Erl Purnell Sermon

c7Pentecost4 ~ June 25, 2007 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Zechariah 12.8-10, 13.1; Psalm 63..1-8; Galatians 3.23-29; Luke 9.18-24

Twenty years have passed since Jesus was crucified. The story has spread. Now, imagine, if you will, a small house in the province of Galatia, near the center of Anatolia, in the proximity of modern day Ankara, Turkey. Or, maybe this house is in a village like Pessinus or Tavium in the surrounding countryside. In any event, both locals and Jews of the Diaspora have gathered together. The locals are descendents of Celts who migrated from Gaul some three hundred years earlier. The Jews are enterprising people from Palestine who have followed business opportunities to this region. Many have been there for generations.

It’s the first day of the week, the day following the Jewish Sabbath, what we call Sunday. Those in the house are an eclectic bunch—men and women, young and old, Jew and Greek, perhaps even a slave or two. The purpose of the meeting is three fold: teaching and fellowship, breaking of bread and giving thanks, and prayer.

The Jews would have already worshipped the day before, on the Sabbath—reading the ancient scriptures, chanting psalms, hearing a commentary on the texts, and praying to the Hebrew God. Some Gentiles, proselytes to Judaism including Greeks, Romans, and those indigenous Celts from Gaul, who were curious about the unusual religion of the Jews, would have attended Shabbat services too. Many non-Jews were fascinated with the Jewish idea of one God. Moreover, they were intrigued by the close bonds of affection and relationships among the Jewish people.

But this is not the Sabbath. It’s the first day of the week. And, while the gathering is for sacred purposes, it doesn’t derive from traditional Jewish customs. It can barely be called worship, let alone liturgy. Moreover, some of the people there are not connected to Judaism at all. They are there to see what the buzz about Jesus is all about, because a friend said, “Hey, come with me.” They’re deeply committed seekers and curious individuals.

Above all, these are pretty ordinary people of Galatia at that time. Oh, and one other thing, the gathering could easily be seen by most Galatians as very hostile … hostile to local customs and to the Roman establishment.

So, let’s imagine twenty souls are in the small house courtyard. Among them are a few who are literate. One gets everybody’s attention and then pulls out a letter on parchment. He or she starts to read aloud.

“Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the members of God’s family who are with me. To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

The letter certainly isn’t Hebrew scripture. It’s written in Greek. Rather, it’s a teaching letter, a personal and private letter of admonition and exhortation, from somebody named Paul. Most of those in the room would have remembered or known of this Paul who had visited the area some years earlier. In fact, it was this same Paul who first preached to them and taught them about Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified by the Romans in Jerusalem. It would have been Paul and his friends who introduced the good news that Jesus was the Christ, the one who brought the spirit of God’s abiding compassion, forgiveness, grace, justice, love and peace to all peoples.

In his letter, Paul feels compelled to straighten out the wayward Galatians who seem to have gotten confused about the Gospel they were given. It’s not the details of that confusion that interest me today. Instead, it is something bigger and actually far more important. In this letter, Paul sets in motion a most extraordinary way of thinking and being.

“There 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.”

Paul, it can be claimed, was the first to articulate the notion of true equality among all peoples. He succinctly puts in writing what was obviously at the center of the Jesus-program: God loves all of creation, including all people. Not just the Jews, not just the rich, not just men, not just the powerful, not just the righteous, not just those who keep the laws … but ALL PEOPLE. It’s a stunning idea! a truly stunning new idea.

Unlike some others of the Jesus Movement—most notably Jesus’ disciple Peter and James, the brother of Jesus—Paul doesn’t give a hoot about requirements for becoming a member of the church. He contends that you don’t need to follow the dietary laws, you don’t need to be circumcised, you don’t need to be a Jew to come to the Table. Paul declares that God sets no prerequisites for membership, no pedigrees, no historical connections. To do otherwise would split the community of the those following the Way into the good and the better … a bad idea. ALL are one in Christ Jesus!

For Paul, plain and simple: ALL are welcome. Jesus’ death and resurrection liberates ALL people. ALL people are invited by Christ—just as Paul was on the road to Damascus—to make the Jesus story their story. “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul tells the Galatians. And, by so doing, he insists that they too are crucified with Christ, they too can have a relationship with God like Jesus did.

But, back to my main point. For the first time in recorded history, Paul eliminates any and all discrimination in the human community. For people of the new covenant, everybody has an equal place at the Table—Everybody! The liberation Paul offers from the law is the extraordinary freedom of equality in relationship with God and with each other.

How can this be? Of course there are differences between people. There always have been and always will be. And yet, Paul tells the Galatians that in Christ God is immediately present, near you, with you, in you. It’s through this intimate relationship with God that the grounds for mutual affection are found within the wider community, regardless of position, pedigree, power, politics, or prestige. The glue that holds the Christ community together, in other words, is a radical, spirit-filled Love.

Suffice it to say, in many ways Christians have misinterpreted Paul for most of history. But make no mistake, Paul announces the democracy of equality on all fronts—sexual, economic, racial, etc., etc., etc. The Body of Christ must be, for Paul, in harmony, each part dependent on the others and a contributor to the whole.

So, as the people of God gathered on that Sunday long ago, it was the Eucharist that expressed Jesus and Paul’s foundational message of equality: Come to the Table and share in the mystery that truly makes ALL people One … by Christ, with Christ, and in Christ. Afterwards, after the Eucharist, Paul would surely say, ‘Go into the world now and give what you have received to everybody you know and meet.’

Amen.