Receiving the Spirit.

Galatians 3:1-14.

I.

            Paul says that the indicator of the authentic good news of Jesus is the reception of the Holy Spirit.  That’s how we know if we are getting the real good news or not.  Do we receive the Holy Spirit? 

            How well do we measure up to this standard?  If the only authentic worship is that in which people receive the Spirit, what does that mean for us?  Are we receiving the Spirit?  What does it mean to receive the Spirit anyway?

            Some of our Pentecostal sisters and brothers have very specific experiences which indicate the reception of the Spirit, like speaking in tongues.  I have great respect for the Pentecostal movement.  It is the fastest growing part of Christianity all over the world.  Yet, I am not totally convinced that what Paul means by receiving the Spirit can be reduced to just those kinds of experiences.  He certainly is not that explicit here in Galatians.

            At the same time, it is clear that Paul is talking about something remarkable, amazing, miraculous, unusual, and powerful.  Receiving the Spirit is not part of our normal experience.  It is a break with what we are used to and what we expect.  It can’t be explained away as something normal.

            Paul says that receiving the Spirit happens to the Galatians because they trusted in the good news they were hearing, centered around the death by crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and his subsequent resurrection. 

            So the good news is that a Jewish man named Jesus, whom the Romans executed for sedition, which is basically the only reason anyone got crucified, rose from the dead.  That means that he defeated Rome by neutralizing their most effective means of inspiring terror in conquered peoples.  Rome’s agenda of violence, exploitation, extraction, subjugation, and humiliation is now defunct.  We do not have to live in fear or disunity anymore.  And to trust, or believe, in this good news means to live going forward without fear, without the other values Rome pushes: like greed, anger, hatred, shame, or  inequality.

            Because of what God does in Jesus Christ, we all – even Gentiles – are free.  We are free to realize hope, peace, love, sharing, unity, generosity, and equality in our life together.  We are free to form new communities where these values are lived and expressed and shared.

            And more even than this, we are free from the demonic spiritual forces Rome represents, forces which have the whole creation in bondage and terror, forces which have bound and enslaved even the human soul.  Jesus Christ didn’t just die and rise again to defeat someone as inconsequential as Caesar; he defeated every evil power in the universe that tries to dominate people by making them enemies of each other and of their true selves.

II.

            Paul says that Jesus Christ finally fulfills the promise God makes to Abraham in Genesis 12, that all the nations would be blessed in him.  This promise is not just for one particular nation, but for everyone.  It is, furthermore, not just for people who keep to the letter of the Jewish Law.  It is for everyone.

            Paul stops trusting in Jewish exceptionalism and legalism when Jesus, he says, appears in, or to, him.  That experience causes him to realize three things. 

            First, his nation is really no different from any other nation; they are just another name on the list of conquered peoples.  There is no appreciable difference between Jew and Gentile in this respect.  All are united in their subjugation by Rome.

            Secondly, Jesus’ resurrection after he was crucified defeats Rome, not just on behalf of Jews, but for everyone.  Therefore, the people of every nation on that list of conquered peoples are liberated in Jesus Christ.  In fact, Christ liberates the whole creation from bondage to sin and evil, and therefore it is the best news ever and needs to be proclaimed far and wide.  All people may participate in this liberation by placing their wholehearted trust in Jesus Christ and his saving act.

            Finally, he realizes that the Law, for which he had been so zealous when he saw it to be the centerpiece of his Jewish faith, is utterly irrelevant to this new thing that God has done.  In fact, it is worse than irrelevant.  The Law has been turned into a barrier to faith and now works against this liberation from the power of Rome and cosmic evil.  What God is doing now is actually against the letter of the Law, because according to the Law Jesus is cursed because he was crucified.

            Furthermore, because of the deal made with the Romans by which Jews were exempted from having to worship the Emperor, keeping the Law is now no longer a brave statement of resistance to evil and injustice.  It is not, as originally intended, a way to reject the values of Pharaoh and live a new, free life as equals in God’s sight.  It is not an act of courage to keep the Law, as it was during the exile in Babylon.  Now the Law is a cynical, backhanded statement of allegiance to the Emperor, by which Jews accept from him a special status, different from all other peoples.  Now the Law makes Jews little more than the Emperor’s pets who owe their life not to God but to the Emperor.

III.

            The artificial distinction between Jews and Gentiles cuts against the truth of the good news of God’s redeeming, liberating, inclusive love for all, revealed and accomplished by Jesus Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection.  So when some Jewish followers of Jesus come to Galatia and start preaching that the if the new Gentile disciples there want follow Jesus the right way they have to become Jewish and keep the Law, beginning with undergoing the ritual of circumcision, Paul goes ballistic.

