72pt Arial Cross

Sermon for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Do you like

to stand out from the crowd?

Or would you prefer

just to fit in

and do just whatever

everyone else is doing?

For the most part,

there are times that

we want to stand out

and times when

we just want to fit in.

That’s natural.

How do we decide?

[PAUSE]

Our decisions are based

on what would give us

the most comfortable life.

We want to stand out

when we’ve done something

that others find amazing,

brilliant, funny

or heart-warming.

We want to fit in

when standing out

would make us look silly,

or make people look at us

with judgement

or even hate us.

We have to weigh up

the consequences

before we make that decision.

[PAUSE]

St Paul says

 it’s an important decision.

You can tell that

because he has taken the pen

from his scribe

and written part of

his letter to the Galatians

himself

in very big letters.

Think 72pt Arial.

His concern is that

the Galatians are allowing

themselves to be coerced

into following

the old Jewish Law

by Jews who are pretending

to be Christian.

The pressure on the Galatian Christians

to fit in,

seek a quiet life,

not stand out,

by receiving circumcision

kosher food laws

the old system of sacrifices

and the control of the Pharisees.

They don’t want to make a fuss,

so they roll over and accept

the rituals of the Old Law.

St Paul says “no!” very clearly

and doesn’t mince his words.

The Galatians are not

to follow the Jewish Law

for show,

or for the quiet life.

The Old Law was given

not only to allow the Israelites

to live in harmony with

God and each other,

but also to distinguish them

from the corrupt and disgusting practices

of the nations around them.

These Judaizers seek

to make Galatian Christians Jewish,

in order to glory in their control.

St Paul says that to follow his teaching

Christians must glory only in the Cross,

and allow the Cross

to distinguish them from

the corrupt world around them.

The trouble is

that, to the world,

the Cross

is a symbol of

pain, torture, humiliation

and death.

To the Christian,

the Cross

is peace, truth, glory

and life

- exactly the opposite

as to what the world thinks.

We choose the Cross

to fit in with Christ,

not the world

and that means the prospect

of much suffering and persecution

at the hands of those who would have us

see the Cross as a negative influence

because they want to glory

in their power over us.

[PAUSE]

The Gentiles become Christian

only with the requirements

that they abstain from

foods sacrificed to idols,

and from sexual immorality.

That’s still the case.

Christians must not be idolaters,

i.e. worship the created instead of the Creator.

And Christians must be sexually moral,

i.e. to see their bodies and the bodies of others

as outward expressions

of beloved children of God,

not as playthings to do with as they please.

This is our duty too,

and look how the World around us

wants us to forget them.

Every day, Christians are being tempted

and pressured to give in

to worship a false god or no-god.

Every day, Christians are being tempted

and pressured to indulge in

and sanction  sexual practices

which reduce human beings

to toys made out of meat and bone.

This is why St Paul writes

in 72pt Arial,

because what he says is important.

We must not be bewitched

by the world around us

but cling to the Cross of Christ

which is hard

and covered in sharp splinters.

[PAUSE]

The glory of the world

will pass away.

The false gods will rot

and fall apart.

Human bodies will age

and fall away to their dust.

But, shining through the Cross,

is our salvation

away from corruption and death.

Clinging the cross

will see us crucified with Christ,

and we shall certainly

stand out from the crowd

upon the crosses we bear.

But accepting that cross,

even venerating that cross,

will bring us through

into the glory of that cross

and into the life of Christ

in Whom is no corruption and decay,

no coercion and humiliation

but the purest, purest love.