2-13-2018

Good Morning All,

     Galatians 5:6; “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love”.

    If I get up early enough in the morning, I can watch “Married with Children”.  Good Old Al Bundy, every man who never made it anywhere.  I always loved the fact that he thought his “four touchdowns scored in one game” was his ticket to everything and everywhere.  25 or 30 years after the fact, he still thought it mattered.  I think the reason I found that so funny was because I know people who think the same way. 

   There are many people who think that way.  There is something about them that causes them to think their opinion, their wants or desires should count more than anyone else’s.  Maybe they are a sixth or seventh generation member of a church, maybe their grandfather was a county commissioner, maybe their brother used to coach basketball, whatever you want to look at there is something that makes them think that their word should be the last that is needed.  One of those guys in a group is a challenge; two is difficult and three is downright destructive. 

     It is destructive because they always want the credit, be at the front or be in charge.  It is more important that they be recognized rather than something gets done.  When groups try to work like that, failure comes quickly or the prior success ends.

    That is what happened in our verse for today.  The Galatian church was a real “go-getter” bunch.  They took hold of Gospel message of Jesus that Paul preached to them and lived together as God had planned.  Then trouble grew, because sin remained.  Soon, they began to separate themselves into groups; each thinking that they needed to be credited with something or that they were, somehow, superior to others.  To this Paul tells them that no matter how you were viewed before, once you are one of God’s redeemed children, you are all the same.  So it is not who you are that matters, it is what you are.

    That’s what he means when he writes only faith working through love matters.  Paul is telling us that the matter of rank within the Christian community has no place.  What matters is that we live by the faith that we are given.  What matters are the works we do because of that faith.  What matters are the lives of others we touch because of that faith.

    God empowers us to be the human beings that he created.  God created us to live in his presence with joy, thanksgiving and praise.  He created us to take care of each other and to take care of creation.  Sin destroyed all of that.  Yet God, through Christ has redeemed us and brought us back to him.  By the forgiveness of sins, we are made children of God, his redeemed children.  We are all the same as we stand before God; we are redeemed children claimed through Baptism.  We are joined with Christ through Baptism.  We are given this by God’s grace and we will receive the same hope for us which Christ has earned for us- eternal life.  So who we are is determined, not by status, or wealth or power but by God’s loving grace.  So all that matters, in this world, is that we live by the love that he gives us; that love abounds because of the faith that God gives to us.  This is what matters -the love which shines through.

Father in heaven, too often we are more worried about how we look or are perceived by others rather than by how your love shines through us.  We ask that you forgive us and that you strengthen us that we may work for you in your kingdom.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray.  Amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret