Health And Wholeness, Healing And Happiness
Sermon
There have been some notable courtroom dramas on television over the years, Perry Mason, Rumpole of the Bailey, and Kavanagh QC, being some of the most famous. In most of these, the lawyer or barrister is convinced against all the odds of his client's innocence, and against all the odds manages to win the case so that good triumphs over evil and we all feel duly satisfied. Would that it were as easy and as satisfactory in real life!
But there have been fictional stories where the wrong person has been found guilty, or as in Agatha Christie's famous story, "Witness for the Prosecution" where the guilty person was found innocent.
In all of these courtroom dramas as one of the lawyers (our hero) seeks to dig out the truth, the opposing lawyer seeks to conceal the truth, because both lawyers want to win the case for their client. Those of us who are courtroom drama devotees know full well that if the client is guilty, the lawyer doesn't want to hear the client confess even in private, for whether defending or prosecuting, the lawyer cannot pervert the course of justice.
In fiction it's sometimes made to seem as though the lawyer with the silver tongue wins the case, and that truth has little to do with it, or at most, is a happy bonus. And there have been a substantial number of high profile miscarriages of justice in real life in recent years, where the wrong person has been convicted and subsequently released on appeal, although in some notorious cases not released for many years.
So the law, although it's the best system we have, isn't infallible. Mistakes are sometimes made, evidence is sometimes concealed or fabricated, and the lawyer's skill sometimes either convicts or frees the wrong person.
St Paul, although a tent maker by trade, was well versed in the law. He was born in Tarsus to Jewish parents who held Roman Citizenship. As a student, Paul studied under the well-respected Rabbi Gameliel, so he was well used to the cut and thrust of debate. And he's introduced to us in Acts as a strict Pharisee who was strongly orthodox in his beliefs and who stringently kept the Jewish Torah, the Law.
But then something remarkable happened to Paul. He had a terrific conversion experience where he met with God and where his whole world was turned upside down. It was as though scales fell from his eyes, and in an instant he realised the limitations of the Law. The Torah was fine for directing life and showing the right path to follow, but it didn't carry within it any health or wholeness, healing or happiness. That health and wholeness, healing and happiness, which Paul termed "salvation", was only possible through a personal experience of Jesus Christ, such as he himself had had.
Much of Paul's theology, which is largely responsible for the development of the Christian Church, is based around the tension between salvation and the Law. Time and again Paul returns to the Law, either to prove that it's been superceded by Jesus Christ, or to use it to prove the relationship between God and human beings, as he does in today's reading from the letter to the Galatians.
Jesus, says St Paul, was God's son, born of God's essence. But he was born human, from a human mother and into a human family, so he was a human being just like us. Under the Law, sons have certain rights. Under the law, sons inherit the father's effects. Jesus, God's son, naturally inherits all God's effects, but because Jesus was human and died on behalf of all human beings, he has opened up that inheritance for all of us. Now we are all, male and female, "sons" of God and we too inherit all God's effects.
We human beings have changed our relationship with God. We're no longer God's servants or slaves, but have become his heirs, and one of the most magnificent results of our inheritance is that God has put his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, into our hearts.
The Law alone could never do that for us. Jesus has freed us from the constraints of the Law and given us health and wholeness, healing and happiness. As we explore this new year, let us resolve to allow God's Spirit to flood our inner being so that we too will enjoy the salvation of health and wholeness, healing and happiness that he offers.
But there have been fictional stories where the wrong person has been found guilty, or as in Agatha Christie's famous story, "Witness for the Prosecution" where the guilty person was found innocent.
In all of these courtroom dramas as one of the lawyers (our hero) seeks to dig out the truth, the opposing lawyer seeks to conceal the truth, because both lawyers want to win the case for their client. Those of us who are courtroom drama devotees know full well that if the client is guilty, the lawyer doesn't want to hear the client confess even in private, for whether defending or prosecuting, the lawyer cannot pervert the course of justice.
In fiction it's sometimes made to seem as though the lawyer with the silver tongue wins the case, and that truth has little to do with it, or at most, is a happy bonus. And there have been a substantial number of high profile miscarriages of justice in real life in recent years, where the wrong person has been convicted and subsequently released on appeal, although in some notorious cases not released for many years.
So the law, although it's the best system we have, isn't infallible. Mistakes are sometimes made, evidence is sometimes concealed or fabricated, and the lawyer's skill sometimes either convicts or frees the wrong person.
St Paul, although a tent maker by trade, was well versed in the law. He was born in Tarsus to Jewish parents who held Roman Citizenship. As a student, Paul studied under the well-respected Rabbi Gameliel, so he was well used to the cut and thrust of debate. And he's introduced to us in Acts as a strict Pharisee who was strongly orthodox in his beliefs and who stringently kept the Jewish Torah, the Law.
But then something remarkable happened to Paul. He had a terrific conversion experience where he met with God and where his whole world was turned upside down. It was as though scales fell from his eyes, and in an instant he realised the limitations of the Law. The Torah was fine for directing life and showing the right path to follow, but it didn't carry within it any health or wholeness, healing or happiness. That health and wholeness, healing and happiness, which Paul termed "salvation", was only possible through a personal experience of Jesus Christ, such as he himself had had.
Much of Paul's theology, which is largely responsible for the development of the Christian Church, is based around the tension between salvation and the Law. Time and again Paul returns to the Law, either to prove that it's been superceded by Jesus Christ, or to use it to prove the relationship between God and human beings, as he does in today's reading from the letter to the Galatians.
Jesus, says St Paul, was God's son, born of God's essence. But he was born human, from a human mother and into a human family, so he was a human being just like us. Under the Law, sons have certain rights. Under the law, sons inherit the father's effects. Jesus, God's son, naturally inherits all God's effects, but because Jesus was human and died on behalf of all human beings, he has opened up that inheritance for all of us. Now we are all, male and female, "sons" of God and we too inherit all God's effects.
We human beings have changed our relationship with God. We're no longer God's servants or slaves, but have become his heirs, and one of the most magnificent results of our inheritance is that God has put his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, into our hearts.
The Law alone could never do that for us. Jesus has freed us from the constraints of the Law and given us health and wholeness, healing and happiness. As we explore this new year, let us resolve to allow God's Spirit to flood our inner being so that we too will enjoy the salvation of health and wholeness, healing and happiness that he offers.
