The New Creation

The New Creation Galatians and United Methodism Thoughts for the New Millenium Three Spiritual Exercises Robert A. Hill Spring 1999 (In Conversation with J. L. Martyn, Galatians, Anchor Bible, 1997) Introduction Every generation comes upon the strange world of the Bible for itself, afresh. Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia, from the mid-50’s of the first century, may open for us some new and truly remarkable insights, especially fit for those in United Methodist ministry in the Northeast USA. This firey little letter has exploded before: at the outset of the mission to the Gentiles/the unreligious (Paul); at the creation of the New Testament (Marcion); at the dawn of the Reformation (Luther—who called the letter "my Katie von Bora"); in the Wesleyan movement ("finish then thy new creation…"); in the heart of the Civil Rights movement (M. L.King, "Letter from Birmingham Jail"). Primary Texts "(The Gospel) came through a revelation (apocalypse) of Jesus Christ." (Gal 1: 12b) "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me." (Gal 2: 20) "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is no "male and female"; for all of you are One in Christ Jesus." (Gal 3:28) "For Freedom Christ has set us free! Stand fast, therefor, and do not be enslaved again." (Gal 5:1) "God forbid that I should boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the cosmos has been crucified to me, and I to the cosmos. For neither is circumcision anything nor is uncircumcision anything. What is something then is the New Creation." (Gal 6:14) A Preface: Exercise in Faith and Forgiveness Attic Box… I. In the Company of Angels?: (Voice not Vote) Reflections on Galatians 1:12b and Matthew 28: 1-7 1. The Angel says, "Fear Not…" a. b. 2. The Angel says, "I Know that You Seek Jesus the Crucified…" a. b. 3. The Angel says, "He is not Here…" a. b. 4. The Angel says, "Go and Tell…" a. b. Summary Exercise: Three ways I will use my voice this year… 1. 2. 3. II. In the Company of Apostles: (Agree to Disagree?) Questions 1. The basic struggle underlying the Galatian epistle, and deliberated earlier at the Jerusalem conference was … 2. Paul was enraged with the Galatian (gentile) churches, because … 3. Two questions* dominate the Apostle’s repreaching of the Gospel here… a. b. * These interrogatives are… 4. Can we rehearse the story of the Jerusalem Conference?…. Participants: 1. Paul, Barnabas, Titus* 2. Peter, James, John, "pillars" 3. False Brethren Data 1. 2. 3. The Plot Some Conclusions 1. Diversity "preceded" unity in the earliest church (Bauer). 2. Only remember "the poor". 3. On the basis of mission, the church could agree to disagree, agreeably. 5. Are there occasions of grace in which Galatians 3:28 erupts? a. (E. Wiesel, Night; A. Ashe, Days of Grace; F. McCourt, Angela’s Ashes; D. Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship) b . And in your ministry? … 6. What does this mean for us today? "Instead of being the holy community that stands apart from the profane orb of the world, then, the church is the beachhead God is planting in his war of liberation from all religious differentiations. The distinction between church and world is in nature apocalyptic rather than religious…’God has founded his church beyond religion’ (Bonhoeffer) (J. L. Martyn, Galatians/Anchor Bible, 37).” 7. A new language for a new creation: choose one favorite from each list. Apocalyptic Language and Imagery Verbs: The Gospel... Precedes, Permeates, Invades, Attacks Creates, Transforms, Sends, Grasps, Regrasps, Eclipses Adjectives: The Gospel is… Presuppositionless, Unconditioned Preached Event, Redemptive, Apocalyptic Nouns: The Gospel is a/an…. Incursion, Grace Phrases: The Gospel involves… The Eschatological Human Being Stepping onto the Scene Sweeping off the feet Singling Out The Faith of Jesus Christ Christ’s own faith Coming before God with empty hands No prior conditions Not freedom but freeing of the will Not only forgiveness but deliverance Invading the territory of tyranny A Declaration of War The mind set at rest Becoming an addressable community Not repairing but replacing 8. What does Galatians 3:28 offer us, here and now? a. A pre Pauline baptismal formula that he interprets b. In the apocalyptic now and the New Person of Christ—inreality, that is, these oppositions no longer exist—religious/unreligious, rich/poor, male/female c. Paul preaches not creation, but new creation… d. He contrasts the new with the old creation… e. "The variation in the wording of the last clause suggests that the author of the formula drew on Gen 1:27, thereby saying that in baptism the structure of the original creation had been set aside." (Martyn 376). 9. What surprises, questions, or judgments do you have on reading this passage: "From reading others of Paul’s letters, we know that the apostle was aware of the fact that even in the church, the beachhead of God’s new creation, there were as yet some marks of sexual and social differentation (eg 1 Cor 7; Philemon). He had later therefore to think very seriously about the tension between the affirmation of real unity in Christ and the disconcerting continuation of the distinguishing marks of the old creation. In writing to the Galatians he does not pause over that matter. In Rom 1: 18-32, Paul uses an argument explicitly based on creation, drawing certain conclusions from the "things God has made" in "the creation of the cosmos" (Rom 1:20). In effect, Paul says in this passage that God’s identity and the true sexual identity of human beings as male and female can both be inferred from creation. What a different argument lies before us in Gal 3:26-29, 6:14-15! Here the basis is explicitly not creation, but rather the new