Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Gal. 5:1-14, Luke 2:21-33

Why did Jesus come to earth? We know the story about the baby in the manger. We sing the traditional Christmas songs about the angels and shepherds, Mary and Joseph. But the essential question still comes back: "Why?" Why did God send Jesus to us?

This week, as we wrap up this series of sermons on the letter of Paul to the Galatians, it is possible that someone has heard these recent sermons and still wonders exactly what legalism is. The dictionary defines legalism as strict conformity to law, especially emphasizing the letter of the law over the spirit of justice. This is part of what we mean when we talk about legalism in the church. Legalism in the church involves adding something to the gospel and treating it as equal in importance to faith in Jesus. The gospel for legalists becomes faith in Jesus Christ plus something else.

For some people it may be Jesus plus a particular political view. For others it might be Jesus plus a certain form of baptism. For still others it might be Jesus plus certain styles of worship. Jesus plus blank, you fill in the blank.

The problem is that whatever fills in the blank tends to get out of control and take over. What was originally a minor difference of opinion can become a major issue. The little things replace the big things. Reinhold Niebuhr, a twentieth century American theologian, said it well, "Whenever we try to do a little thing well in order to hide the fact that we are not doing the big thing at all, we are enmeshed in legalism."

Reinhold Niebuhr, in a 1955 sermon titled "Law and Love," reflected on the attraction of legalism. He concluded that churches that bind themselves together with numerous religious rules do so out of a sense of spiritual pride. He was struck by the fact that legalistic churches tend to preach and teach those rules which their own people are already obeying. The church of teetotalers boldly proclaims the evils of alcohol. The church of monogamous marriages announces their hatred of homosexuality. The church of non-smokers preaches against tobacco. Congregations tend to be bold in the rules that their own members find easy to obey. Thus, they pride themselves on being better Christians than others because they follow a certain set of rules.

Legalism is opposite from the direction of the entire Bible. In fact, one way of describing the progressive revelation of the Bible is that it moves from detailed rules toward the central theme of love. Micah took hundreds of commandments and boiled them down to three important central ideas. What does God require of us? Micah answered, "Love justice, do mercy, and walk humbly with God." (Micah 6:8). Jesus summarized all the rules in two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. In Paul's letter to the Galatians we see Paul taking this idea a step further. Paul summarized all the rules in one simple statement: "The only thing that counts is faith working through love." (Galatians 5:6).

Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

- Galatians 5:2-6

Charlie Brown and Linus are leaning against a wall and looking off into the distance. Charlie Brown says, "My grandfather loves to sing hymns." The second bracket shows Charlie Brown continuing the conversation, "My grandfather remembers the words to over 100 hymns. He can sing them by heart. He has such a memory for words." Linus looks over and says, "That's amazing! Does he sing in the church choir?" Charlie Brown responds, "No, he can't remember where the church is."

Are we in danger of emphasizing something small while forgetting what is most important? In Paul's day the legalists were Judaizers who tried to tell the Greek converts to Christianity that they had to obey all the Jewish rules. According to the Judaizers, a Greek man was not a real Christian unless he was circumcised.

Jesus, born into a faithful Jewish home, was circumcised. Paul was circumcised. So why did Paul resent this addition to the gospel for followers of Jesus? For Paul, the issue was not circumcision per se. His concern was that this small requirement would lead the Greeks to believe that they must abide by all the Jewish laws. Paul disagreed with this legalistic thinking. No wonder Paul's attacks against legalism became a central theme of his letter to the Galatians. Unfortunately, the debate over legalism in the church did not end with the Apostle Paul and the first century Christians.

In the fourth century St. Augustine, a bishop in Northern Africa, became embroiled in a dispute arising out of recent Roman persecutions. A group known as the Donatists insisted that theirs was the only true form of Christianity and all other churches were impure. The Donatists refused to celebrate the Lord's Supper with their fellow Christians.

They rejected the ordinations of certain pastors. In a recent Roman persecution, some pastors had been forced by Roman soldiers to give up the scriptures to be burned. The Donatist pastors refused to back down under persecution and many were killed. At the end of the time of persecution, the pastors who had given up scriptures were rejected by the Donatists. Donatists claimed that communion served by an apostate church pastor lost its power to bring God's grace. Augustine argued that the sacrament of communion did not rely on the purity of the pastor for its significance. Sadly, the split between legalists and his church remained throughout Augustine's life.

