I may have told this story before, so my apologies if I have, but the heart of today’s Galatians reading has me thinking about an activity that we did when I was working in interfaith studies in college. Our professor took “the golden rule” and we had to match the different religious traditions to the teaching that they had regarding “treating others as you want to be treated.” It wasn’t just different versions of Scripture, but spanned religious traditions from Christianity to Hinduism, Buddhism to Islam. What was interesting in doing this activity was just how difficult it was for us to determine which phrasing belonged to which religious tradition because they were all so similar. It’s a teaching and a practice that is at the heart of so many of the world’s religions.
Paul repeats it again to the people of Galatia, saying, For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5: 14). Paul is talking about this in the context of what it means to live into the freedom that we have in Christ, and it serves as a reminder to the Galatians and to us that this freedom doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want whenever we want. It doesn’t give us a free pass in life, but instead it still comes with great responsibility for how we act, especially towards one another. Because the reality is that we are a communal people, created in and for community, and that means that we have to think about the consequences that our actions have on us, our neighbors, and the world. We don’t do this to earn bonus points with God, but because it is how we express our gratitude for this freedom. We may talk about love as this simple thing, but this commandment that we are given is actually meant to be a big guiding factor in our lives.
This isn’t something that we have to figure out on our own, but, as our other Scripture readings remind us today too, we are to look toward the actions of Christ for guidance and listen for the ways that the Spirit is leading us. These are meant to call us back when it becomes easy to become distracted by the ways of the world that would turn us from this commandment. Paul talks about it as the dichotomy between the body and the Spirit, and while we don’t talk about it in such a way today, it is helpful to think about what the pressures of this world are that would call us away from this commandment. Whether it be an acceptance of or desire for power, revenge, status, wealth, etc. there are many things that we seek after in life that do not help us to follow this commandment or lead to fulfillment within ourselves.
It feels fitting to have these readings today given what has happened in our world this week, as more bombs drop and violence continues to increase in our world. Leaders have decided throughout history that the way to control others or force presence and desires upon different people is through the use of violence. We even see this response from the disciples James and John today. When they are walking with Jesus and he is not accepted in Samaria, these two disciples react by asking, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” (Luke 9: 54b). Despite this teaching we have about loving our neighbors, we cannot ignore the reality that this desire for and actions of violence are pervasive throughout our Biblical canon and our history. When we are wronged or even just feel like we have been wronged, we want the solution to be destructive, a swift elimination of the people who have harmed us.
Because of that tendency, it matters that Jesus doesn’t respond by telling them to go ahead and do what they desire, but instead he rebukes them, and they continue on their way (Luke 9: 55-56). This story illustrates that we are not always going to be liked and things aren’t always going to go our way, but that we cannot let the pressures of the world pull us away from this call to love others and see them as Christ saw them. It still doesn’t mean that we have to approve of their actions or accept their harm, because sometimes loving someone means walking away or helping them come to a new way of being in the world, but it is a call not to respond with the easy solutions of the world. This commandment requires a recognition of the worth and dignity of the other person, but also of oneself. This can be such a hard thing to trust and believe to be true, especially when it comes to seeing our own worthiness. Somehow our world has gotten so far away from this truth, whether it comes from all of the ways we are told we need to improve ourselves to the ways in which we are told that some are better than others because of certain uncontrollable parts of our identity.
I’m not saying that love is easy, or that it isn’t challenging to live into this call. But, this is ultimately what we are being continually called back to: the reminder that we are worthy of love and so are all of the people around us, that they are included in the love of God, as people for whom Christ was willing to die. We are called to speak up against the ways of the world that would go against this truth. To love those who society wants us to call unlovable. To break free from this idea that one or two groups of people get a say over who is worthy of value in the world.
I just preached last night at the Pride Worship at Central Lutheran, and one of the big themes of that sermon was the ways in which this idea of “love” that puts conditions on God’s unending and unwavering love for us is one of the things that has caused so much harm in the Christian community and in the world. Because there are times that instead of listening to this commandment, we want to shift it around, and make it mean what we would rather have it mean, something that is more comfortable or easier for us. But the reality is that this commandment doesn’t say love your neighbor as yourself if…. There is no fill in the blank option that tells us when someone is deserving to receive the love of God through our words and actions because we are not the ones who get to decide who is worthy of receiving that, we are just called to share it.
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Sunday June 22nd, 2025 Worship