creation in which the building blocks of the old creation are declared to be non-existent. If one were to recall the affirmation ‘It is not good that man should be alone" (Gen 2:18), one would also remember that the creational response to loneliness is married fidelity between man and woman (Gen 2:24, Mark 10:6-7). But in its announcement of the new creation, the apocalyptic baptismal formula declares the erasure of the distinction between male and female. Now the answer to loneliness is not only marriage, but rather the new-creational community that God is calling into being in Christ, the church marked by mutual love, as it is led by the Spirit of Christ (Gal 3:28). The result of such a radical vision and of its radical argumentation is the new-creational view of the people of God…It is Christ and the community of those incorporated into him who lie beyond religious distinctions…Baptism is a participation both in Christ’s death and in his life; for genuine, eschatological life commences when one is taken into the community of the new creation, in which unity in God’s Christ has replaced religious-ethnic differentiation. In a word, religious and ethnic differentiations and that which underlies them—the Law—are identified in effect as the "old things" that have now "passed away", giving place to the new creation (2 Cor 5:17). 10. What time is it? Where are we? a. It is the time after….. b. It is the time of things…. c. It is the time of the presence… d. It is the time of the war of… e. It is the time of the dawn of… And a grace note from W. Blake… III. In the Company of an Apocalyptic People: (Creation, Fall or New Creation?) A. Notes on Rebuilding 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. B. Notes onThinking Twice 1. 2. 3. C. Notes on Labels "Issue" "Creation" "Fall" 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. IV. Appendices A. 52 Comments on Galatians: J. L. Martyn, Anchor Bible Summary and Analysis: R. A. Hill, 5/99 Introduction. Paul, apostle, due to illness paused in central Turkey and preached the good news of Christ, crucified, which word freed the Galatians from superstitious fears, and made them alive "in Christ". All these were Gentiles. Paul wrote from Thessalonica/Philippi, after hearing bad news about the arrival of other teachers. Galatians (c. 50ad) is Paul’s second letter, after 1 Thess and before Phil, these three having no reference to the "collection". Later Paul wrote the Corinthian letters, and finally Romans. The letter is a situational sermon, an announcement, focused on 2 questions: "What time is it? and "Where are we?" Later, in Romans, Paul clarified/supplemented/modified/interpreted Galatians. In both, Law is no match for Sin. F Overbeck, "Paul had only one student who understood him, Marcion, and this student misunderstood him." The center of Galatians is the "cosmic antinomy between religion and apocalypse". For Paul, Christ is not a religious figure at all, in the sense of sacred/profane. Galatians 1 1. Paul’s Apostolate. Apart from human activity, especially religion, God acted in Christ to bring all people into the OPEN SPACE of the new creation. Faith is about what God has done, as is all preaching. Liberation, not forgiveness, is God’s fundamental remedy. What is making things right in the human scene does not have its origin here. 2. The Human Plight and God’s Act in Christ. Paul sees Adam in the light of Christ, sin in the light of grace…Humans are enslaved to supra-human powers, in the present evil age. The church is God’s new creation, in which sin is not only forgiven but overpowered by God. 3. Apocalyptic Theology. The apocalypse of faith, the coming of faith, God’s invasion of the present (evil age) with new creation, not God’s creative act, but God’s new-creative act is the sending of the Son. This is apocalyptic dynamism. The turn of the ages has come. Church: new creation, front line trench, beachhead, in jungle warfare, Bi-focal vision, realistic and visionary, emphasizes the new creation. "Everything is newly perceived by the one who knows himself to be redemptively grasped by God at the juncture of the evil age and the new creation." An earthquake has occurred, an apocalyptic invasion. "God would not have to carry out an invasion merely to forgive erring human beings. The root trouble lies deeper than human guilt." 4. Paul’s Epistolary Word and God’s Word. God’s word is invincible and indelible. Paul’s word becomes, he believes, the active word of God. 5. Defection from the God who calls into existence. God’s grace is the space into which he has called the Galatians. "God elects to call into being something that was not there before." At stake is the truth of the gospel. "The gospel is something that can and must be distinguished from tradition…it is not object, but event (3:1)." 6. The (Opposing) Teachers. *Messianic Jews*Joseph and Asenath*Outsiders*Evangelists*Lawas GoodNews (for Gentiles), motivation for new Gentile mission, source of spirit, threat of exclusion, necessity of circumcision/holytimes/diet*Christ of Law (Christ in light of Law, not viceversa)—and avoid cross, Christ completes Moses*Descendants of Abraham*Jerusalem is our mother*Israel*Victory over "flesh." 7. The Gospel of Christ and its Counterfeit. A. Paul See Harnack 5 stages of "gospel". 2Isaiah? Hellenism?…in any case, "glad tidings" that the Galatians heard from Paul. Some points of contact, some disjuncture with common use of term….