The Difference Between Knowing And Doing
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series II, Cycle C
Object:
It is difficult to be the church. What we have been asked to do here is not easy. Jesus' directive to love one another sounds like it should be a fairly straightforward thing to do. Now, I don't want to shock anyone here this morning, but I do have to admit that there have been times in our history that there have been disagreements in the church; disagreements about what it means to love one another. Some of those disagreements are over what it really means to love, and some of those disagreements are over just to whom the "one another" is referring. Paul's writings to the church at Galatia this morning, and for next week, drop us right smack-dab in the middle of those disagreements. Let's read over the shoulder of the Galatians and see if Paul's words can give us direction, as well.
At first, being the church was not so bad. Everyone who was there was pretty much alike. They had all been Jewish, came from the same general area and lived in Jerusalem, and all had joined up at pretty much the same time. They had more in common than they had in differences. Being Jewish, they had all grown up with the same religious laws, and shared the same religious practices and traditions. They were all circumcised. They all ate the same foods, and stayed away from the same foods. Then something very painful happened; something that created all kinds of problems for the early church.
They were successful. It was then that they came face-to-face with the difference between knowing and doing.
It all started the first time that new person who was not from the same side of the tracks came to join the church; he was not Jewish. He had not been raised in the same traditions, and did not follow, or even understand the laws that undergirded the Jewish tradition. Even worse, he wasn't interested in learning those laws to become a member of the new church. I mean, the new guy wasn't even circumcised.
In reality, there should not have been a problem. Every one of the church members was familiar with Jesus' comment that he had fulfilled the obligation of the old laws, and the only law in effect now was to love one another. They knew that. But they didn't know how to do that. Having lived their entire lives under the myriad of laws, they couldn't conceive of doing otherwise.
Yes, the old laws had been unbearable at times, and had created an inequality in the society that was exactly what Jesus had preached against. But surely he hadn't meant doing away with all of the laws! I mean we have to be reasonable here. Surely we need to do away with those laws that are unfair, and that create injustice; but the others? If Jesus wants us to love one another, then somehow we have to have rules and laws that define just how to do that, don't we! Sure, we need laws so people understand exactly what they have to do to show their love. There's a good case of first-century rationalization. We've been good at that for a long time.
We can do away with those laws that say a guy can divorce his wife by simply writing it on a piece of paper and throwing it at her feet. That's pretty unfair. Besides, there are actually twelve pages of divorce laws in the Mishnah, and that's just not necessary. There are another couple of hundred pages of laws about marriage and betrothals, but they are all connected to other religious and political issues that we don't have to worry about anymore, so they're out now. And what about all of those laws about sacrifices at the temple? Now that Jesus has served as our ultimate sacrifice for our salvation, those can go, too. Along with the sacrifice laws, all of those other temple things can go away, also. We have a new temple, one not made with hands. Good, now we're making progress. Let's see, the books of law about the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees and Pharisees, nope, don't need them anymore. There must be thousands of pages of laws about cleanliness and uncleanliness. Those have been some of the most oppressive laws of all of them. Jesus made it clear that those laws just don't apply anymore, so we'll consider them gone.
Well, wait a minute.
Except for a couple of those laws about food. Some of those probably ought to stay. You know, some of those that tell us which foods are clean and okay to eat, and which ones we should stay away from. I'm sure Jesus didn't mean for us to stop following those laws. Actually, those were some of the laws that really set us apart from all those other folks. They would eat anything. So the laws about what food we can and cannot eat stay. But all the rest of them are finished.
Except of course, for the law about circumcision; we really ought to keep that one, too. Circumcision is what has set us apart since the days of Abraham. It is what has identified us as God's chosen people throughout history. Besides, Jesus grew up in the tradition and was circumcised, so I'm sure he expects us to continue that.
So, we're agreed then. All of those joining the new church can celebrate the fact that, through his death and resurrection, Jesus has freed us from the bondage of the old laws; except for those rules about what we can and cannot eat, and for the fact that all the guys have to get circumcised.
If it sounds like I'm making light of all of this, that is not the intent. But it is interesting to note that the early church had such a hard time creating its own identity that until the year 130 A.D., Christianity was still considered a Jewish sect. However much they knew that they were justified by faith alone, they still relied on works to get it done.
