Galatians 2:20 “And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
- because I am a Lutheran pastor
- and I am here with you in an Anglican parish today
- and because our two church bodies have managed to negotiate an agreement on full communion that makes such arrangements possible
- I thought that,
- for my homily today,
- I would treat you all to a short introduction to Lutheran theology,
- not in any attempt to try to turn some or all of you into Lutherans
- because, believe me,
- there are many days when I think that the last the world needs is more Lutherans
- earlier this week I was speaking with the captain of a Dutch tanker who is married to a Hungarian Lutheran pastor
- the only thing I could in that circumstance was to offer him my condolences
- I thought some of you might be interested in knowing what Lutherans are all about
- the first thing to know about Lutherans
- is that our church started at the beginning of the Reformation,
- at about the same time that the technology of the printing press was being developed
- so that Lutherans have always been big on books
- I brought along with me today, then,
- some books that would serve as a basic reading course on the Lutheran faith
- I start first, with the Bible, the foundation of all Christian doctrine
- then there is the Augsburg Confession, the charter of Lutheranism
- Luther’s Small Catechism, a concise outline of Luther’s ideas
- the book of Concord, containing these and other important Lutheran documents
- Braaten and Jesen’s Christian Dogmatics at 1156 pages, some light bedtime reading
- you may also want to consult a biography of Luther, or if you are really ambitious, the 52 volumes of his complete works
-for a modern perspective you would want to throw in a little Bonhoeffer, some Tillich, and Dorothee Solle to counteract the overwhelming male perspective
- and after you had read all of these books, you would be older than when you started
- you might even be able to take a Master’s Degree from the Seminary
- but you would not yet have gotten to the essence of the Lutheran expression of the Christian faith
- because faith is much more than what our theologians write about in books
- faith is more than what we say we believe
-faith is what we do with our lives
-faith is a way of living
- if you want to know the Lutheran approach to the Christian faith, you can’t just read the books, you have to see how we live it
- faith, if it is genuine, will be at work in people’s daily lives
- that is what St. Paul is trying to explain to the Christians in Galatia in our second lesson for today
- he is trying to get them to see that faith is not a disembodied set of religious principles to which we are asked to give our intellectual assent
- faith is not simply saying “I can believe that”
- faith is the process of living into the grace that God has given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
- faith is living the resurrected new life that we have been given in Christ, complete with its whole new range of possibilities for seeking to fulfill God’s purposes in our lives
- faith is not what we believe in our heads or say with our lips
- faith is what we live in our bodies
- it is the practice of living into the love and forgiveness that God offers to us and to the whole world
- faith is the way in which we make God’s love for the whole world real and visible in our lives
- faith is what we do in our flesh in the midst of everyday life
- practicality then is the true measure of faith
- many people, including the leadership of the early Christian communities could not accept what Paul was proclaiming
- “look,” they said “if you insist on the supremacy of grace, you are going to negate our entire moral order
- the danger in proclaiming God’s forgiveness for all sin is that people are going to feel free to do whatever they please
- they are going to engage in all kinds of immoral behaviour
- after all, people only do what is right if they face a legitimate fear of being punished when they do wrong
- if we replace punishment with the Gospel,
- the good news of God’s forgiveness,
- everyone is going to feel free to indulge their most extravagant appetites without fear of divine retribution”
- and sadly,
-within the Christian community of Paul’s time,
- some people were proving the accuracy of the fears of Paul’s opponents
- they were using the insurance blanket of the Gospel as an excuse to engage in all kinds of immoral behaviour
- likewise, when Luther insisted on the pre-eminence of the Gospel over the medieval system of sacramental morality,
- he found that people were, again, using the Gospel as a source of permission to engage in questionable behaviour
- “they live like pigs,” he said of the Saxons
- he didn’t think much of the Saxons
- “they use the Gospel as a license for their own liberty and immortality”
- both Paul and Luther realized that faith,
- divorced from the practicalities of life,
- can become diabolical
- such faith ends up destroying life,
- rather than building it up
- we are saved by God’s grace,
- not to follow our own desires without worrying about the consequences
- but to pursue any and all opportunities to enhance the life of the community and all creation
- by living God’s grace into the world,
- through our flesh,
- in the context of our daily lives,
- true faith puts our flesh and blood on God’s love for the world
- that’s why St. Paul said to the Galatians
- “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.
- the life I now live in my body I live by believing in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me”
- St. Paul knew that faith is not something to be talked about or written about in books
- faith is lived in the body
- it is our physical participation in the resurrection that takes on the flesh and blood practicality of everyday life
- the Christian faith is most fully proclaimed and expounded, not in the eloquent writings of our sharpest minds
- but in our humblest acts of kindness
- in the cup of cold water
- in a kind comforting word
- in a thoughtful gesture
- in food for the hungry
- in solace to the sick and bereaved
- these acts of kindness, of course,
-are not restricted to religious activities within the confines of the church property
- we live out our faith
- not just by going to church
- we live it in our homes
- in our offices
- in our workshops
- in our factories
- in our schools
- and yes, even in our government
- the Christian faith is meant to be lived by all Christians in every aspect of life
- we are called, not to read books, or to believe correct doctrines, or to think proper thoughts
- we are called to live faith in our bodies and in our lives
- so that God’s love in Jesus Christ can be made known to all the world
- we are called to a faith that seeks to comfort the sick and distressed
- a faith that seeks justice for the poor and oppressed
- that offers hospitality to strangers
- that extends kindness in times of hatred
- courage in times of fear and defensiveness
- and peace in times of conflict and strife
- we are called to a faith that brings the Gospel to life
- in the life we live in our bodies
- following the example of Jesus
- we are called to embody God’s love in our flesh and blood
- so that the entire world may see and know that it is dearly loved
- by no less than the Lord of Life and the source of all existence
- and in this love,
- come to live out the true purpose of all life in fulfillment of God’s divine purpose for this network of mutually dependent life that we call creation
- may our faith be so true, so genuine, and so practical
- that God’s love and glory can shine through Lutherans, Anglicans, and all Christians
- so as to enliven the whole world
- with a taste of the grace and peace,
- that is the shalom of heaven’s eternity
- right here in the midst of this our earthly existence
AMEN
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