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Weekly Sermons>
Second Sunday after Pentecost
Jun 6, 2010 --
St. Paul, Tea Party Candidate
1.
Would you vote for Lazarus?
Knowing what you know,
the fact that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead,
would you vote for him?
Be careful.
For a candidate who has risen from the dead is a candidate who will break all the rules!
Tuesday is the primary election.
We are reminded of this by all the candidates’ signs that dot our roadways.
Last Sunday night I was exiting off Route 78 onto Route 31.
One of these signs caught my eye.
LAZARUS
What really caught my attention, however, was the smaller print.
“resurrect effective government.”
Clever.
I don’t know this Lazarus.
I don’t know what he’s running for.
But if I voted in that township I’d be inclined to vote for Lazarus if for no other reason than the sign.
“Resurrect effective government.”
But I would need to be careful.
If Lazarus is really going to resurrect effective government
he will need to break the rules.
2.
I don’t know if Lazarus, the one running for political office,
is a Democrat or a Republican.
The sign didn’t say.
I wonder, though, if Lazarus is a Tea Party candidate.
I don’t want to get too political this morning.
I know Tea Party candidates lean heavily to the right.
But Tea Party candidates also are anti-establishment.
Tea Party candidates are the ones saying that if government is not dead,
it certainly is broken; and it is in need of new life.
By nature of his sign Lazarus implies that government is dead.
The one in office now is ineffective.
The voters need to elect Lazarus to bring about resurrection.
3.
For the next five weeks the lectionary has assigned Galatians as the 2nd lesson.
Galatians was one of Martin Luther’s favorite books.
Luther called Galatians “my Katherine von Bora.”
Katherine, of course, was Luther’s wife.
I don’t know what she thought of this
but Luther said this because he was so drawn to Galatians
that he felt betrothed to the book.
In nine weeks 50 of us from Zion are embarking on a tour of Martin Luther’s homeland,
so I have decided to spend these next weeks preaching from Galatians since the book was so important to Luther.
4.
Galatians was written by Paul.
As I read the book in this day and in this political climate
Paul sounds a lot like a Tea Partier.
Not in terms of shrinking big government,
but in terms of challenging the establishment.
As Paul writes, the churches in Galatia were in conflict.
Know that the Galatians were Gentiles.
And the conflict centered on whether Gentiles needed to become Jewish before they became Christian.
The established church said yes.
Gentiles needed to adopt the Jewish laws before they could accept Jesus Christ.
Paul disagreed.
Paul felt the demand of the Jewish laws put an unnecessary burden upon Gentiles.
Now he wasn’t talking about the 10 commandments here,
but about all the other laws;
the kosher dietary laws, the Jewish feast laws, the circumcision laws;
all the human laws that defined Jewish culture.
Paul reminds the Galatians that the Christian faith is not about Jewish law, Jewish tradition, or Jewish culture.
The Christian faith is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Think Tea Party.
As the Tea Party seeks to set us free from Washington,
Paul seeks to set Christians free from Jerusalem.
Paul’s understanding of the cross is that Jesus Christ sets the Christian free from the establishment.
Christians are set free from constitutions, policies, procedures, traditions; and all those unspoken rules that define culture.
Christians are saved solely by the grace of Jesus Christ.
Not by the rules that define our humanity.
Paul accuses the established churches in Jerusalem of perverting the gospel of Christ.
In the verse immediately prior to our lesson this morning Paul writes:
As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!
5.
The church in Galatia was struggling to find the truth.
Whenever the truth is at stake worlds collide.
In Galatia Jews were colliding with Gentiles.
Paul collided with Peter.
During the Reformation Martin Luther collided with the Pope.
Protestants collided with Roman Catholics.
In the American political landscape today the Tea Party is colliding with both the Democratic and the Republican parties.
At the center of these collisions the establishment is intruded upon by new forces seeking to define the truth.
The old ways that defined the past are challenged with new ways that seek to define the future.
This is always unsettling because the new ways must break the rules of the old ways.
But it is through the collision that new life is found.
6.
With Jesus’ death and resurrection all rules that defined Judaism could not compete.
This is not to say they were no longer important.
Traditions, constitutions, hierarchies, dietary laws, policies and procedures;
can still order societies and organizations,
but they cannot bestow God’s favor.
Jesus Christ sets us free from all human order.
We are saved by grace.
Gentiles need not convert to Judaism before they believe in Jesus Christ.
7.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ breaks all the rules.
When the dead are brought back to life God asserts his reign over any man made law.
The Holy Spirit cannot be contained by tradition.
The gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be suffocated by the establishment.
Politically I tend not to lean toward the Tea Party,
but I have to admit that their anti-establishment platform has tapped into an impressive energy amidst their followers.
We usually stay clear of politics in the Lutheran Church but maybe there is a lesson to be learned this morning from St. Paul, the Tea Party candidate.
Paul writes in our lesson this morning:
But when God called me through his grace to reveal his son to me, I did not confer with any human being.
Paul proclaimed the gospel without approval from his religion,
Paul proclaimed the gospel without being held by his tradition.
As you believe in Jesus Christ don’t get too bound by procedure.
Don’t get too entrenched with tradition.
Don’t get too complacent with the old way of doing things.
Remember that we believe in resurrection.
And while resurrection breaks all the rules it also brings new life.
St. Paul proclaimed this new life to the Galatians.
Martin Luther proclaimed this new life to the Lutherans.
And today this new life is proclaimed to us.
God is blowing new life into our church.
Feel the energy.
Celebrate the joy.
Answer the call.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ leads us to places of new life.
Amen
Please contact us by phone at : (908) 876-3547 or via Email at : zionlongvalley@comcast.net
© 2010 Zion Lutheran Church of Long Valley New Jersey
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