06-29-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
June 29, 2024
Tomorrow, I am looking at some words from Paul’s Letter to the Churches in Galatia. Throughout the letter, Paul is talking about the Law, associating the Law with a curse. The Law is the Torah, the first five books of the Jewish scriptures, but more specifically, Paul was probably referring to certain rules and regulations within the Torah, like circumcision. Paul wanted to emphasize faith and God’s grace above the Law. Are rules a bad thing? Knowing what we should do and what we should not do is important when navigating within a community. For Paul, and this is my opinion, it wasn’t an opposition to rules, but how following rules or failure to follow the rules impacted God’s capacity to love. For Paul, nothing can separate any of us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39), so following rules is not what we do to get right with God. We choose to live into the qualities of Christ-like living (the Fruit of the Spirit as described in Galatians 5:22-23) because of our faith in the love of God. We do not act as Jesus invited us to act, hoping to earn God’s grace, but in gratitude for God’s grace. A lot of people will agree, but then set forth a bunch of rules by which “proper” faith is defined. But to do so is to fall into the very same trap that concerned Paul. Love is love, and grace is grace, and dangling these gifts before people by suggesting that they must first do anything is to diminish the very nature of love and grace. 

As your abundant love and merciful kindness spill over me, O God, I pray for openness so that it might pour into me in a new and transformative way. It has and will be forever given, for that is who you are. I just need to work on accepting it and sharing it. Amen.