It’s such a small thing. Maybe too much to hang this whole essay upon, I’ll admit that. Sometimes we preachers get carried away with small things, things that most folks would just skip over. And maybe they are things worth skipping over. Perhaps if we just focused on the big picture we wouldn’t get ourselves tangled into such big knots. Maybe if we didn’t spend so much time on tiny things we would have less conflict in the body.
Our passage for this week is a big picture kind of thing. So maybe we would be better served by focusing on that. We are drawing a grand design, glimpsing the Kingdom in our verses this week. So, we should stand on the mountain top and gaze in wonder. Slip on the wide-angle lens and capture the vista that opens before us. It will take our breath away. Our jaws will drop at the glory, our hearts will pound at the vision. It will seem too beautiful, too powerful, too hopeful. Almost unattainable.
Almost unattainable. The big picture is what captures us, but we often turn away because it seems out of reach. It seems beyond our capacity. We ache to live in that vision, and yet our hearts betray us, our will fails us, our strength deserts us. Sometimes a focus on the big picture leads us to despair. “How long, O Lord?” as the Psalmist wondered when the big picture stayed consistently our of reach.
Which is why sometimes we have to look closer, down to the detail, to the small things that seem insignificant and yet just might be within our reach. Or within our understanding. Just might move us closer.
OK, enough suspense, right? What are we talking about? We’ll these familiar words from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Take a look:
Galatians 3:23-29 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Let’s start with the big picture, shall we? It’s right there in verse 28. The image of the church and the world without barriers. It is about acceptance and about equality. This is a picture of a community that gets along because it values everyone, everyone is respected and honored. There is no such thing as a second class citizen. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?
But wait it gets even better. Earlier in the passage there is the idea that we don’t need the law any more. The function of the law, says Paul, was to keep us in line. It was a diagnostic tool, it showed us our failings. The law was not about making us better, it was about disciplining us. It didn’t change hearts. But now we don’t need it anymore, because hearts are changed. We keep within the bounds of the law because we want to. That is how we choose to live, that is what defines us, that is who we are.
At least, that is who we can be. Who we want to be, don’t we? At our best we do. And that is just the problem. We are so aware of our own shortcomings, our own prejudices, that we know such a vision is beyond us. We try, we really try to love our neighbors. We try to see the face of Jesus in those around us. We generate the energy, we grit our teeth and put our backs into it. We live in a culture that values individual effort. The bookstores are lined with shelf after shelf of self-help materials, all telling us that we can do it if we try hard enough. So we try. And we can’t do it.
It simply isn’t within us to love like Jesus loved. As much as we would like to think we could do it, we can’t. And this is where the despair kicks in. This is where the big picture vision begins to wear on us. This is where, if we’re honest we want to give up. It’s a dream, some argue, a pipe dream. It would be better to turn back to the law. To legislate our morality. Except even there we fail. And Paul told us we would, so we shouldn’t be surprised that law doesn’t work any better than will.
So, where do we go from there? We as much as admitted that there’s nothing we can do. So, what’s left. A preposition. Such a tiny thing, yet it might mean the different between despair and hope. Three letters in Greek - eis. In English we use four letters - into. All the difference in the world.
Take a look back at verse 27. That is the verse that sets up the vision of the true community that appears in the next verse. Paul is saying without 27, verse 28 can’t and won’t happen. And what is in Verse 27? Baptism.
Uh, right. A little water on the head and we are all different. Everything becomes possible with a ritual and a symbolic action. Right? Then how come we haven’t been doing a better job of it? How come the church, which has been doing the baptism thing for thousands of years, can’t get it right, can’t live the vision, can’t create the community?
Because of the preposition. Read it again. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ...” Into. Paul implies a direction, a process. Our baptism is not simply an outward sign, it is an inward grace, to use the old description of the sacrament. And that inward grace is a process of transformation. Keep reading: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.” We’re getting dressed. We aren’t dressed yet, because we don’t yet look like Christ, but we are getting dressed. Or maybe better I should say we are being dressed. It is like having a helper because the garments are too difficult for us. We need other hands to button the buttons and tie the ties.
And those other hands are Christ’s. By being baptized into Christ we are letting Christ take over, we are letting Christ’s will supplant our wills. We are letting Christ dress us that we might live into the vision of the Kingdom (and maybe this helps us understand that parable about the wedding garment!) We have to be properly dressed in the uniform of the Reign of God. Hold onto the vision as we live into Christ.
Shalom,
Derek
PS - I used that word uniform purposely. Once again I invite the bible study community to join with me in prayers for the Aldersgate Community. This coming Tuesday we will be having a funeral for a young soldier who was killed in Afghanistan while he was performing a rescue. Joel Gentz was as fine a young man as I have been privileged to meet. I officiated at his wedding to Kathryn a member of our church family, just two years ago. And now we will gather with broken hearts to say farewell. Pray for Kathryn and her family and all those who are affected by this war that seems to have no end.
