Christmas 1
Gal.
4:1-7
12/29/13
It didn’t take very long for me to
recognize a significant way that Good Shepherd differs from my first parish,
Zion in Lyons, IL. Lyons is inner
suburban Chicago – really part of the fringe of the city itself. It was a congregation that had a long history
– a couple of years ago they celebrated their one hundred and twenty fifth
anniversary. Many of the members had been at Zion their whole lives. They had attended the parochial school at
Zion before it closed. Their parents and
grandparents had lived in Lyons. They
had grown upon in Lyons. Many of them
had retired in Lyons.
When I arrived at Good Shepherd I
soon learned that almost no one in the congregation is originally from
Marion. Our congregation is a relatively
young one – we just celebrated our twenty fifth anniversary. This part of
southern Illinois is not exactly a hot bed of Lutheranism, and so it’s not a
place that has had long history of Lutheran families. Instead, during her history, the majority of
members at Good Shepherd have come from some place other than Marion – and of
course quite a few haven’t lived in Marion at all, but instead have lived in
the surrounding communities.
For the most part, we all come from
somewhere else. Now if we were to have a
contest to see who has come the farthest from their place of birth to be at
Good Shepherd today, there are two members who would win … and it’s not even
close. Shaelen and Dani would win
because they were born in China. It
think it is really interesting that in a congregation our size we have two
members who come originally from China. Shaun and Charlene, and Jim and Barb
made the trip to China in order to bring these girls back and make them part of
their families. The adoption of these
children has been a great blessing for everyone involved – for the girls, for
their parents and for our congregation here at Good Shepherd.
On this First Sunday after
Christmas, the epistle lesson reminds us that in a far more significant way, all
of us are adopted. God the Father
sent forth the Son into the world at Christmas in order free us from the
slavery generated by sin. He sent the
Son so that we could be adopted – so that we could become the sons and
daughters of God.
Paul had preached the Gospel to the
Galatians on one of his missionary trips.
However, some other Christians had come to the church who claimed to
have impressive ties to the church at Jerusalem. They told the Galatians – who
were Gentiles, that is, non-Jews – that if they really wanted to be part of the
people of God, they needed to begin to do the works of the Law of Moses.
Apparently they emphasized three aspects of the Law as a starting point for
this: circumcision, food laws and certain Jewish religious days and festivals.
For Paul, this was no small
thing. It was in fact a denial of the
Gospel because it was an act that said that people needed to do something
in addition to Christ’s sacrifice in order to be fully saved. Paul wrote
earlier in this letter, “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of
the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ
Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law,
because by works of the law no one will be justified.”
In the previous chapter Paul has
used several different arguments to show the Galatians that they are already
the children of God in Christ, through faith, and that the doing of the law
can’t bring salvation. The law can’t
bring salvation. Instead it brings a
curse. Paul wrote, “For all who rely on
works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who
does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do
them.’” The law brings a curse because
no one can do the law perfectly in thought, word and deed.
However, in Jesus Christ God had
provided the answer to this. Paul goes
on to say, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse
for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree—so that
in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we
might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” The apostle says that Christ freed us from
the curse by being cursed in our place on the cross. The law that brings a curse can no longer
hold us in slavery because of what Christ has done.
Now this didn’t mean that the Torah given
to Israel at Mt. Sinai was bad. Just
before our text Paul has compared it to a pedagogue that was common in the
Greco-Roman world. As strange as this
may seem to us, the moral training of the child was often entrusted to a slave
in the household. For a period of time –
usually until the early teens – the child was under the supervision of the
pedagogue who was charged with reigning in unruly behavior and teaching proper
behavior. This was true until the age of
maturity was reached. And at that point
the youth was no longer under the slave’s authority.
Paul has described the role of the
Torah between Sinai and the coming of Christ as being like that of a
pedagogue. It reigned in sinful
behavior. It guided Israel in the ways the
reflected God’s will. And perhaps most
important, it kept Israel separate from the pagan nations around them, so that
instead of worshipping their false Gods Israel continued to believe in Yahweh
as they looked for the coming of his Messiah.
However, in our text Paul reminds
the Galatians that they don’t live in that time. They don’t live in that
time because of what we are celebrating during these twelve days. They don’t live in that time because of
Christmas. Christ has come, and
so now, everything is different. The time of the Torah has come to an end –
that’s why it is ok to worship on Sunday, and to eat bacon and bratwurst.
Viewed from our present experience
of the Gospel, Paul in our text describes the time under the law as a time of
slavery. It was slavery because it
brought a curse - a curse that the Galatians will bring upon themselves once
again if they listen to Paul’s opponents and begin doing the law. To do this
will actually put them in the exact same situation they had been while they
were pagans – they will be cut off from God once again.
Paul tells them – and us – to
embrace the change that has taken place.
He says, “But when the fullness
of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to
redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Paul says that at precisely the right moment
in the timing of God’s salvation – in the first century A.D. – God sent forth
his Son into the world. He was born of a
woman as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He was born as a Jew – obligated to live
according to the Torah. And then by his
death on the cross he freed us from the slavery of the law’s curse by receiving
that curse upon himself.
The Son of God was sent into the
world, died on the cross and rose from the dead for a reason – he did it so
that we might receive the adoption as sons.
He did it so that instead of being cursed and cut off from God, we are
now the children of God. Through baptism and faith God has joined us to these
saving benefits. Paul had concluded the
previous chapter by saying, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer
under a pedagogue, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you
are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.”
The apostle returns to these themes
in our text. He says, “And because you
are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba!
Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir
through God.” God has joined you to
Christ in baptism and worked faith through his Spirit. He has made you to be the sons and daughters
of God. And so his Spirit enables you to
call God, “Father.” It is the Spirit of God who prompts and enables the adopted
sons and daughters of God to address the Creator of the cosmos as dear children
ask their dear father. Because of what
God has done for us in Christ we are not only forgiven but we know that God has
embraced us as his own dear children.
This is what God has made you to
be. This is the status you enjoy. This
is the privilege that belongs to you.
You have been freed from the curse of the law and the slavery of
sin. However, before Paul finishes this
letter he offers a reminder that we need to hear. He says, “For you were called to freedom,
brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but
through love serve one another.”
Paul says that you have not been
freed in Christ in order to do whatever you want. Instead, you have been freed so that through
love you can serve others. This loving
service is, in fact, what faith does. Paul says in chapter five, “For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith
working through love.”
Faith acts in love. And when the baptized Christian acts in
faith, he or she is fulfilling what the Torah was all about. Paul writes, “For
the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’”
It is the Spirit who creates and
sustains this faith. And it is the Spirit
who produces these fruits of faith in us – what Paul calls fruit of the
Spirit. Paul goes on to say, “But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
As Christians, we are no longer
concerned about being circumcised for religious reasons or eating the
religiously clean foods or offering the right sacrifices. Instead, as we live by faith in Christ our
concern is now focused on being patient with others; showing kindness to
others; being self controlled in our own actions so that we are sharing the
love of Christ rather than the old Adam
that is still within us.
We know that we never do this
perfectly. Paul described this when he
wrote, “For the desires of the flesh are
against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for
these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to
do.” Yet because of the work of the
Spirit within us we take up this struggle and on many occasions we do live by
faith active in love. And in the midst
of it all we have the constant comfort of knowing that through Christ we have
received the adoption as sons and daughters of God. We have the received the Spirit and so are
able to call out in faith to our loving God, “Abba! Father!”
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