            They based their argument on Abraham, who receives circumcision as a sign of God’s promise and covenant.  Paul’s rejoinder is that Abraham’s circumcision came after he had already been made righteous by God on account of his trusting in God’s promise.  It is therefore those who place their trust in God like Abraham did who are the true spiritual descendants of Abraham. 

            Paul says, “All those who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse, because it is written, ‘Everyone is cursed who does not keep on doing all the things that have been written in the Law scroll.’”  Paul’s argument is not that it is impossible to keep the Law perfectly.  That may be so.  But his point is that keeping the Law does not liberate someone from the hegemony of evil, executed by Rome.  Someone who is liberated and therefore accepted by God as righteous and just, is the one who lives by trusting in God’s promise, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 

            The Law is not about trust.  It can even be about abdicating one’s trust in God by reducing trust and faithfulness to a mere adherence to rules and regulations, something that can be interpreted in a very self-serving way.  Obeying the Law is something a person does; but to trust in God hands the initiative over to God.

            Paul sums it up in verses 13 and 14.  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us – because it is written, ‘Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed.’”  Christ draws on himself crucifixion, the Roman punishment for sedition and something the Jewish Law says brings a curse.  In so doing he demonstrates that Judaism and Rome are on the same side; because both are united in their hostility and violence towards him, God’s anointed One.  He shows that Roman Law and Jewish Law are basically the same.  Christ takes on himself the curse of both, and he dies a gruesome, lonely death on account of both.

             By thus breaking down the difference between Jewish and Roman Law, and identifying with all the people who had been victimized unjustly by Rome, Paul says that Christ wiped out our differences, so that the blessing of Abraham could come to the Gentiles through him.  And we would receive the promise of the Spirit by trusting in Christ’s action.

IV.

            It was trusting in God, by means of hearing and embracing the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, that opened their hearts to the Holy Spirit.  Why, having already received the Spirit, would the Galatians in effect go backwards, and start doing something that not only doesn’t bring the Spirit but could actually cut them off from the Spirit?

            Well, I know why.  Receiving the Spirit is a very dangerous thing.  It puts you in jeopardy.  It can make you a curse, and cursed, by people.  In the case of the Galatians, it put their lives on the line with the Roman State.  Receiving the Spirit changes everything, and some folks are afraid of that change.

            For 2,000 years, the church has tried to at all costs to avoid receiving the Spirit.  Theologically, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has been woefully neglected.  In worship, the Holy Spirit gets dutiful mention in the Gloria, and almost never again.  Presbyterians are notorious for taking great pains to ensure that nothing out of control happen in worship.  And the Spirit is always by nature out of control.

            And I am not talking about the visible things like waving our hands or moving our bodies, though that can be part of it.  I am talking about the out-of-controlness of a worship that breaks down barriers, and reaches out to include many different kinds of people, and unites us all as equals before God and therefore with each other.  I am talking about worship that says an emphatic “No” to the forces within us and outside of us that want us to hate, fear, be angry, be ashamed, and be otherwise at enmity with each other and with God.

             That is the miracle that Paul saw happening with the Galatians; that is what receiving the Spirit meant to them.  He saw things happening among them that people simply cannot just do on their own.  He saw things that only the Spirit of God can do.  He saw differences dissolve, he saw people accept and embrace and forgive each other, he saw rich and poor, men and women, sick and well, young and old, locals and strangers, learn to love each other with honesty and openness.  He saw people willingly and joyfully decide that they would not worship the Emperor no matter what the punishment.  Because Christ showed them that the Emperor really has no power over them.  He can only kill their bodies.  But he can’t kill the new life they have together in the Spirit.

V.

            That kind of life together will always be subversive.  Because the Roman Empire and its values of exploitation, inequality, domination, violence, fear, greed, and division never really ended.  It was the expression at that time of the principalities and powers of evil that have held humans and human societies, and therefore all creation, in their oppressive grip for about as long as people have been around.  Rome just represents whoever our owners and masters are in any age.  It is the corrupted power of leaders, the wealthy, the powerful, the smart, the strong, and any who make themselves like god to someone else by claiming power over them.

            And we know the Presence and power of God’s Holy Spirit when we don’t see any of that among us.  What we see instead is gentleness and humility, patience and acceptance, forgiveness and forebearance, open-heartedness and open-mindedness, honesty and directness, and an inclusive sense that we are all equal and precious in the sight of God, and therefore in the sight of each other.  What we see then is joy and peace. 

            Where we trust in the Spirit, and in the Word of God, Jesus Christ, who pours the love of God into our hearts, that is where the Spirit appears.  Where we are willing to let everything go: pride, tradition, habit, desire, money, job, family, religion – that’s when the Spirit shows up.  And the Spirit gives us back many of these things and relationships in new, shining, colorful, vibrant, and living forms. 

            But we have to trust in the Spirit.  And that means realizing that it’s never going to be like it was… and that is a very good thing.

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