Our passage for this week is a big picture kind of thing. So maybe we would be better served by focusing on that. We are drawing a grand design, glimpsing the Kingdom in our verses this week. So, we should stand on the mountain top and gaze in wonder. Slip on the wide-angle lens and capture the vista that opens before us. It will take our breath away. Our jaws will drop at the glory, our hearts will pound at the vision. It will seem too beautiful, too powerful, too hopeful. Almost unattainable.
Almost unattainable. The big picture is what captures us, but we often turn away because it seems out of reach. It seems beyond our capacity. We ache to live in that vision, and yet our hearts betray us, our will fails us, our strength deserts us. Sometimes a focus on the big picture leads us to despair. “How long, O Lord?” as the Psalmist wondered when the big picture stayed consistently our of reach.
Which is why sometimes we have to look closer, down to the detail, to the small things that seem insignificant and yet just might be within our reach. Or within our understanding. Just might move us closer.
OK, enough suspense, right? What are we talking about? We’ll these familiar words from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. Take a look:
Galatians 3:23-29 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Let’s start with the big picture, shall we? It’s right there in verse 28. The image of the church and the world without barriers. It is about acceptance and about equality. This is a picture of a community that gets along because it values everyone, everyone is respected and honored. There is no such thing as a second class citizen. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?
But wait it gets even better. Earlier in the passage there is the idea that we don’t need the law any more. The function of the law, says Paul, was to keep us in line. It was a diagnostic tool, it showed us our failings. The law was not about making us better, it was about disciplining us. It didn’t change hearts. But now we don’t need it anymore, because hearts are changed. We keep within the bounds of the law because we want to. That is how we choose to live, that is what defines us, that is who we are.
At least, that is who we can be. Who we want to be, don’t we? At our best we do. And that is just the problem. We are so aware of our own shortcomings, our own prejudices, that we know such a vision is beyond us. We try, we really try to love our neighbors. We try to see the face of Jesus in those around us. We generate the energy, we grit our teeth and put our backs into it. We live in a culture that values individual effort. The bookstores are lined with shelf after shelf of self-help materials, all telling us that we can do it if we try hard enough. So we try. And we can’t do it.
It simply isn’t within us to love like Jesus loved. As much as we would like to think we could do it, we can’t. And this is where the despair kicks in. This is where the big picture vision begins to wear on us. This is where, if we’re honest we want to give up. It’s a dream, some argue, a pipe dream. It would be better to turn back to the law. To legislate our morality. Except even there we fail. And Paul told us we would, so we shouldn’t be surprised that law doesn’t work any better than will.
So, where do we go from there? We as much as admitted that there’s nothing we can do. So, what’s left. A preposition. Such a tiny thing, yet it might mean the different between despair and hope. Three letters in Greek - eis. In English we use four letters - into. All the difference in the world.
Take a look back at verse 27. That is the verse that sets up the vision of the true community that appears in the next verse. Paul is saying without 27, verse 28 can’t and won’t happen. And what is in Verse 27? Baptism.
Uh, right. A little water on the head and we are all different. Everything becomes possible with a ritual and a symbolic action. Right? Then how come we haven’t been doing a better job of it? How come the church, which has been doing the baptism thing for thousands of years, can’t get it right, can’t live the vision, can’t create the community?
Because of the preposition. Read it again. “As many of you as were baptized into Christ...” Into. Paul implies a direction, a process. Our baptism is not simply an outward sign, it is an inward grace, to use the old description of the sacrament. And that inward grace is a process of transformation. Keep reading: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.” We’re getting dressed. We aren’t dressed yet, because we don’t yet look like Christ, but we are getting dressed. Or maybe better I should say we are being dressed. It is like having a helper because the garments are too difficult for us. We need other hands to button the buttons and tie the ties.
And those other hands are Christ’s. By being baptized into Christ we are letting Christ take over, we are letting Christ’s will supplant our wills. We are letting Christ dress us that we might live into the vision of the Kingdom (and maybe this helps us understand that parable about the wedding garment!) We have to be properly dressed in the uniform of the Reign of God. Hold onto the vision as we live into Christ.
Shalom,
Derek
PS - I used that word uniform purposely. Once again I invite the bible study community to join with me in prayers for the Aldersgate Community. This coming Tuesday we will be having a funeral for a young soldier who was killed in Afghanistan while he was performing a rescue. Joel Gentz was as fine a young man as I have been privileged to meet. I officiated at his wedding to Kathryn a member of our church family, just two years ago. And now we will gather with broken hearts to say farewell. Pray for Kathryn and her family and all those who are affected by this war that seems to have no end.
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