Filling in for Pastor Mossl this week and next, Rev Patt Kauffman twitter: @revpatt
In Galatians Paul speaks so clearly the good news of a gracious God who loves all creation. In this first chapter, Paul asks his listeners to beware following a false, or perverted gospel. He excoriates Peter, who had (as we read in Acts, 10), accepted God’s call to not deem anything bad that God had made. Peter had refused to eat food that as an observant Jew, was forbidden him. God’s response was to say, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane”. Peter then understands that even Gentiles can hear and receive the gospel (the good news).
But when Peter returns to Jerusalem, he goes back on his understanding and lets the leaders in Jerusalem dictate how one becomes a believer. This, Paul calls a perversion of the gospel, because it narrows God’s grace; it says that some are in and some are out, where, all through Holy Scripture, beginning in Genesis, we hear God’s gracious call to all. God tells Abraham that Abraham will be the ancestor of many nations.(Genesis 17:5). Over and over again, God’s call is to all, including God’s Son, Jesus, who, when lifted up, will bring all people to God (John 3:17).
God is God of all: God of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists. God is God whether we believe in God or how we call on God. And our responsibility is to share this good news, to welcome all, and to be God’s hands and feet in this world.