More than a thousand years later, Blaise Pascal became involved in similar debates with the legalists of his day. Among the legalists of the 1600s was a group of Jesuit priests in Paris. In one of Pascal's letters he describes a debate over the question of whether or not one is required to fast on his twenty-first birthday.

According to the church rules of the day, an adult Christian was expected to fast one day a week. However, fasting was not required until a person turned twenty-one. The question arose whether one must fast on his twenty-first birthday. The argument in favor was easy. You have now turned twenty-one, so you are expected to keep the fast. The argument against fasting on the twenty-first birthday was more technical. Let me summarize.

What if I was actually born at one in the morning? This means I don't officially become twenty-one until one in the morning of my twenty-first birthday. Thus, I can eat between midnight and one o'clock because I am still only twenty years old. If I can then break the fast day for an hour, it is no longer required that I keep the fast for the rest of the day.

Such bondage to details distracts us from practicing love. Instead of considering the spirit of the commandments, we can get caught up in such nitpicking that we forget what is important. Is there legalism like that today?

I met Toby shortly after I arrived at my last church. He was pastor of a church in the same Presbytery. I quickly discovered that Toby and I shared many similar views. Numerous times we reflected on our frustrations with things happening at the national level of our denomination. I attended a meeting Toby hosted the year he attended General Assembly as a commissioner. He surrounded himself with fellow conservatives who would pray for him during the meetings that summer.

I was shocked a few months later when I learned that Toby had returned from the national meeting and decided to leave the denomination. His decision caused a split in the church he was serving. When he announced his departure, some of the members went with him to start a new church and join a more legalistic denomination. I recall my sadness and frustration. His style of departure had made it difficult for others of us who shared similar views but were committed to working within the system of our denomination. I lost touch with Toby for a few years.

Then one day I saw Toby's name again in a mailing from Presbytery. He was seeking reconciliation and asking to be brought back into our denomination. A committee met with him many times to work out a way for him to return. The process included his asking forgiveness of his previous church. He had to appear before Presbytery and give his reasons for leaving and then returning.

I arrived at the meeting and spotted Toby. When I asked what had happened with the other denomination, he explained his discoveries about legalism. His image was that he felt as though he had been in a black hole where all his joy and energy and even love had been sucked dry. I listened carefully as Toby answered questions on the floor of the meeting. Toby was asked by one of the pastors why he wanted to come back to our denomination. Let me paraphrase his answer.

Toby said he had noticed the difference in the way he was welcomed to the meeting that day. Knowing that he had hurt many people, he wondered what would happen. He had arrived and walked toward the meeting when a pastor approached him with a smile and outstretched arm for a handshake. "Toby, how are you?" He paused and then said, "Now, that may not seem like much to you, but I contrast that warm reception with the first time I attended a pastors' gathering in the other denomination. I was introduced to a pastor as a new member of the group. Before the pastor would even extend his hand to shake with me, he questioned my theology. 'Do you believe in the virgin birth?'" Toby summarized that he wanted to come back to a church where people care more about loving Jesus than worrying over every fine point of theology.

This Christmas season I announce boldly that I believe in the virgin birth. But that is not a requirement for you to participate in our congregation. We do not determine whether or not we will be friendly with you based on your agreeing with everything we do or believe. There is room for all of us at the manger of Jesus.

Several years ago our elders and staff went on a retreat to clarify our core values as a congregation. After spending several hours working through a process, the group had clarified five statements as central to the kind of church we want to be. There was an emphasis on the Holy Spirit and Jesus, prayer and the Bible. But we were stuck on the last phrase. We wanted the word "grace" somewhere in our values statements. We wanted it to be more than simply an affirmation that we are saved by grace, as important as that is. We wanted a way to emphasize that because of God's grace to us, we are gracious to each other. We wanted a way to say that people in the world are not always treated with grace, but our church will be a safe place for people to hold differing opinions and yet seek God together. We wanted something that speaks about grace in everything our church does. Finally, someone came up with the phrase that pulled it together for us. "It's all about Grace!"

Paul's letter to the Galatians summarized the reason that Jesus came to earth: It's all about Grace!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Have you experienced "legalism" in a church?

The key scripture text today is Galatians 5:6: "the only thing that counts is faith working through love." What do these words say to you?

Is there a difference between tolerance and grace?

How do you balance your commitment to Truth and Grace?