Text: Galatians 5: 7-12
You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettled you would castrate themselves!
Ouch! Paul...is getting a bit emotional here. In some ways, it is quite comical. Paul is so certain about the unnecessary following of the law (he concretizes it in the form of the rite of circumcision) that he gets a bit graphic about what might just happen to those who are too preoccupied with circumcision. Oops...sorry!
Paul is more concerned about sharing with people the free gift given in Christ to all who trust God's love in Jesus. For Paul, that trust is in itself a gift from God - therefore it is a free gift...for freedom of life. Paul realizes that if he would have kept this one Jewish rite within his teaching, no one would be persecuting him. But he will not and he does not...for to add anything to the free word of God's love in Jesus would mean he would be speaking some other good news which is no good news at all (see chapter 1). I am very aware for myself that it takes only a tiny bit of reliance on the law to eventually cause me to disregard the truth of the Gospel and attempt to cling to something else. We are either people of the Good News of the Reign of God as seen in Jesus, or we are lost wandering around looking for something else we can claim to be that which will save us and make all things well. Ha.
Connection: We cannot rely on anything to make us God's people. It is a gift or it is not from the God of our Lord, Jesus. If a gift, we cannot claim it as something that is to be credited to us as though we did something to earn it. Instead, rather than playing with various ways to enter into the community of saints, we need only give thanks to our God for opening the door and bidding us to come to the table. Beware of the many little times within a day we can be hooked by something other than this radical grace that Paul is attempting to bring back into the minds and hearts of his friends in Galatia.
Carry us into this day O God of constant love and amazing grace. Let the game playing of the world around us not have the power to sway us into the games of life that do not give us the true life as only you can give. Remind us that you are the God who Adopts and welcomes and not the one who looks for reasons to cut us off. Amen.
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