We are now studying Paul's letter to the Galatians and quite frankly I find it baffling It's too bad the reaction of his Galatian readers hasn't survived because I wonder if they would be equally baffled.
Galatians is one of the most anti-Jewish books of the New Testament Sure, it contains some great parts about freedom, but Paul comes down pretty hard on the Jewish law. He has nothing at all good to say about it. This is all the more confusing since the people he was writing to were not former Jews but Gentiles, people who worshiped Zeus and Demeter and Apollo and the rest of the Greco-Roman pantheon. That'd be like me writing a blog on my church's website about the dangers of following the Hindu caste system. People'd be going huh? We're not Hindus, we don't know anything about Hinduism, so why are you so worked up about it?
Well, apparently there were people going around Galatia (modern-day Turkey) telling Paul's converts they must follow the Jewish laws in order to be "saved" and that is what got Paul going. And Paul is not one of those live and let live folks; diversity in religious practice is not his thing. He doesn't say that if you want to follow the Law you can but keep in mind that it won't save you, no, he flat-out condemns keeping the law with some very strong language.
Now, a note about the Law. As a non-Jewish American, when I think of Law I think of things like civil law, criminal law. The Law in the sense Paul is talking about really doesn't have any meaning for me and I suspect that is even more true for a lot of the people who sit next to me on Sundays. They listen but they really don't have a clue as to what it is all about. Now I was raised Catholic so I am familiar with the concept of Church (canon) law, and of course I have read the Old Testament/Torah so I am aware of what Deuteronomy and Leviticus say, but basically I have never been under "The Law" in the way Paul speaks. So I am somewhat like Paul's Gentile audience in that respect except I probably know more about "The Law" than many of them did. Remember back in those days most people were illiterate especially the lower classes which made up the majority of Paul's converts. That is not just my opinion. Many upper-class Romans looked down on the Christian movement for just that reason, that its members were poor and uneducated and on the margins of society. There were no Christian intellectuals as yet. Just as there are almost no Evangelicals today that are on the forefront of scientific and technoligical innovation. So I guess some things don't change.
Anyway, Pastor was talking about the chains of bondage and following the Law and how many Christians have simply substituted the Law of Moses for a law of their own. Some things I could say about this: it is ironic indeed in light of Paul's letter to the Galatians that his and the other New Testament writings have taken on a form of Law, especially in the case of women. There's a lot said about "legalistic churches" but not where that legalism comes from. Pastor said nothing at all about the role of Christian peer pressure in keeping others in line regarding their lifestyles and beliefs. In my experience, it is not God demanding such things, it is human beings demanding them in the name of God. There's an awful lot of pressure to conform. It's like the "Emperor's New Clothes" except the buzzword is "pride" instead of "stupid." It is pride that keeps unbelievers like myself unrepentant. Pride is bad. Well, all right, I AM proud. Deal with it.
As an outsider it is interesting to sit back and observe. I guess that, along with the social aspect, is why I keep coming back Sunday after Sunday. I feel like an anthropologist. Last Sunday he trotted out the old stale depraved humanity stick and I was reminded of the play I was in where one of the characters tells the other "yes, you are despicable but I love you anyway." God tells us that we are despicable and deserving of his wrath but yet he loves us so much he sent His Son to be butchered? That does not make sense. Then we turn around and sing that faith ought to be more like falling in love than something to be mentally assented to. Like the old Joni Mitchell song "The Priest", "then he took his contradictions out and he splashed them on my brow, so which words was I then to doubt when choosing what to vow?"
So as Pastor went on about the futility of trying to win God's favor by living a moral life and how that entraps people and makes them live in fear (and who put that fear into their heads in the first place?) I am thinking that there is another choice, one that leads to true freedom. Because for the person who does not believe in God the whole debate between Law and Grace becomes irrelevant.
Galatians is one of the most anti-Jewish books of the New Testament Sure, it contains some great parts about freedom, but Paul comes down pretty hard on the Jewish law. He has nothing at all good to say about it. This is all the more confusing since the people he was writing to were not former Jews but Gentiles, people who worshiped Zeus and Demeter and Apollo and the rest of the Greco-Roman pantheon. That'd be like me writing a blog on my church's website about the dangers of following the Hindu caste system. People'd be going huh? We're not Hindus, we don't know anything about Hinduism, so why are you so worked up about it?
Well, apparently there were people going around Galatia (modern-day Turkey) telling Paul's converts they must follow the Jewish laws in order to be "saved" and that is what got Paul going. And Paul is not one of those live and let live folks; diversity in religious practice is not his thing. He doesn't say that if you want to follow the Law you can but keep in mind that it won't save you, no, he flat-out condemns keeping the law with some very strong language.
Now, a note about the Law. As a non-Jewish American, when I think of Law I think of things like civil law, criminal law. The Law in the sense Paul is talking about really doesn't have any meaning for me and I suspect that is even more true for a lot of the people who sit next to me on Sundays. They listen but they really don't have a clue as to what it is all about. Now I was raised Catholic so I am familiar with the concept of Church (canon) law, and of course I have read the Old Testament/Torah so I am aware of what Deuteronomy and Leviticus say, but basically I have never been under "The Law" in the way Paul speaks. So I am somewhat like Paul's Gentile audience in that respect except I probably know more about "The Law" than many of them did. Remember back in those days most people were illiterate especially the lower classes which made up the majority of Paul's converts. That is not just my opinion. Many upper-class Romans looked down on the Christian movement for just that reason, that its members were poor and uneducated and on the margins of society. There were no Christian intellectuals as yet. Just as there are almost no Evangelicals today that are on the forefront of scientific and technoligical innovation. So I guess some things don't change.
Anyway, Pastor was talking about the chains of bondage and following the Law and how many Christians have simply substituted the Law of Moses for a law of their own. Some things I could say about this: it is ironic indeed in light of Paul's letter to the Galatians that his and the other New Testament writings have taken on a form of Law, especially in the case of women. There's a lot said about "legalistic churches" but not where that legalism comes from. Pastor said nothing at all about the role of Christian peer pressure in keeping others in line regarding their lifestyles and beliefs. In my experience, it is not God demanding such things, it is human beings demanding them in the name of God. There's an awful lot of pressure to conform. It's like the "Emperor's New Clothes" except the buzzword is "pride" instead of "stupid." It is pride that keeps unbelievers like myself unrepentant. Pride is bad. Well, all right, I AM proud. Deal with it.
As an outsider it is interesting to sit back and observe. I guess that, along with the social aspect, is why I keep coming back Sunday after Sunday. I feel like an anthropologist. Last Sunday he trotted out the old stale depraved humanity stick and I was reminded of the play I was in where one of the characters tells the other "yes, you are despicable but I love you anyway." God tells us that we are despicable and deserving of his wrath but yet he loves us so much he sent His Son to be butchered? That does not make sense. Then we turn around and sing that faith ought to be more like falling in love than something to be mentally assented to. Like the old Joni Mitchell song "The Priest", "then he took his contradictions out and he splashed them on my brow, so which words was I then to doubt when choosing what to vow?"
So as Pastor went on about the futility of trying to win God's favor by living a moral life and how that entraps people and makes them live in fear (and who put that fear into their heads in the first place?) I am thinking that there is another choice, one that leads to true freedom. Because for the person who does not believe in God the whole debate between Law and Grace becomes irrelevant.
