GALATIANS : THE GOSPEL OF GRACE 3. 'Faith and Life'

Father's Day/Graduate Sunday/Sunday School Teacher Recognition Day

Readings: Psalm 5:1-8, 1 Kings 21:1-21, Luke 7:36-8:3, Galatians 2:15-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, June 16th, 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

Being a parent can be a frustrating experience. Today is Father's Day. As one who has had that role in life I remember there were days, particularly in the early years when frankly I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Babies don't arrive with a manual.  And people who write baby books never seem to allow for the fact that every child (and every family) is totally unique.

I remember the first time I tried to put a disposable diaper on my first child. Could I get those tabs to stick together, after getting that cream all over my hands? Yvonne came home to find a red faced dad, a stack of disposables all over the floor and  a baby still needing changing. Then the babies grow up and ask you for advice. What if you say it wrong? What if they go and do what they think you said rather than what you actually meant? It ain't easy being a dad!

Today is also Graduate Sunday. Being a student can be a frustrating experience. My first year in seminary I had to learn Hebrew and Greek. I am not good at languages.  I remember almost screaming with frustration, 'Why can't I get this in my stupid head!” The first year I was in training Yvonne thought I only had two subjects to study such was my struggle to get my head around the languages. She was kind of surprised when I mentioned that we also did history and theology and  comparative religion and a whole host of other things. I don't know where your particular areas of struggle may be, but I do know...we all have days when we feel like screaming 'I can't do this!'  It ain't easy being a student.

Today is Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Sunday.  And... teachers.... we do appreciate you.   I personally appreciate what a frustrating thing teaching scripture can be. Most years I take kids on their confirmation journeys. You are sharing these stories, giving it your best shot, bearing your heart... and sometimes you feel it's going way off somewhere that only the Lord knows where! And I know that is a sentiment shared by teachers universally, not just Sunday School teachers.  It ain't easy being a teacher.

Today we gather here as a community of faith. We are people under construction. We may even feel that to truly call us 'Christian' is a little foolish... as there isn't that much you'd notice as being 'Christ-like' about our lives. Following Jesus is hard. We wonder sometimes if we can really do it, or are just fooling ourselves. 'Take up your cross and follow me' Jesus says. Instead of 'taking up a cross', we just 'get cross' because it just doesn't seem to work for us some days! Any would be follower of Jesus is eventually going to hit the frustration barrier.

One of the great figures of Reformation history was Martin Luther. Much of his earliest religious journey could simply be defined by one word. 'Frustration'. Martin Luther really wanted to be the sort of person God wanted him to be. He read scripture. He prayed. He gave. It didn't seem to work.

So he decided to go the whole hog and became a monk. And there he read scripture. And he prayed. And he served. And he really, really, really tried to do everything that a religious person was supposed to do. He went on a pilgrimage to Rome. In Rome there was a great sacred stairway, the Scala Sancta. It is considered to be an act of great devotion and penance to climb the staircase on your hands and knees. It shows you are serious about faith. He tried it. It really hurt his knees. He felt like God was just as distant as ever. His life was a showpiece of discipline, self-denial and self-torture. 'If ever' he said, 'A man could be saved by monkery (that is by becoming a monk) that man was I!”

Then one day, in frustration, he gave up trying to justify himself. It was as though, in modern terminology, he switched on his car radio and heard Carrie Underwood singing 'Jesus take the Wheel'. When he did that, when he said, 'That's it. I can't do this anymore, take the wheel of my life', a voice came from heaven that said  “The just shall live by faith”. He understood that a life of peace with God could not be attained by frustrating and futile, never ending, ever defeated effort; it could only be had by casting himself on the love and mercy of Jesus Christ. 'The just shall live by faith'.

Those words came from a biblical book we've been looking at the last couple of weeks. Paul's letter to the Galatians. Chapter 3:11 to be exact. 'The just shall live by faith'. Paul has begun developing that argument in the passage we read today. In 2:16 Paul writes; “We know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ'.

