​In the ancient world, most people would have known all too well what a cross was about. They would have known, for example, what the apostle Paul was saying when he spoke of crucifixion. Indeed, earlier Paul in Galatians Paul had reminded the Churches in Galatia of how he had been crucified with Christ (2:19), and of how it was no longer he who was living, but Christ who was living in him (2:20). It was quite a picture. Paul shared with the Christians in Galatia that Jesus died in public humiliation. It was as if God was drawing a diagram for the whole world to see.

 It reminds me of those many times when I was in high school and the coach of our team would draw up a play at a timeout, only for us to mess it up and fail to follow the instructions! The coach would literally draw us a picture, and then, we would forget it! It was as if we would go back to our old habits! 
         
 Let me ask you: Have you ever been in a situation where you just don’t get something, or you have a difficult time understanding? And someone will say to you, “Do you need me to draw a diagram for you?” And you feel so big!
   
 To bring the point closer to home, “How many diagrams does it take for Christians to understand that Jesus was crucified like a common criminal, and that he died such a death to liberate us from sin and evil? How many pictures does it take for us to understand what Jesus did on the cross to forgive us and reconcile us to God and one another?”

Maybe this is why Martin Luther, the German Protestant Reformer, had the artist Mathias Grunewald paint the picture of Christ crucified, with Luther pointing to it, reminding the church of the gospel. 

Maybe the church always stands in the need of such a reminder, a reminder that Paul had been saying all along: that “We preach Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

How big does the diagram of Jesus crucified have to be? How may we think about the promises of God in ways that do not reduce the bigness of Christ's love?

Pastor Andy Kinsey

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I hereby call to order case number G.A.L. 2:15-21 the cultural dispute between Jewish believers and Gentile converts.  Representatives of today’s case are Paul, an apostle and church planter of the early church and Peter, also an apostle and leader of the early church movement.  Gentlemen, you may proceed. 

Your honor and members of the jury, I am the apostle Peter and I represent a long line of Jewish believers, the people of Israel.  This is a simple misunderstanding with a simple solution.  We, as Jewish believers are God’s chosen people, Israel.  Our jewish lineage speaks for itself and as it was written in the Biblical Law, the Torah, the first five books of what is now called the Bible, we are chosen by God to God’s purpose and we live that purpose by holding to a strict code of behavior, beliefs, and expectations.  That is how we ensure our place as God’s chosen.  That is how we are set apart and marked for God’s goodness.  

Your honor and members of the jury, if I may.  Paul here - This is not a simple misunderstanding between two cultural groups with various backgrounds and religious experience.  This is one group deciding for and over another who is in and who is out; who is more and who is less.  The misunderstanding is not about groups, biblical law, or how much one does to follow the law.  The issue is failure to understand the very essence of why God, through Jesus came, walked among us, taught us, and changed the world.  My colleague Peter seems to have forgotten that.   And how dare he speak in such a way that excludes the very people Jesus made a way for - the very people society tends to ignore. He is undermining the very work we started and established in the early church.  He is allowing division to creep in and destroy what was planted here in Galatia.  

It is no longer about the Biblical Law.  It is no longer about holding on to every dot and tittle of the Torah.  Jesus was the fulfillment of that law, all of it in every way.  There is nothing we can do to earn our way into God’s favor; no rule, code, task, achievement, or accomplishment that will obtain or secure our place with God.  Through Jesus Christ, we are one body, one church, one fellowship.  We are marked by a promise of faith. 

It’s called grace and it is the reason Jesus came when he came, taught what he taught, died when he died, and rose when he rose.  It is not about insiders and outsiders.  It is not about being separated by and for God, it is and has always been about bringing all God’s people back to God - and Jesus did that by being the fulfillment of the biblical law and sacrificing his own life for ours and those to follow. 

Thank you gentlemen that will be all.  We will take a short recess to allow the jury to deliberate.  As you do however, I ask the jury to consider the following…On the surface, Galatians chapter two seems to be centered on the question of whether Jewish and Gentile Christians should eat at the same table - should they share what was called an agape meal together at one table.  The heart of matter however, is much deeper.  The heart of the matter is not who sits at the table, the heart of the matter is the question: who is God’s true Israel? (N.T. Wright)  Who is the ultimate insider?  Who are the true people of God? 

