Paul Calling Out Peter?

Galatians 2:11-21, The Message - Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem buddies?”

We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.” We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a pretender.

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

 

This is a long scripture reading today, I know.  However, I find it quite compelling reading.  The late-to-the-gospel-party Paul is calling out is, of all people, Peter the Rock.  Peter’s reverting to Torah practices only when his Jewish friends are around and shunning his now-Jewish friends is hypocrisy and Paul calls it as he sees it.  Furthermore, Paul argues that Peter makes it even worse by then turning around and requiring non-Jewish Christians to observe Jewish laws and customs.  Paul rightly judges this to be totally contrary to the Gospel of Jesus.  

Here’s the core of that Gospel that Paul is defending.  You (or I) will never have a right relationship with God by following rules, even good rules:

“Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.” 

As soon as you set up a rule that “good people” follow and “bad people” don’t, you have set up an unholy division among Christ’s people.  No matter what you’ve done or not done, no matter what anyone has done or not done, our standing before God based on our works is the same;  that standing based on works is sinner.  The only thing that changes that standing is the freely given grace of God for people who place their faith in Christ.  This freely accepted grace unites us and when we use rules that separate us, that unity is shattered.  This is why Paul is willing to confront even the almighty Peter.  He is calling Peter back to the grace that Peter knows in his heart of hearts is the only basis for right relationships.

The revolutionary point that Paul is making is that the grace that is the basis for our right relationship with God is also the basis for right relationship with each other.  That is what Paul means when he says, “Christ lives in me.”  The gracious Christ in me is the same gracious Christ in you.  Our shared faith in this gracious Christ forms the basis for our relationship as well and NOT anything we do or don’t do. 

Paul has much more to say about this in this brilliant letter to the Galatian churches, but for today, let’s be challenged by this difficult word we’ve encountered so far.  As soon as you or I put someone in a “lower” category because of what they do or don’t do, we’ve departed from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, when we hold onto those categories, we negate the possibility of right relationship with them because we have left grace behind. 

 

Question:  Take some time to reflect on a “broken” relationship you have with a fellow Christian.  Have you (or they) placed the other in a lower category?  How might the Christ in you be reconnected with the Christ in them?

 

Prayer:  Glorious God, help us connect not just with the grace you have for us, but also with the grace you have for all people – even the people to which we would rather not have your grace extended. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for healing of the divisions in the Jesus’s Church everywhere.

 

Song:  Grace Greater Than Our Sin - Nathan Drake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxKxLVKFrqc  

Tough Love in Thessalonica

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 - In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.  For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.  We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.  For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies.  Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.  And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

 

Last week when we were discussing Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, I mentioned that Paul addresses those who were not working.  Whether it was because they expected Jesus to return any moment or for some other reason, the problem didn’t get better.  Here Paul comes at the problem from a different angle.  Instead of addressing the inactive directly, he instructs the community itself that it’s time they deal the problem themselves.  The idle can ignore Paul hundreds of miles away, but they cannot ignore the people who are feeding them while they do nothing. 

This is an important teaching on life in community.  A community must be willing to hold its members accountable for their contribution to their life together.  It’s one thing when someone is helpless and unable to contribute; Jesus’s instruction is to take care of those precious people.  But the ability to do just that is eroded by people who can contribute and don’t.  They hamstring the mission. They diminish the capacity of the whole.  And Paul says that is unacceptable. 

We’ve lost that level of accountability in the church of today.  Paul’s instruction to Thessalonica is important for the 21^st Century church to hear.  We are entering a time in the history of the church when able-bodied and resourced but passive members of a church will be more and more a hindrance to the ability of a community to carry out its mission.  Not since Paul’s time has is been more important for a community to expect their community members to do all they are able to do to keep the mission going.  Resources and unpaid servants are becoming scarce.  We need everyone to do what they can.

So I humbly ask you these questions:

 

Questions:  In whatever community you count yourself a member, are you contributing all the resources that you can?  Are you helping the mission activities of your community as you are able?  Are you actively praying for your community leaders daily?  Are you giving witness to others about the good things God is doing through your community?

 

Prayer:  God, give us sober awareness of ourselves.  Help us to become clear about what you would ask of us and what our community needs from us to thrive and be about your mission.  Give us the joy of knowing that we are part of something so much bigger and more important than ourselves.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are struggling with a sense of debilitating loneliness.

