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Who’s in Charge of You?

The Reverend Canon Elizabeth C. Knowlton
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
June 24, 2007
Mikell Chapel 7:45 am ; 9:00 am
Galatians 3:23-29

This past week I had the pleasure of being one of the featured storytellers at the Cathedral’s Week of Wonder.  The story I was assigned to tell the children was the healing of Naaman in the muddy rivers at the direction of the prophet Elisha.  Now on one level this is a wonderful story of healing.  But, it is also a story about leprosy, community alienation, and washing against your will in the muddy water.  In our case it was chocolate pudding water, but it still looked pretty gross. 

As I talked to the children we discussed the theme for the day.  The theme was that “God is in charge.” The way Naaman learned this was by sticking his diseased arms in water he didn’t think had the power to heal him.  As we talked I asked the children who was in charge of them.  They came up with usual list of suspects, mom, dad, teachers, and I put in a plug for their week of wonder crew leaders who were responsible for getting them from one activity to the next.  I then asked them if the people who were in charge of them ever asked them to do things they didn’t want to do.  At first they looked at me with their innocent eyes and said they never minded doing what they were told.

So, I pulled out an example I knew would work.  I said, do you always want to go to bed when your Mommy and Daddy tell you to?  Of course I had them dead to rights at that point.  I do have children of my own and know the thrill of trying to convince exhausted preschoolers that for their own good they really need to go to bed.

So with this comfortable example out there, I made the point that just like Naaman had to learn God was in charge, one of the ways we learn about God being in charge is by the people who look after us and help us learn what is best for us.  They are a good example to us and remind us that God also wants what is best for us.

In the time Paul was writing to his community in Galatia, it would have been common practice, particularly among the wealthy to have someone responsible for the upbringing of a child.  They had the task of preparing the child to be able to understand their role in society and how to best reflect the norms and values of their families.  While this person might be a slave, they had absolute authority over their charges and great responsibility.  The word in Greek for such a person is the same root we have for the word pedagogue, which means a teacher.  

Frankly I like this a little better than the translation we have in today’s text which says “disciplinarian.”  Not that a disciplinarian necessarily has to have a negative connotation, but the way we normally hear it used is to denote someone who is unnecessarily strict or confining.  I like the notion of the law being our teacher and guide much better. 

But if we look at the text a little closer, disciplinarian, teacher, even baby-sitter which I saw in one translation, doesn’t actually come across as a positive thing.  In fact, throughout the whole letter to the Galatians, Paul is having a full blown fit of anger at this community.  He is so disgusted with them he doesn’t even go through his typical passage of thanksgiving for them before launching into his rebuke.  He thinks they have forgotten who they are in a profound way and he is trying to call them back to themselves.

It reminds me of stern letter you might send to an older child at college who is behaving in ways that are not in keeping with values you hoped your rules would instill.  The rules are important, but the reason they were there in the first place was to form a responsible person who could live out a safe and productive life.  It is the identity the rules were supposed to support that is of value, not the rules as an end in themselves.

Paul is saying the same thing to the Galatians.  We don’t know exactly what the rub in the community is, but it is clear that they are trying to work through the nitty gritty of what will make them the best Christians.  They acknowledge they have received Christ and the gift of his spirit.  But they want to take it even further.  I would guess this is initially was born of a noble impulse.  Wouldn’t they be even a little bit better Christians if they also followed the law carefully?  Wouldn’t their community be even better if they were all circumcised as well?  Could it really hurt?  Wouldn’t they be more likely to inherit the blessings promised to Abraham if they also followed the law?

What seems to make Paul so angry is not that they are trying to hedge their bets or buy extra insurance.  It is not that they even are trying to still uphold the law.  What has got Paul enraged is that in the process of trying to be more devout, they are qualifying the gift that has already been received in Jesus Christ.  In other words, they are acting like it is still up to their faithfulness and righteousness, instead of the faithfulness of God and Christ.  They have decided that they are in charge of their own salvation.

I was on vacation a week ago and had my first glimpse of Yosemite Park.  I say first, because I can’t imagine not going back.  It was such a place of beauty that even I was literally struck dumb.  Not only was it beautiful, it was on such a grand scale, that there was not way to not feel the awe and presence of God.  I was a mere speck of life against the towering rock formations and trees that were over 2,500 years old.

I felt like I understood in a new way the words of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins who wrote about God’s grandeur.  He says, “...Nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep down things... Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

Moments like this in nature are a powerful reminder of where we fit in the scope of creation.  We are creatures and beloved children of God.  Children who often want to be in charge and not wanting to go to bed at the appropriate hour is the least of our problems.  We want to be in control and hope that God’s ideas fall in line.  We may not scream with the insistence of a preschooler that no, we are not tired at all, but we may even in our attempts to be devout, miss the grace of a life founded on the love and faith of Christ.

We draw lines and create categories that drive us away from the vision of the unity that we have in Christ.  We do this as much now as the communities of Paul’s time.  We try to decide who’s in, who’s out.  Whose practices are superior? Whose doctrine is the tightest?  I don’t want to say these conversations are unimportant.  I think it is part of our community responsibility to discern and seek out God’s will.  It is fine, even a holy activity, until the moment comes that we have lost sight of the grandeur and unity of God’s vision for us.  When the experience of the power of Holy Spirit is squashed under the weight of institutionalism or practice, we have found ourselves firmly in Galatia.  And we need a letter to remind us who we really are.

We all wear the same clothes after baptism, the clothes of Christ.  We still have things to learn, and the law may indeed provide some helpful instruction.  But, we also need to remember that we are being ever urged towards a deeper spiritual maturity. 

A witness that demonstrates joy and love to the world.   Not, guilt, shame, or a fear of breaking the rules.  Faith, the faith of Jesus has given us a new identity.  We are now grafted into the family of God.  All of us.  There is no longer a superiority we can claim from our practices or the circumstances we were born into.  We will still be different, and each of us will grow differently in our faith.  But God has claimed us, and while we have much to learn, the most important thing we can learn is that his faithfulness requires only our gratitude and response.  Isn’t it nice not to be in charge? 

Amen

Comments? Contact Beth Knowlton at: BKnowlton@stphilipscathedral.org

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