As new people responded to the call, they were met with the demands to follow the old laws that remained. If you were Jewish to begin with, there wasn't much problem. But if you were not Jewish, to become a Christian you first had to be circumcised as a Jew. This might have worked for a while, but as Paul and others traveled the world bringing more and more to Christ, the questioning about food and circumcision grew. Eventually, a split developed among the early disciples. Those remaining in Jerusalem maintained that circumcision was non-negotiable, and the only way into the salvation of the church. Those preaching from other corners of the world insisted that such laws were unjust, and the acts of false believers.
At one point, Paul met the Apostle Peter, one of the original disciples, and ended up in a yelling match with him. It seems that Peter, who was one of the Jerusalem boys, had had a dream about the laws regarding cleanliness. In Acts 10, we read that Peter had a dream about a big white sheet being lowered from heaven, and in the sheet were animals and foods of all kinds. It might help this make sense if we understood that when the ships docked at the port and unloaded their animals and cargo, everything was just loaded into the big white sails and hoisted over the side of the ship. Peter had seen that happen at Caesarea, and got the point of the dream. God told him to go ahead and eat anything he wanted out of the sail; clean, unclean, it just didn't matter. Peter got the message and began preaching it, which made Paul and the other non-Jerusalem folks happy. But after getting a chewing out from his friends back home, Peter dropped the sail story from his sermons and went back to warning people not to eat unclean things. Paul was so angered over this about-face that when he ran into Peter in the city of Antioch, he called him a hypocrite and put him in his place.
This food and circumcision argument may sound somewhat overblown to us today. But what it meant at that time was that if you ate the unclean foods, which most everyone outside of Jerusalem did, and if you were not circumcised, which most everyone outside of Jerusalem was not, then you were yourself unclean. And if you were unclean, you could not join the church. You could not have salvation. You were lost.
Yes, it is difficult to be the church. Paul's writing in this morning's message was a reminder to the church of Galatia that no one was to be excluded because of some nonsense about eating unclean food or being uncircumcised. He also reminded them that salvation came from what people believed, and not from following some laws established by a group of people, no matter how well-intended.
As we continue to try to create the church that Paul envisioned, it might do us well to periodically read these words as if they were written to us today. It might do us well to look upon ourselves to see if we are excluding anyone because of our laws, written or unwritten. We know what we should do, but how is our doing, doing?
If Paul will stand up and tear into Peter, the disciple upon whom Jesus said he would establish his church, I'd rather not see how he might deal with us. Yes, it is difficult to be the church.
At first, being the church was not so bad. Everyone who was there was pretty much alike. They had all been Jewish, came from the same general area and lived in Jerusalem, and all had joined up at pretty much the same time. They had more in common than they had in differences. Being Jewish, they had all grown up with the same religious laws, and shared the same religious practices and traditions. They were all circumcised. They all ate the same foods, and stayed away from the same foods. Then something very painful happened; something that created all kinds of problems for the early church.
They were successful. It was then that they came face-to-face with the difference between knowing and doing.
It all started the first time that new person who was not from the same side of the tracks came to join the church; he was not Jewish. He had not been raised in the same traditions, and did not follow, or even understand the laws that undergirded the Jewish tradition. Even worse, he wasn't interested in learning those laws to become a member of the new church. I mean, the new guy wasn't even circumcised.
In reality, there should not have been a problem. Every one of the church members was familiar with Jesus' comment that he had fulfilled the obligation of the old laws, and the only law in effect now was to love one another. They knew that. But they didn't know how to do that. Having lived their entire lives under the myriad of laws, they couldn't conceive of doing otherwise.
Yes, the old laws had been unbearable at times, and had created an inequality in the society that was exactly what Jesus had preached against. But surely he hadn't meant doing away with all of the laws! I mean we have to be reasonable here. Surely we need to do away with those laws that are unfair, and that create injustice; but the others? If Jesus wants us to love one another, then somehow we have to have rules and laws that define just how to do that, don't we! Sure, we need laws so people understand exactly what they have to do to show their love. There's a good case of first-century rationalization. We've been good at that for a long time.
