Pentecost 3C

Galatians 5:1, 13-18, 22-25

¹ For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

¹³ For you were called to freedom, siblings; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is summed up in one, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

¹⁶ Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. ¹⁸ But because you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

²² The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Ordinary Time

In this green and growing Season of the Spirit, Time of the Church as we count Sundays after the Day of Pentecost until Reign of Christ, the church lives in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost.


Galatians

The apostle Paul's letter or epistle to the Galatians is one of his seven undisputed or authentic epistles.

The community at Galatia was the first ethnic church, in the sense of geography and culture; they also were ethnos as gentiles! The words Galatia, Gaulle, Gaelic, Celt, Celtic all come from the same root.

• Galatians is the Epistle of Freedom.
• Galatians is Reformation Central and vitally important to Martin Luther's theology.

Galatians includes:

• Paul's only birth narrative: "In the fullness of time God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law." Galatians 4:4
• Neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, slave nor free, for all are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28 – last week with Juneteenth, too!
• A pair of famous Pauline lists—works of the flesh [5:19-21, omitted in this week's reading] and fruits of the Spirit [5:22].


Paul and Law and Gospel

"Gospel" means Good News. For Paul, the gospeled good news is death and resurrection.

Christ has died – Christ has risen – Christ will come again

Today's passage brings us a typical Reformation contrast and dichotomy between law and gospel that we try to articulate in preaching.

Almost every time Paul uses the word "law," he refers to circumcision, sacrificial law, ceremonial law, and not to the ten commandments, but "law" in Galatians 5:14 refers to the ten words or commandments of the Sinai Covenant that like Jesus, summarizes the commandments with "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." As working papers for our life together, the commandments set permissions, limits, and boundaries so we can live in freedom.


This Week

God gifted Israel the commandments or ten words – decalogue – after they'd been freed from slavery in Egypt, yet still were on their way to the place where they'd settle to live together and amongst people who had other gods and other agendas. The commandments outline the limits and boundaries of our freedoms.

In Galatians, Paul reminds us "Christ has set us free" [from slavery to sin and self] and in an echo of the commandments, continues to describe how we now are free to love our neighbors, who in turn are free to love us. In Paul's words in 5:13, "Through [God's agape] love become slaves to one another!" The New Testament variously uses Greek words that translate into servant or slave in English; here it's doulos or slave rather than diakonos or servant (the source of our word and ministry of deacon).

Bond service and chattel slavery were common in the Ancient Near East, which likely is the reason Paul draws this parallel. However, maybe especially a week after Juneteenth's celebration of emancipation, service or enslavement in Christ is our wiling response to God's gracious love and not coerced. Jesus outlines two commandments; note how Paul mentions only one—love our neighbor as we love our self.


Fruit of the Spirit

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all are fruits of God's Spirit of Holiness and Life. You know how fruit grows on a branch or vine or tree that's rooted in the ground? The entire organism receives nutrients from the earth, water, sunlight, and restful nights. Fruit starts small with a bud, then a flower forms, and gradually gets bigger and riper, finally it is ready to pick and enjoy.

Can bud to flower to ripe fruit be a model for qualities and characteristics the Holy Spirit slowly grows in us so we can gift others?

Pentecost 2C

Galatians 3:23-29

²³ Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶ for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.

²⁷ As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

The Season of Pentecost

Fifty days of Easter concluded with the fire and wind of the Day of Pentecost, followed by Trinity Sunday—uniquely named after a doctrine rather than an event. Because God is triune or three-in-one, one-in-three, every Sunday is Trinity Sunday, but it's cool to have a special day to worship Trinity as mystery without trying to explain the unexplainable.

Now we're into the half-year long segment of Ordinary Time when we count Sundays after Pentecost as the church really comes into its own.


Galatians

In culture and in geography, the church at Galatia was the first ethnic church. Biblically, they also were ethnos because they were gentiles. The words Galatia, Gaulle, Gaelic, Celt, Celtic all come from the same root.

In his letter to the Galatians the apostle Paul emphasizes the gospel of death and resurrection with its central theme of freedom. In Galatians Paul cautions us about human-made laws such as sacrifice, keeping kosher, and circumcision—what Paul usually means when he says "law." But in Galatians 3:23-24 he talks about law as the ten words (decalogue) or commandments of the Sinai covenant. Lutheran and Reformed theological traditions often cite three uses of the law/commandments:

• to draw people to Christ
• to convict us of sin
• to lead people to correct behaviors


Freedom from Sin and Death

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

My seminary professor who taught the Pauline Letters announced to the class, "This ain't Emancipation Proclamation!"

At the time of this letter, categories of Jew/gentile, male/female, slave/free were central in the Greco-Roman world. In the twenty-first century there still are Jews and Greeks, women and men and non-binaries, young and old, rural and urban, but Paul was referring to Jesus breaking down ranks of superior-inferior, better-lesser, worthy-unworthy.

As Paul also loves to remind us, because Jesus Christ has freed us from sin and death, we are free to live as servants to all. The NT uses two different words that translate into English as both servant and slave.


