January 6, 2010 — 11:10 AM
Who are you listening to?
Texts: 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Galatians 1:6-9
Theme introduction:
This evening we are beginning a new sermon series on Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Tonight will be a kickoff to give a general background to the book. Then over the course of the next six Sundays we will look at each of the chapters in particular. Scattered around the sanctuary you will find sheets of paper with some general information to help you understand this book and the sermon discussions that we will have together about it.
This evening’s Scripture readings highlight the crux of the problem facing the Galatian people – who to listen to. We will hear a passage from 1 Samuel where God speaks to Samuel but Samuel doesn’t know who is talking at first. Then we will hear a passage from Galatians where Paul expresses his purpose for writing this letter to the churches there.
Sermon:
Choices. Every day we make lots and lots of choices.
Choices that may seem minor like what time to get up or go to bed, or what clothes to wear, or what music to listen to or TV show or movie to watch. Or choices that may not seem so minor like to quit or take a job, to live here or somewhere else, to make a major purchase of some sort, or maybe, if funds are running low, how to make ends meet.
Thankfully, although our days are filled with an endless series of choices, many of them are routine requiring us to put little, if any, thought into making them. This is a good thing, for the most part, because if we had to stop and really think about every choice that we make, we would never get anything done. The habitualness of the routine of making choices means that we rest assured that the choice we made in the past will be good to make again this day.
I feel that a note of caution is in order though. Sometimes routine or habit is a bad thing – say, when the choice that we made in the past was a bad choice, either for us or for others. In cases like that continuing to rely on the decision that was previously made and not thinking it through anew isn’t good and should be questioned. Sometimes we will come to a realization on our own that a choice is bad but most often it will take some prompting from another – someone outside of the decision-making process.
Hopefully most or all of our routine decisions are ones that are smart or good decisions because relying on past choices to get us through the day is very helpful for maintaining sanity. But it’s good to stop every now and then to notice what decisions you just make without even thinking about them. This is a chance to re-evaluate if your decision is actually a good one and should be repeated in the future or if it’s time for a different choice in that situation going forward.
Well, that enough about the small stuff about which we are told not to sweat. What about the bigger stuff? The stuff that’s not so routine? How do we going about making decisions in those cases?
How many of you go on a gut feeling? [show of hands]
How big or major does the decision have get before you say maybe a gut reaction isn’t good enough? Do you have a line for that? [get feedback]
How about if it’s a decision about something that you know nothing about? Do you gut-checkers still feel fine making a decision based on your feelings? Or does that depend on how big of a decision it is? [get feedback]
Okay the rest of you. I’m guessing by your non-reaction to those questions that you are the type who prefers to do some, if not a lot, of research before making a choice. How many of you like to do a lot of research before you make a decision? [show of hands]
I used to think of myself as the type who needed a lot of information before feeling comfortable with making a decision. Turns out, that’s really not true. Somewhere along the way someone must have told me that I was a cautious sort who liked to have a lot of information about something before making a choice. And I believed them. But, in reality, I like to have some information but then it ends up being a gut check after that.
That leads me to my next question for you: Where do you get your information from? Do you have preferred sources? [get feedback] – [CNET, the interwebs, Consumer’s Reports]
For me, my most important source or information is my friends. Personal testimonials from people I trust. Insights from those who know me and know if something I’m weighing might be good for me.
These are the pieces of information that are must crucial to me when I’m trying to make a big decision. I believe that God speaks to me through the voices of those I trust – those God has brought into my life to surround me and to help me get through life.
Now, having said that, I have to back up and say that I have to be careful not to trust those voices too much. It’s awfully easy to listen to voices that tell me what I want to hear or discount those that tell me things I don’t want to hear. But I must always weigh the advice I get from my trusted friends against God’s voice speaking to me through the witness of the Scriptures to make sure that what they are saying to me actually is God’s will for my life.
And that’s exactly what Paul was admonishing his readers in the churches of Galatia to do.
During one of Paul’s many missionary trips, he got sick and had to stop in the area of Galatia – an area that scholars are not quite sure where to put on the map other than somewhere in Asia Minor. He was in the area for quite a while fighting off the illness, whatever it was, and then regaining his strength for going back out on the road.
And during all of this time, the people in the area treated him very kindly – caring for him, welcoming him into their homes, listening to him as he told them about Jesus Christ and the Good News of God’s radical love for all of creation. He was in the area long enough to establish several house churches that he felt were strong enough to keep going once he was better and resumed his travels.
He left with his heart full of love for these people confident in their love for God and acceptance of the gospel he had presented them with.