He has written to the church in Galatia because teachers have come amongst them and tried to pressurize them into taking up all sorts of dietary laws and Jewish rituals in order to be truly accepted by God. This has greatly concerned Paul, because nobody could have been more committed to Jewish rituals and laws than he had been, and it had not turned out well. It had led him to persecute the church and kick against the only One who could set him right, the Lord Jesus Christ.

On the road to Damascus his life had been turned around and he knew that God accepted a person, not on the grounds of what they had done, but only through the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and was raised to give new-life. Only by putting their faith in what God could do... could set people free. If they started putting their faith in what they could do... it was a dead end road.

He saw how when he had tried to live for God, it ended in frustration. He discovered that he needed to allow God to live in Him, through the presence of the Holy Spirit... Christ in him... was his only hope of glory.

In verse 20 he tells the Galatians “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.”

As a Father I remember trying to teach my kids to swim. How hard they'd thrash about as you held them and would say, “Dad, please don't let go”. Eventually came that moment when they didn't realize you were no longer holding on. It may only be a few strokes as they swam to the side, but they understood, that they had to trust the water to hold them.

Faith doesn't come easily. We'd rather thrash about and rely on other things to hold us. We'd rather invest in good works and compliance and ritual and order than trust in God to take care of everything. Although we pray regularly to God 'Thy will be done', we often are hoping that God will fall in line with our expectations rather than expect us to risk all by trusting that God really does know what's best.

In our spiritual walk, God calls us first and foremost, not 'to do' but 'to be'. To be His children, to be in relationship with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, to be centered in His love.  When we get the focus right then the other things have a habit of taking their rightful place. 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness;” invites Jesus “And all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

We don't need to prove to God how good we are. What a waste of effort! Because none of us is that good!  God desires that we experience how good life can be as we allow Christ to live in us.

God invites us to trust that in Him our lives find their purpose, that as we apprehend what has been done for us through the Cross and Resurrection we will know that we are loved... that as we envisage the possibilities of what a life open to and molded by God's Holy Spirit could look like, we will want to have that kind of life!

It's one of the hardest things to do. To stop thinking we are in charge and let Jesus take the wheel of our lives. To live 'not my will be done Oh Lord, but thine'. Though hard, it's also essential. What we do, however admirable, how ever successful, is never enough. Paul knew that! No-one had been better at religion than Paul. Martin Luther discovered the same thing. Even monkery could not give him the relationship with God he desired.

Only grace could do it! Only allowing God to be God and accepting the forgiveness and love of Jesus Christ can save us. Only by throwing our faith totally on what God can do and by stopping believing we can save the world results in us breaking through to that relationship with God our hearts so desire.

Once we realize the wonder of grace, it can transform everything. We realize we don't have to do anything to be accepted by God other than accept we can do nothing. We realize we are God's children, adopted into God's family through Jesus alone, through His merit, through His love, through His death, through His life, through His ascension and resurrection. We are children of God, loved and claimed in Christ.

Grace encourages us to hold our heads up high. To see that though we are weak, the Holy Spirit is powerful. A mighty rushing wind that brings healing and vision and hope to lives that are otherwise bowed down and going nowhere. We start to understand that every little thing we do for the Kingdom is a big thing. We are changed... not by our own efforts but by allowing the love of God the freedom to live in us and through us.

It doesn't matter what we have been. Ask Paul! What counts is where we are now in our spiritual journey!  Paul feared that the Galatians were being side-tracked by people who told them... 'No! Stop! You have to do this and be this and obey this and obey that law”. 'Been there, done that' says Paul . 'And it wasn't a good place to be'.' The life I now live... I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (verse 20).

Such is the challenge this passage leaves us with. Where are we right now in our spiritual journey? Trying to make it but really just faking it? A little lost and at sea? Or are we aware that grace is making of us more than we could ever make of our selves? Do we know ourselves children of God, saved, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ?

Through the open doorway of prayer we always have the opportunity to invite Jesus to take His rightful place in our hearts and lives. To invite Him to take the wheel. To recommit ourselves to be Kingdom people. As we do so His Spirit will guide us. To places we can serve. To people who also need His touch. To situations where our unique make-up can fill a need. That's how grace works. That's what He calls us to do. In His name. In His power. In His grace. To God's name be the glory. Amen.

Rev Adrian J. Pratt B.D.