And What I actually preached on Sunday past

Galatians 6:1-18 ^NRS Galatians 6:1 My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. ² Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. ⁴ All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride. ⁵ For all must carry their own loads. ⁶ Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher. ⁷ Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. ⁸ If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹ So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. ¹⁰ So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. ¹¹ See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! ¹² It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised-- only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. ¹⁴ May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! ¹⁶ As for those who will follow this rule-- peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. ¹⁷ From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body. ¹⁸ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

Galatians contains the world of the early Church. It is not just Paul writing to a church like Thessalonians and telling them what a good job they're doing and to keep it up. It is not a letter like Romans where he touches base on some common theological issues. It is not like Corinthians where he answers some questions and straightens out some ethical problems. Galatians is a letter charged with conflict from the beginning. Galatians begins with Paul accusing the Galatians of leaving the true gospel to follow a false gospel. Paul is distressed that they will be a church in name only. Paul is distressed that they'll talk about Jesus but he won't make a difference in the way they live.

If this whole letter is so pivotal for the history of the Church, then this final chapter is the central point of the whole letter. If not for what Paul says here, then the Galatians could go and do their own thing. If not for what Paul says here, the Galatians could take Jesus as a starting off point in a mishmash of Jewish and Gentile beliefs and leave him behind But what Paul says here changes everything. What he says here is the reason he stopped persecuting believers and became one himself; what he ways here is the reason he confronted Peter earlier in the letter; what he says here is the reason he is writing to the Galatians with such urgency.

What Paul says here is that because in Christ's cross he is crucified to the world and the world to him – even as he had earlier said that he was crucified with Christ and lived now by the spirit – all that matters to him now is a new creation. The whole dispute of practicing circumcision or not is beside the point. The new creation, where we're crucified to the world and the world to us in Christ's crucifixion, is not about what you do to yourself. The new creation is not about who you are or who your aren't – as Paul had said earlier: the new creation is not about whether you're a man or a woman; a free person or a slave; a Jew or a gentile – all these distinctions have been done away with in Christ.

In fact, says Paul, to dabble in these distinctions now, to attempt adding them onto your salvation in Christ, is actually to cut yourself off from Christ. Why? Because all these distinctions are done away with in the new creation where Christ is; these distinctions are part of the old creation where Christ isn't. And this is a radical thing for Paul to say, because it flies in the face of how life worked in ancient middle eastern as well as Roman society. To be part of the new creation is to take yourself out of society.

Just like the ancient Hebrews after crossing the Red Sea, so these Galatians, after embarking on a journey of faith, want to go back to Egypt, back to what is safe. They want Jesus, but they want the comfort of the familiar. They want to live in their familiar distinctions.

This ancient culture (and today's middle eastern culture continues to be like this) was a culture held together with boundaries. Every person had his and her place. And every body was a part of the group – there was nothing like we think of as individualism. You were not on your own, but you were part of a group. Your group defined you and you defined yourself by acquiring honor and avoiding shame. Men were better than women; free persons were better than slaves; and depending on where your were, Jews were better than Gentiles. Each person fit in their place and received honor for how they lived out their roles. To step out of place was to bring shame on yourself. There were other boundaries too: rich and poor, benefactor and client, upper and lower classes, old and young. For men, Jews, Free persons, rich, benefactors, and upper class things were swell; for women, slaves, gentiles, clients , poor people things were not so swell. For all these people, locked in struggle to gain honor – and honor was primarily gained at the expense of others, while avoiding shame, life was like a prison. It was the strong versus the weak.

What this new creation does is demolish this whole system. Believers had only known this system of honor and shame – and now suddenly not to have it. They must have been very grateful when some people showed up and told them that “yes this is wonderful news about Jesus, a great person, but you need to add something to your faith. Try this new way of defining yourself over against others: you'll have honor among yourselves and honor with God.” How could they know that they put themselves back in the old creation when they did this? How could they know that they'd cut themselves off from Christ? Paul's telling them this right here.

Christ's crucifixion shatters the honor and shame system. Crucifixion is the most shameful death a person could die – Romans reserved it only for the worst offenders and Jews saw it as a curse. But Jesus takes that shame and raises it up to the highest honor. His crucifixion turns honor on its head: shame becomes honor and honor becomes shame. All the very strong who thought they had all the honor, suddenly had all the shame; and the weak, who could only lose honor and gain shame, found themselves the recipients of the highest honor. Paul makes such a fuss about it because he recognizes what's happened here. He was on his way to the top. He was getting all the honor and he was on the strong side of all the boundaries: a man, a Roman citizen, a Jew, a Pharisee. He was looking at a lifetime of respectful greetings, sitting at the head of the table, being the benefactor. He meets the risen Christ and suddenly counts it all loss. He saw it just as surely as a great chess master sees defeat or victory 12 moves ahead.

