Sermon, 5 June: Week 1 of Galatians series - 'The only thing constant is change'

Beginning a 5-week series on Paul's Letter to the Galatians...

1st READING: Psalm 146
2nd READING: Galatians 1:1-24

SERMON/
Let’s pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations
of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

‘The only thing constant, is change.’
So said the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus
nearly two and a half thousand years ago...
Ironically, over the ages, various people have quite happily adopted,
adapted, and had his saying attributed to them...
pretty much proving the very point that Heraclitus was making...

‘The only thing constant is change’
This theme of change, of transformation,
is at the very heart of Paul’s letter to the Galatians,
possibly Paul’s earliest surviving letter.
Scholars think that it was written about 15 to 25 years
after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The recipients, the Galatians, were a cluster of faith communities
that had sprung up as a result of Paul’s earlier missionary efforts.
He had come,
had shared the good news of God’s love in Christ;
they had listened,
had come to faith,
had been transformed.
Their lives had changed as they entered upon this new faith journey,
and walked in the footsteps of Jesus and his disciples.

‘The only thing constant is change.’
...Change and transformation.
Over the next few weeks, as we look at this letter of Paul’s,
we’ll see how the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
had the capacity to transform the lives of these very early Christians,
we’ll also see how this good news of Jesus – the gospel –
had the capacity to transform the lives of those around them,
as they lived out their lives in faith, hope and trust –
bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
And today, we’ll see how God, in Jesus,
had transformed Paul’s life,
his understanding of faith,
his understanding of how to live his life...

But before we get to Paul’s transformation,
let’s look at the opening of his letter,
and perhaps it might be helpful if you open up to our passage in Galatians...
Like any good letter, Galatians begins with a salutation – a greeting:
here we have who the letter is from,
and, to whom it’s written.
Now, remember, his audience know him -
Paul’s been there before,
he’s shared the faith with them...
and yet, right at the very beginning of his letter,
Paul pulls out some big guns:
he sets out some credentials – if you like:
‘It’s me, Paul – I'm an apostle sent from God.’
You can almost feel a big black pen underlining this, emphasising it,
and possibly, his unwritten words:
‘so pin back your ears, and listen, folks, because this is important.’

Having got their attention,
Paul proceeds with a blessing of grace and peace, in Christ’s name –
Christ, who gave himself ‘to rescue us from the present evil age’...
And without wasting any time for gentle pleasantries, such as
‘hope all’s well with you?’
or ‘how are Mildred and Effie doing?’
he’s straight in there:
‘Hi, Galatians, it’s me, Paul, apostle: blessings on you.
I’m astonished at what you’re doing!’
....If they weren’t listening before, they certainly are now.
But, what is it that they’re doing?
It all centres around the gospel –
but, which gospel are we talking about here?
Paul talks of the Galatians turning to a ‘different gospel’ –
they've been listening to others who have
seemingly sowed seeds of confusion.
Apparently, a group referred to by scholars as the ‘Judaizers’,
have come in,
have seen Paul’s handiwork,
and have decided that he’s been preaching a watered-down
version of the gospel...or, if you like,
he’s been doing things a little differently from how it’s aye bin...
This group, preaching a different gospel –
a gospel that Paul is quick to condemn as no gospel at all –
are wanting the non-Jewish Galatians to follow their particular ways and customs:
for example, for the males to be circumcised;
to follow the Law and the Prophets.
Not for them any fancy new ways –
basically, they’ll let these Galatian non-Jews come into the faith,
but really, these new folk will just have to fit in.
The Judaizers are not prepared to make any changes that would make
the faith path a little easier to walk along for these younger members in the body of Christ.
They’re putting conditions on the gospel:
yes, it’s good news, but only if you do it our way.

