Jesus came with a message, that the kingdom of God has come near. As his followers our lives are about spreading the message. The hard part is not getting distracted from the main message. 2000 years ago there was plenty of distraction for the church in Galatia. The early church was moved to debate and Paul thought that the debate about circumcision was dividing and distracting.
Slide 2 Divisions
One side of the crowd believed that everybody who wanted to follow Jesus had to be Jew just like Jesus was from birth. For Jesus' own people circumcision was a defining characteristic of faithfulness. For 2000 years the men of Israel had a small part of their bodies removed as a sign of their faithfulness to God. The ancient physical mark of circumcision defined a man as in or out of the nation of Israel. Paul told the church in Galatia that Jesus came to make a new creation. There was no longer circumcised or un-circumcised in Jesus. Just a new creation in Christ. The church in Galatia got off track debating who was in the kingdom of God and who was outside of God's grace.
Slide 3: Paul, In Christ there is a new creation.
Paul jumped into the fracas feet first. He wasn't going to see the church divided between old and new believers. We wouldn't watch new believers in Jesus forced be circumcised first. The rituals weren't as important to Paul as the faith lived out by each one who believed. Paul said that the old categories were over and done. Jesus came to begin a new creation. This is the very best news. In Jesus' day, just like ours, there were all sorts of different ways of dividing and categorizing people. Paul told them, and all of us, that the old marks that separated us are gone.
There's a temptation in the church to separate again from those who are in the kingdom and those who are out. But Jesus came for all.
A preacher decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon.
Four worms were placed into four separate jars.
The first worm was put into alcohol.
The second was put in a container of cigarette smoke.
The third was put into chocolate syrup.
The fourth worm was put into good clean soil.
At the conclusion of the sermon, the preacher Minister reported the following results:
The first worm in alcohol Dead.
The second worm in cigarette smoke Dead .
Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead .
Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive.
So the Minister asked the congregation - What can you learn from this demonstration?
Maxine was sitting in the back,quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"
Slide 4 Divisions no more: We are a new creation
We seek to divide between in and out, good and bad, worthy and unworthy. Paul said that Christ's coming put an end to divisions. Craig Koester wrote boldly that Christ puts to an end all the differences between:
Jews and Greeks, slave and free, male and female. Jews observed the Mosaic law; Gentiles did not; some laws were for slaves and some for free people; circumcision was for men and other statutes applied to women. But now the old distinctions had given way before a greater unity in Christ. Paul does not even say that in Christ are both Jew and Greek; he says that there is neither Jew nor Greek. Baptism, unlike circumcision, transcends the distinctions between Jew and Gentile, male and female, and gives all people a new identity. Christians are people with a rich heritage, who through Christ share in the inheritance promised to Abraham.http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/9-2_Mental_Health/9-2_Koester.pdf1
Jesus came so that human categories wouldn't be enough to divide us one group from another. He came to make all of us into a new creation. This is the Good News. Its the news that easily gets overwhelmed in our world by all kinds of other information and by all kinds of human expectations. Think about the information that comes into your life everyday. You turn on the TV or radio and what do you hear. Maybe you read a newspapers or story on the internet. What's it about. Perhaps you had a conversation with friends next door or maybe miles away on the phone. All the technology brings us information and opinion. Some people say that we live in a world that's overloaded with information. There's more and more talking and less and less listening. And the most important things can get lost in all the extra words.
Slide 5 Keep first things first.
Families are struggling in this world to keep first things first. I spoke with a Grandma who worries about her grandson this week. He spends time on the computer and watching TV and he has a hard time helping anybody. His parents took him along to help somebody in the family with a project and she said, “It was like he was under duress.” She worries that he's forgotten to put first things first. She worries that he's gotten two and every gadget and that he's never know want and now he doesn't know how to help another and how to care for his own family.
Lots of families are struggling today to keep first things first in a world full of distraction. .
My wife and I got word from two old friends from Wisconsin this week. The first friends brought good news when the called. They are traveling this way for a wedding and hope to meet. The second call came from other friends. The news was not so good this time. Bob and Ruth Melzer, a couple from our last church were hit while riding their bicycles Sunday afternoon. He died about 6 hours later. She was clinging to life in the same hospital were our girls were born just a block from where they were hit by a drunk driver. Bob and Ruth were wonderful people. I remember stringing lights with him on the float for the July 3rd parade in Neenah for two years. Bob and Ruth would try anything to help the church. Ruth and Bob painted the Sunday School Area based on different stories that she wanted the kids to know.
Slide 6 What moves you?
News moves us to action. Bad news moves us to console those who grieve and worry. Better news moves us to cheer and the celebrate. There are many things to get excited about in this life. Everything from a great baseball team to a great job could be the reason that you're moved to celebrate. And there are are plenty of other reasons why we might be moved. Tough, tragic news moves us to action just as much, maybe sometimes even more, than the good news that moves us to rejoice. Our faith is about action and trust, our faith is about being moved by the word of God into the world in love for God and in love for our neighbors. Jesus sent 70 people out to spread the good news. At fist glance sending out 70 (or maybe 72) people looks like a reason to celebrate and to rejoice. 70 people went out to announce the good-news to heal the sick and to caste out daemons. But there was plenty of reason to worry. Jesus said that they would be like lambs among wolves.
The true church, the body of Christ, made up of believers in mission is not guaranteed of a future beyond faith. But by faith we know that something bigger and better is coming for us. Jesus plan for the church isn't that we be secure and certain in this life. His plan is so very different. His plan is eternal. He sent his followers out empty handed with limit instruction and training, “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.” Luke 10:4. NRSV. He told them to go; and when they stopped he told the 70 to announce peace at each house. Where they were not accepted he told them to wipe the dust off of their feet in judgment.
Slide 7: We are not the church in residence, we are the church in Mission
Jesus sends the true church out into the world. He wants us to travel light. He wants us to be ready to meet God like a thief in the night who comes without warning. We are encumbered by all sorts of things. Jobs, homes, hobbies, toys, recreation, status can all hold us in place. But Jesus wants us to be ready to move in mission. Jesus plan for each of us in the church is to see incredible things happen. The 70 he sent out witnessed things that they hadn't before imagined. He said to the 70 when they returned, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:18-20 NRSV
We have a home and it isn't on this earth. We have a family and we haven't seen every member of it yet. “...rejoice” Jesus said, “that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:20 NRSV Rejoice because even when our life on this earth is over something better is still to come.
In our days we can get caught up in living and in Christ we meet God who calls us to live today not like we are here forever but as if we were each on our way. He calls us to live out his love as part of the new creation. AMEN.
1CRAIG KOESTER Opportunity to Do Good: The Letter to the Galatians, Page 188 in Word & World 9/2 (1989) TEXTS IN CONTEXT” Copyright © 1989 by Word & World, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. All rights reserved. Page 183-189 http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/9-2_Mental_Health/9-2_Koester.pdf
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