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  

A Question in Response to a Question That’s Actually the Answer

Mark 11:27-33, CEB - Jesus and his disciples entered Jerusalem again. As Jesus was walking around the temple, the chief priests, legal experts, and elders came to him. They asked, “What kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?”

Jesus said to them, “I have a question for you. Give me an answer, then I’ll tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.  Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.”

They argued among themselves, “If we say, ‘It’s of heavenly origin,’ he’ll say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’  But we can’t say, ‘It’s of earthly origin.’” They said this because they were afraid of the crowd, because they all thought John was a prophet.  They answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.”

 

                Jesus and His disciples come back to the temple to do some teaching and are met by the religious leaders who are looking for a way to discredit Him.  His influence has become a threat to their own.  So they ask a question, not because they want a real answer, but because the question will stir up the crowd no matter how Jesus answers it.  Even if Jesus simply refuses to answer, He will appear to the crowd as evasive.  This would undermine His authority as well.  Instead of answering or refusing to answer, Jesus offers a deal.  If the leaders can answer His question, then He will answer theirs.  The fun part about this is that the question Jesus asks is the same kind of question as the one posed to Him.  The leaders’ credibility will be undermined no matter how they answer.  The huddled discussion they have elaborates on why this is the case.  They realize they have been beaten at their own game, so they relent by saying, “we don’t know.”    

                This is the beginning of a very intense conflict that will play out throughout the next chapter of Mark between Jesus and these leaders.  Of course, the eventual result is Jesus hanging on a Roman cross.  However, the issues raised by these conflicts are essentially important.  After all, it is important to answer, “by what authority” Jesus conducts His ministry. And if we are paying close attention, Jesus’s non-answer is a brilliant answer to the authority question.  Mark, is trying to point this out in his account.  By asking the leaders about the baptism offered by John, Jesus is, in effect, answering the authority question.  Great irony is discovered when we realize that the leaders own “strategy meeting” points out why.  Jesus’s authority is confirmed when John baptizes Him.  As Jeus comes up out of the water, the voice of God proclaims from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I dearly love.” (Mark 1:11)  If these religious leaders (the same group that will condemn Him to death in just a few days) admit that John’s baptism was of heavenly origin, then they would also answer their own question about Jesus’s authority.  The leaders care nothing about that; they care only that Jesus’s authority has come to challenge their own and they will not have it. 

                As I have said at least a couple times before in our journey through Mark’s gospel, we more properly hear the message Mark wants us to hear when we put ourselves in the place of the religious leaders.  Instead of making them the villains who we could never be like, we would do well to ask ourselves how Jesus’s authority impinges upon our own. 

 

Question:  If Jesus is indeed Messiah and Lord of all, what claim or authority does He have on our lives?

 

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, we admit that is hard to submit to Your authority sometimes, because in doing so, we have to let go of our own authority and power.  Where we are blind to this, point it out for us. Where we are too stubborn to relent, make us humble.  You are God and we are not.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for religious leaders at the highest levels of authority today (Bishops, District Superintendents, etc)

 

Song:  Stubborn – Michael English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTAnVc1HDFE

Jesus Chose Political Rivals

Mark 3:13-19 - Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.  He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.  These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

 

I have else reflected on the diversity of Jesus’s disciples.  Professional fishermen and tax collectors are chosen.  Impetuous, impulsive, “thunder-like,” doubt-prone, educated and barely-educated all chosen.  What never occurred to me recently, however, is that Jesus intentionally chose political rivals to travel with Him for three years and take on the same authority He wielded to preach and cast out demons. 

 

Matthew was a tax collector, who by definition, was aligned with the Roman state.  Roman contracted tax collectors to collect the taxes from those under their rule and Matthew was one of those contractors.  Simon, identified as a Zealot, is, by definition, one that believes the Roman state should be eliminated or at the very least, resisted.  I would have loved to be a fly on the wall hearing these two guys talk after a long day of ministry with Jesus.  But both were chosen, trained, given authority, and eventually sent out to represent Him. 

There is much talk these days about the growing divisiveness in our culture.  Politicians in separate parties seem to be more and more driven by the desire to malign, discredit, and defeat their “rivals” rather than find a way to govern together.  The people represented by these public servants often mimic and even expound upon the toxic rhetoric on social media.  Mainstream media outlets strategically brand themselves as allies of a particular and cunningly seek to discredit the outlets of other “flavors.”  All this divisiveness can increasingly be seen in the church as well – the community of Jesus’s current disciples.   Church disputes are increasingly involving the secular law courts and all too many congregations have begun to brand themselves in the same way that media outlets do.

 

I am convinced that this state of affairs saddens and likely angers our Lord.  Matthew, Simon, and almost certainly the rest the disciples regularly disagreed about important matters.  But Jesus intentionally chose people that saw the world differently than others that He chose.  They were anything but a homogenous group of yes-men for a particular viewpoint.  But their “rivals” were not each other.  Their rivals were the many variety of “demons” that tortured the people Jesus came to preach to and save.   