*once for all*power to save*event*cross as glad tiding*apocalypse*epistemological crisis ("There is no ordinary, visible evidence to support Paul’s announcement of the glad tiding…in a visibly unchanged world….God’s new deed is to be seen in the miracles of this new community…the divine revealing invasion that changes not only the cosmos but also one’s way of perceiving it.") B. Teachers. *In accordance with Scripture *Preached by apostolic evangelists*the covenantal law made available to the Gentiles*brought by an angel…"the glad tiding of God to all of humanity is the wonderfully venerable and angelically glorious LAW OF SINAI, embodying God’s covenantal blessing of Abraham and now confirmed by Christ." C. Paul (reprise) "In the form of an argument he preaches again the glad tiding, insisting that in the cross of Christ—not in the Law—God has invaded the human orb, victoriously liberating enslaved humanity, and thus setting right what has gone wrong (2:16). In two exegetical sections he shows the true sense in which the gospel is in accordance with the scripture (3:6-4:7, 4:21-5:1). He provides faithful guidance for behavior in the community made up of persons whose hearts have been invaded by the Spirit of Christ (5:13-6:10). And, striking a parting blow against the counterfeit gospel of the Teachers, he speaks of the death of the old cosmos and of God’s new creation that has taken the place of the old cosmos (6:11-18)." 8. Rhetoric and the Service of God. "Paul’s identity as apostle and slave of Christ is given him by God, not by a crowd that is pleased with his preaching."…We are the slave of those we try to please. In Christ, Paul has a new "towardness". As a slave, the messenger of a new freedom. The gospel happens as it is gospeled. The gospel happened to Paul when God stepped on the scene and invaded his life in Christ. 9. The Gospel, Human Norms of Judgment, and the Nature of Evangelical Argument. No human point of departure, no common rhetoric, no persuasion, just announcement. "The power to kindle faith resides solely in God’s Gospel." The cross is the point of departure. 10. The Gospel, Tradition, and Apocalypse. Paul "knew" the gospel before Damascus, but when Christ attacked Paul, the gospel as tradition was destroyed by the gospel as event. There was a reversal of the order of tradition and apocalypse. "As the gospel moves into the world, it subjects tradition to itself, it does not subject itself to tradition…at every juncture without exception apocalypse takes primacy over tradition. 11. The History Created by the Gospel. The gospel is not what humans usually think is good news, not received from a human, not taught…but came by apocalypse. Prophetic, not biographical, speech. 12. Paul’s Persecution of the Church. So too, these "zealous observers of the Law "persecute" the Churches in Galatia, undermining the word of God’s gospel by requiring Gentiles to observe the Law." 13. Human, Traditional Religion and Apocalyptic Vocation. The advent of Christ is the end of religion. 14. God’s Apocalypse of His Son to Paul. *Enthronment *Descent *Sending *Faithful love in death. 15. Paul’s View of the Law Immediately after His Call. "Grasped by God he came to see that in the event of Jesus’ crucifixion God had stood on the side of the condemned victim rather than on the side of the condemning Law." 16. The Negative Travelogue. * Not what humans expect *Not received from a human *Not taught *No advice sought *No trip to Jerusalem *Rather, to Arabia *Return not through Jerusalem but Damascus *Saw no pillars (except James) *No lie! *Worked not in Jerusalem but in Syria *They did not know me by sight (11). For Paul, "Jerusalem"="Jerusalem Church". And Paul has no interest in going to Jerusalem for "christian education". He grudgingly admits that he made a visit. "Paul and Peter may even have reached—between the two of them—at least an embryonic understanding of God’s plan to advance the gospel into the world along two parallel paths (1:18). "We meet here an instance of Paul’s theological use of spatial language (cf Rom 5:2). He thinks of Christ as the new realm God is now establishing in the world." 17. Chronology and Geography. Paul’s major intention in composing the travelogue is to demonstrate his distance from Jerusalem. Galatians 2 18. The Jerusalem Conference, a 2 Level Drama. "Paul is careful to indicate that he did not go to the Jerusalem church cap in hand." Rather, consulting. Antioch and Jerusalem. "The character of his account of the Jerusalem meeting is a two-level drama marked by words and constructions that spring to his mind because of the current developments in Galatia." "We can see that the apostle is denying a turn of events very like that portrayed in Luke’s picture." The "teachers" paint the picture as Luke does in Acts 15! "The presuppositionless character of God’s gracious good news in Christ was the issue of the conference." Poor. The Antioch church sends funds to Jerusalem. Paul is superimposing the scene from Jerusalem long ago onto the stage in Galatia in the present. 19. The Conference and Early Christian Missions. Two simultaneous lines of mission are ethnically distinguished from one another. (Notice Luke contrarily makes the missions sequential, not simultaneous). 20. Barnabas and Paul. Luke’s tendency is to domesticate Paul into the one true line of expansion radiating from the Jewish-Christian church in Jerusalem. "The fact remains that as Paul writes Galatians, he is essentially estranged from Barnabas." 21. The False Brothers in the Jerusalem Church: *claim to be brothers *falsely *tried to compel Titus’ circumcision *smuggled in *spying stealthily on freedom *enemies of gospel truth… "We cannot be sure that the False Brothers functioned as sponsors of the Teachers, but some relationship between the two groups seems highly probable." 22. Slavery and Freedom. Teachers warned about enslavement to flesh…For Paul, "freedom in Christ is not an abstract ideal, so it is not autonomous. On the contrary, freedom is known by the one who is Christ’s slave (1:10), and it is lived out in community in which each is the slave of the neighbor, serving the neighbor’s need (5:13).” 