2016C 2 Pentecost Galatians and Unity Gal 1:1-12

29 May 2016 Christ Church

The Rev. Nancy S. Streufert

The first apostles of the gospel of Christ were all Jews, of course, like Jesus. While Peters
primary mission was to evangelize Jews, Pauls mission was to the Gentiles. In his missionary
journeys, Paul would establish churches as he had in Galatia (a region in modern-day Turkey).
Once he had laid a solid foundation with people he trusted to carry on without him, he would
move on to a new place of mission. Biblical scholars believe Pauls letter to the Galatians was
written very early in his missionary travels, about 20 years after the death and resurrection of
Jesus. So through it, we get an unprecedented view into the very beginnings of what our
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry would call the Jesus movement.
So what had happened to the Galatians after Paul left? You might think that they were being
lured back into their pagan ways, worshipping idols and slipping back into patterns of
immorality. Not so! In fact, it was just the opposite. It seems that a missionary band of Jewish
Christians probably from Jerusalem had arrived and had convinced the Galatians that Paul did
not have the authority to teach what he did because he was not a true apostle. He had not
known Jesus during his earthly life. Apparently, they were able to persuade the Galatians that
to become true followers, they must be circumcised and follow the Mosaic commands of
ancient Judaism, with its dietary laws, its keeping of Sabbath, and its intricate sacrificial
atonement rituals.
These Jewish Christians mocked Pauls version of the teachings of Christ that all could follow
Jesus just as they were as gospel-light, as a way to find favor with them, to please them.
Pauls letter to the Galatians is an impassioned rebuttal, a defense of his authority and the
teaching they had received from him, which he assured them came directly from Christ. The
teaching was simple, but profound and deeply unsettling to some. Jesus came for all people, all
nations. To require converts to be circumcised and to come under the yoke of the Mosaic law,
to first enter into a particular ethnic group, was to bind them unnecessarily to an identity that
was purely and narrowly tribal and exclusionary.
Throughout all of our readings this morning runs the common thread that God is Lord of all the
people of the world, not a god for a favored and exclusive tribe.
In King Solomons prayer in dedicating Gods Temple, he declares that a foreigner, who is not
of your people Israel shall hear of your great name and that all the peoples of the earth
may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel.
In Psalm 96, we sing to the Lord, all the whole earth. We declare his glory among the nations
and his wonders among all peoples. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, the Psalmist
declares, let the whole earth tremble before him.
These passages echo Gods original covenant with Abraham, and the promise that he and his
offspring would be a blessing to all nations. All nations means the Gentiles, the pagan people,
the non-Jews. Gods mission of reconciliation among all people to one another and to Himself
began with this covenant with a member of a particular tribe of chosen people, the Israelites.
Through Jesus, this covenant is opened to all nations, all peoples, all tribes, not just the Jewish
people.

2016C 2 Pentecost Galatians and Unity Gal 1:1-12

29 May 2016 Christ Church
The Rev. Nancy S. Streufert

And so we find in the New Testament further echoes of Gods mission of blessing to the
nations, through Gentile characters like the centurion in todays gospel from Luke. After
appealing earnestly to Jesus to heal his valued slave who was ill and close to death, Jesus
declares, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.
There is a movie called Risen that came out just before Easter. Have any of you seen it? As a
resurrection story, it is unusual in that it is told from the point of view of a Roman soldier, a
Gentile non-believer. The action is focused on Pontius Pilates fictional right hand man, the
Roman military tribune Clavius, who is ordered to find the body of Jesus that is missing from
the tomb after his crucifixion. By all accounts, Clavius is a loyal Roman soldier who follows
orders to the letter. Clavius himself was there at the crucifixion. It was he who ordered the
guard to speed the death of those crucified so they could be taken down. It was he who
witnessed the spear hoisted into Jesus side that confirmed he was dead. He saw with his own
eyes the face of the dead Jesus.
Jesus tomb had been closed with a huge stone and secured with ropes and wax seals and it
was guarded by Roman soldiers. After searching for the corpse, and picking through scores of
grisly bodies recently killed lying in the hot sun, Jesus was not to be found.
In earnest, the soldiers continued to ransack the town looking for the disciples, and spotting
Mary Magdalene, they followed her to the upper room where the disciples were hiding out.
Clavius opened the door and found them together with Jesus, very much alive. He looked at
the face and then he imagined the scene at the cross, the face of the dead Jesus and realized
that they were one and the same. He said nothing as he leaned against the wall and sank slowly
to the floor. The look on his face said it all. The movie was an imaginative look at how a Gentile
non-believer, like this loyal Roman centurion, might have come to know and follow Jesus in that
harsh and oppressive time and place of Roman occupation.
As Paul says later in his letter to the Galatians, There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
Sadly, there is scant evidence that this teaching of Pauls has yet to be effectively embraced at
least on a national level of our world. Which is why we continue to remember the many
soldiers who are still dying for our country on this Memorial Day weekend. Some of you,
perhaps many of you are honoring someone today who served. As a veteran, my father was
eligible for interment in a national cemetery. And so, when he died seven years ago his remains
were inurned after military honors in a beautiful outdoor columbarium at the Rock Island
National Cemetery where my mothers remains were laid to rest with his just last month.
Dad was drafted into the army shortly after World War II had ended. Fresh from his internship
at the University of Minnesota Medical School and with a new wife, my mother, Dad was
stationed at Camp Stoneman in Pittsburg, California where he attended to the medical needs of
the soldiers returning from the Pacific theatre of operation. Although he himself did not see
combat, he certainly saw the results of it.

2016C 2 Pentecost Galatians and Unity Gal 1:1-12

29 May 2016 Christ Church
The Rev. Nancy S. Streufert

The Rock Island National Cemetery is located on an island on the Mississippi River that
separates Iowa from Illinois. It was established in 1863 to serve the Union soldiers who had
died guarding a large Confederate prisoner of war camp on the island. Across the cemetery lie
the remains of the many thousands of veterans of all the wars in which American soldiers have
fought since the Civil War. Rows and rows of identical white headstones mark the lives of those
who made the ultimate sacrifice for a purpose greater than themselves. Sadly, the nearly 2000
Confederate prisoners of war who had died there, many from disease and poor living
conditions of the prison, were buried separately on a more modest place on the island now
known as the Rock Island Confederate Cemetery.
I have always loved The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which is most often associated with the
Civil War. With lyrics written by Julia Ward Howe, a prominent abolitionist, social activist and
poet, this patriotic anthem was often referred to by Martin Luther King in his sermons, was a
favorite of Winston Churchill, and has been performed often at presidential inaugurations
including that of Barack Obama. When Michael Curry was installed as the 27th Presiding Bishop
of the Episcopal Church last summer he referenced the hymn in his sermon. In speaking of what
he calls the Jesus movement, which has become a catchphrase of his public evangelism, he says
that Mrs. Howe spoke of this same movement in these words (he may have taken some liberty
with a few words here and there):
In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom, that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make folk holy, let us live to set all free,
While God is marching on.
Glory, glory hallelujah,
God's truth is marching on.
Freedom. That is what Paul is promising the Galatians in his impassioned letter, true freedom in
Gods truth. The Jesus movement. God for all.