Hence Paul's urgency in this letter. He knows that once you've seen the crucified and risen Christ you can not go back to the same world. That creation with its human invention and coinage is passing away. It's power is sapped. It lingers with just enough life to appear strong and it depends on people's fear, and it depends on people's need to define themselves against a threatening other, to prop it up. Paul writes with raw emotion to get them back on course walking toward the truth of the gospel. They have wandered, but not too far.

Paul tells them, “forget these boundaries: male/female; free/slave; Jew/gentile. Forget this lame attempt at looking Jewish – as if suddenly, having begun with Christ, the Law might somehow make you right with God. Instead live by the Spirit. You know the Spirit; you've had it since the beginning. You know that it cries from your hearts to the Father. You know that it was faith in Christ that occasioned the spirit's birth in you. Don't you know that Faith making itself felt in acts of love is everything? Like me, you too are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to you. Live in this new creation.”

The world Paul describes in Galatians s a world of relationships. Paul talks about his relationship with Christ. He talks about his relationship with Peter and Peter's relationship with others. He talks about his relationship with the Galatians. He tells them that he broods over them, like a mother broods over her child, till Christ is formed in them. This relationship with Christ frees them. Men, slave owners, Jews, rich, benefactors, upper class: all are freed from needing to maintain their honor. They can suffer to be weak and to be humbled because Christ has made weakness and humility the new coin of the realm. Christ's weakness is not the weakness of a weak man; Christ's weakness is the tenderness of an adult with an infant – it is overwhelming strength that lays aside brute power in order to nurture and save the very least of creation. Women, slaves, gentiles, clients, poor, peasants: all are freed from the threat of shame, of being shamed by the group. Christ has put on their weakness and their shame and wears it as his royal robe.

In Paul's discussion of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit we see how the relationships of the new creation play out versus the old creation. The works of the flesh are a fine way to survive the old creation: they amount to: get even, worship idols, join a party, keep up with the Joneses, buy more stuff, drown your sorrows, play the odds. Paul says that if you sow here, you'll reap corruption. But the fruit of the Spirit is enjoyed and flows from being in relationship: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity and self control. The old creation with its boundaries, its honor and shame, is incapable of growing these things. And so Paul encourages them to bear each other's burdens while they bear their own, and to look for the good of their fellow believers.

Paul's remark about the Spirit entering our hearts with a cry to the Father tells us that this new creation relationship between people and God and between strong and weak is possible through our faith in Christ, our love and especially in prayer. In prayer we encounter a relationship with God that is not dependent on our doing something to get God's attention or approval. In prayer we become engaged in a dialog with God. We ask out of our weakness. We ask in the faith the Spirit grows in our hearts. When we don't have words, we know that we are understood. And we learn to listen. God speaks in our hearts. God hears our anger, our suffering, our grief, our fear –These things do not put God off. We are not so vile, despairing, bored or idiotic that God isn't involved with us, bringing us along, on course to the truth of the gospel.

And so for us: we've entered into this world of the Galatians. We face the temptation to have Jesus plus something else: Jesus plus our prestige, our memberships, our bank accounts. We don't live in an honor and shame society, but we're still fond of boundaries that define us against some weaker other, weak but at the same time, a threatening other. We define ourselves against race, against gender, against religion, as well as against citizenship and class. Politicians make great hay ramping up the fear. Be afraid of immigrants; be afraid of terrorists, be afraid of people who are different, who worship different, - they're going to take away our way of life. They're going to blow us up. Fear is the easy way of filling the coffers. Fear gets out the vote.

TV news and other programs love fear as well. We're invited to idolize distraction and spectacle. We're invited to enjoy the cathartic release of violence in movies where when the hero uses violence it's always justified and always works. We're invited to get drunk on fantasies of revenge. Fear of the other which makes itself felt in threats and violence - ;that's how the old creation works. That's what the flesh knows and understands.

Everyday this old creation keeps on. Over the course of history and in different places on the planet, it's taken on different forms – but it's always been consistent about people defining themselves against others and fearing the other; might makes right; never be weak.

Every day the Spirit works in us, guiding us to the new creation and the truth of the gospel. Every day we speak to God and God speaks to us. Every day we have opportunities to bear each other's burdens, to love the other, to advocate for the other, to make our faith felt in our acts of love.

In Christ, through whom the world is crucified to us and we to the world.