Sunday, May 21, 2017
Biblical Text: Galations 2
There is a killer that has been set loose in our world. He takes many prisoners and leaves many of our lives in a million pieces—whenever there is something of a life is to be left. He arrests our hearts and causes them to beat for the wrong reasons. He conspires with our minds and lures us into becoming a self that even our spouses and closest friends can hardly recognize. He is no respecter of persons; he will mess with the young and old. He is no respecter of ethnicity; he will mess with black, white, brown and everything in between. It does not matter is you are rich or poor, sick or well.
There is a killer that has been set loose in our world. He takes many prisoners and wreaks too much havoc in our lives. He kills jobs. He suffocates relationships. He murders marriages, destroy churches and is know to be a debtor to profiteering, abuse, favoritism, and discrimination in its varied forms
There is a killer that has been set loose in the world—no in our neighborhood, no within each and everyone of us and if we are not careful—I mean careful to the point where we guard our life as the precious treasure that Scripture tells us it is—we might find ourselves prey to this killer’s schemes and ploys, plots and plans….
The killer is ego. It is selfishness and pride. It is hubris and excessive ambition.
The killer is thinking too much of one’s self. It is what the African Bishop St. Augustine in the fourth century called, “the big head” and its circular focus on how some blessing we sow into someone else’s life will eventually turn around line our back pockets.
The killer is ego.
And in today’s scripture reading we find Brother Paul, in this letter to the Church at Galatia, responding to the ego that has driven Peter, James, Bartholomew, and the brothers who represent the church in Jerusalem and all the other missionaries who are spread throughout Galatia—who share the same religious, cultural and ethnic background, them being Jewish—to find their way to Paul’s doorstep to complain about the way he continues to sit at table with those who not Jewish.
The problem of their pride and ego, is not however the problem that is explicitly named in the text. What the text tells us is that they were having decorum problems and issues at a certain table. Earlier in the text we found Jesus addressing his disciples as they struggled with issues at the table—in Galatians we return once again to the issue.
When we begin to think back over the gospels we can count innumerous stories that disciple encounter while at table with Jesus—and none of them are really the table—they speak in someway to need to rein in one’s pride and tamp down one’s ego.
Jesus tells his followers this story in the gospel of Luke—about a man at table needing to address his issues of pride and hubris:
“When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host…but when you are invited, go and sit at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher” then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humble, and all those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
The table serves as reference point—it words that Jesus speaks invites us to think less and less about self, to become more and more humble.
In our text Peter, James, Bartholomew and the delegation from Jerusalem, and the missionaries in Galatia—were doing a whole lot of pride-filled thinking about themselves. And this thinking came to life around the concerns they had about who was and who was not gathered around tables where Christ was proclaimed.
The table—the place where all divisions are to be broken;
The table —the place where all boundaries are to fail;
The table —the place where partitions are to destroyed;
The table —the place where walls are to leveled;
The table —the place where splits are to be healed;
The table —the place where divisions are to be united.
It was at the table—where there was suppose to love and peace and agreement, that Peter, James and Bartholomew and delegation where systematically separating believers from another. The lines of division that they had erected were based on the length of time that they had been part of God’s plan—the length of time that they were grafted into the story of God—whether or not they were considered legally to be Jewish or not.
They said, “If you are Jewish—you can not eat there with them.”
They said, “If your mother kept Kosher— you can not eat there with them.”
They said, “If you were circumcised on the 8th day— you can not eat there with them.”
They said, “If you keep the Torah Law— you can not eat there with them.”
Everybody else, must eat over there.
Everybody else, must fellowship over there.
Everybody else, must worship over there.
Everybody else, must study over there.
They super religous had concerned themselves, with themselves.
They had no regard for the feelings of those they pushed to margins of their gathering—the Gentiles. They were so concerned with keeping the law all in the name of keeping the law they they were actually hurting the body of Christ. They were so concerned more about themselves than they were about others.
There is a killer at loose…and if we are not careful that killer will wreak havoc in our live, suffocate relationships, murder ministries—and choke the church until it is a debtor to profiteering, abuse, favoritism, and discrimination in its varied forms. It tried to kill the church long ago—and it still trying to kill the church today.
Killer Ego rode in on the wind in Galatia, and found itself standing at Paul’s door—occupying the bodies of Peter, the delegation from Jerusalem and several of the other missionaries in Galatia….
Killer Ego got close to Paul and said,
“Now, Paul—you are like us. You are chosen! You have the right kind blood pumping through your veins. You have the right kind of heart beating in your chest. You have the right skin, the right intellect, the right strength and the right spirit.”
“Now, Paul—you are like us. You need to stop having table fellowship with them…”
Now, Paul—you are like us. You need to stop sitting down with those Gentiles…”
Now, Paul—you are like us. They are not…they are different than us…
Paul, you know they are not like us—we have to protect what we have…
Paul, you know they are not like us—we have to guard against infection…
Paul, you know they are not like us—we speak the lingua franca…
Paul, you know they are not like us—we went to the synagogues and schools
Paul—They are different than us:
So stop befriending them: They are foreigners among us
So stop supporting them: They are strangers among us
So stop looking after them: They are newcomers among us.
So stop caring about them: They are immigrants among us
So stop loving them them: They are refugees among us.=
And by all means, stop sitting down and eating with them because it is making US look bad.
But Paul had this encounter with Jesus. This encounter that radically changed his life…it helped him to place others before himself–to learn the power of setting aside self.
