A Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity
In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing,
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
–Galatians 6:15
This
week's epistle lesson, like that prescribed for the last two Sundays,
is taken from the Epistle to the Galatians, and concerns the question
of whether Christians are obliged to obey the law of Moses, set forth
in the first five books of the Old Testament.
The Apostle Paul was writing to the Christian community in a region
called Galatia in Asia Minor. Geographically, the region is now
part of Turkey; the ancient capital of Galatia, Ancyra (Ankara), is now
the capital of Turkey. But there were no Turks living there in
the first century; the people were Celts, related to the inhabitants of
Gaul, Britain, and Ireland. They were Gentiles, not Jews; and
they had been converted to Christianity by Paul, who established the
Church there.
After Paul had moved on, other Christian ministers came to Galatia from
Jerusalem and told the Galatians that it was not enough that they
become Christians, but that they must also become Jews. The talk
about "circumcision" is, of course, literally about circumcision, but
it also means submission to all of the commandments of the Old
Testament (of which there are supposedly 614) and to the concomitant
man-made traditions.
Now, the whole of Scripture was written for our learning; and the
Church included each of Paul's letters in the canon of Scripture not
just because he addressed the problems of the various first century
churches, but also because the letters speak to the concerns of
Christians in all ages. But if you are thinking that there are
very, very few people in the twenty-first century who would argue that
to be a good Christian it is necessary to keep a kosher kitchen and
wear yarmulkes and fringed garments, let alone to undergo fairly
delicate surgery, you are absolutely right.
But the attitude of those whom Paul called the "Judaizers" has been
present in some form in every age. It is the attitude that if we
follow certain rules, or perform certain acts, then God owes us
something in return. If only we keep, say, eight or nine out of
every ten commandments, or if only we make it to Mass at least three
Sundays a month, or if only we pledge, oh, six or seven percent of our
income, then we have earned our place in the kingdom, and we are free
to spend the rest of out time and money and effort on other
things. We have done our bit for God; now it is up to God to do
his bit for us.
In one of his crime novels, later adapted for the television series
"Mystery," the British writer Colin Dexter has his character, Chief
Inspector Morse, say of a certain group of priests and seminarians that
they imagine God as sitting up in heaven with a giant clipboard,
checking off boxes as human beings fulfill a list of tasks. And
whether or not Morse was being fair to those fictional churchmen (who
were, by the way, Anglican traditionalists), we all know that there are
people who imagine God in just that way.
Saint Paul tells us that that is not how God is. God has made
justification, salvation, and eternal life available to human beings,
not as a prize for the successfully completing a list of tasks, or a
reward for obeying a set of rules, but, rather, as his free gift.
There is nothing we can do to earn these things; we do not have the
power to justify ourselves or to save ourselves by anything we do of
ourselves. If eternal life depended upon our complying with a
list of laws, we would all surely die. But God, in Christ Jesus,
has given us the gift of life, by grace, through faith.
We should be clear what law it is from which our faith in Christ Jesus
sets us free. Is it the moral law? Are we, as Christians,
free to disregard the ten commandments? God forbid!
When a rich young man approached Jesus and asked what he needed to do
to inherit eternal life, Jesus said to him (even before telling him
that he must give up everything and follow Jesus) that he must obey the
commandments. Which commandments? Jesus began to recite
from the same ten commandments that were part of our liturgy this
morning: "honour thy father and mother; thou shalt do no murder;
thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; . . ."
Throughout the Gospels Jesus not only affirms the moral code of the
Mosaic law, but interprets it more strictly than the strictest of the
Pharisees. The law says that marriage is for life, but the
Pharisees were willing to permit divorce, if the proper forms were
used. Jesus said, "What God has joined together, let not man put
asunder." The law says, "Thou shalt do no murder"; Jesus adds
that it is forbidden to be angry with your brother without a cause or
to put someone down with insults. The law says, "Thou shalt not
commit adultery"; and Jesus adds that having lustful desires is
equivalent to committing adultery in your heart.
Saint Paul, too, explaining the Gospel to the Christians in the new
churches he founded, while emphatically rejecting the notion that
Christians are bound to obey the ritual laws of the Old Testament,
insists that the followers of Jesus are held to a high moral
standard. In his letter to the Galatians, several paragraphs
after what was read this morning, Paul warned against the works of the
flesh: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, hatred,
wrath, strife, sedition, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness,
revenge. And these works of the flesh are at war with the Holy
Spirit, who dwells in the Church to sanctify it. Those who are
led by the Spirit must reject these works of the flesh.
There is forgiveness for those who have done wrong and who are
penitent: forgiveness not just once, or seven times, but
seventy-times-seven times—as many times as it is sought. But
there is no free pass.
Jesus said: "By your fruits ye shall know them." And Saint
Paul wrote to the Galatians that the fruits of the Spirit are "love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance. Against such there is no law."
In his sermon on the mount, Jesus laid out where true happiness lies:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted;
blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for
they shall be filled;
blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy;
blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;
blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God;
blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and
shall say all manner of evil against you for my sake,
. . . for great is your reward in heaven.
Faith in Christ sets us free, but not free to give in to the lures of
the devil, the world, and the flesh, all of which we renounced at our
baptism, when we died with Christ and rose again with him as new
creatures.
No, faith in Christ sets us free to be led by the Spirit, and to show
forth in our lives the fruits of the Spirit, not because we hope to
gain thereby, and not because of fear, but because in so doing we
honour and praise God, who has given us our life and our freedom as his
own free gift.
Church of Saint Mary Magdalene
Orange, California
28 September 2003
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