Peter declared it was those whom God chose from the beginning; those who followed the biblical law of Moses and held to the teachings therein.  Paul focusses his answer on the most basic point of all.  God’s true Israel consists of one person:  Jesus / the Messiah.  He is the faithful one.  He is the true Israelite.  The question then becomes: who belongs to  Jesus?  How is that identity expressed?  How is one’s promise of faith lived out? 

For Paul, the answer is related to God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah, when they couldn’t have children and God told them they would have children upon children; so many, it would outnumber the grains of sand or the stars in the sky.  That promise was and is fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah; The promise that God would create a single worldwide family whose identity marker would be their faith - living a Christ-like faith - living, serving, growing together, caring together in community. 

In order for you, the jury, to unpack all that is embedded in this text it is critical to keep in mind three questions:  Who set’s things right?  What role has Jesus played in setting things right? What does the character and truth of life with Jesus look like (regardless of race, gender, political party, work experience, sexual orientation, the size of your paycheck, cultural background, educational level, or religious heritage)?  (NIB Vol XI)

In the life of those who believe in God and claim Jesus as Messiah and Lord, the answer to who sets things right is God.  God is the one to rectify; put things in order, and make right that which has gone awry.  God rectifies his people by coming to their rescue and instituting right order in a world gone wrong.  How God does this - leads to question two.

What role has Jesus played?  Paul states that we are made right, set in order, brought back into a right relationship through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.  It is not through the strength or purity of our own work ethic or ability to follow all the rules.  We do not rectify our relationship with God through our works alone but we are made right through the faithful act of Jesus who gave his life for ours.  His promise of faith gave us ours.   

What Jesus has done for us is not merely to enable us to believe and thereby find individual forgiveness of sins.  His promise of faith, created a whole new world and liberated us from powers that once held us captive.  (i.e. powers that kept us separated one from another; powers that divided rather than united, powers that oppressed rather than built up.)  You cannot reach a verdict in this case without recognizing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and how that in and of itself put to death the old regime (old way of biblical law) and inaugurated a new creation.

Third and final question you, the jury, must wrestle with is this: What does the character and truth of a life with and for Jesus look like?  What does a promise of faith look like?  Paul tells us that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  We read in other New Testament writings Jesus’ words, “you abide in me and I abide in you.”  In other words, when you say yes to Jesus, it is by divine mystery that God’s Holy Spirit manifests itself in your life through your character, not your list of great works.  

The character and truth of a life in Jesus looks like a life transformed - a life lived and given as an instrument of God’s reconciling love; a life lived as a vessel of God’s restoring love.   A life of trust - not always knowing the answer or outcome, but trusting God is working for good in all things; God is with us no matter how messy or ugly life gets.  How can you be an instrument of God’s reconciling love and be divided believers; a divided church, denomination, organization or community?  How can you be an instrument of restoring God’s people when you or oppress others, or hate someone because of their skin color,  who they love, who they vote for, where they live, or whether they have a job or not?  

Jury, you have perhaps the most significant decision of your life to make.  You are not only deciding for yourself but for believers everywhere - the way you live your life reveals what, how, and who the church will be.  The way you live your life, give of yourself and your resources, reveals your decision.   Your decision will impact the world.   

In today’s society I don’t have to tell you the lines of division among believers are still there.  The struggle to be the true people of God remains. Perhaps your decision will bring us that much closer to what God had in mind all along.  

We are adjourned.   Amen
Pastor Jenothy Irvine

Commentary and insights adapted from N.T. Wright’s Paul for Everyone, The New Interpreter’s Bible Vol. XI, and William Barclay’s DBS Commentary on Galatians. 

Over the next few weeks, we want to explore what it means to live as a “people of promise,” or as those who promise to live out their faith in mission to others. We want to find out what it means to make a promise and keep it, and trust God to provide for it, not just with respect to our Faith-Promise campaign, but with our lives.

For what Faith-Promise is all about is taking God at God’s word and trusting God to provide. It is about risking God’s generosity or God’s abundance, and saying to God, “Okay, God, I am going to step out in faith and I am going to allow you to lead me, to see the fruit of the Spirit grow in my life. I am going to risk God’s generosity, and I am going to learn and discover how there is always more to God, always love in excess.”

