Sermon Tone Analysis

Why We Do What We Do

Why We Do What We Do

Moving to Pittsburgh from Kansas when I was a teenager was weird.

Not only did I get stupid jokes about The Wizard of Oz ALL THE TIME, the perceptions that people from Western PA have of people from Kansas are really wacky.

They are rarely rooted in much reality and when they are, they are usually confused with another state altogether – usually Oklahoma or Nebraska.

For example. .

corn is from Nebraska.

Nebraska is the cornhusker state.

Kansas is all about wheat.

I had people ask me strange things like “why don’t you have a southern accent?”

To which my answer was, “Because I’m not from the south. .

.”

I always made it a point to exaggerate my drawl when I said that.

Everyone assumed I’d grown up in a farm and was totally shocked when I told them we had a shopping mall and a community college and everything in the little city I grew up in.

That wasn’t the worst part, though.

The worst part was the culture shock.

Yes. . .

people in Kansas are technically from the same country as people from Pennsylvania.

And yes, English is the predominant language there just like it is here.

But the Midwest – and I mean the REAL Midwest, not Ohio – is like a totally different universe.

Now, it’s not so different as going from here to Latin America or the Middle East or Asia.

In a way it’s more disorienting, because everyone talks and acts, for the most part, the same.

But the subtle differences are just enough to make you feel like you’re slightly out of phase with the dimension everyone else is traveling in.

A few weeks ago, I talked about differences in language and how my mom didn’t even think that I, having grown up in Kansas, wouldn’t have known that “Jumbo” was a specific brand of bologna.

There’s nothing wrong with calling bologna jumbo.

It’s got historical roots in Western PA.

There once was a brand – sorry if you guys already know this, but it was a major revelation for me in my life – there once was a brand that called their bologna “jumbo bologna.”

And it stuck.

So for generations, people from the same area of the world have been – much to the confusion of outsiders – calling all bologna really really big.

And you have some kind of in to find out what in the heck they’re talking about.

“Wait. . .

what?”

“Jumbo!

Put some jumbo on their food for them.”

And I just stared at her some more.

“What on earth do you mean?”

And she looked at me like I was stupid.

“Take the jumbo out of the fridge and. .

.”

“OK, you’re going to have to tell me what jumbo is, because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

And then she just stared at me as the light bulb appeared over her head.

Apparently, where she grew up in Beaver County and where we were living at the time, jumbo is what they call bologna.

For months, when people talked about jumbo sandwiches, I had just assumed that people in Western PA just like REALLY BIG SANDWICHES when all the while. . .

they meant bologna.

There’s nothing wrong with calling bologna jumbo.

It’s got historical roots in Western PA.

There once was a brand – sorry if you guys already know this, but it was a major revelation for me in my life – there once was a brand that called their bologna “jumbo bologna.”

And it stuck.

So for generations, people from the same area of the world have been – much to the confusion of outsiders – calling all bologna really really big.

And you have some kind of in to find out what in the heck they’re talking about.

That’s what was happening between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians in Galatia.

Sort of.

I’m pretty sure that bologna wasn’t around back then, and they weren’t struggling with literal language barriers, but there were two different religious languages happening in the church in Galatia.

The Jewish Christians came from a cultural upbringing in which circumcision, food law, certain special meals and celebrations, and other rules and customs from the Torah – the first five book so of the Hebrew portion of the Bible that are called the Law – were how they had learned to grow closer to God.

They were part of how they worshipped and communicated with God and one another as a religious community.

The gentile Christians, the ones who hadn’t been brought up Jewish, had a completely different background and didn’t get any of that stuff.

It didn’t even compute for them why on earth these thing made the Jewish Christians feel closer to God.

They had taken these two ideas and used them to create two separate classes of Christians and this was unacceptable.

This is a perfect example of what I was talking about a few weeks ago when I talked about language barriers that keep people out of church or keep them separate.

This is why the way we say things in important.

And not just the way we overtly say things with our words, but the way we say them through our spiritual practice as well.

Out of this misunderstanding, this culture shock of the two groups coming together, stemmed an argument.

The Jewish people insisted that the gentiles couldn’t really be Christians unless they followed the Jewish religious traditions and the gentiles insisted that they were able to have a relationship with God without circumcision and food law, so those things didn’t matter.

This is a perfect example of what I was talking about a few weeks ago when I talked about language barriers that keep people out of church or keep them separate.

This is why the way we say things in important.

And not just the way we overtly say things with our words, but the way we say them through our spiritual practice as well.

In letting themselves get sucked into a battle over circumcision versus non circumcision or traditional versus contemporary, they created two separate classes of Christians and this was unacceptable.

They were both wrong.

They were both wrong because they were both insisting that there was some sort of religious practice that would or wouldn’t save them.

“By the works of the law no one will be justified.”

That’s Jesus’ job!!!

They didn’t need to rely on any set of religious practices or any lack of religious practices to save them and make them real Christians.

THEY WERE ALREADY SAVED!!

This is a perfect example of what I was talking about a few weeks ago when I talked about language barriers that keep people out of church or keep them separate.

This is why the way we say things in important.

And not just the way we overtly say things with our words, but the way we say them through our spiritual practice as well.

There is some debate over the Greek phrase “pistou Iesu” in this passage.

Pistou = faith.

Iesu = Jesus.

It is often translated into English that we are saved by “faith IN Jesus Christ” but given context and the way pistou is used other places, it’s more likely to mean we are saved by the “faith OF Jesus”.

In other words, we can’t view faith as a saving action on our part.

We can’t view anything as a saving action on our part, we can only sit back and say, “Whoa.

Thanks, God!” and embrace the reality that we are loved and forgiven.

I sometimes get random strangers approaching me on Sunday afternoon before I’ve had a chance to change out of my clerical collar.

They say a variety of odd things, but the thing I get the most are excuses or apologies for their absence from church that morning.

When one of you call or text to check in when you’ve missed church - that’s nice.

I worry about you if I don’t see you for a few weeks.

But the random lady at the Eat N Park buffet?

I wasn’t worried about her.

I didn’t know she was even someone to worry about.

There is noticeable guilt behind these apologies and excuses though.

There is

This goes for

This opens up so much space for the Spirit to move, sisters and brothers!

When we aren’t bolted to the floor by cumbersome rules and rites and traditions, we are free to dance and jump for joy and start wacky new partnerships in the community and do things nobody would ever expect from a little Presbyterian church.

I love a traditional liturgy.

I like saying words that other saints have said for centuries and will continue to say for centuries more.

I love singing hymns that I grew up with in my little Midwestern Presbyterian church.

But none of those things will save us.

The Methodists down the road from St. Andrew’s who have a praise band and a different sort of liturgy in their service are just as saved by Jesus as we are.

The Roman Catholics meeting all over Pittsburgh right now with incense and ancient masses are just as saved by Jesus as we are.

My Northside home church where the kids dance in the back of the room during the worship set and homeless men frequently get up to rap as part of the service?