It is the final Sunday in Advent. I have drunk the first cup of coffee, deleted the multiple emails asking me to do last minute shopping (when tehre is no way that anything could get here on time) and The looked at today’s passages. As on most Sundays, there are two sets of readings — the “real” lectionary — which is common across many churches — and the daily readings. I’m quoting from both.
1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! 2The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 4Did you experience so much for nothing? — if it really was for nothing. 5Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
6Just as Abraham” believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” 7so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. 8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” 9For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.
10For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” 11Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” 12But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” 13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” — 14in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Now we are told in today’s gospel that Christ came, died, was buried and rose again, and we live by faith and by the spirit. We are warned not to live by the law/ To Paul that was obvious: the law was that which he knew backwards: he was a brilliant young Jewish scholar who had studied under the best rabbis (and when he claimed this in Jerusalem he was not contradicted). But we live not by our works, but by the mercy of God.
Herein is the Gospel, and our confidence. Not in what we have done: we have all fallen. But in Christ, and Christ alone.
But most of us do not think about the laws of mixing fabrics, or not boiling veal in milk. Apart from considering them outmoded, and superseded by the new laws. For our current laws are described thusly.
The queer thing about bullies is that if you apologize to them and submit to them, they become even more enraged. We see this time and time again playing out among the cultural elite – politicians, professional athletes, entertainers – when one of them inadvertently says something that offends a Victim Identity Group (i.e. anyone who isn’t male, white, Christian, or heterosexual), and the Victim Identity Bullies descend. Usually the “offender” is cowed into apologizing. Consider for example the Paula Deen incident. Did it do her any good to apologize for once having used the N word to describe a black man who had robbed her at gunpoint? No, it did not. It just enraged the Victim Identity Bullies further. Despite her mea culpa-ing, her career was completely destroyed.
From memory, there are 650 odd separate commands within the Mosaic Law. Some are huge and difficult. Some are regulations on hygiene (such as burying your poo: still works in the wilderness as it was described then) or deliberate restrictions to separate the people of Israel from their neighbours. My son points out, frequently, passionately and accurately, that this is trivial: we now have thousands of felonies and every day we break laws just to have a modicum of freedom.
For those who currently write the law are not friends of the gospel. There are martyrs being made most Sundays in the Islamic world, and the progressives, having failed to destroy the church in the Soviet experiment, are trying to subvert it now. Hence the issues with Duck Dynasty. But a commentator at SSM’s place reminded us that this is nothing new.
If Christians don’t stand up and refuse to apologize for what God’s word says, things are going to get a whole lot worse. Bullies won’t be content to limit free speech.
On a side note, I read quote below a few days ago. Martin Luther could have been talking about our gay bullies here:
“The ears of our generation have been made so delicate by the senseless multitude of flatterers that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours is not approved of, we cry out that we are being bitterly assailed; and when we can repel the truth by no other pretence, we escape by attributing bitterness, impatience, intemperance, to our adversaries.”
He also said “Peace if possible, truth at all costs.”
[ssm: And for those of us who are Christians, we need to understand: there will be no compromise with progressives. Some of the basic moral precepts of our faith have been de facto outlawed. It is now essentially illegal (i.e. hate speech laws) to believe in and preach what it says in the Bible. We can apologize for our faith until the cows come home, but progressives will still hate us and seek to destroy us if they can.]
the commands we have from Christ are but three. To paraphrase.:
- Love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.
- Love your neighbour as yourself.
- Love your fellow believer as Christ loved him.
And we have to remember here, always and every time, that love is not a mushy feeling. It is not the desire we have for the one who we are espoused to. Love is a verb.
We have been called to freedom: from not only the regulations and laws of the new covenant but from the codicils and regulations of the progressive elite. The very regulations that stop us doing good and obeying God.
Yes, we are called to pray for our leaders and governors and judges, for they have a role and a heavy burden in any society. But most of those calling for these regulations are not part of that group: they are left with a dying paradigm of collective action in a time when the value add (and profit) comes from flexibility and customization. I disagree with libertarians on many things, but at least they count their blessings…
The problem for leftists is that people don’t agree with them. Heck, they don’t even agree with each other. They are perpetually fighting and arguing. People disagreeing with them are the stumbling block to each of them achieving their objectives. No wonder they’re angry.
Individualists like me don’t need or seek agreement. What other people think is neither here nor there. The wonder and marvel of the modern world is tremendously empowering to us. We revel in the opportunities it affords.
Plus we get to enjoy the left explaining away every government failure busily declaring it wasn’t done right, wasn’t done enough or the wrong people were doing it.
The constant failure of government is for us proof-positive that our philosophy is true
And, oh how the left must hate prosperity and the empowerment of the modern age. Technology and communications are setting us all free. The very things we love, the left despise. We truly are blessed.
And the libertarians, in my experience, allow us to say what we think. They may think us rude and unpolished. But they do not demand our re-education. They defend free speech, not convenient speech. While the leftists want us to just shut up and comply with their thousand page laws, and twenty thousand page book of regulations.
And that is a heavier burden than the Law ever was. No man can stand it, and it is doomed to fail.