Galatians 2:16-21

Dear congregation

Peace be with you and the grace of God, our Father and Lord Jesus Christ!

Today I am preaching a sermon by Ulrike Kaffka and Dr Holger Kaffka. Our sermon text is in the 2nd chapter of Paul's letter to the Galatians. I read verses 16-21 from the Basic Bible with the heading "By faith a person is justified, not by law".

16 But we know that No one is considered righteous before God because he obeys the law. You are only considered righteous if you believe in Jesus Christ.

That is why we also came to believe in Jesus Christ. Because it is through this faith in Christ that we are considered righteous before God - and not because we do what the law prescribes. After all, God does not absolve anyone of their sins because they obey the law.

17 Now we want to be considered righteous before God through Christ. But if it turns out that we are sinners despite everything - what does that mean? In no way does it mean that Christ also promotes sin!

18 For if I reinstate the law that I have abolished, it means that I present myself as one who transgresses it.

19 The law has brought death to me. I am therefore considered dead to the law so that I can live for God. I was crucified together with Christ.

20 Therefore I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Although I still live in this world, I live by faith in the Son of God. He has given me his love and laid down his life for me.

21 I do not reject the grace that God shows us. For if we are counted righteous before God through the law, then Christ died in vain.

Dear congregation!

"How do I get a gracious God?" "What must I do to stand before God?" - Martin Luther struggled with this question. This question was the trigger for the Reformation: "How do I get a gracious God?" Part of our Protestant culture is the knowledge that we don't have to do anything for God's grace. In fact, we can't even do anything for God's grace. Otherwise grace would not be grace.

Formulated slightly differently though, the question of the gracious God then becomes a question that many of us are concerned about. Let's simply call the question: "How do I manage to fulfil the require-ments?" "What do I have to do to finally be healed?" Even simpler: "What do I have to do, how do I have to be in order to be loved?" 

This also has a lot to do with the demands I place on myself in order to become enough, to be recognised. I have certainly more or less consciously internalised a lot of this as demands from my parents. But there are also demands that society, the church and employers place on me. There are little drivers deep inside me that say: "Be a good person!" "Live an environmentally conscious life!" "If you achieve a lot, then you are good, then you are recognised!" I think that most of us here are probably familiar with such drivers or have our own, which on the one hand drive our actions and contribute to a lot of good things - but which also often put us under pressure and make us feel unfree. This happens in our private lives, but also in the church and in our society.

This question, "What do I have to do to be recognised, to be loved?", also has a religious character. I don't just want to be loved by people, but ultimately I also want to be loved by God and live a meaningful and fulfilled life.

With Paul we can say: You won't make it!  Not by fulfilling your expectations. If you approach it like that, you won't be enough. Never. 

That was the case then, and it's the case today. If you're always fighting to be loved, then you're making yourself dependent and you're not free! The more you want to be enough, the less you will live. Even if the values you want to fulfil are Christian values. But what path is open to us then? How do we achieve salvation in our lives? 

Let us listen to an extract from a poem by the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. It is strongly reminiscent of the Song of Songs in the Old Testament.

When you look at me, I become beautiful,

as beautiful as the sedge under the dew.

When I descend to the river

the high reeds no longer recognise my blessed face.

The night is here. The dew falls on the reeds.

Lower your gaze on me for a long time. Wrap me tenderly in your word.

Tomorrow already, when she descends to the river,

which you kissed, will shine with beauty.

What marvellous words! "When you look at me, I become beautiful..." I can literally feel His loving gaze resting on me. Not scrutinising, not appraising, but warm, loving, attentive, encouraging, perhaps even smiling a little mischievously. You look at me - and I become beautiful, I am beautiful because I am looked at with loving eyes. When I feel this gaze on me, I realise how I grow inside, how I straighten up and become free.

I realise that I have always been beautiful. I realise how everything else no longer plays a role, at least no longer the all-determining role. I feel good, whole, beautiful. I feel this way and I radiate it.

To the question "How am I right?" "When am I good enough?" - Paul answers this question (I say it with my own words):You are right! You are right even before you can ask yourself the question. The gaze of God rests on you. If the gaze of God rests on you, then you are good, then you are right.

This gaze of God, which rests on each and every one of us, gives us the freedom from which we know: Just as I am - even with my faults - I am right, I am loved! Even with what has been called sin in the church for centuries, I am right as a person - from God's perspective.

God's gaze changes me. It's not just that I suddenly perceive myself differently. It's not that I no longer notice my faults. The gaze of God changes me in my being. Just as the gaze of the beloved changes me when I believe him. "When you look at me, I become beautiful..."

I feel that the inner drivers leave me where I allow myself to look at God, where I believe Him. I don't always succeed, but every now and then. And that is wonderful. I realise how good it does me. 

On the other hand, I also perceive a fear within me, the fear of suddenly not knowing what I am in this world for. What is my purpose? What does that mean in concrete terms for my life? Surely it can't matter how I live and what I do? Is it really enough just to know that I am respected by God, that I am beautiful? Is it enough to believe it?

St Paul says: "So then it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, through me." This certainty takes away my fear that I could suddenly become useless or lazy when my old impulses diminish. Christ lives in me. I become beautiful and good. Not always completely, but at least to the extent that I give God's gaze room in me. Fruit grows from this. Not always without effort, but at least without the effort that I have to gain salvation and never achieve it. God takes up space in me. God puts me in the right light. What I then do is good.

Dorothee Sölle writes: “We can live as if we were already living in a liberated world. We don't have to liberate it ourselves. But we have the vision before our eyes, we know what a liberated life can look like.” The Bible is full of images and stories about it. We carry these images, the longing, the hope within us, even if we don't know the Bible very well. And we also know the way to get there, our way: Jesus said it often enough, he set an example. I now know how to do it, I now know where I am going, at least broadly speaking. So I can go my own way. Quite confidently in the knowledge: It's not up to me. I can't do it. I don't have to either. 

God's attention rests on me and makes me beautiful, it makes me whole, it makes me good, this is the most important thing. Everything else comes after that, sorts itself out around it. Everything else happens.

And another thing: I am not the only one who is respected and beautiful. Everyone is. How different the world looks, how different some people look in my eyes when I realise that. I suddenly see the person I have difficulties with in a different light when I realise that God's gaze rests on him as well. God looks at him and God looks at me. That changes my relationship with him. No matter what troubles us, no matter how little we think we can manage: God looks at us. God envelops us tenderly. You. Me. Each and every one of us here. With God's gaze on us, we can know that we are right, even in the midst of all that is wrong. We also know that others are right; we can try to look at them with the eyes of God. Then the world will change. Through us.

And we will probably continue to bring about some wrong things. But the knowledge of God's gaze makes us free. This freedom will increasingly ensure that not only are we “good/right”, but that we also act correctly. By itself, so to speak.

"When you look at me, I become beautiful. Lower your gaze on me for a long time. Envelop me tenderly with your word. Tomorrow, the one you kiss will shine with beauty."

May our merciful and gracious God grant us that we may trust in this from the bottom of our hearts and that fruit may grow from this.

Amen