 

There is nothing wrong with having strong political opinions.  But as followers of Jesus, we’re called to advance the mission of Jesus more than the “success” of those opinions.  In fact, I happen to believe that our differing convictions enable us to pursue this mission more effectively.  Those who see the world and current issues differently than I do are able to reach people that would not even give me the time of day and vice versa. What would be even more effective than that would be for congregation of individuals who include in their ranks people aligned with opposing worldviews united by a mission that is bigger than all those worldviews put together.  I think that is why Jesus intentionally created such a community.  A tribe that includes Matthew and Simon might just make both Roman sympathizers and anti-Roman zealots wonder if there is something even more important than Rome. 

 

Question:  Do you believe the community described above is possible?  Why or Why not?

 

Prayer:  God of All, give us eyes to see our “rivals” the way you do.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people wrestling with some kind of “demon” today (feel free to define “demon” any way you feel appropriate). 

 

Song:  Where is the Love? - Black-Eyed Peas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiy-oEGYYPc

Family Feuds

Genesis 25:24-34 - And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins!  The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau.  Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob.  Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter. He was an outdoorsman, but Jacob had a quiet temperament, preferring to stay at home.  Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating the wild game Esau brought home, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, “I’m starved! Give me some of that red stew!” (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means “red.”)

“All right,” Jacob replied, “but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.”

“Look, I’m dying of starvation!” said Esau. “What good is my birthright to me now?”

But Jacob said, “First you must swear that your birthright is mine.” So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn.

 

I have a brother who is three years younger than I am and like many brothers we had our rumbles.  But Jacob and Esau take it to another level.  It is a rivalry that the Lord told their mother would develop and it was probably not helped by the fact that Esau was Isaac’s favorite and Jacob was Rebekah’s favorite.  This feud would last most of their lives.  Even more than that, the two brothers’ feud would metastasize into a feud between two nations.  Many lives would be lost would result from this sibling rivalry. 

This is what unresolved conflict tends to do – spiral out and expand and eventually create casualties.  Many historians trace the current tensions in the middle east all the way back to Isaac and Ishamael, the sons of Abraham.  American historical legends recall the bloody feud between the Hatfields and McCoys.  And too many of our families could recall tales of how a family feud created a lasting toxicity that is passed down from generation to generation.  My family name, McCrea, was spelled differently four generations ago.  Two brothers’ feud got to the point that one of them legally changed the spelling of the last name so as to “disown” his brother. 

You can probably guess where I’m going with this.  It’s not good to let brokenness in our relationships continue to grow.  At the very least, a decision to not continue pouring gasoline on such fires can literally save truckloads of pain and might even save a life.  If it is within you power to de-escalate a conflict or even begin to heal the wounds from the past, we’re called by our reconciling God to work for peace.

Jacob and Esau eventually reach a truce of sorts and I can only imagine how much pain and suffering was avoided because they did (If you want to read about it, the story is in Genesis 33).  Try to imagine what pain and suffering might be avoided if we did the same.

 

Prayer:  God give us hearts predisposed towards making peace with our brothers and sisters.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those who lives have turned upside down by family conflict. 

 

Song: Cochren & Co. - One Day (Official Lyric Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So94m-Lp6Pw

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

 

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - November 30, 2021

 

Luke 2:13-14 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

   “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 

“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” began as a poem called “The Angel’s Song” composed by Edmund Sears, a Unitarian minister in 1849.  The most popular US version of the poem set to music is a tune called “Carol” written by Richard Storrs Willis in 1850.  The pairing of the two makes the popular carol the first Christmas Carol written in the United States.  It was written in the aftermath of the war with Mexico and in the midst of a rising internal conflict in the US regarding slavery.  This conflict would lead to the Civil War just a few years after the poem was written.  Sears himself was recovering from a devastating illness and depression that had forced him to resign his pastorate in 1847.   

 

I find it compelling that Sears wrote these words in the midst of national and personal conflict and struggle: 

"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,

From heaven's all-gracious King."

The world in solemn stillness lay,

To hear the angels sing.

 

Sears imagines the first-century world being quiet and attentive enough to actually hear the angels song and message.  While it is easy to argue that the original angels message was not heard or heeded by most original hearers, stay with the progression of Sears’ thought.  The second verse proclaims that, “Still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled,” witnessing that the Angels still sing for every generation their “glorious song of old.” The angels message of peace is proclaimed to every generation.

 

Then comes the controversial and thus, most often skipped third verse:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love-song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.

 

Sears is pleading with humanity to hear the message of peace in a world obsessed with its many conflicts.

 

The fourth verse (in most versions, the third verse) is a more personal appeal aimed at comforting those like Sears himself who are struggling with the burdens of life:

 

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow. . .

 

He witnesses that the angels never-ending song is for them as well and invites them to “rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing!”  The poem finishes with the fifth verse imagines a world who finally hears and heeds the message of peace:

 

For lo!, the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When with the ever-circling years

Comes round the age of gold

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

 

This song has never been one of my favorites because it does not explicitly mention Jesus.  But I have to say it has moved up in my personal rankings this year because it has helped me hear the angels’ message of peace more than I ever have before.  If ever the world needed to “hear the angels sing” their message of peace and comfort, it is now. 

 

Question:  Can you hear the Angels’ timeless song of peace being sung over you this year?

 

Prayer:  God is Highest Heaven, may we hear your song of peace over “life’s crushing load” this most holy of seasons. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray again for all of our health care workers

 

Song:  David Torbett - It Came Upon a Midnight Clear – There are obviously more polished versions of this song, but I wanted a version that included the almost always omitted third verse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TYlfl2QVsQ