Last week I ended with the word that I believe sums up the freedom that comes in Christ, a word that speaks about our value to God. It is also the word that symbolizes how Jesus invites us to come to him, to be with him, to dwell with him, and last week I said that word is: communion.
Now as we return to Galatians, we finish around this table with Paul’s concluding words to the Church. For chapter 6 invites us to adopt a posture when we are together.
Move 1- sharing the burden
While one concept in verse 2 gains the lion’s share of the emphasis and consideration when this chapter is read, I want us to remember what Paul says to the church in Galatia—but from a slightly different emotional direction. For the church in Galatia is a church that in chapter 1:4, is guilty of, “turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.”[1] This is how Paul began his letter.
These are people of the church, like you and me, people who are called by God, and people who have turned their calling. And while we do have chapters in Galatians to articulate that ‘turning,’ the same sin is always at work in the church.
For five chapters now Paul has called the Church back toward Christ.
He has called them to live faithfully in response to their high calling from God. As I said last week, Paul reminded them of their freedom in Christ. This freedom leads to care for one another, and it leads the Church to serve their community. And while that calling, to a people who appear lost, or confused, or misguided, could be seen as a word of rebuke. . . at the end of this letter, Paul uses a different approach.
Rather than hold some up, or wag his finger at others, in verse 2 Paul, draws out humility. . . Paul calls forth gentleness in our practice of faith when we are together and as we go out among the people. Paul asks each of us to look at the works of other members of the church and to take a sense of pride in their work and not in ours.
In the concluding words from Paul the church is told to gently and humbly help one another (verse 1). And in verse 2, “share each other’s burden.”[2]
If you were following with me in your Bible, you might have read, “bear one another’s burdens,” that is the rendering from the NRSV and KJV is close to that. And while that is right, and I do not want to fault any translation committee or the work they have done, I wonder what it would look like if the church of Jesus saw what we do not as ‘bearing a burden’ but as ‘sharing the burden?”
And there is a significant difference to consider here.
As we come to the Table of the Lord, that is the focus for you, and that is the invitation for us. As we think about as the bread that is broken and the cup that is passed, how are we ‘sharing the burden?’
But this is not the end of our thinking or reflecting. . . As you leave this service, or watch it later, or listen to it in the future, think about what happens in your life, and the life of this community as we stop simply ‘bearing burdens’ but ‘sharing that same burden?’
And as I said there is a difference.
Move 2- the difference.
The first thing to note about the difference is that for Paul and in his word choice here, there is a sense of gentleness in this pericope when we share the burden as the church. Throughout verses 1-6 Paul reinforces his meaning by using words that are filled, or identified with, gentleness. . . Gentle verbs. . . And gentle actions. Just a quick glance at the text and you will find them:
“A spirit of gentleness”—verse 1. Right from the beginning Paul sets the table for how the posture of this work should look. Gentle. . . humble restoration taking place. In a community where this choice is not often elevated, consider how counter cultural this choice would be?!?
Then carries that tone forward in verse 3 where he writes: “If you think you are too important to help someone…you are not.” While we might read it, and add a tone of rebuke to these words, Paul does not. In his writing that tone is missing.
But the Apostle is not done yet in helping to remind us of our place with each other, In verse 4 Paul says, “you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won’t need to compare yourself to others.”[3]
On and on it goes. We are responsible for our own actions and we are called by God to be gentle when considering the actions of others. We are called to be humble and kind, rather than brash, aggressive, or judgmental. That posture is left for God alone. Our eyes firmly fixed on who Jesus calls us to be and not on what someone else is doing. This choice, this posture helps return to back to verse 2 where we are sharing the burden. And the word for sharing also occurs in this formulation in Luke 10:4 where the disciples are sent out into their community and told to ‘carry’ or ‘bear’ nothing with them. But to rely on the gentleness and goodness of the people to whom they travel and witness to.
“The community [of the church] is obliged to rally around the overwhelmed [rally around each other], while individuals remain responsible for the stewardship God assigns [to] them. . . Here the ‘call to share the burden’ functions as a call for patient, and sacrificial fellowship.” (Taken from Biblebub.com)
In this sense we are not doing the work for someone else, but we are providing the space, the safe space, for them to encounter God and allow God’s self-revelation to mold, shape, and change them.
For congregational life thrives when believers share one another’s burdens while not neglecting individual responsibility that comes from discipleship and the faithful on God’s word personally. We do not do the work for the other person. But when we are with them, when we hold them, as we have done before at this church with those who grieve, those who are healing, we share a burden as the Body of Christ and as Paul calls us to do.
Conclusion
And this freedom leads us back to the Table of the Lord which is set before us.
[1] Galatians 1:4 NLT.
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