For all the “giving” we seek to have and all the forms of ministry and mission we seek to carry out – are about living out the assumption of that abundance: that we live in and out of God’s abundant, triune life. It is why we say that we cannot possibly out-give God; we can’t! We learn this truth by trusting God, by having faith in God: that God is always good to God’s promise, even during the most desperate of circumstances, even during pandemics and unrest (Genesis 22:1-19)! 

What did Bishop White used to say to us? God is good! All the time. All the time, God is good! 

God is good to the promise, from beginning to end. Just as God was good to Noah after the flood (Genesis 9). Just as God was good to Moses and Miriam in the exodus (Exodus 5:22ff). Just as God was good to the prophet Isaiah who proclaimed “there would come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch would grow from that root” (11:1).

Just as God will be good to you, good to us. God will be good to God’s promise!

How may we understand the promises of God being fulfilled or carried out in our lives? How may we receive God’s grace of abundant life? 
​
Pastor Andy Kinsey

The whole setting in Nehemiah 9 is one of collective remorse, with Nehemiah and Ezra leading the people to acknowledge the corporate nature of the nation’s sin on the one hand and the generational effects of that sin on the other. The whole gathering is about the way the whole nation has missed the mark, and how it can get back on track.

It happens to be a very familiar biblical scene, with sackcloth and fasting, with ashes on the forehead, and with confession of sin, similar to what we share on Ash Wednesday, or on what we read in the prophets like Jeremiah and Joel, or Jonah and Isaiah. There is a “going back” to basics, and there is a deep recognition that the future needs to be better than the past.

This is part of the reason, we think, the people pulled out the book of the Law, probably the book of Deuteronomy, as it is in Deuteronomy that Israel learns to confess the basics of its faith and remembers its identity and purpose: The Shema – or, Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. It is very similar to what we hear in Nehemiah where Israel blesses God and devotes its life to God (Nehemiah 9:5): remembering all that God has done for the people – in calling Abraham and Sarah, in leading Moses and Miriam, in making covenant at Sinai, and in settling in the Land, and then in rebelling against God and forgetting God’s ways.

All of that is in Nehemiah, and it is a reminder about what “matters” most, or about putting “first things first.” Nehemiah slows down long enough to lead the people in the direction of honoring God and then sharing in the goodness of God with others.

Again, this is confession, and like all confession, it requires humility: which says, “Hey, I am not in control, but I will continue trust God.” A confession, which says, “Hey, I am going to make mistakes, and I have made mistakes” but which relies on God’s forgiving grace and keeps an open heart. A confession, which says, “Hey, I am part of something much bigger here, and I cannot always see the whole, so I know I need patience to understand.” A confession is not an attempt to beat ourselves up with guilt and shame. No, a confession is God’s invitation to us to recognize how we all depend on God in the first place and to remember that if we forget what matters most we need to realign ourselves with God, to turn to God. I believe that it is what Jesus meant when he said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God!”

How may we continue to put first things first? How do we place our priorities in perspective? How is God calling us to share in God’s life?
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Pastor Andy Kinsey

It was the New Testament theologian, William Barclay, who once said, “We live in a world of broken hearts.” Indeed, at this moment in time, it is overwhelming the amount of news and information that speaks of such brokenness. And it is discouraging! It is discouraging going on social media, for example, and it is discouraging hearing what we can say and do to each other. We can easily feel frustrated.

But here’s the deal: we don’t need to let such discouragement or frustration win. We have alternatives as Christians: we have the Gospel! We have gifts like faith, hope, and love. And we have treasures like Holy Communion and Baptism. We have the fruit of the Spirit to bear like joy and patience and kindness and self-control. And we have a God who is for us and not against us. We worship a God who, in Christ, raises us up from the pits of discouragement and who promises to execute justice against those who deny justice to others, especially among the most vulnerable (as justice belongs to the Lord).    

Nehemiah depends on this truth, even as he tries to continue the work amidst all the challenges of rebuilding – letting God provide the resources and allowing God to have God’s way! For in the end that is the only Way that matters! In time, God will have God’s way: not in death, but in life. Not despair, but forgiveness. Not threats, but promises. That’s Gospel! That’s the Way!

So dear church: please know there is another Way: There is another alternative!

So let the building continue! Let it continue! Even now!
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Pastor Andy Kinsey