Living by grace. Part 3.

March 29, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

I confess I have too many books, so much so that I don’t know what I have any more, or where I have them. But occasionally there is the delight of finding a book I had forgotten, or don’t remember at all.

And so during this Easter week there was the serendipity when a slim volume by Thomas Merton fell into my hand while searching for something else. Merton’s refreshing and timeless 1975 essay He Is Risen opened me again to the theme of living by grace and relying on the promises of God.

Graphic:  www.trinitystores.com

Merton offers a reflection on Galatians 5:1,

“where Paul rebukes the Christian converts for still thinking that certain legal observances were still necessary for them: as if they could not be saved without being circumcised. The Galatian converts were tempted to something that we might describe today as religious overkill. They wanted to make absolutely sure that everything was completely taken care of.. So they not only adopted the Christian faith but all the ritual practices of Judaism as well. Thus, if Christianity turned out to be not good enough, they would still be covered by Jewish observance.”

Garrison Keillor has quipped that “Lutherans believe they are saved by grace, but think it best to ring a covered dish just in case.” So we fall in the same column as the Galatians — trying to cover our bets, and take out insurance on salvation. Lutherans are not the only ones. All flavors of Baptists and all Catholics are stuck in this as well.

This is more than an idle comparison with the ancient Galatians. Christians who do this stand under the same admonition of St. Paul: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” It means many Christians do not trust in the promises of the Gospel, but believe that they must at least try to earn God’s love. They do this through using the Law of Moses like a club over one another, and by adding to that Law with strict rules not found in the Bible (like not drinking and not dancing, for example).

Paul’s admonition is to the point: Stand firm; do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (which somebody else thinks should be placed on you). Don’t give in to legalism, because if you do, you are negating the promises of Christ, and “Christ will be of no benefit to you.” The apostle’s immediate circumstance was the issue of circumcision as a sign of obedience and conformity to the covenant of Moses, but that doesn’t mean that circumcision is the only yoke of slavery which “religious overkill” can try to impose.

It is clearer to me all the time that the apostles’ writings show that they themselves were slow to wake up to the implications of their own inspired words. In Acts, St. Peter is recorded as saying, Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,” but he had to learn that lesson, with regard to the Gentiles, over and over. St. Paul carries the torch for Christian freedom, but still repeats rules and requirements that should have no binding place in the Christian faith. Why, because God in Christ has granted us the ultimate freedom from religious overkill—from rules of obedience and conformity. We are bound only to the rule of Christ, the New Commandment laid down on the night before he died: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

For sexual minorities, finding the right ethics for our lives is still our assignment. We must test and weigh and reflect what it means not to conform to social norms which are normal for 90% of the population but impossible for us, and still be obedient to the law of love. The law of Moses is no help, so 99% of the televangelists and radio preachers who love to dissect virtually every obscure verse in the Old Testament in order to accuse us should just give it a rest! The sexual ethics of the Old Covenant simply cannot be taken at face value, even by heterosexuals. Christians must rethink all moral questions in the light of Christian freedom and the grace of God.

It is especially painful that Christian fundamentalists have gotten into bed, as it were, with right-wing politics of privilege and money. Says Merton:

“This spirit of overkill is characteristic of the Christian who is afraid to be simply a Christian in the world of our time. He is not content with faith in the Risen Christ, nor content with the grace and love of Christ. He wants the comfort and justification of being on the side of wealth and power. In some cases, Christianity becomes literally the religion of overkill, the religion in which you prove your fidelity to Christ by your willingness to destroy his enemies ten times over.”

For lesbian and gay Christians, the greatest enemies are within. Too many of us have killed ourselves – either literally or emotionally in order to fight back our conflicted feelings. We have not trusted the grace and love of the Risen Christ and have tried to design a religion with Christ as a mere figurehead and our own rigorous accomplishments as the main ingredient. No, says St. Paul. Stop it. “You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.” Religious overkill did not originate with Christ, but comes from a corrupting influence. Watch out, St. Paul says. Don’t buy into it. In fact, he is so upset with those who have shoved the Law back into the envelop of Grace that he actually curses them (and thanks to God that the NRSV restores an accurate translation here of Galatians 5:12); speaking about the pro-circumcision saboteurs, “I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!” instead of Christians who are free, and who live by grace! the one who calls us–Christ– calls us knowing we are LGBT, justified by grace, freed by the cross, and obedient only to the law of love. Christ is risen, Alleluia! Live by grace!!

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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