23. Issues Left Unattended at the Conference. Unity? Law? Theological Starting Point? Further Discussion? 24. The Collections for the Jerusalem Church and the Chronological Place of Galatians. Paul had managed to cultivate serious enemies in both his home, Antioch, church and in the mother, Jerusalem, church. "There is not the slightest hint in Galatians that Paul has commenced his own collection to take the place of his earlier participation in that of the Antioch church." Order: 1 Thess., Gal, Phil, 1 Cor, 2 Cor, Rom (Philemon unknown). 25. The Circumcision Party in the Jerusalem Church. Paul’s speech to Peter is really also a speech directed at the teachers opposing him in Galatia. "With Peter’s fear of the circumcision party in the Jerusalem church, an ominous shadow fell across the stage of early Christianity." The original dispute between Paul and Peter led to Paul’s separation from the Antioch church. The matter of compulsion—compelling Gentiles to live as Jews—is at the heart of it. 26. Peter in Antioch and Infidelity to the Gospel. Pistis Christou Iesou…"an expression that can mean either the faith that Christ had and enacted or the faith that human beings have in Christ, both readings being grammatically possible" (first authorial genitive, second objective genitive). The two readings finally lead to two very different pictures of the theology of the whole letter. IS THE FAITH THAT GOD HAS CHOSEN AS THE MEANS OF SETTING THINGS RIGHT THAT OF CHRIST HIMSELF OR THAT OF HUMAN BEINGS? "Attention to a number of factors, especially to the nature of Paul’s antinomies and to the similarities between 2:16 and 2:21, leads to the conclusion that Pauls speaks of the faith of Christ, meaning his faithful death in our behalf." We stand before God with empty hands. 27. Observance of the Law. The opposing teachers charge that Paul 1) claims rectification solely by Christ with no salvific reference to the law and 2) is consorting with Gentile sinners, not requiring them to observe the law. He has made Christ the servant of sin—so they say. Strange, insidious alliance between Sin and Law. It is the Law that distinguishes holy from profane, Jew from Gentile, thus enabling members of the holy people justly to exclude from their company those who are not holy. Paul speaks of separation from, not violation of, the Law. 2:20 "using the first person, then Paul presents himself as the paradigm of this human being…the risen Lord extends the space of his power by taking up residence in Paul, the paradigmatic eschatological human being. God is making things right by Christ’s cross, rather than by the Law. 28. God’s Making Things Right by the Faith of Jesus Christ. "God has set things right without laying down a prior condition of any sort. God’s rectifying act, that is to say, is no more God’s response to human faith in Christ than it is God’s response to human observance of the Law. God’s rectification is not God’s response at all. It is the first move. It is God’s initiative, carried out by him in Christ’s faithful death….Far from presupposing freedom of the will (cf Hos. 5:4), Paul speaks of the freeing of the will for the glad service of God and neighbor….It is God’s declaration of war in Christ against all the forces enslaving the human race that formed the foundation of Paul’s militant doctrine of rectification." 29. Placing One’s Trust in Christ Jesus. Even the act of trust does not have its origin in the human being (5:22). "On the contrary, that act springs from the proclamation of the risen Lord. It is incited by the preached message. It is empowered by the Spirit." 30. Crucifixion with Christ. "In dying with Christ on Christ’s cross, this zealous Pharisee suffered the loss of the Law, surely his earlier guide to the whole of the cosmos." 1. Participate in parousia. 2. Tied then to baptism, with/in him. 3. Far deeper than disciple/teacher (pace Borg et al) "Paul does not perceive himself to be charged to repeat Jesus’ teaching, by standing in a line of tradition extending from rabbi Jesus to rabbi Peter to rabbi Paul. On the contrary, Paul now exists (perfect tense, ‘I have been crucified with Christ’) not as a disciple but as one cocrucified." 4. "God’s purpose is to bring all into the freedom that he bestows under his own (apocalyptic) hegemony." Galatians 3 31. A Basic Pauline Antimony: Human Observance of the Law Versus the Divine Message that Elicits Faith. What Paul teaches about Jesus is neither parable nor story nor saying—just cross. "The generative context in which the Spirit fell upon the Galatians was not their act of commencing observance of the Law: it was God’s act in the revelatory proclamation of Jesus Christ suffering crucifixion, the act by which God kindled their faith." 32. Beginning in the Spirit and Being Perfected in the Flesh. Reference to circumcision. 33. The Teachers’ Sermon the Descent from Abraham, and Paul’s Modulation. Focus, 3:6-4:7 on Descent and Inheritance. The Scripture could foresee what was coming, and so spoke of Abraham. "The Abraham portrayed by Paul is faithful in only one sense: His mind was set at rest by the power of God’s promissory word." The teachers offered the Galatians a religious process that leads to perfection. Paul’s exegetical point of departure is Gospel not scripture as such. 34. The Blessing God, the Cursing Law, and the Cross. The Law establishes a sphere of inimical power that is universal…To be human is be under the authority of malignant powers…it is the human race as a whole that Christ has liberated…Law: plural—many commands; brought by angels with God absent; linked with its opposite, not Law; one of the enslaving elements of the cosmos. "It was in the cross that Paul came to see a momentous fact about the Law: its cursing voice is not the voice of God." Blake: "When Satan firs the black bow bent, and the Moral Law from the Gospel rent, He forg’d the Law into a sword, And spill’d the blood of Mercy’s Lord"… "Although Paul presupposes the resurrection, he does not allow it to divert his gaze from the cross." The curse of the Law comes from its differentiation—observant/non-observant, pious/godless, Jew/Gentile… 35. The Textual Contradiction between Habakkuk 2:4 and Leviticus 18:5. The Law has two voices. 