This Book: Epistles – You've God Mail! (Galatians 1 v1-10)

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For the last few months, we've been walking slowly through the aisles of this library of books.  

We’ve looked at the Old Testament books of history, law, poetry, prophecy, philosophy. There are fiction stories and love stories. There are questions that never get answered.  

In the New Testament, we’ve looked at the Gospels and the book of Acts: historical events of the life of Jesus and the people who shared his world and joined him on his mission of sharing God's love. 

Next week we're going to look a little bit at the book of Revelation. This week, between the history of Jesus' life and of the early church, and our attempts to understand Revelation are these letters that we sometimes call ‘epistles:’ people writing back and forth, sharing their lives with each other, sharing information, sharing their perspectives and experiences when they can't be together.  

So as we study the Bible—as we work to understand how to find wisdom in the Bible—one of the things we must do is learn how to read other people's mail. In particular, letters written thousands of years ago by citizens of the ancient Roman empire.  

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Cicero (106 – 43 BCE) was a Roman politician, lawyer, professor, public speaker, and writer. He was a master of the art of rhetoric: eloquent persuasion. 

His letters contained thoughts like these: 

Now this truth seems clear to me: that nature has so formed us that a certain tie unites us all. Friendship excels blood relationship in this—that whereas you may eliminate affection from family, you cannot do so from friendship. Without affection, family still exists in name. Friendship does not.  

Other Roman people, like those living in the military settlement of Vindolanda, received letters like these: 

• To a soldier: I have sent you woolen socks, 2 pairs of sandals, and two pairs of underpants.  
• To the unit commander's wife: On 11 September, sister, come to us for the day of the celebration of my birthday.  
• To the commander from a decurion: My fellow soldiers have no beer. Please order some to be sent.  

Did they get their beer? Did she go to the party? Did the underwear fit? We have no way of knowing. These letters are glimpses of moments in everyday life.  

Sometimes the New Testament letters are like Cicero, full of beautiful, rich rhetoric. 

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. 1 Corinthians 13 v4  

Sometimes they sound more like life in Vindolanda: 

When you come, please bring the cloak that I left with Carpus. And bring my scrolls. 2 Timothy 4 v13  

Regardless, the letters (mostly) share a construction that we recognise. 

They start with a greeting, like the to and from fields at the top of an e-mail.  

This letter is from Paul, an apostle... and all the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia. Galatians 1 v1-2  

They often include a section called the ‘thanksgiving’ or the ‘prayer,’ that sometimes hints at what the rest of the letter is about.  

Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you... God knows how often I pray for you. Romans 1 v8-9 

Then the writer digs in; why are they writing at all?  

Now, dear brothers and sisters, let us clarify some things about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2 v 1 

The letters conclude with a farewell. (With the letter to the Hebrews, this is how we know it is a letter). 

Sometimes the ending contains a “hey” from the scribe (who had not composed the letter, but who wrote it down). 

I, Tertius, the one writing this letter for Paul, I send my greetings to as one of the Lord's followers. Romans 16 v22 

Or they might contain a shout-out to the person who has delivered the message and presented it to the church, bringing to life the voice of the one whose words they've been carrying. In Colossians 4, it's Tychicus. In Romans 16, it's Phoebe. Men and women who were not only entrusted with the letter... but entrusted with the message.  

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The point of this series—of our learning about this library of books—is to find wisdom. Wisdom is not always easy to spot. Sometimes it’s hard-earned, especially when we’re seeking in words written nearly 2,000 years ago on the other side of the planet, in another language, in a very, very different culture. So how do we find the wisdom that is in these ancient and almost, sometimes, alien texts?  

The first thing to do is to look for Jesus.  

The New Testament was all written after his death, resurrection, and return to eternity. It was written by people who knew him, and who wanted to point people towards Jesus.  

Jesus in the letters’ greetings: 

This letter is from Paul, a prisoner, for preaching the good news about Christ Jesus... Philemon 1 v1  

Jesus in the thanksgiving and prayer: 

All praise to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and now we live with great expectation. 1 Peter 1 v3 

Jesus in their closing words: 

[Brothers and sisters,] grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever. Amen. 2 Peter 2 v18 

Jesus at every step between the beginning and the end. These writers challenge us to look through Christ at ourselves, to look through Christ at the people around us. This whole library of books, Old and New Testament writings, are the result of a partnership between human beings who were capable of forgetting their coat at Carpus's house, and the Holy Spirit.  

They challenge us to speak truth to ourselves, to speak truth about ourselves. To look within: for favouritism, for prejudice, for the guilty pleasure of holding grudges. For wasting money, for wasting opportunities, for getting things my way.  

For (as we read in our scripture focus) following a way that sounds like the way, but isn’t.  

They challenge us to consider what Jesus, and what the Holy Spirit, has to say about how we are living our life.  

True, we can find that kind of inspiration in a lot of simple human places. Ordinary people write some wonderful things.  

• When I hear the Beatles sing, “I want to be a paperback writer... A paperback writer!” it sparks me to think of what I want to accomplish, and what excuses I have for not bothering to try.  
• When I hear Captain Jean-Luc Picard say, “To boldly go where no one has gone before...” it sparks me to think about my own comfort, and why I choose to stay put.  
• When I read the words of Robert Frost, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference” it sparks me to consider the choices I've made, and who I’ve become because of them.  

If I can be sparked to that kind of self-reflection by simple human words, how much more, when I read Holy Spirit-inspired words?  

If you claim to be religious, but you don't control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. James 1 v26 

That Holy Spirit truth expressed in James's words has to spark something in me: to think of how I speak about people, how I speak to people, and what my everyday throwaway comments, my anonymous posts, my walk-away mutterings, my grown-up temper tantrums say about who I am in Christ... and say to the people around me about who Christ is.  

Because the Holy Spirit doesn't just inspire these letters thousands of years ago. He has—in generation after generation after generation of believers—carried them across the centuries. From follower to follower of Jesus, hand to hand, generation to generation. 

I'm not just a recipient of these letters. I'm a carrier. I carry these truths within me to share. To try to persuade people of the truth that lies within. 

Today, as I read these ancient, ancient words on my phone, through my trifocal lenses, the Holy Spirit is still speaking them into me, still seeking to persuade me.  

As a preacher, I do my best on a Sunday morning to bring these words to life in a way that Cicero would recognize. He was probably better at it than I, but I think he would recognize that I am speaking to persuade.  

The words of the Holy Spirit—the words on these pages, the words that we speak to each other—bring to life not only the men who wrote them in the first place, not only the personality of the apostle Paul. They bring to life Jesus. Jesus calling to me from beneath the surface of the profile that I curate in my world. Jesus, making me look for his image underneath.  

These letters are such a gift to us. Partly because they remind us that people are people and always will be. Mostly because they remind us that God is God and always will be.  

Holy Spirit speaks to us through the voices of Peter, James, Jude, John, and Paul.  

Just as he spoke to them, he speaks to us today.  

Different languages, same truths.  

Different culture, same truths.  

Different history, same truths because Holy Spirit is always talking about the same Jesus.