What Good Theology Does

The Third Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 6C), June 17, 2007

BCP: 2 Sam. 11:26-12:10, 13-15; Psalm 32 or 32:1-8; Gal. 2:11-21; Luke 7:36-50

RCL: 1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a or 2 Sam. 11:26-12:10, 13-15; Psalm 5:1-8 or Psalm 32; Gal. 2:15-21; Luke 7:36-8:3

The reading from Galatians clearly indicates some confrontation, in this case Paul going face-to-face with Peter. The apostles, too, had their issues with each other, in some cases quite intense. Confrontation is not ordinarily considered a Christian virtue, yet on numerous occasions Jesus chose to be confrontational, even with an “in-your-face” attitude. He confronted authority at times with a pregnant silence. For Jesus, the willingness to confront the authorities of his day, both religious and civil, ended in his crucifixion.

Confrontation can be very risky. In his account to the Galatians, the apostle Paul was risking a number of things: his own leadership role, conflict within the small and struggling Christian community, the loss of support for his own personal mission to the gentiles, as well as his personal relationship with Peter.

The Judaizers demanded that gentile Christians add circumcision according to the law to baptism, something more than simple faith in Jesus as Messiah. Paul saw that the law was thereby used to divide the church into classes, one more acceptable to God than the others. This he viewed as essentially an un-evangelical, anti-gospel attitude of people who thought themselves better than others. Paul was struggling for true solidarity among members of the body of Christ. What was at stake, Paul clearly saw, was the church’s legitimacy as a sign of the kingdom of God by example. It is because he is fighting for the true unity of the church that he goes all out to unmask what passes for unity.

For the early church, and certainly for us today, all this points to the reality that theology matters, which Paul spells out in verses 11-15. Good theology accomplishes a number of things for the church. It puts us on the same page regarding what we believe. Good theology accentuates the basics of our faith. It also focuses how we talk about faith — we talk about God and what God is about in Jesus Christ, not ourselves.

In this passage, Paul focuses his troubled church on the basics of the gospel. Salvation is primarily God’s action with our human response as secondary. We are not saved by “works of the law” (vs. 16) or by what we say and do and experience and feel. We are saved by the “faith of Christ,” by what God has done and continues to do for us in Jesus Christ.

Faith is first a gift, then a confession. The upshot is that Paul makes the christological dimension of salvation the touchstone of Christian unity. We need not all tell the same story, but we must all bow in awe before the same cross.

Look It Up

Our assurance as Christians is spelled out in the church’s Outline of the Faith, commonly called the Catechism. Look specifically at page 862 of the BCP.

Think About It

Do not many of our church disputes revolve around what we think, feel and have experienced rather than what God was and is about on our behalf?

Next Sunday

BCP: Zech. 12:8-10; 13:1; Psalm 63:1-8; Gal. 3:23-29; Luke 9:18-24

RCL: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a or Isaiah 65:1-9; Psalm 42 and 43 or Psalm 22:18-27; Gal. 3:23-29; Luke 8:26-39