June 6, 2010

 

Scripture:         Galatians 1:11-24

 

Sermon:           “Proof in the Pudding”

 

            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, chapter 1 where we will read together verses 11 through 24.  You can find that easily on page 251 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.

            Paul is a fascinating character in the story of the church.  Fascinating.  He was not one of Jesus’ disciples.  While Jesus was alive and during his ministry to people, there was a following that gathered around him.  Among the women and men that gave up most everything to be one of Jesus’ disciples, a select group of twelve was chosen as an inner core of leaders.  Paul was not among any of them.

            In fact, Paul belonged to a group of people that were often at odds with Jesus.  He was a Pharisee, which meant that he had a certain and strict understanding of how to live according to the laws and customs of the Jewish faith.  He wrote to the Philippians:  I was circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee. (Philippians 3:5)

            The gospels that tell the story of Jesus’ life do not have any record of a Pharisee named Paul, or Saul as he was called before.  But, I’ve often wondered if he may have been lurking in the crowd on occasion, listening to Jesus, and becoming enraged at what he saw and heard.

            This man was so violently opposed to the movement of Jesus and his followers that he began to hunt down and kill its leaders as dangerous heretics.  And it was while he was traveling north on the way to the city of Damascus, where he was going to execute a search warrant in a synagogue, that he was confronted by the risen Christ and powerfully converted into a believer.

            He finished his words to the Philippians like this:  As to zeal, [I was] a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:6)

            It should come as no surprise that there were a lot of Jesus’ followers that did not like Paul and did not trust him.  He had a bad reputation that preceded him and followed him throughout his life.  He was constantly having to live it down.  As we read in Galatians, Paul is defending himself against the allegations of others that he cannot be trusted.  This is the word of the Lord…

 

            For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origins; 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.

            You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism.  I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.  I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.  But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.  Then after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother.  In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!  Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.”  And they glorified God because of me.

 

            I’m telling you the truth.  I do not lie.  It’s the truth.  I promise.  I’ll swear on a stack of Bibles.

            You get the sense that Paul is fighting an uphill battle.  It seems that his bad reputation has followed him to the churches of Galatia.  Somebody had been talking behind his back while he was away.

It used to be that the people there loved Paul.  Nobody had ever heard of him before he came and started those churches.  When it was Paul that came and introduced the gospel of Jesus to that part of the world, he had escaped from all of the bad feelings and ill will of the others who just couldn’t bring themselves to trust the man.  He was, after all, the same guy trying to destroy the entire movement at one point in his life.

But, somebody came in while Paul was elsewhere and started talking out of school about him.  Do you know what folks used to say?  About Paul?  Do you know what they used to say?  “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.”  You can find that in Acts 9:13.

Paul started those churches where nobody ever knew a thing about his past and then he moved on to do his mission work elsewhere.  His past, however, could not escape him.  Somebody else arrived to make sure of that.

Of course they had an agenda.  And sometimes, you know, when somebody’s got an agenda, they’ll resort to personal slander in order to persuade other people.  “You can’t possibly trust this guy.  He’s the one who used to hunt down and persecute the church.  You think you can rely on his word?  Now, let me tell you what this Christian faith is really all about.”

Do you see how that works?  If you can call into question the credibility of the messenger, maybe you can call into question the entire message.  Introduce a little uncertainty in the minds of folks, you know.  Get them thinking.

Someone will say, “Well, you know who that is, don’t you?”  Right?  “You know who that is.”  In the South it would just get shortened.  All you have to say to discredit somebody is “Well, you know….”  It takes a little practice and there is a tilt of the head and a knowing look in the eye.  But, all you have to say is, “Well, you know…”

That’s supposed to dredge all of the unspoken rumors and possible truths that you’re not supposed to really talk about in public because it’s rude.

There was a board meeting at a church one night.  Folks were trying to decide about spending money on fixing up a ball field on their property.  There was an old backstop already in place.  There just wasn’t any grass anymore.  Weeds and rocks.  But, they had teenagers in the church now.  Maybe they should fix that old thing up again, give them a place to go.

Now, that costs a little bit of money, you know.  Takes a little bit of effort to work on it.  Takes even more money and effort to keep it in nice shape over time.  And there was a good little argument in that board meeting about all of that.  I was a student in seminary at the time, serving as youth pastor.

