I am assuming that if you’re someone who worships within our Sunday fellowship, these notes about the lectionary text we will consider won’t “ruin” any sort of surprise. Instead, perhaps they will actually increase the benefit as we gather and “listen together” to the Word. So, here are some initial thoughts that may or may not be the direction we take next Sunday.
The lectionary text for June 9th is Galatians 1:11-24. Paul is explaining the way he came to have his grasp on the gospel-grace of Christ – that same reality he’s so astonished the Galatians are leaving as they desert God (1:6-7).
Right now what is sticking out to me is how the gospel was revealed by Jesus to Paul (1:12), and that Paul had come to see this as a continuation of the grace of God in his life from his birth (1:15). Eventually, this led to Christ being revealed in him (1:16).
This gospel-grace of Christ was not a set of teachings but the revealing of Christ himself within Paul. What Paul talked about did not come from being taught information by others, but was an inward and relational transformation as Christ (who was already there?) was revealed. Paul’s grasp of the good news about who Jesus is and the grace that he is (active expression of God’s mercy), was not something conveyed through human instruction but through the revelation of Jesus himself.
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