Breaking Bad

The Readings for 16th Tuesday after Pentecost (xii.IX.2023)

• Galatians 5:11-21 (Liturgy)
• Mark 7:5-16 (Liturgy)

IC XC
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NI KA

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.

Galatians 5:13

SAUL or, to use his Latin name, Paul (it was not, like Abraham, changed by God) is telling Gentile followers of Jesus that they do not need to become Jews first (accept circumcision, etc) to follow the Jewish Messiah. He’s following the teaching of the Church here, after the Council of Jerusalem. I say he’s doing that because he continues with the rest of that Council’s teaching. The first word in Saul’s list of things not to do (the first word in Greek, that is) is the same word used by the Council in Jerusalem. Stay away from πορνεία porneia (Acts 15:19. Galatians 5:19).

What seems interesting is his list. He says that the law is fulfilled in the teaching that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. Then he runs up this long list of fun things that are clearly not loving our neighbor as ourselves: “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries”. The things he lists are interesting in that they can be fun for some, might be construed as love by some…

Broken love.

This haunts the dreams of homeless ministries. How does one end up homeless? Has one no family to flee to? A while back the local paper did a story on how some folks had ended up homeless. I think the paper wanted us to see that no everyone on the streets was there because of drugs. But stories of unpaid bills, bad business choices, or divorces gone wrong do not inspire much pity.

What they do show is clear evidence of how much we do not love each other.

And by love, I mean agape, the kind of love that fulfills the law. We’re good at confusing that love with all kinds of other things. But we’re not good at agape.

We become so adept at confusing Agape with other things that when Patriotism becomes racism or phyletism, we are unable to see it. When familial love becomes clan warfare, we’re unable to see it. When friendship becomes disordered sexuality, we’re unable to see it. It all feels like love. When our freedom becomes our addition, we are unable to see it. The school teacher starts cooking drugs because he wants to save his family.

Jesus calls out the Pharisees for finding a way around loving their parents as they should. They do it by doing something they feel is pious. When something pious becomes an excuse to dishonor your parents, how have you shown your love to God – whom you cannot see – if you cannot love your parents – whom you can see?

Yet Jesus tells us to love him more than parents, family, jobs, the world… This is a hard row to hoe.

But it has always been hard. From Gan Eden, the Nakhash called us out with what seemed to be the right answer. Grow up a little. Doesn’t God want you to grow up a little? We want to hear maliciousness in the voice, but there was no maliciousness – it sounded logical. It’s not “That idiot knows you won’t die…” but rather, He knows you won’t die, he’s just saying it to see what you’ll do… he knows if you do eat the fruit, you’ll grow up and become like him. That’s what he really wants. That’s the meaning of “be fruitful and multiply” that’s the real meaning of “tend the garden”. You’ll be fine! You can do it! It sounds encouraging if you put it like that! Where’s the apple, I want to do what God really wants!

God’s rules are simple. Not complex. The Church knew the Gentiles could handle the simple, unvarnished truth: Stop sexing around. Don’t worship idols. Jesus is Lord, God is love, pray for us.

Only the Tempter can make us think that means “do whatever you want and God will love you anyway.”