 

Song: Are Ye Able - BuPyeong Methodist Church (The 74th Anniversary Service

Immanuel Symphony Orchestra United Choir)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcY-rMvCfGg

Could They Be Any More Clueless?!

Mark 8:14-21, CEB - Jesus’ disciples had forgotten to bring any bread, so they had only one loaf with them in the boat. He gave them strict orders: “Watch out and be on your guard for the yeast of the Pharisees as well as the yeast of Herod.”

The disciples discussed this among themselves, “He said this because we have no bread.”

Jesus knew what they were discussing and said, “Why are you talking about the fact that you don’t have any bread? Don’t you grasp what has happened? Don’t you understand? Are your hearts so resistant to what God is doing?  Don’t you have eyes? Why can’t you see? Don’t you have ears? Why can’t you hear? Don’t you remember?  When I broke five loaves of bread for those five thousand people, how many baskets full of leftovers did you gather?”

They answered, “Twelve.”

“And when I broke seven loaves of bread for those four thousand people, how many baskets full of leftovers did you gather?”

They answered, “Seven.”

Jesus said to them, “And you still don’t understand?”

 

Could the disciples be any more clueless?  This is the question that runs through my head as I read this passage.  I think this not so much because the disciples don’t fully understand what is happening with the two feedings of the thousands.  I’ve been reading these stories for decades and I still struggle to grasp the full import of what Jesus is doing here.  But I know it has NOTHING to do with the fact that the disciples have forgotten to bring bread on their boat trip.  Jesus has supernaturally provide nutrition for close to ten thousand people and the disciples are worried about having enough bread for the thirteen people in the boat.  Really?! 

My indignance persists until I remember that, on dozens of occasions, I catch myself worrying about the stupidest things.  I got completely bent out of shape just the other day because my internet connection wasn’t working. Another time, it was because I had missed a minor deadline.  In my sanest and most faith-filled moments, I am just as indignant with myself, possibly more so, as I am with the disciples.  Here’s the truth that is a little hard to hear; Jesus is a bit indignant about it too.  His barrage of rhetorical questions conveys His incredulity at the disciples cluelessness. 

I think we like to believe that Jesus is always “ranibows and unicorns” with us. 

“Oh that’s okay that you worry about insignificant things,” we imagine Him saying. 

“I know you’re just having a bad day. . .it will be better tomorrow,” we fantasize hearing Jesus speak to us.

                But the truth is, sometimes we need to hear Jesus incredulous disappointment to jar us back into spiritual sanity.  And here in this passage, Jesus doesn’t hold back. Jesus walks the disciples through what has happened, prompting them to remember how He provided for them and thousands of others.  He points out with His questions tha, in each occasion, the leftover food was as much or more than they started with in the first place.  Everyone ate until they were full and there were plenty of leftovers. 

I should note that Jesus was also trying to point out something significant by rehearsing the specific numbers of loaves they started with and how many they had left over.  I have read more than half a dozen theories as to the symbolism in those numbers.  I am not overly convinced by any of them, so I won’t list them here.  However, it is clear that Mark was confident that the first readers of his gospel would clearly understand the symbolism.  However, two centuries later, the point is largely lost on us.  What isn’t lost is that Jesus cannot believe that the disciples are still not understanding the whole thing.  He does not mind sharing His disappointment with them and I think they needed to hear it. These same disciples, just a couple of years later, will be the ones who multiply the work of Christ many times over.  But in this instance, they need to hear that they have more growing to do.  They won’t become who God has called them to be if they aren’t held accountable for doing better.

There are times that we too need to receive this “tough love” even though it is not pleasant.   Sometimes it comes from parents, friends, mentors, or even sometimes our children.  Sometimes it comes from reading a scripture like the one above.  God may use just about anything to do the prompting, but the question is, are we open to receiving correction.  Can we hear God’s disappointment when it comes and respond?

 

Question:  When was the last time you were able to graciously receive correction and respond in a positive manner?

 

Prayer:  Lord, sometimes what we need is to hear that you love us in spite of our fumbling and cluelessness.  Other times, we need a little (or big) “kick in the pants.”  Help us hear Your prompting today in whatever form it comes and respond.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time today asking God to center you spiritually as we begin the busy season of Advent leading up to Christmas. 

 

Song:  10,000 Reasons – Matt Redman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3K3roEF36k