Conflicts as signs of life

Tuesday, January 23, 2007 -- Week of 3 Epiphany -- Phillips Brooks

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 944)
Psalms 45 (morning) // 47, 48 (evening)
Isaiah 48:12-21
Galatians 1:18 - 2:10
Mark 6:1-13

Isaiah tells the people of Jacob to leave their captivity and exile in Babylon and to follow a second exodus back to the land God has given them. On the horizon is the Persian warrior Cyprus whom God has appointed to defeat the Babylonians, says Isaiah. To us, some twenty-five centuries later, this sounds like compelling good news. But Isaiah's message was received with some skeptical cynicism in his day. Many Jews had made homes and become prosperous in Babylon. It was the political, economic, and cultural center of that part of the civilized world. Jerusalem, on the other hand, lay in ruins. Returning there may have sounded like leaving New York City by wagon train to go to Kansas in the 1840s. Isaiah faced and struggled with disinterest and cynicism toward his message. What sounds like Biblical good news to us sounded like religious ravings to many of the original listeners.

Paul is making his case passionately. He is claiming his apostolic authority. He had been a persecutor of the church, but God gave him a revelation and a calling to proclaim Christ. He asked for no confirmation of that calling from human beings or church leaders. He was obedient to the revelation.

For three years he worked before meeting any of the church's apostles or other leaders. Then he spent three days in Jerusalem with Peter, also meeting James the brother of Jesus, who is traditionally called the first bishop of Jerusalem. They parted on good terms, and Paul continued his missionary work for another fourteen years.

The later meeting of Paul and the apostolic leaders in Jerusalem is one of the great turning points of church history. Paul has been organizing churches throughout the Roman Empire. His message has been directed primarily to Gentiles, not Jews. His congregations include many Gentiles. There is a critical division -- this is the issue of the letter to the Galatians -- Can Gentiles become Christians without also becoming Jews, observing the Torah laws and being circumcised? Paul emphatically says, "Yes." Other Christian leaders said "No."

Paul says that he presented his Gospel message in Jerusalem and the apostles acknowledged his teaching. They sent him as missioner to the Gentiles. Paul notes the test-case. The Jerusalem church accepted Titus among them, even though he was an uncircumcised Gentile.

Throughout his ministry, Paul had to claim and reclaim the legitimacy of his message that Gentiles can belong to the Church without following the Old Testament laws and customs. The Church remained conflicted and divided about this issue for his entire ministry.

In every generation God's people live with some form of conflict. Usually it is a theological conflict between those who sense a call to a new interpretation and those who seek to defend a traditional interpretation. Sometimes it is a call from comfort to discomfort. Change is always difficult, especially for the religious. Our trust is grounded in ancient things that have the quality of being unchanging in an unsteady world.

Historically, the presence of struggle is one of the signs of life among the people of God. There is reason to be encouraged that we live in a time of religious conflict. Traditionally, that has been a sign that God is working among us.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR