Authority in Christ (5-part series on Paul s letter to the Galatians) Galatians 1:11-24 Sunday, June 9, 2013 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Scripture. Prayer. Opening. The story is told of Christian Herter, that when he was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?" "Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person." "But I'm starved," the governor said. "Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer." I m told that Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man; but, he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. "Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state." "Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister." I like that: I m the lady in charge of the chicken! Sometimes it feels good when a person of authority is put in their place. Of course, in terms of the spiritual life, we don t really know whether Gov. Herter or the 1
lady in charge of the chicken has more authority. The story doesn t give us that information. And we know, if we pay attention to the scriptures, that God does not grant spiritual authority to his people based on their position within human power structures. Claiming authority in Christ is different from having human authority through one s role or position in society. I. Tradition and the Authority of the Church. Paul struggles with the issue of authority in his letter to the Galatians. Chapter 2 isn t included in the lectionary readings, but it s important to understanding Paul s attitude towards the Jerusalem leadership. In chapter 2, verse 7, Paul tells about how he and Peter divvy up the work of the church. Peter will handle the mission to the Jews, and Paul will handle the mission to the Gentiles. Great idea. But it doesn t go so smoothly when Peter and Paul encounter other Jews. Peter suddenly gets more Jewish in his behavior. Paul laments in chapter 2, verse 12: until certain people -- [Jewish Christians] -- came from James, [Peter] used to eat with the Gentiles. Paul s authority comes through a revelation of Jesus Christ, as he writes in chapter 1, verse 12. But the authority structure in Jerusalem isn t buying it. Paul must constantly defend the gospel he has received and preached. We need to remember that the Jerusalem leadership is all the apostles who were with Jesus during his lifetime. These are the disciples -- personal friends of Jesus -- who have been charged with proclaiming his message to the world after his death and resurrection. When we read the stories and writings of Peter and Paul and other leaders of the early church, we value them all as sources of authority, sources of truth. Even or maybe especially! when they disagree with one another. In the New Members class that starts next week, one of the things we will be talking 2
about is the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Wesleyan for John Wesley, the founder of Methodism; Quadrilateral, or quad, for the four sources of spiritual authority in United Methodism. The four sources are: Scripture, Reason, Tradition and Experience. Scripture is first and primary. In questions of spiritual authority, we always turn to the Bible first. Tradition mainly refers to the history of the Church universal. What are the traditions of the church, from the first century on, and how do our questions fit in to that history, that tradition? The Jerusalem leadership, and Paul with his mission to the Gentiles, are all a part of the Tradition of the church. II. Reason and the Authority of Human Knowledge. In the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, Reason has to do with the knowledge of the human race everything we have reasoned out at this point in time. Often science is referred to in this category, but it could also be philosophy or any form of knowledge that uses reason to arrive at answers to life s great questions. According to an unknown source: For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth. Aristotle was regarded as the greatest thinker of all time, and surely he would not be wrong. Anyone, of course, could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height to see whether or not the heavier object landed first. But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle's death. In 1589 Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten- pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed at the same instant. The power of belief was so strong, however, that the professors denied their eyesight. They continued to say Aristotle was right. 3
To include Reason as one of the four sources of authority is an important aspect of United Methodist understanding. Our view as a Protestant denomination is that science and analytical thought and experimental observation is all important knowledge that contributes to our understanding of life. God created us with minds to be used. God s intent is for us to explore this amazing world he has created and learn to understand it, and learn to enjoy it and love it and appreciate it. Reason is vitally important as one of the four sources of authority. Paul uses reason as he protests Peter s behavior. How is it ok for Peter to be one way when he s with the Gentiles and another way when he s with the Jewish Christians? Not only is it confusing and illogical; it is also lacking in honesty and integrity. Paul s unwavering commitment to freedom for the Gentiles ultimately leads to Peter s conversion to Paul s way of thinking. Pastor and theologian Heidi Husted Armstrong comments on the Jerusalem church s demands -- that Gentiles adhere to Jewish law. She writes: To reinstate the law as a means of salvation was fueled by racial bigotry, resulting in a segregated and severely compromised church. Paul s mission to the Gentiles is a mission to folks of other races and nations. The Jerusalem leadership is uncomfortable with these other folks. They want to put restrictions on these Gentiles, these foreigners. They would only allow them to be baptized into Christ s church if they agree to circumcision and if they follow Jewish dietary laws and other rules of ritual purity. Paul says no, absolutely not. We have freedom in Christ (Gal. 5:1). You cannot make these demands on the Gentiles. That s not the gospel I received from Jesus Christ. That s not the gospel I have been preaching on my missionary journeys to foreign lands. 4
III. Experience and the Authority of the Individual Christian. Of the four sources of authority in the Wesley Quadrilateral, Paul would probably resonate most with Experience. Sometimes individual experiences of God are frowned upon by the institutional church, which favors stability and tradition. Certainly the early church leaders in Jerusalem question Paul s experience as a legitimate claim to authority. But in the United Methodist Church, we make room for experience as one of our four sources of authority. More than any other claim to authority, Paul relies on his personal experience of Jesus Christ. Scripture has authority, tradition has authority, and reason has authority. But for Paul the greatest authority is that which he received through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Gal. 1:12). This is personal spiritual experience. This is personal encounter with God, with the Holy, with the Divine. Paul is so moved by his experience of Christ that he is willing to take on the top church authorities of his day, the apostles in Jerusalem. As United Methodists, we value that kind of personal faith experience as a source of authority. It s important that the four sources of authority balance one another. Personal experience must be measured alongside the scriptures. Tradition must be challenged by experience. Reason must be challenged by the other sources as well. C. S. Lewis writes on this subject: Believing things on authority only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there is such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary person believes in the solar system, atoms, and the circulation of the blood on authority because the scientists say so. Every historical statement is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Spanish Armada. But we believe them simply 5
because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them; in fact, on authority. A person who balked at authority in other things, as some people do in religion, would have to be content to know nothing all his life. Once we have consulted authorities that we trust in the areas of scripture, reason, tradition and experience, we must make up our own minds as to what we will believe and how we shall live. Because we are Christians, we give the Bible the primary position in our search for truth. Because we are United Methodist Christians, we also turn to reason, tradition and experience, to enhance our understanding of scripture, and to provide further guidance for our Christian walk. In her last letter to her husband, George Burns, Gracie Allen wrote: Don t put a period where God puts a comma God still speaks. Theologian Wendy Farley puts it this way: Any lunatic can claim that Jesus has revealed himself to her or him. Even saintly and wise revelations can threaten ecclesial [church] authority, and the church has been glad to sacrifice these to the greater good of stability if this letter [to the Galatians] is bad news for authoritarianism, it can be good news for those committed to the constant renewal of Christianity. It is good news for those outside systems of power who might see more clearly ways in which Christianity has cut off some of its own limbs in the name of tradition. It is good news for all those oppressed by the church: women, slaves, the poor. It is good news for all those lovers of Christ whose wisdom about the Divine is distorted or repressed by leaders of the church. Lucky for us, the Bible contains many writings that balance and critique one another. If Peter and James represent the more traditional, institutional beginnings of the church, Paul 6
represents the more radical, tear-down-the-walls stream of the faith. Looking at the conflicts between Peter and Paul, we can gain insight into our own struggles between tradition and new ways of being the church in this place. Closing Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles. Brett Blair tells this story about another missionary, E. Stanley Jones: The church in the world is a lot like the story that E. Stanley Jones tells of the missionary in the jungle. He got lost with nothing around him but bush and a few cleared places. He finally found a small village and asked one of the natives if he could lead him out of the jungle. The native said he could. All right, the missionary said, Show me the way. They walked for hours through dense brush hacking their way through unmarked jungle. The missionary began to worry and said, Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path? The native said, Bwana, in this place there is no path. I am the path. Our path out of the jungle of this world is God in Christ. We may have authorities like Peter or Paul or the leaders in Jerusalem. We may have scripture, reason, tradition and experience as sources to consult. But we are all like the missionary. We rely not upon human beings but upon Christ, who is our path. Paul writes: For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ And they glorified God because of me. (Gal. 1:11-12, 24). May God in Christ Jesus always be glorified in your life and in the life of this church family. Amen. 7