Grown-up Christians?

Sermon preached on December 30, 21012 (1^st Sunday after Christmas) at the Church of the Ascension, Munich

Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; John 1:1-18

Now I’m always a little bit suspicious when the readings assigned for the day have gaps in them. Perhaps you noticed too that today’s reading from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians leaves out seven verses. So why; what was the motivation of the people who put the lectionary together? Were they trying to hide something difficult or uncomfortable? Perhaps a contradiction or a passage that seems to condone violence or might be considered discriminatory?  Well no, in this case I don’t think the motive is quite so dubious, I suspect they probably just wanted to put the spotlight on the “Incarnational” message, appropriate to this season, that “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law.” 

However, the result of this editing is that the first half of one argument is combined with the second half of another similar, but not identical argument. The trouble is that Paul is difficult enough to understand even without conflating and compounding him. So please indulge me while we have a look at what Paul actually wrote:

First argument, part one (as we heard):
3: 23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian,
Part two: 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

The Letter to the Galatians is written to churches Paul had founded in what is now part of Anatolia in Turkey. However since his visits there other ‘apostles’ had called in and had tried to convince the Galatians that to become followers of Christ they needed to become Jews first. Paul’s purpose in writing this letter is to change their minds back again, and he does not mince words in doing so. After all, this chapter begins with the words “You foolish Galatians!” 

Anyway his first argument here is that the Law, in particular the ritual law covering worship, festivals, circumcision, did once serve a purpose, it was our “disciplinarian.” That’s how our Bible version translates paidagogos, a servant or slave who was charged with looking after children between ages of 6 and 16, a task that included taking them to school, making sure they did their homework, and generally keeping them out of mischief. So it was a protective role that is something between a nanny, governess, or babysitter!

But now, Paul says, if you have faith in Christ you are also trustworthy and reliable, which are just different ways of translating the same word, pistos. And as you are faithful, trustworthy, and reliable, you are also mature enough not to need a babysitter anymore. So you don’t need to become a Jew, because for believers that is not a relevant category anymore. Anyone can become a Christian: Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman. All of you, regardless of your background, are inheritors of God’s promise and are children of God. Just believe and be baptized as a sign of that belief and as a symbol of your belonging to Christ.

Second Argument, part one (which we didn’t hear) 4:1 My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property; 2but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. 3So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world.
Part two: 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. 6And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ 7So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Paul’s second argument is similar to the first; he did like to use repetition to get his point across, especially with those he considered ‘foolish!’ But here he is coming from a legal angle and tailoring his argument to his audience, the Roman citizens of the colonies in Galatia. In Roman society, as a minor, you did not have many legal rights. Your father decided when you were considered to be of age, there was no fixed birthday like 18 or 21. When you came of age there was a big party, you got a special toga to wear and your father adopted you formally, thereby making you the legal heir.

This is what Paul was alluding to. Before Christ came, says Paul, we were minors and others looked after our affairs. God, our Father, chose a particularly impressive way and very personal to help us come of age. God’s son, made human, came personally to set us free, to give us the status of adopted children, and to make us heirs of God’s promise.

So according to Paul, God considers us capable of being faithful without a complex set of rules telling us just what to do in any given situation, without detailed membership requirements, and without people set over us to tell us what to do. What we need is faith in God through Christ. Through the Incarnation God sent God’s Son to bring us into a direct and personal relationship with a God we can call “Abba,” a familiar and intimate term like mummy or daddy. God sent God’s son to teach us to be in close relationship with one another, a relationship marked by the universal equality that in Christ Jesus categories like Jew or Greek, slave or free, and male and female do not play a role, a relationship in which the promise of Genesis 1:27, that God created all of humankind, both male and female, in his selfsame image, has been restored. We are now mature enough to hear, understand, accept, and live by this message!

But are we? Are we truly mature, faithful, and trustworthy? Are we truly grown-up in this sense? We’ve come a long way over the last two thousand years, but I’m not convinced that we already exhibit all the signs of maturity Paul listed. We often miss having a ‘babysitter’ and look for detailed rules for life from our church, or from Holy Scripture, or from our pastors. We put a huge distance between ourselves and God, and we are still a long way from the equality and acceptance of all that is supposed to follow from our baptism. So was Paul overly optimistic, are we perhaps not really ready for the freedom maturity brings? 

Yes and no! As a parent I know that maturity is not a single moment, it is not something that just happens on some arbitrary date whether that be age 16, 18 or 21. It is a process that starts long before legal adulthood and doesn’t stop after that date, in fact it never stops. I certainly hope that I have not yet reached full maturity, my family will probably confirm that this hope is realistic, because I still want to grow and develop. Everything we do and learn changes us. As that famous Anglican theologian John Wesley wrote in a sermon entitled Christian Perfection: “How much soever any person has attained, or in how high a degree whatsoever they are perfect, they still need to grow in grace and daily to advance in the knowledge and love of God the Savior.”

It’s just like the kingdom of heaven: neither something completely in the future, nor something already realized, it has started but still awaits completion. When all humankind exhibits all the signs of maturity that Paul lists, when we are truly open to God and one another, when we are truly inclusive, really one, and fully united, then not only will we be fully mature Christians, but that will also be the moment when the kingdom will have finally come. Paul’s examples tell us that we will not achieve this simply by obeying a set of rules and rituals, but by a transformation that started for humanity with Christ’s Incarnation and starts for each of us with Baptism. This transformation is not an intellectual process: true faith is faith of the heart, or quoting John Wesley again:  “True religion is having a heart right toward God and man.”

As the Gospel passage told us, “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” The source of this power, the power to become the children we are meant to be, the power that can transform us, are the knowledge of God through Christ, the Spirit God has sent into all our hearts, and God’s grace mediated through Christ.  

God did not send God’s Son to make us mature. God sent God’s Son to invite us to begin a process of transformation with God’s help. Let us accept that open invitation, especially in this season when we remember and celebrate Christ’s first coming over two thousand years ago.