So what happened?

It was strange preaching again without Carol being physically with me. And, yes, at one point she did creep into the sermon! I began by thanking the church for their extraordinary hard work and loving support poured out to make Carol's Thanksgiving Service bearable and, at times, even joyful. I also had to mention the stupidly obvious sermon title I had chosen: Who matters most in church? Even people who never go near church will answer 'Well, it's God isn't it?' We need to say Jesus matters most - Head of the Church, his body. But what is stupid is when we never ask the question!

In these verse Paul is explosively personal. You can sense the passion and anger. Please understand that Paul really loves this church yet there is something he must repeat. It is essential in their situation but because God promises to keep speaking through his word, we must hear him now. A couple of different things happen. First there is a warning. 

(Verse 2) Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.  There are two Greek words translated dog. One is for house dog. 'Sit....Fido. Good boy.' House trained – loyal friend. As a nation of dog lovers and cat lovers, we won't have a bad word said about Fido. But there is another word for dog – street dog. Street dogs are a world away from Fido. Feral, vicious, dangerous roaming the streets and attacking passersby. This is the word here. Street dogs have followed the apostle Paul wherever he has gone (see them mentioned in other letters too) with his good news message that Jesus is enough for salvation. They believe in Jesus but as Jewish Christians they are bullying and demanding converts need to be circumcised and follow other Jewish practices in order to be truly saved.  They are known as Judaisers. And when I say bullied there is a pernicious one upmanship that so upsets Paul. They know they are right about what matters to God and this young church is wrong. 

And, at this point in the young church’s story they are immensely dangerous. This is no minor issue, because Jesus is a Jew who gloriously fulfils the promise of the Old Testament with the gift of the New Covenant. Instead of all the rituals and sacrifices repeated every year, Jesus in his own sacrifice on the cross achieves forgiveness and eternal life once and for all. Sheer grace. A new family of God, New creation. But their teaching undoes everything about the good news of Jesus Christ. It's legalistic add-ons put emphasis back on obeying old commands rather than living in freedom to love God and neighbour within a kingdom of grace. They are saboteurs. If they win the fight they destroy the heart of grace in Christ..They are so sure they are right.  

So, how do we sum up this warning?  Beware the smasher-uppers. I know that’s not a real term but you know what I mean – people  who are so sure that they are so right about what really matters and other people are so wrong, they are bullying and forcing their way to divide and smash up a church. To destroy relationships because they know who counts . They are acting as though they MATTER MOST IN CHURCH.  They really do. They must get their way and they don't care what they smash up. In this church it threatens everything This is a big issue. But smasher-uppers don’t really need big issues. People can fixate on many things in church and it's so often complicated by personality issues. We know....