IN or OUT

Sorry for the late post this week. Just got busy and forgot. Life does move forward and things get pushed to the back of the line. No matter Here is last Sunday's sermon. Enjoy...

June 23, 2013  

Gal. 3:23-29

                                                                                   There is a Peanuts comic strip in which Linus is listening carefully as his sister, Lucy, boasts about her religious faith and her potential as an evangelist.

She says to Linus: "I could be a terrific evangelist. Do you know that kid who sits behind me in school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his religion."

Linus asks: "How did you do that?"

Lucy replies: "I hit him with my lunch box."

Prayer:

This morning my reflection will detour from the normal gospel stories, to a reflection from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. We often don’t hear many sermons on Paul’s Letters in Lutheran circles. And that’s interesting on some levels because Luther spent a lot of time in Paul’s writings… particularly in the Letter to the Romans. In fact… Luther… was an Old Testament scholar before he discovered Paul & the grace of God found in Jesus thru the gospels. For Luther… Paul’s writings were the inspiration for Holy Living which ultimately comes thru Jesus.

Another reason Lutheran’s tend to hear few sermons on Paul’s letters is they tend to be… from our perspective… judgmental in tone, rather than loving as pastors have tended to portray the gospels. Truth is… Jesus does a fair amount of condemnation in the gospel stories, though pastors tend to down play it. In reality… Paul does write about the love of God in Jesus, but we tend to glaze over and emphasis it less. However, without Paul… we as Jesus followers & Christians of all stripes would not have the fullest understanding of God’s Grace thru Jesus and the significance of the cross.

It’s true… Paul’s letters to the various churches & faith communities are letters of challenge & rebuke about how the Christian life should be lived furthering the protestant moral ethic many of have learned challenging us today as that ethic unravels. And that’s another subject for another day.

Let’s begin by looking at the context of our Galatian excerpt… this is one of Paul’s earliest writings & experiences as a new Christ followers. And in the churches of Galatia he runs into difficulty because the people there don’t trust him.

We need to remember… Paul is a relatively new follower of Jesus and his past always seems to show up when he’s around people. Remember… Paul was a Pharisee and in charge of rooting out Jesus followers by whatever means… even murder.

So… as you might imagine… Paul’s reputation precedes him and people are a bit reluctant to believe his conversion experiences. So Paul often couches his conversations around his knowledge of the Law as a comparison to his new experiences with Jesus. And he does this by challenging the Galatian church to think outside the box on who’s IN and who’s OUT?

Evangelist Greg Laurie says, “Jesus did not command the world to go to church, rather Jesus commanded the church to go to the world. What a person does with this depends on if you see yourself as “In or Out of the Box.”

So… a natural question is… “Are you IN or are you OUT?

You see… Paul is talking to mostly Jewish folk who thought they were the only ones IN… they were Jewish and God covenant people. He’s talking to those who believed in the Law and obeying all the rules of the Law… because they were the IN ones… the ones with the promised God covenant. Vs 23-24. Paul isn’t telling them the Law & rules are necessarily wrong, but that the Law doesn’t make you acceptable to God. In fact… he says the Law is good because it teaches us right & wrong. But there’s more than just the rules… in fact… the rules don’t mean anything… they don’t mean your IN… in fact they may keep you OUT!

Faith Supersedes the Law.

What Paul is saying is that there is more than just the rules… a person must have faith and that… supersedes the law. What does that mean?

It means that just because you follow the rules, or your name is on a registry, or you attend, or follow the traditions doesn’t automatically put you IN.

Jesus says in Matt. 7, “Not everyone who calls me Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven.”

Paul is saying… Faith in Jesus gets us IN and the Law, Rules, Traditions limit us in experiencing the fullness of God.

So… maybe the question should be… What gets us IN?

Faith in Jesus at Baptism

Paul states in Vs 26-27… “That All are children of God thru faith in Jesus at baptism.” In baptism… God comes to us thru faith and grabs hold of us…  Go Grab Some Hands… In baptism God grabs hold of us and never lets go. Oh… we try to turn the other way, but God is still holding on. We might think our way is best, but God still holds on tight. In baptism God makes us his own. In baptism God sets us free… as Pauls says, “we are no longer Greek or Jew, Slave or Free, Man or woman, Child or Adult all of us belong to Christ.” We are all part of the community of faith in Jesus.

WE ARE ALL IN!!!!

Faith in Jesus as Participants.

If Paul is correct… All are IN by faith, thru grace, thru baptism, then how might we begin to encourage ourselves to set aside the Law, the Rules, the Traditions so that ALL can claim faith in Jesus?

….. Pause for Reflection….

How do we participate in what God is currently doing so all can claim faith in Jesus?

 Lutheran Theologian David Lose states, “it’s about the role each of us are invited to play in sensing, experiencing, and making known God’s work in the community.”

Perhaps the bigger question is… How much are we willing to lose so that all can claim Jesus… ALL can have Faith and be IN?

I’d like to finish with all of us praying this prayer together… this prayer is from Pr. Meredith Musaus from Holy Cross Lutheran, Menomonee, Wi.

L: Let us pray together.

C: Your church is composed of people like me.
   - I help make it what it is.
   - It will be friendly, if I am.
   - Its pews will be filled, if I help fill them.
   - It will do great work, if I work.
   - It will make generous gifts to many causes, if I am a generous giver.

   - It will bring other people into its worship and fellowship, if I invite  

     and bring them.
   - It will be a church where people grow in faith and serve you, if I am

     open to growth and service.

Therefore, with your help Lord, we shall dedicate ourselves to the task of being all the things you want your church to be.    Amen. 

See You out on the Road