Galatians 1:11-2:5

My sermon this week is a reflection on the Apostle Paul, and how this convert to the faith was willing to upset many traditions because of his understanding of God's will-maybe we should be willing to do the same!

Good morning friends!

It is great to gather in worship with all of you this morning.

I hope that this summer day finds you filled with the Holy Spirit.

As we work with the early church after Easter and in the season of Pentecost, we naturally spend a lot of time with Paul, the major figure in the New Testament after the time of Jesus. After all, Paul is the major driver of our understanding of grace and salvation, he recorded the communion liturgy we still use, he set out the moral guidelines for behavior in the church.

So what I find fascinating is that when Paul told his own faith story, here in Galatians, he clearly saw himself not as the center of Christianity, but as an apostle on the outside, fighting to support his vision of how Christ was leading the church in contrast to the power structure in Jerusalem.

In our text this morning, Paul explains that after his Damascus Road experience, he went off into the wilderness, traveling to Arabia, rather than returning to Jerusalem to repent or get guidance from the Christian leaders he had been persecuting. It's unclear what he did there, but I expect it was a time of preparation and prayer, like Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness or Elijah's visit to Mount Tishbah.

From there, he began what was basically an independent ministry-only returning to the home country once, for but 15 days in his first 14 years of being a missionary for Christ. It was only at that point that he returned to the center, and finally checked to make sure that he was acting correctly.

And it is this phenomenon that I want to reflect on for a minute this morning. Because you might be wondering why Paul lifted up his story of becoming an apostle to the people of Galatia-does this story really leave Paul looking good? And more importantly, what do we have to learn from Paul today?-why do we care how many years he was in Arabia before he started preaching the gospel, or before he met Peter and James?

For me, what I learn from this passage is two-fold. First, Paul's testimony is a window into the complicated politics of the early church. We live in a world fraught with conflict-bitter debates between Republicans and Democrats, the church torn because of fights over sexuality, abortion, and other hot topics. Paul's adventures with the leaders in Jerusalem should serve always as a reminder that our modern conflicts are old news, part of an ancient practice of debate, discussion, and give and take in the Christian tradition.

Here we have the original debate in the church, between those who believed everyone had to follow Jewish law, and those who believed that Christ had freed us from dietary restrictions and circumcision. And at the heart of it was the Apostle Paul, missionary to the gentiles, who always remained part of the church of Christ, but when faced with those who disagreed with him, “did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.”

Which is the second reason I think it is worth remembering Paul's faith story.

Paul was and is famous for embodying a classic archetype- the arch-enemy converted into a friend. He was an agent of persecution who helped in the killing of many Christian believers, particularly Saint Stephen. So Paul's transformation into a defender of the gospel is remarkable. It is Lex Luther, joining up with superman, Voldermort finding some remorse, Darth Vader turning from the dark side.

But we know Paul was a converted persecutor. What is interesting is how he decided to act upon his conversion. You might think that someone who had so recently been a persecutor of the church, someone who had not studied under Jesus, or been taught in Jerusalem might show some humility and contrition, might be careful not to upset the apple cart, or cause offense in the Christian community he had so recently been hunting. He was, after all, the new kid on the block, and was deeply distrusted by the disciples gathered in Jerusalem.

This would certainly be my advice for someone new to leadership in the church!

But this was not Paul's way-no, after having become convinced that his previous persecution of the followers of Jesus was wrong, Paul immediately became a zealot for a different cause, insisting that the Christ he had met as one untimely born had an urgent mission for him, to go to the gentiles, and regardless of what anyone else might say, to proclaim to them the Gospel of Christ's sacrificial love on the Cross.

Paul proudly boasts that he returned to Jerusalem after 14 years of ministry, prepared to defend his gospel, and his understanding of Christ's calling. Just a few verses later, he tells how when Peter came and would not eat with the Gentile Christians for fear of being caught violating the purity laws, he was willing to stand up to the one who had known Jesus in the flesh the longest, and tell him he had the gospel wrong. Paul heard the voice of the spirit, and he went from being an unstoppable force persecuting Christians, to being an immoveable object, proclaiming the good news of the Resurrection.

Doesn't this suggest something profound, about new people in the church?

Our society loves to divide the world into black and white sections-the good guys and the bad guys, the friends and the enemies. Rare is the TV show that leaves good and evil uncertain for more than a few minutes.

Our whole legal system is set up around the idea that those who have done violence are the ones who will commit crimes again, and so we set up an inescapable system, where those who have been incarcerated find themselves unable to get jobs, or housing, or to reenter society and escape from the trap that we have created for them.

But God's word to us, today and always, is that there are no bad guys. We are to forgive our brothers and sisters 70x7 times, because we do not know when those who are persecuting us might become our strongest champions, our greatest assets, our closest friends. If there is no space for grace, no room for transformation in our church and in our society, then we close off access to the Holy Spirit, and loose the gifts of many Apostles and saints and witnesses to the power of God in the world.

But even more Paul insists that those who join the redeemed community are not just pawns on the chess board, to be ordered about, they are not cogs in some divine machine, to be slotted into the system. No, every new member of the church is there because they have listened to the spirit and the voice of God, and because of their fresh ears, they may have something remarkable to teach those who are inside already.

It is easiest to welcome people who are like us, and who do not disrupt the way that we do things-who fit in with the patterns we have already established, and support the work that we are already doing. But the most important blessings are the ones that we receive from people who push us to do things in a new way, who challenge us to understand the new thing that God is doing, who catch a different voice singing in the distance, and recognize it too as the voice of God, and our lives are richer when we let them reshape our vision of the kingdom.

Paul came into the early church, and rather than get on board with the basic agenda-preach to Judea, so that all the Jewish people would know that Jesus was the Messiah-he struck out in a new direction, preaching to the Gentiles about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he so stubbornly stuck to his mission that slowly the church began to change around him, the fulcrum of the lever long enough to move the world.

It's not easy for me to stand firm like that-I like to get along with people, and I rarely am willing to say “here I stand, I can do no other” like Martin Luther-my basic doubt often gets in the way. And there are dangers in insisting on one's own way-there is a big difference between “I am going to the Gentiles, because that is what God called me to do” and “YOU have to go talk to the Gentiles, because that is what God is calling YOU to do”.

But when we find that place to stand-to proclaim “I will care for the widow and the orphan, I will feed the hungry, I will fight global warming or against war, or for the rights of prisoners or immigrants” sometimes the world does change around us, and the church is made new.

Our Psalm text today tells of God's goals for the world-

God is the one who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord!

It should never surprise us to discover new people, doing that work, and the reality that they do it a little differently should never stand in our way as we seek to come along side what God is already about in the world, working in new ways to transform one another.

May we follow in the path of Christ, learning from the guidance of Paul, may we proclaim the good news, and shape the world around us always.

Amen.