One man was very passionate about the whole thing.  And that was good.  He was passionate about fixing up that old ball field and making a place for young people in the church.  “They’re our future, y’all.  They’re our future.”  And he was right.  Young folks are the future of the church.  I’d prefer to say that they are the present of the church.  But, you can’t squabble over words when somebody’s basically in agreement with you.

What’s a shame is that everyone in that church knew about this man’s demons.  They knew about his struggles with the bottle.  And everybody knew about his indiscretions in his marriage.  That stuff can’t hide from you very well.  And since there were some folks in that board meeting that did not agree with that man at all, they did not want to spend any more of the church’s money, their money, those demons became an easy way to try to win folks over.

I heard it in the hallway.  There were three or four people standing around talking about the whole thing.  “I don’t see how we can afford this right now.  This isn’t the right time for this.  That man’s gonna bankrupt the whole church.”  And then, you know what came next.  One of them lowered her glasses and looked kind of crooked-like at the others and said, “Well, you know…”

You know what?  See, in the South that’s how you remind folks of the dirty secrets lurking underneath everything.  “Well, you know…”  And the rest of them just kind of grinned and nodded their heads.

That ball field got fixed up, by the way.  Y’all always want to know the ends of my stories after church.  That ball field got fixed up.  And Chad Turner broke my nose in a softball game by throwing the ball at me when I wasn’t looking.

But, you know how all that works.  It’s what happened to Paul.  “Well, you know who that is, don’t you?”

Paul was dealing with folks that wanted to undermine what he was teaching about the faith.  Some folks early on were quite convinced that a person had to be fully living according to the traditions of Judaism.  You had to keep kosher in the things that you ate.  If you were a man, you had to get circumcised.  How else is a Jewish Messiah going to be your Savior if you’re not a Jew?  But, that’s not the way Paul saw things and it is not what he taught the non-Jewish folks in Galatia.

So, Paul’s opponents pulled one of those “Well, you know who that is, don’t you?” tricks to try to persuade them otherwise.  “Consider the source.”  Have you ever heard that?  “Consider the source.”  That’s what they said.

We’re pretty familiar with that.  Especially when it comes time for us to go to the voting booth.  There’s a lot of talk about considering the source.  And it usually has to do with trying to call into question somebody’s character.  I mean, how can that woman possibly govern people when she’s got a teenage daughter that’s pregnant?  How could that man be any good for the country when you know he’s got friends that are downright un-American?  We’re asked to “consider the source” based upon some pretty irrelevant stuff.

We’re pretty familiar with that.

What did Paul do in the face of that?  Do you see what he did?  He just owned up to it.  He said, “Yeah, all of that stuff is true.  So what?”  You see, Paul was convinced that the story of a person’s redemption was far more powerful than the story of a person’s past.

You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism.  I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.  He owned up to it.  He owned up to it because the story of his redemption was more powerful than the story of his past.  He was living proof, you might say, of how this salvation works.  The proof is in the pudding.

You could read his words like this:  “Yes.  I was a bad guy.  I did do all of those things you heard about.  Every word of it is true.  But, look at what the gospel did to me!  And look at how God has been glorified in my life.”

It may be that you have not been the picture of perfection you’re entire life until now.  So, I want you to hear this good news.  Not only does your past not exclude you from God’s undying love, it gives you quite a story of redemption that God is very excited to use in demonstrating just how amazing the gospel really is.  With you, the proof is in the pudding.

Do you know where that saying comes from?  The proof is in the pudding?  Have you ever made pudding?  You can put all kinds of things into a pudding in order to reach a final result.  A little sugar.  A little milk.  Thicken it up with cornstarch, or eggs, or rice, or tapioca.  And then you add flavors beyond that.  And you can make some pretty unsavory pudding by experimenting.  You never know until you taste it.  Now, I’m not talking about that instant pudding Bill Cosby was so fond of.  I’m talking about the real stuff you make on your own stove.  You never know if it’s good until you taste it.

The proof is in the pudding.  Look at Paul.  Look at yourself.  It means that whatever the ingredients, let the final sweet taste alone be judged.

 

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)