Face to Face

Galatians 2: 11-21, page 824
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that one is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Sermon
Atheists are people who don’t believe in God.
On the other hand, I am the kind of person who doesn’t believe in Atheists.
I tend to think that these folks are just mad at the church or their parents so they’re going after the shock value of saying it – as when it really comes down to it, no matter who you are or how illogical the existence of God seems to you, if the building you were sitting in began to shake you would be calling out to God for help regardless of whether you say you “believe” in God or not.
I also tend to believe that humans most often are self-interested creatures. We are always subconsciously asking ourselves: “What’s in it for me.”
When I consider religion the answers come easy – religion gives you something to believe in, a moral order to guide your life, hope in forgiveness, a community of brothers and sisters, not to mention the assurance of God’s grace, the promise of salvation, and life after death.
As far as I can tell, there are no benefits to being an atheist. You believe in nothing, so you literally get nothing out of the deal.
People claim to be Atheists though, my favorite atheist is a waiter at a restaurant called Twains, happens to have the best wings I’ve ever eaten, so I end up there most Friday afternoons. Among Atheists he is the most bizarre I’ve ever met. He’s what I would have to call an evangelical atheist, as he actually seems interested in bringing converts to his atheist way of thinking.
“Just Google Westboro Baptist Church and you’ll see what I mean,” he said to me a while ago. I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I did Google Westboro Baptist Church to find a group of people protesting at military funerals.
“God laughs” one sign read, as though God thought it were funny to mourn the death of a fallen loved one. This group, I struggle to call them a church, has been protesting military funerals based on the sick theological assumption that “God is killing troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to punish the United States for tolerating homosexuality.”
My friend the waiter, his name is Jason, would rather associate himself with no religion than associate himself with a faith that would do such a thing.
It’s an unfortunate truth that in the eyes of some, we, the church, are viewed as condoning hate, as to them Westboro Baptist Church represents the church as a whole rather than the church at it’s worst.
I wish it weren’t true but I know that it is, as it’s this very thing that we often do to Islam. While I know moderate, tolerant Muslims, my grandfather has asked me again and again, “If there are moderate and tolerant Muslims, where are they and why aren’t they speaking out against terrorism? Their silence is tacit approval,” he has often said.
It is for this reason that Paul in our scripture lesson could not be silent. Paul could not be silent when he saw his faith represented by exclusion and not inclusion. He could not be silent when he perceived his faith, defined by salvation by the grace of God be redefined by Peter’s actions which brought the connotation that salvation came by adherence to the law.
So when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
It’s not often that you hear Christians talking that way.
We are generally too polite to go around opposing people to their faces, we prefer opposing people behind their back, but here Paul is, opposing Peter face to face.
My friend the waiter and I were speaking, face to face, when he gave me a book titled, “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason,” to help me better understand where he’s coming from. This book, written by Sam Harris, a noted philosopher and avowed atheist, claims that religion is standing in the way of world peace, is the greatest force justifying terrorism; that religion should be left behind if humanity has any hope of progress.
I would like to just get mad and throw this book away; but Harris’ voice presents too important a challenge for our church.
We Christians who confess to believe that our God is a god of love and grace have too often kept our mouths shut while our religion has been co-opted by fundamentalists who’s actions would say that ours is a God of wrath, judgment, and hate.
For too long we have allowed these fundamentalists to win.
In the same way that Paul spoke to Peter when he believed that he had fallen away from the true faith, that he had gone back to adhering to the law as though the law could bring salvation, had separated himself from gentiles as though in the Kingdom of God some were better than others, it is time for us to speak out for the true faith in a world who needs to hear what we have to say.
Peter had been led astray – so Paul opposed him to his face.
And in our world where the Christian faith is so often represented by the likes of Westboro Baptist Church, protesting at funerals, void of compassion, ignorant beyond reason, we must stand for something else.
They have represented the Church to such a degree that to much of the world our faith seems a waste of time, a social club, a means of exclusion rather than a means for inclusion, a mode of preserving the worst of the past rather than paving the way for the future.
So much so that today there are some who would not miss us at all if we simply disappeared.
But how would this world ever make it without the Grace of God.
How would this world ever make it without the free gift of Grace born in Christ Jesus?
For in the world there is no forgiveness, and everything that is to be had must be gained.
In the world we are defined by our work, by our wealth, by our means and our power – and where would the world be without the true identity we gain through our baptism – that we are not chosen by God based on our merit, and that we are not defined by our mistakes or our successes, we are defined by the Grace of God.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ – be defined by this grace.
The world needs it.
The world needs to hear what you have to say – so hear Paul’s example challenge you today – to speak out against this false religion posing as Christianity by opposing it to its face.
Not by complaining about the secularization of the world, but by befriending those who have been misled, face to face, friend to friend, showing the world that there is another way.
Not by fighting amongst yourselves and validating what so many outside the church already assume, but by loving those who you disagree with, speaking kind words to those who would do you harm, face to face, showing the world that we are all children of the same God.
Not by judging those whom you perceive to be beneath you, but by living out the truth, that we are not saved by what we can do or have done, we are saved by the Grace of God – so there can be no room for boasting. Face to face then, friend to friend, equal-to-equal, we must lift each other up for the time of judging must be left to the past.
Paul met Peter, face to face, friend to friend, and brought him back into the light – and this is my charge to you – with love, tenderness, and truth, bring back in to the light all those who walk in darkness.
Let it be said of you: “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Amen.