Paul’s hard work of bringing the Galatians to faith
is being undermined, and he’s incensed.
For him, the whole point of the gospel is that it’s
about change and transformation –
about liberation from the Law and freedom in Christ.
And these are themes we’ll come back to a little more in depth, in a couple of weeks.
At the moment however, we have, in essence, a stream of writing
by Paul centring on the gospel:
He had shared with them the gospel, which they’d joyfully received.
He had then gone on, to share the faith with people in other areas.
Others had subsequently arrived, adding to, and, as Paul states, ‘perverting’ the gospel.
He urges the Galatians to turn back to the gospel he shared with them:
the gospel of Christ...
a gospel of grace – unconditional grace;
a gospel not made up in the minds of humans
but a gospel received by Paul from Christ himself ...
a gospel that Paul had previously not only denied, but had vigorously suppressed:
a gospel that is utterly about transformation.

Paul makes his case for the transformative power of the gospel
by reminding the Galatians of his own story.
He was a man of deep religious conviction:
zealous in his faith,
proud of the tradition that had been passed down to him by his father...
and for generations before that.
He was a rigorous student –
he had surpassed his peers in knowledge of the faith.
He had persecuted those who dared to challenge it.
Had tried to destroy this new faith springing up around the man, Jesus...

However, while pursuing God with all his restless energy,
it was God who caught up with, and called Paul –
called him into a different understanding
of his faith,
of his God,
of the man, Jesus.
On the road to Damascus,
on his way to root out the Jesus people,
Paul encountered Jesus, and his life would never be the same again.
While ‘the only thing constant is change’,
even so, God took and used Paul’s personality:
his restless energy,
his passion,
and transformed them from being tools of terror,
and  harnessed them to be used in the service of Christ,
and in the sharing of the gospel:
the gospel, that, God’s love was such, that he became one of us;
experienced what it was, what it is, to be human.
Showed, in the way he lived, and loved,
what it was to be truly, authentically human;
showed the transforming power of God’s love
in his love and care for human beings –
especially those discarded, or deemed dispensable by society.
Showed the wideness of God’s mercy and grace
and that it was freely given for all...
and, at the last, showed a love that could transform even death itself...
Paul was passionate about the transforming power of the gospel,
for he knew what it was to have been rescued and transformed;
he knew what it was to be known among other followers of Christ as:
‘the man who formerly persecuted us,’ who was
’now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy’

It can be easy to listen to other gospels:
gospels that tell us we don’t measure up...
gospels that tell us that the only way we can receive God’s grace
is by keeping all the commandments,
making sure we do this, or that, or the other;
gospels that have conditions put upon them.
And sometimes, we take these kinds of gospels on board,
try to tick all the boxes,
and jump through all the hoops –
hope we get a gold star
and our ticket to heaven,
as long as we just work away at it.
We take these different gospels on board because it seems really hard
to accept that God’s grace is freely given,
that God’s grace comes without strings attached,
that God has called us for his own
and that we are his beloved...
and that, in his love, we are transformed.
It’s almost as if we’re afraid, fearful, perhaps even suspicious:
after all, you don’t get something for nothing, do you?
But that’s the essence of the gospel, the good news.
We do get something for nothing:
God’s love freely given.
We love, because God loved us first.
And perfect love casts away our fear.

‘The only thing constant is change’ 
Change is a discomforting, disquieting thing.
But we need not fear change:
we are the people of change, of transformation.
And as we embrace God’s good news,
embrace God’s transformational love,
not only will we be changed,
but those around us will be as well.
Mother Teresa once said:
‘I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, 
or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do 
whatever I’m supposed to do, what I can do. 
I used to pray for answers, but now I’m praying for strength. 
I used to believe that prayer changes things, 
but now I know that prayer changes us, 
and we change things.’

Shortly, we’ll share in bread, and in wine.
We’ll remember the one who had – who still has –
the power to change, to transform lives.
The journalist, Linda Ellerbee once said:
‘What I like most about change is that it’s a synonym for ‘hope’. 
If you are taking a risk, what you are really saying is, 
‘I believe in tomorrow and I will be a part of it.’

As we share in the meal that Jesus gave us,
we remember that, in holy mystery, it is a meal of hope;
a meal which transforms us, as it nourishes and strengthens us
to live out our faith in a world that is constantly changing,
a world where we share the gospel – the good news –
of God’s constant, faithful love:
a love that has the power to transform‘this present evil age’
into a foretaste of the kin-dom of heaven on earth.
And, as the Psalmist proclaimed:
'Happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.'   Amen.