36. Theological Pronouns. Kasemann: "The apostle is not afraid to apply to scripture the distinguishing of spirits demanded of the prophets in 1 Cor 12:10". 37. Covenant, Christ, Church, Israel. For Paul covenant goes with promise not Law…!! These observations remind us that at numerous junctures in the history of Pauline interpretation, Paul has been credited with perspectives proper to theologians against whom he waged a life-and-death battle."!! (Dunn, Wright, et al). "The gospel is about the divine invasion of the cosmos (theology), not about human movement into blessedness (religion). The difference between the two is the major reason for Paul’s writing the letter at all." The ‘non-ethnic’ character of Christ, who reveals the non-ethnic character of God’s promise… 38. The Genesis of the Sinaitic Law. Why Law? 1. Added 2. To Provoke Transgressions 3. Until Christ 4. Instituted by Angels/a Mediator….a confining custodian. God played no part in the genesis of the Sinaitic Law. 39. The Old Orb of Power as Slave Master and as God’s Servant. All humans live in enslavement to powers other than God: the Law, Sin, the Elements of the Cosmos, the Scripture (!)…no other redemptive route than Christ… 40. Not Jew and Gentile, But One in Christ. 3:28 "The variation in the wording of the last clause suggests that the author of the formula drew on Gen 1:27, thereby saying that in baptism the structure of the original creation had been set aside. One senses in the formula itself, then, an implied reference to new creation, a motif Paul will use in crafting a dramatic conclusion to the entire letter (6:15, cf2 Cor 5:17). Religious, social, and sexual pairs of opposites are not replaced by equality, but rather by a newly created unity…Members of the church are not one thing, they are one person." Later (Rom, I Cor, Phile) Paul had to work out details related to this, and to the continuing marks of the old creation….Whence 3:26-29? 1. Neoplatonism? 2. ProtoGnostic? 3. Apocalypticism?…Paul in Gal 3 recalls the tensions over divorce in the Jesus traditions—Jesus argues on basis of structure of creation against divorce, Mk 10:6, Gen 2:24; but on the other hand Jesus argues against structure of creation via his family—preferring the new creational to the biological family (Mk 3:33-35). Similar tension between Rom 1:20 and Gal 3:26-29, 6:14-15!… Here the basis is explicitly not creation, but rather the new creation in which the building blocks of the old creation are declared to be non-existent. If one were to recall the affirmation "It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:24, Mk 10:6). But in its announcement of the new creation, the apocalyptic baptismal formula declares the erasure of the distinction of male and female. Now the answer to loneliness is not marriage, but rather the new-creational community that God is calling into being in Christ, the church marked by mutual love, as it is led by the Spirit of Christ (Gal 3:28b, 5:6, 13, 22; 6:15)…. In 1 Cor 7, Paul will make a further move to relate new creation and creation…But in Gal he argues solely on the basis of the New…The new creation is not something to be added to the old…it is a radical vision of loving mutuality enacted in the new creation, the church of God, the community of that new creation that God is calling into existence in Christ… "THIS CORPORATE PEOPLE IS DETERMINED TO NO DEGREE AT ALL BY THE RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC FACTORS THAT CHARACTERIZED THE OLD CREATION….It is Christ and the community of those incorporated into him who lie beyond religious distinction." Galatians 4 41. Christ and the Elements of the Cosmos. Father/Son language should be understood not from human up/out to divine, but rather as invasion of known by unknown … "the revelation that has come with this Father’s redemptive and liberating incursion into the world in the advent of his Son." Center of letter, 4:35…the universal human condition is slavery…"Stepping onto the scene, God has closed the enslaving parenthesis of the Law at the time chosen by him alone". The elements of the cosmos are pairs of opposites…(3:28). "Here as elsewhere in this extraordinarily dense letter, Paul apparently assumes that the Galatian congregations will listen to the whole of the epistle several times and with extreme care." 42. God Sent His Son. Redemption has come from outside the human sphere. 43. To Be Known by God is to Know that There are No Holy Times. Paul has no use for conversion, for repentance, for religion. "Conversion is nothing more than the human act of change of religion, and religion is incapable of being anything other than religion…all religions are attempts to know God; none is the event of being known by God." Not knowing God but being known by God is the heart of it all (4:9). "God’s graceful election of us by his rectifying and non-religious invasion of the cosmos in Christ is the subject of the whole letter". 44. Paul in Anxious Labor Pains Until Christ is Formed in the Galatian Churches. "The formation of Christ is a communal event that occurs in the birth and maturation of a church." 