Proper 6, Ordinary Time, Year C

Fraternities have secret handshakes and code words to tell true "brothers" from false brothers. That I know from firsthand experience. The Jews of Paul's time had certain rules that distinguished them from the "nations." Some of them were as esoteric as secret handshakes. Others were very serious and touched on sensitive moral issues of human behavior. In Paul's passionate letter to the Galatians, he argues against using esoteric rules as barriers and badges of superiority. In today's Gospel reading from Luke, we learn that even the more serious rules are not what divide the holy from the unholy. After all, none of us have ever kept them. The only rules that matter are our confession, our acceptance of forgiveness and our welcome of the forgiven.

If Paul sounds a little worked up in the letter to the Galatians, he has reason to be. He had brought the Good News to Galatia, established the Church there, and then moved on. But now word has come to him that some Jewish Christians have come to Galatia, and convinced the Galatians that they need to be circumcised, and observe the Jewish food laws, in order to fully be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself was a faithful Jew, and there's no evidence that he ever disobeyed those rules of membership in the people of Israel.

Just before today's reading, Paul recalls an earlier dispute over the same issue in another city. And this one involved Peter, chief among the Twelve Apostles. When Paul and Peter were together in Antioch, they shared food and fellowship with Gentile Christians. But then, according to Paul, men came from the Church in Jerusalem, to see if the "rules" were being kept: certain foods being off-limits to Jews, limits on how much Jews could interact with Gentiles. And when these Jewish Christians arrived, Peter "drew back and separated himself" for fear of offending them.

So, when Paul writes of what it means to be "justified," he isn't just referring to how God deals with us in the court of divine judgment. He is trying to explain to the Galatians; again, what constitutes "membership" in God's family. To be "justified by faith in Jesus Christ" is to be a member of God's family, regardless of who gave birth to us, the marks on our body, the food we eat.

Paul anticipates the counter-argument. "But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?" In other words, if all one has to do to be saved is to say, "I believe in Jesus Christ," then does it not matter what we actually do? Of course not, Paul replies. "I have been crucified with Christ…Through the law I died to the law." Paul knew the followers of Christ he had killed, for the sake of maintaining the rules of membership. He knew how he had helped to crucify Christ in those whom he had killed. He knew his need of forgiveness. He accepted that forgiveness, and he would let no manmade rules of membership keep anybody out of the family of the forgiven.

Jesus had already dealt with the same attitude. Right in front of Simon the Pharisee is a woman "of the city," a woman of the street, who has clearly been moved by Jesus's preaching and mighty works of love. We are not told what her "sin" was because that doesn't matter. What does matter are her tears. She knows her sin all too well. But she has heard Jesus's message of forgiveness, and accepted it. But Simon the religious official can only see who she was, the "sinner," not the forgiven woman right in front of him.

So, when Jesus tells this woman of the city, "Go in peace," where can she go? The synagogue where this Pharisee holds the power? How welcome will she be in the "religious" place, with its rules and codes and customs? Where else can she go in peace but back to the streets of the city? But now, she won't be lost and alone in her shame. Waiting for her will be all those who have heard the Good News, those "sinners," whom Jesus befriended and the Pharisees criticized. But then and now, it is the "sinners;" who have confessed how they have crucified Christ, who have accepted his forgiveness, and are ready to welcome anyone who comes to them; they are members of the family of God.

To be "justified" is to stand in the courts of our God. It is to face the ways in which we have crucified Christ, and to see that by his taking up the cross in love, justice has been satisfied. Our punishment has already been suffered, and is not ours to bear. But "justification" is much more than walking out of the court, scot-free. Being a Christian is about more than setting up a new club with new rules and new codes. Justification is not just about our "getting right with God." Membership in this club is defined by confession, forgiveness and welcome. Everything else is negotiable.

God made the Cross into a sign of salvation. Out of what has died here has risen the greatest opportunity for evangelism we may ever have. We have the opportunity to show people what the church really is, not a building but a people. And as we discern what our new worship space will look like, this community will be watching. What do we want that space to say to those who, as Bishop Parsley has said, are Episcopalians but don't know it yet? What do we need to do to make a welcoming space for the men and women of the city?

As long as we confess, forgive and welcome, nothing in this town will be more beautiful than Christ Episcopal Church.