Text: Galatians 3:1-5
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publically exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing? - if it really was for nothing. Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
How is it that we can pull ourselves or let ourselves be pulled away from the Good News that is the grace of God -made flesh in Jesus and made present for us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul is really quite befuddled here. Not that he is confused about the faith, but rather than anyone would knowingly desert the gospel and run to something else. In the order for Evening Prayer in the Lutheran Book of Worship, after we have had the lessons for the evening read, the response goes: In many and various ways God spoke to God's people of old by the prophets. But now in these last days God has spoken to us by God's son. In the case of today's text, it sounds as though the people have been influenced "in many and various ways"...but it is not an influence for life that comes from the grace of God! To trust in God's word of love for us, it means taking our hands off of that love and letting it be God's love and not the limited, conditional, experience of life that is easy to grasp but never lets us walk within the Reign of God's love. Whether it is fear, or in that, a need to be able to judge what is "in" and what is "out" so that we can have some concrete insurance of where we stand (according to our own standards), too many people choose to be "bewitched" and therefore will let go of the Gracious word of God's love. Paul plays an important hand in these few verses: The Spirit. One person notes that the Spirit is for Paul: the powerful presence of the resurrected Christ in the Christians -- the power of the new age in the present -- the demonstration of the reality of God's work in Jesus. When we are pulled and pushed into trusting something like what we can accomplish or rules we can follow or things that must happen in our lives for us to be God's beloved, remember that this power of the Holy Spirit waits for us. On a stronger note, I think this Spirit, relentlessly brings moments of sheer grace and love within to our lives to remind us of the unconditional and never failing way God welcomes us home. Don't let yourselves listen to anything but that word...for they are not leading you home unless it is a free ticket with Jesus' signature on the back - for all.
Connection: What does this Spirit have to do with your life today? With you abides the power presence of the new age that is Jesus putting into life the reality of God's work for us. Wow. That is something to take to heart even if you are simply picking something up at the grocery today. What freedom to love and live.
God of every age, you never change. You persist and you will not let any other word be the word of life for us even when we leave you to pursue the shiny facade of other word claiming to bring life. Be our daily bread...be our home for all time...be our place of joy and celebration in this day. Amen
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