Proper 9C’25
6 July 2025
Galatians 6. (1-6) 7-16
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone +
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He forgives all our sins and heals all our infirmities; He redeems our lives from the grave and crowns us with mercy and loving-kindness. Amen.
Jesus, according to all four gospel accounts seemed to get along fine with tax collectors (IRS Investigators), alcoholics, and prostitutes, with sinners. However, there was one group of people that he seemed to be constantly having ‘run ins’ with – the religious leaders called “Pharisees.” It seems these folks were hell bent on condemning and judging everyone around them. They were not interested in opening the door of the Kingdom of God any wider, in fact they thought anyone that wasn’t exactly like them were not even fit for the Kingdom.
Their delight and favorite pastime was to catch a “sinner” in the act of some transgression and then, if found to be guilty, they could participate in the stoning of the convicted sinner. Jesus, on the other hand, would break the law of tradition when loving a person called for it.
Remember his reaction to the woman caught in adultery? While the Pharisees all stood around her eagerly awaiting the signal to stone her (never mind the man, where was he – but I digress), Jesus asked them a question that continues to resonate through time “You who are without sin, cast the first stone.” Then after a deafening silence one stone was dropped, then another, then another until the only people left was the woman and Jesus. Then he declared her forgiven and from that day forward her life would never be the same. Rather than sin, her life would be characterized by love for God and for neighbor and even for herself. Christ’s attitude toward the woman exemplifies the only appropriate response for his followers: mercy, forgiveness and love.
The spirit of the Pharisees lived on in the early Church – thus the reason for St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The same spirit also lives on today in various forms of legalistic Christianity. Priest and author, Brennan Manning noted that, “The God of the legalistic Christian…is often unpredictable, erratic, and capable of all manner of prejudices. When we view God this way, we feel compelled to engage in some sort of magic to appease him. Sunday worship becomes a superstitious insurance policy against his whims. This God expects people to be perfect and to be in perpetual control of their feelings and thoughts.” Manning goes on to say: “When broken people with this concept of God fail – as invariably they must – they usually expect punishment. So, they persevere in religious practices as they struggle to maintain a hallow image of a perfect self. The struggle itself is exhausting. The legalists can never live up to the expectations they project on God.”1
It might surprise you or it might not, to hear that I am a recovering Pharisee. Years ago, I had become a self-appointed judge and jury for everyone around me. If they even got close to violating the religious rules as they had been passed on to me, they were sternly warned. If they actually violated one of the rules – well they were to be marked and condemned. Yes, that is the way I was until a perfect storm knocked me off my high horse of holiness.
I entered a period in my life where I had no answers and it seemed that I was lost and the old road map had no roads to lead me out of my predicament. Like the bumper sticker says: “My karma ran over my dogma.” Now all of a sudden, I was in need of something very different than having all the right answers – I needed grace – I needed compassion – I needed someone who understood that God’s mercy was greater than God’s judgment. Suddenly I found myself in a place where I could listen to a different voice – the voice of a kinder and gentler God. This was the voice that did not come into the world to condemn it but to save it. This was The Voice that calls us each “the beloved.”
This week we read the final chapter of St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians and it fits perfectly into our learning to see God as a loving God rather than a judge and executioner. When we see God in this way it helps us to see others and ourselves in a much more compassionate light. St. Paul instructs them on how to deal with a fellow Christian that is struggling with sin: “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”2 As The Message translation puts it: “Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore them, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day is out!”3 That is exactly what happened to me. I had to hit the wall of my own imperfection before I could see my own need of forgiveness and compassionate understanding – something that had been in short supply when it came to my dealing with others failures.
Once again, we see that the Christian life is not so much about keeping all the rules perfectly as it is staying in relationship with God and with each another, and having compassion for ourselves. I hear a whole lot more compassion in this way of dealing with a fellow struggler than with publicly humiliating them or condemning them. And lest we think this kind of preaching is giving a license to sin, St. Paul places value on personal responsibility. He wrote later in that same chapter: “For all must carry their own loads.” Then goes into the Kingdom principle of sowing and reaping. The Message reads: “What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others – ignoring God! – harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds. But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.” So now that we have received God’s mercy, grace and love let us plant seeds of the Spirit by using the gifts we have been given to serve God and to serve others.
St. Paul gets in one last dig on the false teachers and of their reintroducing a law of circumcision and here is the finale:
“For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything: but a new creation.” For St. Paul and for us it means a giving up the pride of our own religious efforts and acknowledging our own brokenness – that none of us on our best day will ever be perfect enough to merit God’s goodness – it is God’s gift especially to those who have been given a fresh reminder of their imperfection.
Rather than our religious striving and judging God simply asks for our surrender where we turn our wills over to God and exchange our imperfection for Christ’s perfection is the best deal we are ever going to find. May we who have received the Spirit be instruments of gentle restoration to all the broken that we are sent to or who are sent to us. The familiar hymn written by Frederick Faber says it best:
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify his strictness
With a zeal He will not own.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
Was there ever kinder shepherd
Half so gentle, half so sweet,
As the Savior who would have us
Come and gather at His feet?4
AMEN!
St. Cuthbert’s Cross 7th cen.
1 Manning, Brennan, Reflections for Ragamuffins (HarperCollins: San Francisco, 1998) p.138
2 From Galatians chap. 6 NRSV
3 Peterson, Eugene, trans., The Message//Remix (Nav Press: Colorado Springs, CO, 2003)