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United Church of Paducah
4600 Buckner Lane
Paducah, KY 42001
(270) 442-3722
Worship Times
Sunday Service: 10:00a
Refreshments &
Fellowship: 11:15a
Christian Education
For All Ages:
11:20a - Noon
Nursery Services Provided Handicap Accessible
All Are Welcome!
A Congregation Of The
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From June 17, 2007
The Only Law You Will Ever Need
Galatians 2: 15-21
I got a telephone call once from a new
father who, after quickly introducing himself, explained why
he was calling. "I'd like to have my baby daughter
baptized." Soon, he shouted silently.
This was the first time I'd ever gotten a call out of the
blue like this and I told him so. Ordinarily, parents do
what Rick and Angela have done. They choose to have their
child baptized once they have found a spiritual home.
I wasn't sure exactly what Daddy had in mind. Just drop in
some Sunday, have his daughter sprinkled and prayed over,
and then be done with us? Congregations don't witness
baptisms, after all; they participate in them.
Why the rush, I wondered aloud. Well, Daddy explained, baby
girl was already seven months old and although she was
healthy and happy, he'd been worrying about her immortal
soul. What would happen if she were to suddenly die without
the benefit of baptism? He'd never be able to forgive
himself for keeping her out of heaven.
"Excuse me," I interrupted. "I want to understand you here.
If your daughter were - God forbid - to die without the benefit
of baptism, you think God would turn her away?"
"Well, yes. She was born with original sin. Baptism washes
away all that sin and makes us white as snow again. God
can't see past the sin otherwise."
My heart ached as I imagined this proud new papa, so filled
with love for his baby girl, so determined to be the best
daddy he could be, and yet so unsure of God. How easily he
imagined a God who cared more about a holy watermark on a
tiny forehead than the child herself. A God who would surely
fold his arms and turn away because Daddy hadn't followed
orders. Some God, that God.
Who is your God? What does God want from you, for you? Who
is your God?
Is your God first and foremost a lawgiver and judge? A God
who establishes clear guidelines and expects you to follow
them, rewarding you if you do and punishing you if you
don't? A God who warns sternly "Don't you make me have to do
this," and then follows through on that threat because God
loves God's laws more than God loves you.
Is God first and foremost a lawgiver? Or is God more like a
parent or a lover or the dearest of dear friends? A God
whose primary concern is the who (you) not the what (your
actions). A God who remains faithful to you even when you
are not faithful to God?
My nervous father, at least that day, was of the first
opinion. He imagined a God of rules and regulations. In
Daddy's mind the sequence was clear: follow the laws
scripture and tradition dictate and you can count on being
rewarded. Expect no favors, no love, no grace from God if
you do not do what God requires.
Don't get me wrong. Rules have their place. Most of us
appreciate knowing how things ought to proceed. That's why
we have recipes and Roberts' Rules of Order and road maps.
Guidelines help bring order to chaos. They give us ways to
reach our goals; they keep us safe, ensure fairness, and
guarantee consistency. Driving a narrow mountain road high
in the Rockies, for example, I'm mighty grateful each driver
knows who belongs where.
Knowing the rules is a good thing. I learned this from John
Miller when he came to play. Whenever John thought he was
losing - at Monopoly, for example - he would try to convince us
kids of lesser-known rules. Yes, you can go to jail and
still collect your $200 if you happen to be wearing a blue
shirt, which John Miller - miracle of miracles - just happened
to be wearing that day. Having the rules clearly printed on
the box lid was all it took to clear things up and put John
in his place.
Rules keep people safe, they ensure fairness, and they
guarantee consistency.
When the Israelites were in their infancy as God's Chosen,
they needed each and every one of the 613 commandments God
handed down through Moses. Having these laws and abiding by
them is what enabled the Hebrew people to develop into a
spiritually mature and faithful nation rather than wander
the desert as a bunch of overgrown, uncivilized orphans who
had no idea how to live or that they were deeply cherished
by God.
Something happened over time, though. Rather than seeing the
rules and regulations as a gracious gift, a loving gesture,
God's way of keeping God's children healthy and whole and
thus free to relate to God with all that was in them, the
laws became a means to an end. You might even say those laws
became an idol, a new God to serve, one who didn't need to
be related to so much as controlled and appeased by strict
adherence to the law.
It was a tragic reduction - and yet an understandable one. We
do it all the time. As a friend said when faced with a heap
of trouble, "Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it."
It's pragmatic and effective, this approach. Sure, it's a
wise strategy for eliminating indebtedness or building
cardiovascular strength perhaps, but it's not a very
skillful way to have a relationship with God or even another
person.
Which is why, when the father called that day to schedule
his baby's baptism, I challenged his assumptions. Not
because baptism isn't important. It is. But baptism is not
fire insurance, our way of covering bases we're not willing
to trust God with.
Baptism isn't a gift we give to God. It's God's gift to us.
It's an outward sign of an invisible grace, a mystical and
mystery-rich moment when we hear the Spirit call us by our
rightful name: Beloved, Child of God, Pleasing One. A name
that will never ever change, even if the very next day we
break all God's rules and do the rottenest of things.
Nothing we do will make God love us more. Nothing we do will
make God love us any less, either. Love is God's to give,
not ours to secure. The apostle Paul says the same thing
this way: "No one will be justified by the works of the
law."
Paul was speaking to the first hot-button question that
faced the early church: what was the purpose of the law
anyway now that Jesus had lived and died and been
resurrected? What was the purpose of the law especially now
that the church was expanding to include non-Jews over whom
those laws had no claim?
The church struggled - and mightily. Was the law intended to
appease God and secure God's favor? Was its purpose to
enable believers to ensure their own salvation?
Surely not, Paul insisted. Not when Jesus had lived, died,
and been resurrected to show us how far God will go to have
us know how completely loved we are. With Christ, Paul
argued, everything changed.
It was a controversial stance that Paul took. Because it
meant Jewish Christians had to rethink everything,
everything: God and Gentiles and what religious life was
really all about.
No, Paul insisted, our faith is not about us. It's not about
what we do or what we don't do. It's not about who is a son
of Abraham and who isn't. It's not about our mastery of
Jewish law or our miserable failures with it. Our faith is
about God, a God who so loved the world that God would give
anything, anything for us to know and be changed by this
awareness.
I'm not quite sure why it is, but we have trouble with a God
whose grace rules the universe. But think with me for a
minute about what we understand from our own human
relationships.
Who among us genuinely celebrates the father who treasures
his rules more than his children? Who among us lauds the
father who demands that his sons and daughters earn their
way into his heart? Who among us trusts the father whose
affections depend on our towing the line and doing what is
expected? Who among us wants to draw close to a father whose
idea of punishment involves permanent separation?
And what father wants children whose chief concern is
following his rules rather than experiencing his love? What
father wishes for his children even an ounce of doubt about
their place in his heart? What father nurtures relationship
with his daughters and sons by way of threats and harsh
punishments?
Who is your God and by what law does God ask you to live?
Look at the world's finest fathers, look in the face of a
child newly baptized, consider the words of a staunchly
observant Pharisee-turned believer in Christ, and you'll
begin to know who God is and what law God uses to govern.
In and through Christ, God has made it perfectly and
eternally clear: God's grace trumps everything. God's grace
is the law of God's creation. Unmerited, unachievable,
unbelievable grace.
This is the only law we will ever need. One we can never
repeal.
Amen.
© Rev. Karen Winkel
United Church of Paducah (UCC) |
"Never place a period where God has placed a comma." - Gracie
Allen
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