First Presbyterian Church
Speaking Hard Truths
Sermon for June 17, 2007
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Our scripture reading today is from the first two chapters of Paul's letter to the Galatians. I always have trouble trying to figure out what's going on in Paul's letters. I was relieved to read in a commentary that Paul's “Butchered syntax reflects strong passions.” 1 Paul was angry and earnest and anxious, so he wrote in long convoluted sentences. I will try to explain the context of this letter as best I can.

Paul started the church in Galatia years before he wrote this letter. Paul wrote this letter using ancient judicial and deliberative rhetoric. We aren't familiar with the form, and that can interfere with understanding the letter. Paul is writing as if “he were on trial before a jury, speaking in his own defense.” 2 We tend to think it sounds like bragging, but it isn't, it's just a style. He explains why the Galatians should trust him, because if they trust him, they will trust the gospel of Jesus.

He is speaking against Jewish-Christian missionaries who expect all Gentile Christians to adopt Jewish practices of following the kosher food laws and being circumcised. They claim that anyone wanted to be a church member must meet these conditions; if the conditions aren't mean, they are not faithful. They have accused Paul of soft-pedaling the gospel; saying that he was more interested in telling people what they wanted to hear than admit the hard truth that men would have to undergo the painful process of circumcision and the women would have to start cooking kosher.

Paul didn't make a gospel for people's approval; the gospel he shared was of Jesus Christ. Paul tried to please God, not human beings.

Listen for the word of God as it is found in the letter to the Galatians, chapters 1 and 2.

1 Paul an apostle-- sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- 2 and all the members of God's family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

10 Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; 12 for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

13 You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

15 But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.

18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; 19 but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord's brother.

20 In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!

21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia , 22 and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; 23 they only heard it said, "The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy." 24 And they glorified God because of me.

chapter 2

1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain.

3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.4 But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us-- 5 we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.

6 And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)-- those leaders contributed nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch , I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; 12 for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. 13 And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

14 But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. 17 But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

18 But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

This ends our reading of God's word.

So, we might ask, doesn't the gospel please people? Aren't we supposed to find pleasure in the gospel and in following Christ? We are, but that's not what Paul means.

In Zimbabwe in January, eight church leaders were arrested by security force” in Zimbabwe . They were jailed for opening a new office of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance. The “ZCA coordinates nonviolent resistance to [President Robert] Mugabe's rule and seeks to serve the country's increasing number of destitute people.” 3

The president of the World Council of Reformed Churches, Setri Nyomi said, “The use of violence by government and security forces is unacceptable under any circumstances. It is especially disturbing when it is used against people simply wanting to pray for a better country or when they simply which to express themselves.” 4Nyomi is from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ghana , and exactly a year ago, I was taking a picture of him with Jamie Moon when we were at General Assembly in Birmingham Alabama .

One of the pastors arrested, Pius Wakatama told the police that he needed to be taken to a new cell because “all those in my present cell have become Christians and now support the Alliance. I need a new congregation to work with.” 5 President Robert Mugabe “has rigged elections, doled out farmland to political supporters, destroyed homes and businesses of political opponents and harassed police, judges, and journalists who oppose his rule…. Today unemployment is 80% and inflation over 1, 700 percent. Mugabe, who considers himself a devout Catholic, has intimidated some clergy and sown division among the Catholic bishops. Yet the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace has repeatedly spoken out against government atrocities.” 6

This is the gospel that is not about pleasing people, but about pleasing God and being a part of God's work by following Christ. God's activity often encounters opposition and conflict, as in Zimbabwe. We shouldn't be surprised; Paul speaks of the present evil age – and we are still on this side of the day of the Lord.

For us here, far from places like Zimbabwe , we haven't got this kind of conflict.

But we still have people who lie for their own purposes – to cover up their mistakes, or to gain power or money. It's hard to hold on to the gospel when we are bullied or ignored. But even then, the gospel has power to save us.

The last few days I served as our presbytery's representative of the Synod's Permanent Judicial Commission. I trusted the people on the commission with me. They embodied the gospel for me. That's what I need when I am in trouble – people around me who are living the gospel and share God's love, Christ's way with me. In their words and actions to me, I can feel the holy spirit at work.

We are not supposed to earn our salvation by following the law, but to live in the freedom of salvation, free to please God, rather than people. One theologian explained it by saying we are instruments, not entrepreneurs. 7 We don't have to create the gospel, we get to tell it and live it.

I talked to some men in the congregation about their fathers. Some of them spoke of how hard their fathers worked to support their family in tough times. Their fathers didn't talk much about their faith, but they made sure their families went to Sunday school. The boys knew the hard truth from their fathers – they had to figure out how to earn a living in hard times.

Sometimes its not making a living that's hard, it's learning. Fathers know how to make sure their children learn. Bill Kirkpatrick's father, who owned a car dealership, told him in high school, “Bill, if you stay home every night and study, I'll make sure you have a new car to drive every Friday. “ Bill said that really helped him to get girls, because girls always wanted to drive in a new car. I guess it also helped him study and learn, because he wanted a car.

God loves us as a father does. God has some hard truths for us, and encourages us in those truths. One of our historic principles of church order is “Truth is in order to goodness.” When I was in California at my meeting, I asked Dr. Paul Achtemeier, a systematic theology professor, what “in order” meant there. He said “in order” is an archaic way of saying that truth is for the purpose of goodness. Truth leads us to holiness. There is no separation between faith and practice, truth and duty. It matters that we embrace truth.

The Jewish Christian missionaries thought Paul was avoiding the hard truth of circumcision. But instead, Paul was holding to the truth of the gospel: we trust in Christ, not the law. Christ is a higher calling. We can't rest in knowing we have fulfilled the law; we have to continue to fulfill the gospel by living it. Amen.

1New Interpreter's Bible XI, p. 221.

2New Interpreter's Bible XI, p. 188.

3 “Courage in Zimbabwe ,” Christian Century, April 17, 2007 , p. 5.

4 “Protestant groups ask African union to step into Zimbabwe crisis,” Christian Century, April 17, 2007 , p. 14.

5 “Courage in Zimbabwe ,” Christian Century, April 17, 2007 , p. 5.

6 “Courage in Zimbabwe ,” Christian Century, April 17, 2007 , p. 5.

7New Interpreter's Bible XI, p. 229.