45. The Covenants of Hagar and Sarah. There is no Hagar Covenant in Genesis, yet Paul "boldly finds two covenants in the Genesis stories, polar opposites of one another, one of them having to do with circumcision of the flesh, the other representing the power of God’s promise. Paul’s thought of two covenants is a novum introduced by the apostle himself as he composed this letter". "Freedom is the condition given by God in the realm of deliverance from slavery, the space God has created by calling the church into being." (Freedom neither abstract nor individual). In freeing the Galatians God has turned them into "addressable communities". Galatians 5 46. The Present Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Above. In the face of the law, one is a permanent debtor. 47. Eagerly Waiting for the Hope of Rectification. In this letter Paul announces the end, the unreality of one world (an enslaving one) and the newly arriving existence of another characterized by faith active in mutual love. So daily life is not many things, but one—faithful and dynamic love. "…confidence that eagerly awaits the future presided over by God…" Rectification is "to be had on earth only as a pledged gift, always subject to attack, always to be authenticated in practice—a matter of promise and expectation" (Kasemann). 48. The Law and Daily Life in the Church of God. Now, not "I must I shall" but "I may I can" God’s act of freeing the will for obedience to himself. The whole letter is on antinomy—cross vs. circumcision. "Paul’s pastoral concern is focused on providing the Galatians with a map of the world in which they actually live." The law has been brought to completion by Christ. 49. The Galatians’ Role in the Spirit’s War of Liberation. Paul’s interest in the flesh lies in the ways that power destroys community life. The effects of the Flesh are developments that destroy community, and the fruit of the Spirit consists of characteristics that build and support community. Paul uses apocalyptic language to transform teaching about vices and virtues (‘Cosmic Warfare’). But, "after Paul, the kernel of his apocalyptic vision was mostly lost and socializing attempts were indeed made to foster patterns of morality without reference to the radical foundation of God’s recosmosization." The church is God’s "cosmic vanguard" in the Spirit’s victorious war against the Flesh. Paul is drawing a map to show the Galatians where they are on the front. Galatians 6 50. The Law in the Hands of Christ. A breathtaking paradox… not a body of rules but a structure of existence. To conclude, Paul again attacks the Teachers who are "focused neither on the Spirit nor on the Law but rather on the penis, and specifically on their own reputation as its cultic surgeons." Paul suffered the loss of the nomistic cosmos in which he had been living, thus experiencing the anguish of genuine death. The crucifixion of Christ (no longer an event separate from himself) was now the crucifixion of Paul’s cosmos, everything he had held sacred and dependable. Circumcision\uncircumcision = 0 - The end of all religious differentiation. "God does not just want a new religiosity, but a renewed creation under the cosmocrator God” (Kasemann). 51. Apocalyptic Antinomies and the New Creation. In Christ, God has invaded the cosmos in the act of new creation, which brings the death of the old world (with all its legalities) and the emergence of the new world (the real one). God’s elective grace is God’s act of new creation. It has no basis in the human side of the picture. The apostle never wavered in his conviction that God was making a new creation by drawing into one church both Jews and Gentiles. "Genuine eschatological life commences when one is taken into the community of the new creation in which unity in God’s Christ has replaced religious-ethnic differentiation. In a word, religious and ethnic differentiations and that which underlies them—the Law—are identified in effect as the old things that have passed away, giving place to the new creation (2 Cor 5:17)" As God’s new creation, the church lives beyond all religious marks of differentiation that prescribe behavioral norms by speaking of many requirements. For in Christ Jesus, religion has now been replaced by faith working through love. It is the concrete pattern of life, established and incited by Christ’s faithful dying love for us. What has taken the place of religion is the community of the new creation in which gospel-elicited faith expresses itself in love of the neighbor. God is summoning his new creation onto the world scene by calling into existence the church that exists for the sake of "all"…God is regrasping the whole of the world for himself, by summoning the church into the service of "all". New Creation: pure apocalyptic, radical uncompromising newness. Jub 4:26, I Enoch 72:1, 4 Ezra 7:75, IQS 4:25, Isa 65:17-25 In Qumran, the new creation is expected in the future, but Paul uses the expression to announce and identify what God has done in Christ. Grace=a summary of the way in which God is setting things right in Christ, without requiring a precondition of any sort on the part of the human beings. What time is it? "It is the time after the apocalypse of the faith of Christ, the time of things being set right by that faith, the time of the presence of the Spirit. In a word, it is the time of the dawn of the new creation… The result is a holistic vision, in scope categorically cosmic and emphatically apocalyptic." 