We can do away with those laws that say a guy can divorce his wife by simply writing it on a piece of paper and throwing it at her feet. That's pretty unfair. Besides, there are actually twelve pages of divorce laws in the Mishnah, and that's just not necessary. There are another couple of hundred pages of laws about marriage and betrothals, but they are all connected to other religious and political issues that we don't have to worry about anymore, so they're out now. And what about all of those laws about sacrifices at the temple? Now that Jesus has served as our ultimate sacrifice for our salvation, those can go, too. Along with the sacrifice laws, all of those other temple things can go away, also. We have a new temple, one not made with hands. Good, now we're making progress. Let's see, the books of law about the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees and Pharisees, nope, don't need them anymore. There must be thousands of pages of laws about cleanliness and uncleanliness. Those have been some of the most oppressive laws of all of them. Jesus made it clear that those laws just don't apply anymore, so we'll consider them gone.
Well, wait a minute.
Except for a couple of those laws about food. Some of those probably ought to stay. You know, some of those that tell us which foods are clean and okay to eat, and which ones we should stay away from. I'm sure Jesus didn't mean for us to stop following those laws. Actually, those were some of the laws that really set us apart from all those other folks. They would eat anything. So the laws about what food we can and cannot eat stay. But all the rest of them are finished.
Except of course, for the law about circumcision; we really ought to keep that one, too. Circumcision is what has set us apart since the days of Abraham. It is what has identified us as God's chosen people throughout history. Besides, Jesus grew up in the tradition and was circumcised, so I'm sure he expects us to continue that.
So, we're agreed then. All of those joining the new church can celebrate the fact that, through his death and resurrection, Jesus has freed us from the bondage of the old laws; except for those rules about what we can and cannot eat, and for the fact that all the guys have to get circumcised.
If it sounds like I'm making light of all of this, that is not the intent. But it is interesting to note that the early church had such a hard time creating its own identity that until the year 130 A.D., Christianity was still considered a Jewish sect. However much they knew that they were justified by faith alone, they still relied on works to get it done.
As new people responded to the call, they were met with the demands to follow the old laws that remained. If you were Jewish to begin with, there wasn't much problem. But if you were not Jewish, to become a Christian you first had to be circumcised as a Jew. This might have worked for a while, but as Paul and others traveled the world bringing more and more to Christ, the questioning about food and circumcision grew. Eventually, a split developed among the early disciples. Those remaining in Jerusalem maintained that circumcision was non-negotiable, and the only way into the salvation of the church. Those preaching from other corners of the world insisted that such laws were unjust, and the acts of false believers.
At one point, Paul met the Apostle Peter, one of the original disciples, and ended up in a yelling match with him. It seems that Peter, who was one of the Jerusalem boys, had had a dream about the laws regarding cleanliness. In Acts 10, we read that Peter had a dream about a big white sheet being lowered from heaven, and in the sheet were animals and foods of all kinds. It might help this make sense if we understood that when the ships docked at the port and unloaded their animals and cargo, everything was just loaded into the big white sails and hoisted over the side of the ship. Peter had seen that happen at Caesarea, and got the point of the dream. God told him to go ahead and eat anything he wanted out of the sail; clean, unclean, it just didn't matter. Peter got the message and began preaching it, which made Paul and the other non-Jerusalem folks happy. But after getting a chewing out from his friends back home, Peter dropped the sail story from his sermons and went back to warning people not to eat unclean things. Paul was so angered over this about-face that when he ran into Peter in the city of Antioch, he called him a hypocrite and put him in his place.
This food and circumcision argument may sound somewhat overblown to us today. But what it meant at that time was that if you ate the unclean foods, which most everyone outside of Jerusalem did, and if you were not circumcised, which most everyone outside of Jerusalem was not, then you were yourself unclean. And if you were unclean, you could not join the church. You could not have salvation. You were lost.
Yes, it is difficult to be the church. Paul's writing in this morning's message was a reminder to the church of Galatia that no one was to be excluded because of some nonsense about eating unclean food or being uncircumcised. He also reminded them that salvation came from what people believed, and not from following some laws established by a group of people, no matter how well-intended.
As we continue to try to create the church that Paul envisioned, it might do us well to periodically read these words as if they were written to us today. It might do us well to look upon ourselves to see if we are excluding anyone because of our laws, written or unwritten. We know what we should do, but how is our doing, doing?
If Paul will stand up and tear into Peter, the disciple upon whom Jesus said he would establish his church, I'd rather not see how he might deal with us. Yes, it is difficult to be the church.
