on the week that we have had and the week that is waiting for me. Usually, my Sundays are spent in worship with all of you, but this Sunday I had the opportunity to love on our littlest ones in the Church Nursery as all of our Nursery Staff were already back at college or off for the long holiday weekend. I did not get to hear Pastor David’s sermon live, but I did get to sing with the little ones on the catwalk in the final song in the Contemporary Service. The song was “Christ is Enough” and it modulated into the well-known hymn, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back” and I couldn’t help but think that this might be Paul’s main point in his entire letter to the Galatians. Once we choose to follow Jesus and to make him the Lord of our life, we can’t go back to how things had been or who we once were.

As Paul expresses over and over again in this letter to the churches of Galatia, the hill that he is willing to die on is the argument regarding circumcision and whether or not it is needed for salvation. He has said it before and he will say it again, this is no longer the Law to obey. There is a new law to obey, and it is the law of freedom through the cross and it is expressed through grace and love. When it came to the rest of the religious rules and regulations that keep people out, Paul was only interested in a faith that is expressed through love. To quote verse 6, from chapter 5 again,

“⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Think about that quantitative phrase for just a minute; “the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Could Paul have written it any plainer?

Can you think of a time when you expressed your faith in a less than loving way? Can you remember a time perhaps in this last week or month when you chose impatience, judgment or anger over love? While the law of circumcision is not the litmus test in our faith community today, there are other things that we use to measure one’s faithfulness, even if those internal measurements are unintentional. I don’t know all of your faith stories or the homes you grew up in, but you can all think of the ‘measurements’ we use in the church. Not just our church, but THE CHURCH. What has the church or the people called Christians created over the years as measurements to keep others out?

I can remember, early in my Middle School years, I jumped on the Left Behind book series train and walked through a season of about 3 months of really feeling like the end of the world was eminent and I should both evangelize and save all of my friends from the impending doom. I believe I also started to be afraid of anyone with a Russian name (if you know, then you know.)

Well, my best friend was and is Catholic. I was 13 or 14 and because of this version of someone else’s fictitious understanding of a sacred text, I was worried for her soul. I don’t remember the conversation precisely, but I know I really laid into her one Wednesday night on the way home from youth group (I really wanted to drive the point home). I told her in a less than loving way that her way of understanding and expressing her faith was wrong and that I “loved her enough to not let her end up in hell…” (I promise, I am not making this up). Needless to say, I did not express my faith lovingly, not even respectfully; instead I executed it with judgment and fear. My mother, who was driving us home, had some important words for me that night after we dropped her off about how I could have handled that with more grace. It didn’t take me long to apologize and we are still best friends 20 years later, but as I reflect on this story, I cringe thinking about how I hurt, judged and alienated this beautiful friend of mine.

Maybe you too have had a moment like this when your love of rules surpassed your love of relationship. What was that moment like for you? For the people of Galatia, they bought into the false Gospel that only those circumcised could be truly saved and they were executing that belief with judgment and fear. But we do the same, don’t we? We inadvertently measure one’s faith journey based on how they look, home well-behaved their children are or their marriage appears. How one gives of their time or how they vote and the bumper stickers on their car. And lately, I confess, I have made my own judgments about who is wearing a mask and how you protect the ‘least of these.’ The point is, we all struggle from time to time, especially when we are emersed in an almost constant barrage of fear, distrust and misinformation to forget that the “Only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love.” What might the Holy Spirit be whispering into your heart today? How might you understand this text in your own life? And what is it that you might tweak about how you interact with the stranger or friend to lead with love, to offer grace and to be an example of Jesus?

May God add God’s blessing to the hearing, praying and contemplating of God’s Word.

AMEN

Before Emmaline started her first week of kindergarten, my mom gave her a special gift. It was a necklace, very similar to the one she had had as a child. When my mom was younger, she had worn a necklace that she treasured that she held close around her neck, especially when times were tough. It was a mustard seed necklace and my mom shared with Emmaline about having faith as small as a mustard seed was still enough to get her through tough times. She told Emmaline to squeeze it tight and remember that if she was nervous that first week of school, or didn’t know the answer, or didn’t have a friend nearby, she could squeeze that necklace pendant and know that even the smallest bit of faith made a world of difference. And that God would be with her.

This past Sunday, Pastor David preached on faith and how it manifests itself in our walk with Jesus. We watched a clip from the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, of the scene of a community river baptism. We asked the question together as a church if having faith was all there is. In other words, is it just about belief or does Jesus require more of us.

Galatians 2:15-21 was our Scripture text on Sunday morning where we talked about the Apostle Paul’s words to both his original audience and the way his words speak directly to our hearts today. We reflected on our own sin and contemplated how we had missed the mark. For whatever reason, in our Post-Christian world mindset, we really don’t like to dwell on our sin or speak aloud how we have missed the mark. I will tell you though, I have only been up and functioning for about three hours now and I have already had to apologize and ask forgiveness from two people I love most, because I miss the mark more times than I care to share. While early on in ministry I struggled to admit my failures or show my weaknesses, I have learned over 11 years of being a pastor and almost 8 years of counseling and Spiritual Direction, just how life-giving the naming of sin and the admittance of failures can be. This is part of why I will always encourage using the Confession and Pardon liturgy during our sacrament of Holy Communion. Here are the words again:

Merciful God,
We confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will,
we have broken your law,
we have rebelled against your love,
we have not loved our neighbors,
and we have not heard the cries of the needy.

FORGIVE US we pray.
FREE US for joyful obedience
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.