52. The Israel of God. Paul ends with the "announcement of a totally new creation in which all religious distinctions are obliterated, coupled with the pronouncement of a blessing on the church as the Israel of God. B. Note on Freedom After Twenty Years Galatians 5:1, Spring 2020 Robert A. Hill (IMAGINE THAT IT IS THE SPRING OF 2020) Looking back over the last twenty years of ministry, it is heartwarming to feel the new freedom that is pulsing through the body of Northeastern United Methodism. By God’s grace, our churches and leaders have recovered our joy in faith and our confidence in Christ. Since the turn of the millenium, we have walked together toward our own "North Star", Jesus Christ, who sets us free. Like Harriet Tubman and others who hiked the underground railroad, walking north, at night, toward freedom ("following the drinking gourd"), we too have kept our eyes lifted due north, walking toward Christ. We remember that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom". It has been quite a journey, this night march, for twenty years, due north toward freedom. But look at the ground we have covered! Jesus is our saving, freeing "North Star". As the century ended, women were finding full voice and place in our pulpits and pews, on the way "north". Remember Cleveland in ’00? We found the freedom, there, to agree to disagree (agreeably!) about homosexuality, on the way north. Then over a decade we loosened the shackles of excessive, outdated apportioned overhead, and so freed our churches to run again, and move again, and grow again, headed due north. That combined growth in body and frugality of budget opened up the space we needed, in the conferences, to do the one thing needful—to develop leadership. We invested in preventive and physical health care for our leaders. We focused on continuous education for lay leadership. We improved our remuneration and housing for clergy. A sense of self-respect returned, and helped us restore our noble preaching tradition, so hobbled for so long. Today in our pulpits, there is weekly fire and consistent excellence, and dependable depth, as our preachers point to the "North Star" of freedom. Through the long night trek since 2000, we learned again that the Bible is, first, a book about freedom, that is to be read and interpreted, first, with "the glorious liberty of the children of God". The Bible is freedom’s book, the pulpit is freedom’s voice, the connection is freedom’s defense. We remembered that, as we walked north. Our health returned as we focused on a simple agenda of breadth, height and depth: an open Bible, broadly read and understood; a raised pulpit, a careful respect for the centrality of leadership; and a deepened regard for rebuilding the church, a decrease in resources removed from basic ministry. Last night, in a clear spring sky, after reading again from Kasemann’s old book, Jesus Means Freedom, I gazed at Polaris. I thought about those heroes of liberty who had endured their own northern exposure. Jesus in Galilee. Paul in Galatia. Augustine in Hippo. John of the Cross in Segovia. Luther in Wittenberg. Wesley in Bristol. Frederick Douglass in Rochester. John Brown in North Elba. Handsome Lake in Geneva. Susan B Anthony in Seneca Falls. John Humphrey Noyes in Oneida. Mother Ann Lee in New Lebanon. And then faces of colleagues in the ministry came to mind. I give thanks that in the new millenium, over twenty years, we have walked due north. We have followed the North Star, Jesus Christ, and we have joy and confidence in ministry, hearts again strangely warmed beneath the night sky: "Warmth! Warmth! Warmth! We are dying of cold, not of darkness. It is not the night that kills, but the frost." (Unamuno). C. Note on Leadership The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People S. Covey Dependence Private Victory 1. Be Proactive V. Frankl. Freedom. Circles of concern and influence. "If I really want to improve my situation I can work on the one thing over which I have control--myself". 2. Begin with the End in Mind Your funeral: family, friends, work, church. Where is the center? Leadership: top line; management; bottom line. (Hike in jungle). Imagination and conscience. Sadat. Personal Mission statement. Security, guidance, wisdom, power. Where is center? (Spouse, family, money, work, possession, pleasure, friend, enemy, church, self). Better: principled center. (IBM: dignity of individual, excellence, service). 3. Put First Things First Manage from the left, lead from the right. Important vs. Urgent. Delegation: P and PC. "Stewardship delegation" (outcome delegation). Character is destiny. Mission, roles, goals. Independence Public Victory 4. Think Win/Win Interdependence, synergy, care for relationships. Understand individual/attend to little things/keep commitments/clarify expectations/show personal integrity/apologize sincerely. "Creating the unity necessary to run an effective business or a family or a marriage requires great personal strength and courage." Integrity. Maturity: courage and consideration. Abundance mentality. Chariots of Fire. In agreements: Desiredresults/guidelines/resources/accountability/consequences. (i.e. people evaluate themselves). 5. Seek first to Understand/then to be Understood Communication is the most important skill in life. Empathetic listening. 10% words/30% sounds/60% body. Diagnose, then prescribe. Evaluate? Probe? Advise? Interpret? Or: mimic content/rephrase content/reflect feeling/rephrase content and reflect feeling. Ethos/Pathos/Logic. 6. Synergize That which is most personal is most general (Rogers). Who differs? Who irritates? Value differences--essence of synergy. "People see the world, not as it is, but as they are." In crucial things--unity. In important things--diversity. In all things--generosity. Interdependence Sharpen the Saw 7. Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. "Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continuous process." Rise above negative scripting. Daily hour. Weekly Day. Quarterly week. Yearly Quarter. D. Note on Leadership(2) Managing the Non-Profit Organization Principles and Practices Peter F. Drucker, 1990 1. The Mission Comes First "I consider it a national disgrace, indeed a real failure, that the affluent, well-educated young people give proportionately less than their so much poorer blue-collar parents used to give"…GNP for leisure has doubled, 1950-1990, GNP medicine has gone up from 2% to 11%, education has tripled, but non profit giving, to institutions that "change human beings" has had no % increase at all…We need to move from donors to contributors…and we need some "organized abandonment" in non-profit work…three musts of a mission: 1. Rule One: do better what you already do well…set the standard in your strength areas. 2. Look for the needs and opportunities that are not being addressed by others. 3. Ask the institution: what are we really committed to?…An institution always needs good leadership, but especially in a crisis…all projects plateau; in plateau, try to maintain—momentum, flexibility, vitality, mission. In trouble ask: "If this were an opportunity for us, what would it be?" The "new" needs separate set-up… There is only one person who can raise money for a college—the President. When you choose a leader, ask: What is he/she proven to be good at? What is the one most pressing need we have? Is there character, integrity (would you want your son to work for him?)…Leaders say we not I...As a leader, listen, communicate, set high standards, promote excellence…A mission needs a balance of diversity and breadth with specific areas and goals…a leader needs to know his "degenerative tendencies". 2. From Mission to Performance: Strategies for Marketing, Innovation, Fund-Development When deciding, ask, "Is this decision reversible?"…Do only what you are competent to do…You want a ‘membership that participates through giving’…THE BOARD SHOULD ALWAYS TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN FUND RAISING…watch out for ‘compassion fatigue’…Real contributors see the support of the institution as self-fulfillment…TWO KEYS: IMPROVEMENT, INNOVATION…Hardest lesson for non-profits: abandon what doesn’t work…Church needs: 1. Youth, 2. Singles, 3. Young marrieds, 4. Shut-in, 5. Elder care foci in ministry…Clue to future: where are you having unexpected success (?)…There is no joy in heaven over empty churches…Learn to segment, target, and position…CEO is also CMO (marketing)…Your most important audience is your potential customer…Ask: What is truly meaningful to your customer?…"Non-profits find it almost impossible to abandon anything." 3. Managing for Performance Place people where they can excel…use star performers to teach colleagues…keep people ‘out in the field’ regularly (hospital: everyone works one week a year as a nurse’s aide, president on down)…Don’t make unnecessary decisions…Dissent is necessary (FDR always stalled when there was too easy consensus, waiting for the honest dissent to emerge). In dissent, each side is usually giving an answer to a different question, each side sees a different reality…In conflict: if there is easy consensus, wait—its too easy, you need dissent; recognize that you need non-comformists. They most appreciate change. They ask not "What is right?" but "What is right now?". Use dissent to resolve conflict…split difference, postpone, abandon…Rules for decisions: a. build in everyone affected ahead of time. b. pilot, test, start small. c. someone must execute it. d. who does what? e. Modify: assume there will be mistakes…"The toughest thing I had to do was to convince teachers that they had a right to pursue their own economic self-interest" (A Shanker)… 4. People and Relationships: Staff, Board, Volunteers, Community In choosing people: How have they done in their last assignments? Look at performance, not promise..."How to develop people"…1. Don’t try to build on weakness 2. Don’t focus short term 3. Don’t establish ‘crown prince’…Everyone needs: mentor, guide, teacher, judge, encourager…"I want people to make mistakes"… What can we be proud of? Have we made a difference?…All need a sense of doing something important…Ask in a team, "What do I do that helps you?…What do I do that hampers you?…What should I avoid doing?"…The Board owns and protects the mission of the agency and serves as the premier fund raising unit…"If a board doesn’t actively lead in fund development, it’s very hard to get the funds the organization needs." 5. Developing Yourself: Person, Executive, Leader You lead by example…Most important question, "What do you want to be remembered for?"…concept of "repotting"…3 common tools of self-renewal (teaching, going outside the organization, serving down the ranks)…"Change when you are successful, not when you are in trouble"…the best self-development is found in developing others. E. Text of Galations (RSV) F. Millennial Worksheet 1. Where have you seen unexpected success in ministry this year? 2. If you had $10,000 to invest in ministry, where would you put it? 3. What three major strategies are now at work in your denomination? 4. Where do you see the New Creation? 5. Where is your passion in ministry? F. Acknowledgments Thanks to my colleagues who helped in conversation on this topic, and especially to the Revs. Susan S. Shafer and Margie J. Mayson, whose video presentations have been so helpful. Thanks to the late Bill Rowe, Kodak photographer of the year in 1998, whose understanding of vision and insight helped create this material. Thanks to Ms. Carol Martin, AFUMC office manager, for preparation of the text. Thanks to Bishop Kim and the WNY and NCNY conferences for the chance to present this material at the turn of the millenium, spring 1999.