Pentecost +2 Sunday – C3

Pentecost +2 Sunday – C3

Years C
Galatians 1:11-24

Paul writes as a corrective to the divisions within the church at Galatia. To do so he brings a story delineating his authority. Key is a view from above that allows change. He had been an important adversary able to find every weakness of Jesus' followers. So he was able to divide and conquer Christians. Out of his experience he found a central unifying source of gospel that those on the inside kept overlooking because they were too close.

Some of this important distance is also found in his journey away from Jerusalem into the wilderness of Arabia.

From adversarial and geographical dislocations Paul is able to speak truth to the power of focusing on the surface of things, rather than their depths. As Galatians continues, these depths will rise to view.

"The Galatians are on the verge of a wilderness apostasy, hence Paul colours his rebukes and warnings with language that evokes Israel's own tragic wilderness failings." [source] Paul may be able to do this from his own wildernesses of 3 days blind and 3 years in Arabia.

Our own wilderness times are important witness sources for our interacting with a settled church attacking its own.

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caught
traditions
ancestors

freed
unknown
neighbors

traditional persecutions
unknown grace
new families