Sermon
Galatians 6:1–16
The Family of Christ

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been examining the second lessons we’ve been reading each week. I hope you’ve noticed that they’ve been from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. I’ve done this not just in order to develop a homily each week, but also to gain a better understanding of those lessons for myself.

Now, I have to be really honest with you—when I began working on today’s second lesson from Galatians 6:1-16, I was very—VERY—tempted to say, “Okay, this week I’m preaching on the Gospel.” This lesson from Galatians is one that I was not sure I wanted to tackle initially. However, as Luke implies—and he implies it rather powerfully—in last week’s Gospel, “Once you put your hand to the plow, you don’t look back.” And just as Luke is my favorite Gospel, Galatians is my favorite Pauline Letter, so I decided not to look back. And I’m glad I didn’t.

Paul has this interesting way with words. He takes an idea that is potentially quite harsh and manages to wrap it in the gentleness and love of the Gospel. Now, let me just step back for a moment and give you a little background on Paul’s letter to the Galatians, so that—hopefully—today’s lesson can be made a bit more clear.

Paul has written this letter to the Galatians because of some serious crisis of faith that has taken place within the community. The tone of the letter—as well as the literal wording—seems to indicate that the problem is endemic to the entire community—the problem is not simply with a few people . . . it’s the whole congregation. As we read the letter, we get a sense of what the problem is, but what is more important to Paul is that the problem has broad ramifications in terms of Christ’s church as a whole. From the outset of the letter he rebukes the Galatians for abandoning the one who called them—meaning Christ, not Paul. What he is specific about is that he’s responding to a situation that—in his Apostolic role—he believes threatens the very “truth of the Gospel.”

The event that seems to have triggered Paul’s letter was a visit to the community of Galatia by a group of Messianic Jewish leaders from Jerusalem. These leaders traveled from Jerusalem to Galatia—a community initially founded by Paul—in order to correct what they believed was lacking in the doctrine of that community. What we also need to understand is that the Church in Galatia was not made up of Jews who were now following Jesus Christ; it was made up primarily of Gentiles who were following Jesus Christ. But the leaders from Jerusalem didn’t care that the Galatian church was not Jewish in origin. These leaders were teaching that in order to be accepted by God as part of the church of Jesus Christ, the Gentiles—the Galatian church—had to conform—FIRST—to Mosaic Law. Specifically they had to conform to those laws concerning Jewish dietary practices, festivals, AND circumcision. They insisted that all Gentile boys and men MUST be circumcised in order to be in accordance with the Old Testament covenant that had been established by God with the Jews.

But again, these people in Galatia were not Jews; they knew nothing about Mosaic Law. Jewish religious laws and practices were meaningless to them. They had been converted to Christianity directly from their Greek pagan origins. Unfortunately, what was obvious to Paul was that some members of the community had taken to heart the gospel that was being taught by the Messianic Jewish leaders from Jerusalem. And the problem was spreading. It is this false gospel that Paul is addressing in his letter to the Galatians.

Now, why does Paul consider these teachings to be a false gospel? To Paul—and later to Augustine—and even later to Martin Luther—the only thing that is important is the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood which has set us free from the Law which endeavors to enslave us and to terrify us with the threat of condemnation. Paul expresses this theology very clearly when he writes:

“As many as desire to look good in the flesh, they compel you to be circumcised” (Galatians 6:12).

Notice how he uses the phrase, “to look good in the flesh.” Paul is saying that these leaders are only concerned with those physical, outward signs of adherence to Law. They’re not concerned with the spiritual understanding of Gospel. Paul continues that these leaders try to compel the Galatians to obey Mosaic Law so that

“they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. [and then Paul says] For even they who receive circumcision don’t keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you [and here he means the Galatians] circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh” (Galatians 6:12b-13).

And then Paul drives home his point! He says,

“But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Galatians 6:14-15).

All those outward signs—adherence to Mosaic Law, rituals, circumcision—Paul tells us that all those things are meaningless. The only thing that has any meaning is our new creation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the grace of God that has granted us justification—our salvation through the forgiveness of our sins. THAT’S ALL THAT MATTERS!! Christ died for our sins and we are justified before God by his grace.

So, what is Paul saying to us in the 21st century with this passage in Galatians? The issue that Paul was dealing with in the first century of Christianity is no different from an issue we deal with here in the 21st century. It is an issue of inclusion vs. exclusion. It is an issue of barriers—barriers to belonging that have been created by the minds of God’s children; not by the mind of God.

Way back in 1970—the year I graduated from high school—there was this great song performed by the Five Man Electrical Band. Anybody here remember that group? Okay, I know I’m dating myself. Anyway, the title of this song was “Signs.” Anybody remember it now? The first verse of the song went like this—no, I’m not going to sing it:

And the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply
So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why
He said you look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you’ll do
So I took off my hat I said imagine that, huh, me working for you

Being one of the long-haired, freaky people at that time I could certainly identify with that verse. The verse was followed by this chorus:

Sign, Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign

The song goes on to describe how signs—think of them as laws or rules—are designed to keep people out rather than bring people in. But then there’s the very last verse:

And the sign said everybody welcome, come in, kneel down and pray
But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all,
I didn’t have a penny to pay,

so I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign
I said thank you Lord for thinking about me, I’m alive and doing fine

Five Man Electrical Band (1970, 2005)

You see as Christians, we often put up signs. Now, they may not be physical signs, but they’re signs none-the-less. Sometimes we don’t know we’re even doing it, but other times the signs are deliberate and intentional. They’re signs that tell some people they’re welcome, and tell others they’re not. And we have to be aware of both kinds of signs, because, you see, Jesus wants us to put up the welcome sign for everyone . . . the sign that says, “everybody welcome, come in, kneel down and pray.

God’s arms are huge, and they embrace us all. Jesus spread his arms to die on the cross, and now those same loving, self-sacrificing arms are spread to embrace each and every person—white, black, yellow, or red, man or woman, circumcised or uncircumcised, straight or gay, young or old—sinners all—and all redeemed by the cross of Jesus Christ; all are welcome at his table. There are no laws, no rules, no signs that God has made to exclude anyone. Jesus just says to us, “Love one another, even as I first loved you.” And at the end of today’s lesson in Galatians, Paul wrote,

“As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God’s Israel” (Galatians 6:16).

Let us pray

May the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior who welcomes us all to his kingdom. Amen.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2010, Daniel W. Brettell. Used by permission.