Deserted
Galatians • Sermon • Submitted
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Hebrew Scripture Reading
Hebrew Scripture Reading
When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Epistle Reading
Epistle Reading
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Deserting the Gospel
Deserting the Gospel
Lately we’ve been talking a great deal about two things that are important to the future of the church: Identity and outreach. We’re going to spend the next few weeks together working through Galatians, because that is what we have this book for. It’s a letter that was written by the missionary(ies) who started that church in Galatia and are helping them wrestle with these very same ideas.
Paul starts off with a pretty harsh warning for the budding church in Galatia. “You’re already deserting the Gospel!”
This sounds like just about the worst thing a church can do. Especially from our Reformed theological perspective where the Word is central to every worship service we have. Of course we have to pay attention to the Gospel!
But the thing that the Galatian church tripped over wasn’t quite that obvious. They weren’t ignoring the gospel, they were watering it down to make it more congruent with other “gospel”, other ways of thinking that were popular at the time. When faced with the reality that Jesus calls us to live in ways that the world sees as strange or idealistic or too hard to bother with, the church there has been swayed to sand the corners off of their Christian faith and convictions.
When faced with the reality that Jesus calls us to live in ways that the world sees as strange or idealistic or too hard to bother with, the church there has been swayed to sand the corners off of their Christian faith and convictions.
“Whose opinion is the one that really matters?” Paul asks. “Who are you trying to please?” They are so concerned with making the gospel message palatable to all that they are treading on some serious theological thin ice.
That’s a much easier trap to fall into than turning entirely away from Jesus’ message. We spin it to justify our own fears or political views or cherry pick verses that match up with the point we want to make. Who are we trying to please?
This is something that can be asked of Moses’ brother Aaron in . “Who are you trying to please, Aaron? God? Or the people around you?”
When Moses goes to get, ironically- the law in which God says, “don’t worship anything but me”, the people get restless because it’s taking too long. After we finish up Galatians, we’re going to come back to the 10 Commandments, so don’t let this story wander too far out of your memory before July. For now, we’re just zeroing in on this little piece, though.
Moses has gone to meet with God to hear what God would have them do, and it takes longer than the people think it should. So they ask Aaron to intervene. And he does so. He makes this idol and he changes the story. He doesn’t give a new story, but he tweaks the truth. He leaves in the appealing and epic narrative of freedom from slavery in Egypt, but he alters the main character - the one who provided that freedom. He didn’t even change the way they worshipped much. He used the same kind of religious language and they still made sacrifices.
“Here are the gods that led us out of Egypt!” he says, pointing to a golden calf. And the people were appeased.
The problem is, the people were appeased, but if you read on in , it is clear that God is quite unhappy about this.
In Galatia, the church is trying to people-please by adapting Jesus’ message to fit more harmoniously with the “other gospels” - the messages of the world - that are all around them.
This passage goes on to talk about how the Gospel we are called to live into and share in all the world is totally different than what we’d expect. It warns us not to blur the lines between true gospel and the gospel the world preaches. There is a semi-biblical gospel that the world likes - taking the pieces of scripture that please us and dumping the parts that don’t.
The gospel that Paul preaches is one of freedom in Jesus Christ. It’s one that is meant for all people. And it’s nothing that we can learn by human learning because it’s not from us people to begin with. It’s something completely out of this world. The heart of the matter of Galatians is the hope we are offered to lift us out of our sin. This is good news for us and our identity and it’s good news for all those around us.
It’s a message the runs counter to the message of the world.
It’s a message the runs completely counter to the message of the world.
But see, the lies in the world around us are dangerous because they just close enough to being the truth that they easily entice us off track. When the Israelites fashioned that golden calf, they said it was the gods who brought them up out of slavery in Egypt. It was close to their story, but not quite true. But in that deviation from their story, they wound up deserting the truth.
When we fall for the Bible-y sounding psuedo spiritual catch phrases and ideas that are thrown at us from ads and movies and well meaning newspaper columns, we run the risk of deserting the truth.
We desert the truth all the time in our day to day lives. We buy into the almost- but-not-quite-true stories around us.
The one we especially like in the western world - especially in the US - is this lie that there is always a direct correlation between hard work and success.
Not where you want to be in life? The world says, “Work harder, you slacker.” “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps!”
Small congregation? The world says, “Knock on more doors and put another ad in the paper because small means unsuccessful and unloved!” Or “You just need to start up a Vacation Bible School again because that’s what used to work!”
The world tells us that if we’re feeling some kinda terrible way because life has kicked us in the rear end one too many times, we must be a bad person or unloved by God or that God isn’t really there.
The world tells us that we don’t need to worry about “those” people, whoever they are.
The world tells us that if we just will ourselves to behave a certain way and avoid certain things, we’ll earn our way into heaven or good karma or whatever spiritual happy ending you want to put on it.
But the truth frees us from those lies. Jesus’ gospel message is that there is more to life than where we are and what we have in the here and now.