Then, some time later, he gets word that the people have been visited by other Christian missionaries, ones who preach a different “Gospel,” and are turning away from what he had taught them. Imagine his dismay, his anger.
We don’t need to imagine it, actually. Paul lays it out for us at the very beginning of the letter. After a brief greeting to the people, he gets right to the point. He says: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.
Astonished! That’s the equivalent of a first century smack down. How dare these people question what he taught them. He had not given them any reason to doubt that what he taught them was anything but God’s truth. And yet, here come these other missionaries and the people are so easily convinced that what Paul taught was incomplete.
To save his honor, Paul is forced to write a letter defending himself and his teachings against the attacks of these others.
Ultimately, we (and all other Christian believers) are the winners in this because the result is a very succinct, and thorough outlining of Paul’s theology and teaching. This and the letter to the Romans, written under much less antagonistic circumstances, are the most thoroughgoing exposition of Paul’s understanding of God, the saving work of Jesus Christ, and the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit.
The main question that Paul and the other missionaries disagreed on was how Gentiles (or non-Jews) were to be welcomed into the saving work of Jesus Christ – did Gentiles need to become like Jews (meaning: being circumcised and observing the important feasts) or not?
Paul said: Not!
The Missionaries said: Yes!
Uh-oh. That’s not good.
Unfortunately for the people in these churches in Galatia, what Paul and the missionaries were saying was similar enough that it was easy to see that they were talking about the same God and the same “religion” (if you will).
Both Paul and these missionaries had been devout Jews who now believed that Jesus Christ was the long-awaited Messiah taught about in the Jewish synagogues and in their Holy Scriptures. Since Jesus had been a Jew too, it wasn’t a big step of logic for those in the Galatian churches to see that if they wanted to be his followers they should also convert to being devout Jews as well.
But that is not what Paul had taught them. He believed that God’s saving work in Jesus Christ was made real by the Holy Spirit for Gentiles just as they were. There was no need for them to convert to Judaism or come under the Law of Moses. All they needed was faith in Jesus. Faith that he followed that law perfectly for them and thus they were free not to.
So there the people of the churches of Galatia were – at a decision point. A pretty critical one at that. Who would they believe? How would they weigh the information coming at them from Paul on the one hand and from the other missionaries on the other? How would they distinguish God’s voice in all of this?
They, like Samuel, were young in the faith. The passage from 1 Samuel says: “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.” He was not only a young boy, but he was, as yet, uninitiated in the ways of God. He had been ministering with Eli the priest for several years, but he had merely been following the instructions he was given. He didn’t really understand what it all meant.
This explains why, when Samuel heard a voice calling him, he assumed it was Eli – the one who always called his name to give him instructions. Well, that and the fact that only Samuel and Eli were in the place. I don’t know about you, but my first thought when I hear someone calling my name isn’t to think about an other-worldly (extra-worldly) being. People would most definitely worry about me if I admitted to that!
It took three tries but finally Eli, the one who should recognize when God is speaking, does realize that God is the one calling Samuel. And once, Eli realized that he was able to teach Samuel that this is a voice that he should learn to listen to as well. So Eli sent Samuel back to his bed with the instruction to listen for that voice knowing that if he heard it again he was to say: “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”
And that is exactly what happens. Samuel goes on to be used by God in very important ways. But he would not have been had he not stopped and learned to listen to the voice of God.
Now the Galatians to whom Paul was writing were a little ahead of Samuel on the whole knowing who God is issue, but not by much. They were still getting their confidence in listening for the voice of God in whom they had so recently begun to trust. So when these competing voices came at them, telling them different things about what God expected of them, they went with the answer that seemed most logical.
And that, says Paul, is where they went wrong. God’s love is so radical in it’s inclusiveness that logic is thrown out the window, he argues. God’s acts of love in Jesus Christ are so new and so different that all that came before has shifted.
Ultimately, Paul’s message won the day. And we are left guessing as to the specifics of the message from the other Christian missionaries.
We know this because Paul’s writings are the ones that made it into the Christian canon of Holy Scriptures – not those of the other Christian missionaries. Over the next six weeks we will see what exactly that message was. The sheet with “Key Topics” gives you some highlights but I encourage you to come back to hear more in person.
As we wrap up for today I want to leave you with the questions with which we began: How do you make choices? What voice or voices do you listen to? How do you know God’s will for your life?
God wants to speak to you. Are you ready to listen?
Let us pray: God who speaks in many ways – in the burning bush, in the howling wind, in the still small voice – help us to learn to hear your voice, to distinguish it from all those other voices that compete for our attention. Help us to trust your radically inclusive love to fill us, to surround us, and to guide us on the path you would have us take. All this we pray in the name of your precious Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
