Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, June 2nd, 2013
A printable PDF file can be found here
From earliest days groups of church folk have met around tables laid with bread and wine to celebrate the gospel. In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul instructs his readers that just as there existed a genuine gospel, so there was also a false gospel. And it was dangerous to get the two confused! In our reading today Paul gives us some clues as to what the true gospel looks like.
One of the foundational things he tells us is that the true gospel is a revelation from God. It is not a creation of any human mind, but a reflection of the mind and will of the One who created all things. He writes in verse 12 “I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it, through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Just as communion, bread and wine, are something to be received, so it is with the gospel. It is something we need to feed our hearts and souls and minds upon. It is something that offers us a radically different perspective on life, because it is coming from a place far beyond the confines of everyday life. Paul claims the gospel is a revelation from the God who gave all things their life.
But not a revelation in any general sort of way. It is a revelation of Jesus Christ that teaches us about what Jesus can do in our world and in our lives. Paul writes in verses 3-4 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of God.”
Many have a sense of our world being out of synchronicity with it's purpose. They see it in the world around them and sense it within themselves. There's a disjointedness that often reveals itself through the addictive patterns of behavior we unwittingly become ensnared by. It is not that we are embroiled in some classic struggle of good against evil, more the case that many of us are just struggling to get by and make sense of it all.
Paul speaks of the times he lives in as being 'an evil age'. I wonder what he'd make of our day? For sure we witness wonders in our age that Paul would never have dreamed of. Yet in the light of all the advances it is a fact that even today all are not equal, many still suffer, millions go hungry, wars and disasters continue to befall us. Our current times seem as prone towards evil as they ever were!
The Good News, the great news, the gospel news, is that through the love and grace of Jesus Christ, life can be transformed. This is the true gospel. We can be moved from a place of striving to a place of peace, from a place of conflict to a place of healing, from a place of disjointedness to a place of 'Shalom', to a place of wholeness and completeness where we can rest secure in the love of God... and it's all because of Grace! The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Here around this table is our opportunity to connect with Jesus Christ, so that the level of servant life, that He exemplified, may be replicated and recreated in us, so that we can live for God's glory and be transformed by God's amazing Grace.
This desire for transformation is wonderfully captured in the third verse of Charles Wesley's hymn, 'Love Divine, All Loves Excelling' :-
"Finish then thy new creation, Pure and sinless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation, Perfectly restored in thee:
Changed from glory into glory, Till in heav'n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee, Lost in wonder, love and praise.” The true gospel draws from us a sense of being children of God, being One with God and so with each other and all humanity. It is grace from beginning to end. It is a gift that takes our breath away and when rightly perceived leaves us in awe.
It is grace that causes us not to be satisfied with the way things are. It prompts us to make the kingdom 'a happening' because it forces us away from ourselves towards thinking of what can be done for others. It takes us right to the heart of Jesus teaching in the sermon on the mount, and prompts to take action to see the hungry are fed, the prisoners are set free, the sick healed and the poor restored to favor.
Transformed people are prompted to transform the world. And to do so in the light of the message of Easter. To proclaim Jesus as the living Lord. We are not powerless, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. We never walk alone, we walk with Him. We are not lone-rangers but communities of faith who witness to our common humanity in Jesus Christ.
For Paul this is the true gospel, a gospel that if we embrace it, transforms not only ourselves but our world. The problem he faced in Galatia was that a different gospel was being preached. This false gospel was not about grace but about all the things you could do in order to be accepted by God.
This false gospel is attractive because it's more about us than it is about God. It suggests that if we can be all that we can be, then God's love will be ours for the taking. It suggests that if we can just jump through all the right hoops then we've got it made. We will be the insiders and the rest of the world will slide merrily on their way to destruction.
This false gospel offers us a platform from which we can look down our noses at the rest of humanity. It gives us the chance to be self-made people and absolves us from the responsibility of caring too much about others. After all, if they are in a mess, all they have to do is follow the same directions as we have followed and all will change.
We can call this false gospel not the 'Good News' but the 'Good Enough' message. At it's root is the notion that somehow if we can make ourselves 'good enough' than such will be enough for God to accept us and pour out blessings upon us.
Why is it false?
- Firstly because that is not the way of salvation revealed to us by God in scripture. Paul's authentic message is that none of us have ever, can ever or will ever be sufficiently good enough to deserve God's blessing. We are sinners who fall short of the glory of God. Our only hope is the revelation that the grace of God restores us to a relationship with God.
- Secondly, the false gospel makes us into our own personal saviors and minimizes the need to put our faith in Jesus Christ. Paul teaches us that there is no other savior in all creation who can restore us to a right relationship with God other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One who comes to save. He dies for the purpose of forgiving our sins. If we could atone for own sins He wouldn't have needed to face the Cross. His body wouldn't have needed to have been broken, nor His blood poured out. Again we are back with verse 4 “He gave himself for our sins to set us free … according to the will of our God and Father”
- Thirdly, this 'good enough' gospel causes us not to lift up our hearts in worship of God, but rather become focused on the rules of the game. It creates Pharisaic and judgmental ways of acting and behaving. It pulls us towards legislation, not towards grace. Rather than setting us free it sets us up for a fall.
Paul is dismayed. “I am astonished” he writes in verse 6 “That you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” He does not hold back in expressing his disdain for those who were promoting a false message. Verse 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!' He doesn't care how angelic their words may sound, how impressive their qualifications may seem, nor even how attractive their words may be, it was all about grace, or it was not the true gospel!
Today I invite you to come to receive bread and wine, in the light of the true gospel, the gospel of Grace. I invite you, here and now, around this table, to take a step of commitment towards the things of God's Kingdom. I invite you on this day to allow the Holy Spirit of God to inspire you and remould you through God's amazing grace.
Come to the holy table, not because you are strong, but because you are weak. Come, not because any goodness of your own gives you a right to come, but because you need mercy and help. Come, not because you love the Lord enough, but want to love Him more. Come because He loved you and gave Himself for you. Come to receive this bread and wine the token and pledge of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”
“Taste and see that the Lord is good!”
Rev Adrian J. Pratt
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