And the world tells lies.
(The Beatitudes)
(The Beatitudes)
In fact, even though the wicked life leads to ruin, God can redeem even the wicked. Look at Paul!
But the truth frees us from those lies.
Not where you want to be in life?
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
It doesn’t say that there won’t be people who are feeling down and grieving and meek and yearning for justice in this work, but that there is more beyond right now.
(The Kingdom is like a Mustard Seed)
(The Kingdom is like a Mustard Seed)
Matthew 5:2-12
Small congregation?
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
(It’s not our good deeds that save us.)
(It’s not our good deeds that save us.)
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:
Matthew 13:31
So what is the Gospel?
So what is the Gospel?
Those people who are walked past, ignored, looked down on, forgotten. . . they are exactly the people who God loves. The smallest of things can make a huge splash in God’s economy.
Those people who are walked past, ignored, looked down on, forgotten. . . they are exactly the people who God loves.
The Gospel says that those people who are walked past, ignored, looked down on, forgotten. . . they are exactly the people who God loves. The smallest of things can make a huge splash in God’s economy. And in God’s Kingdom, it’s not about what you do, it’s about living into who we are because of Jesus.
That’s what makes it powerful.
The Gospel isn’t a promise that we’ll never have to face hard times. It’s a promise through them.
It doesn’t say you’ll never have to watch your kid get hit by a car. It doesn’t say no one in your family will ever be diagnosed with cancer. The gospel doesn’t say a successful church is the one with 1000 people in worship and a killer band up front and that a church with 25 people in worship and a traditional hymnal is a failure. It doesn’t say that sin won’t exist or that we won’t feel the effects of it. Doesn’t say that we’ll never struggle to balance the church budget or drum up people to help with summer music. It doesn’t say that we’ll be able to rely on the old ways of being church to keep us floating.Doesn’t say you’ll never be or feel poor, homeless, tired, beat down, beat up, beat on, and just plain old beat.
The gospel isn’t a promise that we’ll be as big or flashy as
Doesn’t say you’ll never be or feel poor, homeless, tired, beat down, beat up, beat on, and just plain old beat. But it does say that you don’t have to be alone. It does say that there are millions of people around the world who have been called by God to stand up for justice and what is right and to reach down and share a hand to help you stand back up and that we get to be a part of reaching down and sharing a hand to help others stand back up! It is a call for each of us to remember the times we have felt poor, homeless, tired, beat down, beat up, beat on, and just plain old beat and to reach out with a heart of justice and God’s love and reconciliation as an act of ultimate praise. Our ultimate act of praise as individuals and as a congregation is to reach out into the world with a heart of justice and love and reconciliation.
But it does say that you don’t have to be alone. It does say that there is freedom from the sin in the world. It does say that there are millions of people around the world who have been called by God to stand up for justice and what is right and to reach down and share a hand to help you stand back up and that we get to be a part of reaching down and sharing a hand to help others stand back up! It says that, regardless of how many of us are sitting together in this sanctuary this Sunday morning, there are millions of us worshiping together around the world and across the bounds of time. It is a call for each of us to remember the times we have felt poor, homeless, tired, beat down, beat up, beat on, and just plain old beat and to reach out with a heart of justice and God’s love and reconciliation as an act of ultimate praise. Our ultimate act of praise as individuals and as a congregation is to reach out into the world with a heart of justice and love and reconciliation.
That’s too good to water down! It’s hard news, but good news!
As we study Galatians together over the next few weeks, let’s read it as though it’s a letter written to us! It’s not - it was written to people many centuries ago in a far off place - but they struggled in many of the same ways we do.
Soon, we’ll be forming a discernment group to start studying and praying over our community to figure out where it is God wants us involved. HOW does God want us to reach out in love and justice. They won’t be making decisions or changes on their own, but they will be making recommendations and bringing ideas to the session. But it’s not going to just be up to them to do all the work in this. We have to all be in prayer together. Their work and the work the elders are doing to discern our future will fall on its face without support from everyone here.
Therefore, as we work through Galatians for the next few weeks, I’ll be giving you something to pray about specifically as a congregation each week. Even if you’re not a regular here or you’re new or you aren’t super involved, you can and should still be in prayer about this both that this church might hear from God about it and that you’ll understand it more in your own life. If you are interested in being a part of that group, please let me know.
Here is our question this week to pray about together:
Here is our question this week to pray about together:
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Who are we trying to please?
Who are we trying to please?
Are we softening the edges of Jesus’ crazy message of love and justice for all people in order to make it more palatable or easier to live out? Are we applying the world’s economy of earning to our salvation?
Let us pray:
Let us pray:
God of all, we ask that you would grant us the wisdom, discernment, and clarity needed to move forward and embrace your future for us. We pray that you would help us to see when we are working to please others rather than you. Show us when we are softening the gospel of justice and when we are working to please previous generations of this congregation rather than you and you alone. Give us the discernment to see the future for the church in this community so that your love for us might be seen by all. Amen.