FOLLOW THAT LAW.
We are now in the midst of Election fever, the papers, the television and the radio are full of it…..apart from the volcanic ash fiasco of last week…..all the parties are gearing up for a “free for all”, the key phrase “we will do it better if you vote for us, trust us” those beaming smiles, the shirt sleeves, the hand in the pocket, the body language, it’s all being analysed by experts, we’ve already had two debates on TV, and I’m sure you can’t wait for the third, but it is all about , in the end, persuasion and trust.
Now there doesn’t seem a lot of trust around in politics at the moment, but the political parties see their goal, power, and they are going to do everything to get back that trust, whether it’s through advertising campaigns, television debates, or radio interviews, they have their strategies, their key phrases, which they slip in everywhere they can! their spin doctor’s, and even their hairdressers!!
The danger for politicians today are that they are too swayed by populism, rather than with principle and social conscience, Michael foot who died recently is a good example of all those politicians whose politics are from the heart, many commentators’s are telling us that this election campaign is becoming more and more dominated by marketing, strategy, and personality ….They all seem to be constrained , jumping through the right hoops, saying the right things, smiling at the right times, denegrating the other parties, holding babies, all this to get the Country’s approval, all this to win favour and gain power.
How often are WE trapped into following sets of rules and protocol because we think we will gain favour, look good in the eyes of our peers, we often think we are right, and start judging others if they don’t do it?…how often is this seen in our Church today? Christians following a do’s and don’ts list of being the perfect Christian!!
The Galatians wanted to be better Christians, they wanted to look good in the eyes of God, they wanted to gain God’s favour, they wanted more… In came the Juda-izers, these oddly named people were a group of Jewish zealots, that were pretending to be teachers and trying to get the Gentile Christians of Galatia to conform to the Law of Moses…one train of thought was that they were from Jerusalem, and possibly Pharisees, but they captivated the Galatians (Paul said bewitched) with a promise of an even richer life with God if they followed their three step plan…how many times do we hear that phrase today, whether it’s diets, health regimes or work success, but for the Judaizers this included not eating unclean foods, getting circumcised, basically following the original laws as handed down by Moses over a thousand years previously, THEN, according to the Juda-izers the Holy Spirit would descend upon them with renewed power, and they would become BETTER Christians.
In other words the Judaizers were trying to subvert Paul’s original message to the Galatians, that Salvation was gained by faith, and faith alone, and not by following rules and regulations.
Paul was not a happy man when he heard that the Galatians were being captivated by these infiltrators, manipulating the word of God and creating a legalistic structure to the then new Christian faith.
Paul wanted to emphasize to the Galatians that God didn’t give his Holy Spirit based on what they did, and what laws they followed, but through their FAITH in the Gospel of the Crucified Christ, and their trust in God.
Paul looked towards Abraham as an example of salvation through Faith, many times throughout his Letters Paul uses Abraham as an example of Faith, he described the faith of Abraham in these terms “In hope he believed against hope……He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised”
He obeyed God’s comands, and “it was credited to him as righteousness, which simply means enjoying a good relationship with God.
Now Paul didn’t just write these words in his letter on his own, he took his teaching straight from Jesus christ, when we serve God’s rules that’s true worship, when we serve men’s rules it is legalism…Jesus called this false worship.
Jesus said a lot about the law and the teacher’s of law …in Luke 11:49….”And you experts of law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them”..
Jesus wanted to set people free from the legalism the pharisees and the scribes had established, they had taken the original law of Moses and had twisted , and added, and manipulated it to suit their purposes. It was this “establishment religion” and it’s stranglehold on the people that put him to death on the cross.
Legalism in Religion is so prevalent today, not only in the Christian faith, we see it in other faiths as well, legalism and fundamentalism are happy bed fellows, the freedom of faith has been submerged under a blanket of man made boundaries and rules…causing oppression and in some instances as with the Taliban, hatred and destruction …….In our own Christian church, fundamentalism is rearing it’s ugly face, in the United States there are fundamentalists who deny the insights of modern science preferring instead to peddle something called creationism, a weird and wonderful twisting of scripture to suit their own purposes.
In the church of England at the moment and (not only in the Church of England) there are fierce and devisive debates about such subjects as homosexuality, abortion and the role of women in the Church.
A powerful and vocal group of very conservative believers are seeking to pressurize the church to conform to a legalistic stance on all these subjects and many more besides. They are even ready to call the present Archbishop of Canterbury, ‘Arch-heretic’ because he believes in inclusivity.
The way they spell out their understanding creates a feeling that there is no freedom of interpretation as far as these questions are concerned. The Holy Spirit often seems lost amid the legalism, and the prejudice.
What would Jesus do and say about this if he came back today?
I feel that it wouldn’t be far from what he said and warned about the pharisees.
How would Paul address this….a letter to the fundamentalists?
And would they take any notice?
The teaching of Jesus Christ and his apostle Paul highlights one major thing, freedom of the spirit…Paul said the gift of the Holy Spirit is by it’s nature FREE FOR ALL, there are no boxes to tick, no hoops to jump through, no certain buttons to push, no dogma, no doctrine, or three step plans to follow, it’s FREE, the Holy spirit is free to be preached and ministered to outcasts, sinners, the undesirables, people from different backgrounds and gender……it’s inclusive of all.
This is the good news of the gospel, and it’s a direct appeal from God through his son Jesus Christ to all who believe.
To believe is to trust, to receive god’s spirit; you need to trust in him, as Abraham did, and as Paul did…..we have to trust that god will guide our steps through this tough journey of life
Your journey may not be as eventful as Abraham’s, but you can be sure there will be tests and trials along the way, one does not learn faith immediately , a Christian life is all about learning, learning to trust what the spirit can do in us and through us.
The General election will soon be a thing of the past, and maybe some of us will breathe a sign of relief, but there will be 650 newly elected or re-elected Members of Parliament gathering in Westminster to begin their work as Law makers. They will need all the wisdom in the World as they go about their work, and they’ll need to learn the difference between laws that are heavy for people to bear, legislation for the sake of it, more useless words that will never change anything, all that on one hand and on the other , Laws that address people’s needs and improve their lives, and speak to their hearts.
Laws are important but when it comes down to it, there’s only one law for Christians to remember. And that’s the Law that asks us to love God by believing in the salvation he gave us through his son Jesus Christ, from which everything good, holy and righteous comes.
When we believe and trust in Jesus and his teachings we have his power to do what he does, we have the gift of the spirit from him within our hearts…..
Let’s learn to find it, use it and share it.
AMEN
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