Third Sunday after Pentecost

I hope you noticed the bell tower this morning. After months of peeling and chipping paint the bell tower has a new coat of paint just in time for our anniversary celebration.

The painters were here this past week and the little boy in me wanted to watch; not so much the painting, but I wanted to watch the boom, the heavy piece of machinery that lifted the painters up to the tower.

I was fascinated as the two painters stepped on the platform of the boom, and by operating the levers this machine lifted them up in a matter of seconds, giving them easy access to do their job.

I wonder how they painted the bell tower back in the old days?

I’ve heard of one Amish painter who still paints church bell towers the old way. With a rope secured to the steeple he repels down to the bell tower to complete the job. That might be even more fascinating to watch. I can’t imagine how he can manage a can of paint.

But today we have a boom to help the painters do the job. It is more expensive, but a lot easier and I would think a lot safer.

As I’ve watched the painting I have also been reading the book of Galatians which is our second lesson this morning. Today Paul explains the difference between the law and the gospel.

The law orders and the gospel saves, but too often we fail to understand this.

Because I have been watching this boom lift the painters up to the bell tower all week I’ve come to think of this boom as the law. Only a preacher can connect a boom with the law.

But what I’ve noticed about this machine is that as it lifts the painters up, it has two crooks, or two bends that support the platform. The boom does not go straight up.

As I think about the physics of the machine, if the boom was straight it could lift the painters higher, maybe they could paint the steeple too; but the machine would not be as secure.

With the two crooks, or the two bends; there is more support for the platform.

In the Book of Galatians the gospel is at stake. Paul argues that the Galatians, who were Gentiles (in other words non-Jews); need not adopt the Jewish law before they become Christians.

Remember the law orders the gospel saves.

Galatians do not need the law because the law doesn’t save.

The reason is because the law is flawed. A better way to say this is that Paul’s opponents have flawed the law. They are making observance of the Jewish law a condition to salvation. But if this is true, Paul says that Jesus died in vain.

The Jewish laws are like the painters boom, it is crooked. All the rules, all the “thou shalts” and the “thou shalt nots” do a very good job of ordering society. This is their function.

But obeying these laws, no matter how loyal we are, can never lift us up to God.

As I watched the painting of the bell tower this week, I wanted to ask if I could step on top of the boom’s platform and take a ride up to the steeple. The painters had to have a great view up there.

But I also fascinated about preaching the sermon from up there. Give me a microphone and let me go.

There is something about being lifted up over others that makes us feel important, that makes us feel better than those down below.

This is how we flaw the law. We use God’s laws to lift us up. Not for the view, but to get closer to heaven. And the closer to heaven we feel, the more important we feel. The higher we lift ourselves up, the more superior we become to all those sinners stuck on the ground looking up.

Obeying the Ten Commandments, following all the rules, being morally upstanding citizens can lift us up; but like the boom the law can’t straighten out, it can’t lift us as high as we need to go.

We baptize Daniel today because of this problem of original sin. We are born members of a sinful humanity. No matter how righteous we make ourselves, we are never righteous enough to be right with God.

The problem with the law is that we use it to straighten what is crooked. The law is enforced to arrest the crooks. The law is enforced to keep us on the straight and narrow. This brings order, but it never brings us into relationship with God.

There is no boom; there is no law that can straighten us up to reach to heaven.

This is why Paul tells Peter in his letter to the Galatians to believe in Jesus Christ.

Yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of law but through faith in Jesus Christ.

To be justified is to be declared right. To be justified is to be straightened out. To be justified is to be put in relationship with God.

The law cannot do this because it places the burden upon us. And if we are sinful and unclean, how can we save ourselves?

This why God sends Jesus. Jesus who knew no sin. Jesus who died on the cross.

When all humanity falls into sin, Jesus Christ remains obedient unto death, even death on the cross. The cross proves Jesus’ obedience to the will of God. Christ pays the debt of our sin. It is why Jesus Christ is the source of our salvation.

Human nature wants to step on the platform of the boom and be lifted up. We use the law to get closer to heaven. But the law cannot straighten out to lift us as high as we need to go.

The gospel is not about being lifted up. It is about God coming down; God coming down through Jesus Christ, God descending as low as humanity goes, all the way down to the dead so that through Jesus Christ God can lift us up.

God sends Jesus Christ to justify us, to make us right, to straighten us out; that the world may be saved from sin, death, and the power of devil.

Paul writes:

And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law.

Remember: the law orders, the gospel saves. Place your faith in Jesus Christ.

Amen

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