Backpacks, Boulders and Boundaries: Take 2, Part 1: 8/14-15/2010
This is a P.S. about letters. I know—it’s blowing your mind.
Paul, the missionary/church planter/tent maker, wrote almost all of his letters the same way. The letters start just like you would expect, all the business stuff up front: his name and title, where he is and where the letter is going. Then he gets to the part the people are craving. The warm, pastoral word of thanksgiving. It’s the part where Paul thanks God for them, where he encourages them and points out the things they are doing right as they try to follow Jesus. They would have loved to hear Paul say something great about them.
But when Paul writes to the Galatians, he skips that part. He does it on purpose. He’s mad. He says that they have turned away from the truth. He says that they have taken the gospel of grace and made it something cruel and oppressive. He says they have missed it. They have been adding rules to the Gospel that was meant to bring freedom. They have been trying to turn non-Jewish people into Jewish people instead of turning all people into people like Jesus.
They are doing the same stuff the Pharisees used to do. Making people carry heavy burdens that they weren’t meant to carry. They are spending all their energy pointing out the things that other people are doing wrong.
And Paul wants to make sure they understand that Jesus died for freedom. And by dying and living, Jesus beat the law, the penalty, the burdens.
By the time Paul gets to the part we’re studying in this series, Galatians 6.2-5, he has softened a little. He returns to form and includes his usual final instructions. “Carry each other’s burdens.” Instead of adding to them. Instead of criticizing each other. Instead of making up rules for other people to follow. Instead of trying to make everybody else just like you.
Spend some time in Galatians as we make our way through this series. It really is Paul’s feistiest letter. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.
See how quickly he calls them out starting in Galatians 1.6.
See him fight it out with Simon Peter starting in 2.11.
See what real freedom is in chapter 5.
And make some lists this week.
Make a list of the boulders you’re carrying around: Dysfunctions, disappointments, defeats, discouragement, depression, divorce, disconnection, disease, death.
Make a list of the boulders your friends and family might be carrying.
Pray, talk, think, work out how you might make those burdens lighter instead of heavier.
Listen to the weekend message
Read a manuscript of the weekend message
