Proper 9C
July 7, 2019

O God of gentleness and redemption, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

This morning I want to focus our attention on our reading from Galatians, because we aren’t going to hear from this beautiful letter for another three years, and it’s one of the most important books in our Second Testament, theologically and ethically. We don’t know for sure, but it might be the second oldest document in our Christian scripture, probably written just after the year 50. Galatia was a large territory in what is now known as central Turkey. Paul was writing to a group of communities, not just to a gathering in one town or city. Here is the oldest document that asserts justification by faith and not works (works, in this case, mean circumcision for men and keeping dietary commandments – it doesn’t mean “good deeds”). The thing about justification by faith, though, is that, according to Paul, it’s the faith of or from Jesus Christ, not faith in Jesus Christ that saves us. It was Jesus’s faith, not his followers’ faith, and that’s a good thing, because as a group, we aren’t all that faithful. As far as I can tell, Paul never meant to suggest that we don’t have work to do in response to Jesus’ faith in God and in his followers.
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