Who Lives In You?

Galatians 2:15-21

June 13, 2003

 

INTRODUCTION TO GALATIANS

I’ll be following lectionary passages from Paul’s Letter to Galatians today and next three Sundays.  So there are a few things we need to know about this letter before we delve into parts of it.  Paul’s

Letter to the Galatians is a real letter; not aformal essay like “Letter” to the Romans.  Romans was written to people he had never met, while he actually knew the Galatians.  Galatia is not a city or town, like “ Rome ” or “ Corinth ” were.   Galatia an area in Asia Minor , much like Oklahoma in the Southwest United States .  If he were writing to us today it might be called Paul’s Letter to the Okies.

Paul had founded several congregations during his missionary travels in Asia Minor .   Most of these new Christians had no religious background--‘pagan’ is what they were.   So Paul taught them what they needed to know to be good Christians, then he left to begin other congregations.

 

Soon after he left, other missionaries arrived to continue his work.  Like Paul, these missionaries were Jews who became disciples of Jesus.  Unlike Paul, however, they thought it very necessary to follow the Laws of Moses--they had not yet made connection between obeying the Law and fulfilling the Law.  They taught obeying the Law--being Orthodox Jews and Disciples of Jesus.   But it is a well-known fact that no one can be orthodox Jew and a Disciple of Jesus.  It’s a bit like trying to be solid wood and plywood--both come from same tree, but they are very different and cannot be the same thing.   So when Paul heard what these Galatian Christians were being taught he was much concerned and maybe even a little angry!  He dashed off this letter to convince them that they should not accept their perversion of Gospel.   First he reminds them of his “credentials.  It was not his birth or his education.   Paul’s authority to teach them came directly from God and delivered by Jesus himself.  He related a similar situation with Peter, and then launched into what became today’s lesson that is recorded in Galatians 2:14b-21.

 

CONSIDER THE HERMIT CRAB

Put this page of Paul’s letter in your pocket where you can retrieve it later.  Clear your mind, because I’m going to change the subject drastically and I don’t want to lose you!  Consider, for a moment, the hermit crab.  Hermit crab is a crustacean, looks much like this stuffed BeanieBaby crab.  Crustaceans are a group of animals that have hard exoskeleton, jointed legs, and a body that is symmetrical.  Hermit crab are different from other crabs in three ways:  (1)  Their exoskeleton is not as hard as other crabs; (2)  They have only three pairs of walking legs instead of four; and (3) Most are scavengers, which means they are attracted to dead animals and discarded things.  Because of soft exoskeleton, they live in discarded sea shells like this one.   Once upon a time, a soft-bodied mollusk lived inside this shell.   When it died, only this outer shell was left.  Since the hermit crab needs somewhere to live, it crawls inside and goes to town [or wherever crabs go!]. 

 

As you might expect, Hermit Crabs grow when you feed them.  However, since these hard shells do not grow or expand, the crab soon outgrows the shell.  Then it needs new home, and goes looking for a bigger shell to crawl inside and carry around.  Notice, if you will. that the shell has no active roll in any of this--it’s all up to the crab.  In the natural world, if it were not for this crab, this shell would be completely useless.

 

In one hand we have a critter who needs a home, or a new home, bigger than current home.  A crab that is “not-like-the-other-crabs” and needs an empty shell to live in.   And in other hand we have an empty shell that needs something to live in it, something that will give it new life, take it places, show it the world!  When hermit crab and empty sea shell get together, it’s a good thing.

 

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HERMIT CRAB AND THIS PASSAGE FROM GALATIANS

Keep your hermit crab in one hand, and retrieve your page of Paul’s Letter to Galatians from pocket.

Hold them side by side and look at similarities.  I think we can say this crab is much like Jesus.  Jesus was a human ‘not-like-the-other-humans.’  He’s the true human--rest of us are really less-than-human, sub-human, because we’re always hurting each other.   Since Jesus was fully human, he was always looking for the cast-off people, the people nobody else wanted, the people who were dead and needed new life breathed into them.  Jesus found these people one by one as he walked hills of Palestine .  He found them, healed them, and made them useful again.   Then, after his death Spirit which lived in him needed to find another home.  This hermit crab is much like Jesus.

 

And it’s not too much of a stretch to say this empty shell is like Paul.  Paul was as good as dead because he tried to make himself right with God by obeying The Law.  He was rigid and unfeeling, like this empty shell.  “Dead in the Law” was the way he liked to say it.  “Dead” until Christ came to “live in him” and give new meaning to his life.  Paul knew this did not happen because of anything he did.   He did not win a contest; he did not run through some obstacle course; he couldn’t even do it by keeping all the rules.  Paul was just there . . . walking along the road to Damascus hunting down Christians, until Jesus came to live in him.   Paul was not the faithful one; the faithful one was Jesus.  It was the faithfulness of Jesus that brought him new life. 

 

The union of the hermit crab and an empty shell is a good thing.   In the same kind of way, when Jesus came to “live in” Paul, great things happened.   “Christ” lives in me!” he writes to the Galatians.  And he responded by going everywhere Christ led him to share that good news.

 

PAUL IS NOT THE ONLY ONE

Paul is not the only one who needed new life in his old “shell.”  Gillions of people walk around empty every day, needing to be filled up again.   There are all kinds of possibilities to fill them up.   There is work, and family, and endless activities that compete for empty space in us.  Even religion offers a ”quick fix” for those who suffer from emptiness.   But Paul encourages us to have none of these.

           

The question Paul leaves with the Galatians he also leaves with us.   Who lives in you?  Who lives in me? Is it work?  Is it family?  It is that endless round of activities that competes for our lives?  The only way you [and others] will know the answer to that question is by how you live.  When Christ lives in you, you will go where he takes you and do what he does.   When Christ lives in you, you will be much like this hermit crab--and that is a good thing!

 

 

Christians often mistranslate > and therefore misunderstand     > what Paul said in these verses

            Martin Luther thought Paul said “through faith/belief in Christ Jesus”

            for Luther > that was wonderful news at the time >

in Luther’s day > religion had reverted back to doing the right things to be saved

                        human action was required to be made right with God > and live eternally with God

                        That it simply is not right!

                                    If you have a New Revised Standard Version of the Bible

                                    the footnote to that clause in verse 16 reads “faith of Christ”

                                    that is the most accurate translation

                        Being made right with God did not require any action on Paul’s part!

                        He was made righteous through the faithfulness of Christ Jesus

                                    And what did he do?

                                    He responded