Paul is at his most pungent today: ‘are you stark raving mad’, he asks the Galatians. Why would you settle for the Law when you have the Spirit? What did the rulebook ever do for you but weigh like a burden on your back?
That question echoes through the centuries. It found a focus at the reformation. It continues to trouble our communities even today. Law and Spirit. Faith and Works. Rules and Freedom.
It seems we have to be continually choosing freedom, faith, and Spirit because the burden of Law is paradoxically attractive to us. Some part of us—stark raving mad it must be—keeps picking up the harness, putting back the yoke, shouldering the load.
For some strange reason we can never maintain our belief in a generous, abundant, blessing God for long. We start to wonder if that apparent generosity might not have to be earned, that abundant blessing only given if… if we are good enough, if we follow the rules, if we are nice people, if we pray enough, if our faith is strong enough … you name it—we all have our ifs.
We prefer the God who has to be pestered, to the God who loves to give.
So I say to you: ask, seek, knock; be confident, for our God loves to give, loves to be found, loves to open his heart to us.