Juneteenth

With ever-increasing awareness of the history of chattel slavery in the USA and this week's commemoration of Juneteenth, interpreting Paul's announcement, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female; you are one in Christ Jesus," as an early emancipation proclamation won't fly, yet it still reflects Jesus' own behavior and his call to us to welcome, include, and appreciate everyone's unique gifts and style to create a community filled with rich diversity.


Bounded Freedom

As the Law and the Prophets and Jesus of Nazareth explain and teach, our freedom has limits and boundaries. It's not absolute, because we need to consider the impact of everything we do on our neighbor, who in turn must consider the impact of their actions on us (their neighbor).

In Galatians 3:23-24 Paul talks about law as the ten words or commandments.

A pair of common examples:

When the world began to open up during the covid pandemic, if you went to restaurants, concerts, or activities in public venues, you needed to show your vax card or stay home, although they didn't mandate vaccines.

After you get a license to drive a vehicle, you need to follow the rules of the road and learn different ones when you're in another state or country, because people need to trust they'll be safe walking or driving.

Civil laws, statutes, and expectations show us how to reverence God by attending to our neighbors' needs. In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther set a pattern for future interpretations by describing what each commandment forbids and then how we can act to fulfill each one.

Trinity Sunday 2025

Trinity Sunday 2025

Because this became a weekly blog not long after my arrival in Los Angeles, I've written about Trinity Sunday at least once a year since 2016. Trinity came up in the lectionary rotation a few times earlier when I was teaching, too. Now it's that time again!

What will I say for Trinity Sunday 2025? First, here are four from previous years that cover concepts such as Nicaea, Perichoresis, theophanies:

• Trinity Sunday 2017 with the upcoming Ordinary Time Season of Pentecost

• Trinity Sunday 2020 during active Covid tide with "Rise, Shine, You People!"

• Trinity Sunday 2021 with "Come, Join the Dance of Trinity" and "Holy, Holy, Holy"

• Trinity Sunday 2022 and I observed, "we're not yet post-Covid." We now know we never will be.


Assorted Notes

Orthodox Christianity is Trinitarian. If it's not Trinitarian, it may be Christian, but it's not orthodox. Examples include the Christian caucus in the Unitarian Universalist Church, Disciples of Christ, and Latter-day Saints who speak of a tripartite godhead but not a trinitarian one.

The word Trinity isn't in the bible, but the concept weaves through both old and new testaments.

The popular liquid – ice – vapor trio of water forms isn't a good Trinity analogy. Nor is listing some of your relationships such as offspring, sibling, spouse, parent, friend. All of those end up with the heresy of modalism. What about a 3-leaved shamrock or clover? That's even worse, because all the leaves appear so similar and function almost identically.

My header image is the Hospitality of Abraham icon by Russian Andrei Rublev. Based on Genesis 18:1-8, it's often considered an Old Testament manifestation of the Trinity. You might appreciate this devotional article that includes a reflection on the icon by Henri Nouwen.

If you asked me about the Trinity, I'd focus on our baptism into the Triune God. Matthew's gospel tells us Jesus charged his followers:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

Matthew 28:19 is the only occurrence of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit formula in the Bible, but that was one of many later additions to the text. Matthew is the most heavily redacted or edited of the four canonical gospels. The early church probably baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Jesus the Savior, or used similar words. Jesus' early followers could not have imagined baptism into the Savior wouldn't also have included participation in the Creator and the Spirit.The first recorded mention of the Trinitarian baptismal formula was late in the fourth century.

In our baptism Jesus is with us in the church in the world in his followers—in us! We live immersed in the creative, redemptive, sanctified, and sanctifying life of the Trinity.

The Day of Pentecost 2025

Teaching and fellowship
breaking of bread
and awe
Acts 2:42-43

For the Day of Pentecost 2025, here's a reflection I wrote for the back of the worship bulletin on the Day of Pentecost 2007. (I designed the cover, as well.)

In the Bible and in Christian tradition, there is no narrative or legend about the creation of fire, but there are abundant experiences of the Divine Presence in some form of fire. From the desert of the Exodus through Isaiah's vision in the temple, to Malachi and to John the Baptizer's promise of One who will baptize not only with water – but with Spirit and with Fire – a strand of purifying, redemptive heat weaves through the witness of scripture.

Luke begins the Acts of the Apostles with the risen Christ promising the apostles' forthcoming baptism with the Holy Spirit; in the next chapter, we hear about the Spirit given to individuals gathered in community.

The Spirit of Life that raised Jesus from the dead calls us from wherever we are and gathers us into this assembly that already has experienced its first death and its second birth. The Holy Spirit of God and of the Christ shapes and forms us into the people of God in this place, a gathering of the ordinary that daily walks the extraordinary Way of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, living as an alternative community to those under the reign of death.

Like the apostles of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago, we live baptized into the cross of Calvary, into the empty grave of Easter dawn, and into the freedom and fire of Pentecost. When our friends and neighbors meet us, like Jesus' disciples of old, may they also become witnesses to the Risen Christ!