Galatians 4:21 – end; John 6: 1- 14
Today is Mothering Sunday, which you may be trying to avoid by coming at 8:00 a.m.! However, I couldn’t help noticing that we have in our epistle today Paul’s rather strange allegory of two mothers, Hagar (or Agar as the Prayer Book calls her) and Sarah. When Paul wrote to the mixed Jewish and Gentile community of the Galatian church, he must have been confident that they would know the story of Hagar and Sarah from Genesis. Abraham has been promised by God that he will be the father of a great nation and that through his descendants all the nations of the world will be blessed. But he and his wife Sarah have reached old age without having any children. Eventually Sarah, ever practical, takes matters into her own hands and suggests that Abraham should take her Egyptian slave-girl Hagar as a second wife in order that Hagar may bear children for him. Abraham does as she suggests, and Hagar soon gives birth to Ishmael. Later God repeats His promise to Abraham that he will be the father of a great nation, and Sarah, miraculously, has a child of her own, Isaac, in her old age. Once Isaac is born, the ongoing jealousies between the two women erupt, and Sarah demands that Isaac send Hagar and her son away. But God assures Hagar that her son, Ishmael, will also be the founder of a great nation.
Many centuries later, Paul takes up this – perhaps to us somewhat bizarre story and uses it in a way which would have been quite conventional amongst Jewish scholars at the time to argue the point he’s trying to make to the Galatian Christians. The churches in Galatia are made up of both Jews and Gentiles, and it seems that the Gentiles amongst them are being put under pressure to be circumcised by their Jewish brethren. Paul realises that if circumcision is required of Gentile converts to Christianity there is a risk to the integrity of the Christian message. If both Jews and Gentiles are now reconciled with God by the work of Christ, rather than by keeping the ceremonial Jewish law, adding any extra requirement for Gentile believers risks denying that faith in Jesus is all that is required for salvation.
In Paul’s allegory, Hagar’s child is born according to the natural processes of ‘the flesh’ and hence represents the Jewish law. Sarah’s human conniving shows a lapse of trust in God’s promises. Sarah’s child, Isaac, by contrast is born miraculously because Sarah is barren and now too old to have a child. Isaac therefore is the child of the spirit and the promise of God. For Paul this child, Isaac, represents the Galatian Christians’ freedom not to be bound by the Jewish ceremonial law.
I regularly attend local interfaith gatherings with members of the Jewish and Moslem communities. We often discuss our customs, particularly around festivals. I admire the discipline of Moslems who observe the Ramadan fast, and the faithfulness of the Jews to their ancient laws. Our Christian rules and regulations seem somewhat optional and lax by comparison. However, this is one expression of our Christian freedom. While we are expected to live ‘moral’ lives, we do not have to comply with a host of religious regulations in order to work our way to heaven. Indeed, we know this would be impossible, and we trust instead in God’s mercy, grace and forgiveness shown supremely through Christ.
So, what does our freedom mean? It means we are to trust in God’s faithfulness – as Abraham did – most of the time – he had his lapses because he too was human. We are to live by the Spirit who now dwells within us. We are freed from slavery to rules and regulations, but we are called to be slaves to Christ. To follow Him faithfully whatever that means for us. We’re also to serve one another in love. One commentator calls this a kind of radical insecurity. It can be uncomfortable, ambivalent or even perilous. The Spirit of God who dwells within us may prompt us to take risks, on the small or the larger scale in order to express the love of Christ for others. We are indeed free in Christ, but must account for our own life and conduct. With freedom comes responsibility.
Amen