June 22, 2025
“Improvising the Kingdom”
Rev. Roberta Howey
Galatians 3:23-28
Paul, this week’s author, received a vision of what the kingdom of heaven would look like. It would be a paradise for all who receive Christ in their hearts, where none is subject to the other, where everyone is equal and as long as we all accept the reality of Jesus’ love and our salvation through Him, then there would not be any conflict whatsoever. He received this vision after spending his early career persecuting Christians. He was hit with a revelation so powerful, it blinded him for 3 days and then he immediately turned his life around, telling others how to build their churches and prepare for the return of Christ.
To offer a comparison; my favourite scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail is when King Arthur approaches a peasant and after some back and forth, the peasant asks Arthur who made him king. Arthur replies that the enchanted Lady of the Lake arose out of the water and bestowed upon him the sword, Excalibur.
The peasant replies “Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
This scene best describes how I feel about Paul writing letters to the early Christian churches.
Respectfully, to Paul; blinding visions that knock you off your horse are no basis for an effective church polity. But he was not worried about governance.
The most important thing about Paul and that we need to keep in mind for all of the letters that he wrote to the early church is that he was convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus was coming back imminently. We are talking weeks, maybe a year at most. He was not establishing a long-term structure for generations of Christians to abide by. He thought it wasn’t even ethical having children at this point, because they would not be around on this earthly plane long enough. With this mindset his logic makes a bit more sense. Don’t worry about having sex, or getting married (though only do it if you must). Don’t worry about abolishing slavery, or trying to convince leaders to work towards peace. Don’t worry about plagues or bad crops or the next fishing season. Jesus is coming back well before this is a problem. Focus on following Jesus and loving Christ as your Saviour and you will never need to worry about anything ever again.
Well people did have worries. “But Paul”, they wrote to him, “we have conflicts about how to best pray for Jesus, there are so many rules with the Roman Gods or in the Torah, how can we settle that dispute?” “Paul, what do we do with the Christians who have died recently, will they be saved?” “Paul, we have a question about circumcision”.
Paul was a brilliant writer, but did not think these things through. He was writing back letters as quickly as he could, putting out the fires and solving the problems on the fly. With his vision, God’s vision, and gumption, he tried to improvise his way to God’s Kingdom.
Then he dies. Then Rome collapses, the Barbarians arrive, plagues and famines happen. People grow up in the church, die in the church, soon whole families and communities only know the church as their main religion, combined with the local cultures and customs as humans do. It is not long before the most powerful people in the land are the people that are told by Paul, as the early father of the Church, to spread Christianity to all corners of the globe. If they can get some gold for their troubles, well that is God blessing them and their endeavours.
These were instructions for the church for the short-term. They were never meant to be for the long-term. But here we are. Centuries later and humans crave structure, rules and roles that keep our society going. Paul’s vision, like King Arthur’s encounter with the Lady of the Lake, is not going to cut it.
How do we follow the spirit of the law, especially when it is clear the letter of the law is not working?
As a part of my hospital work in Spiritual Care, we work with patients of all beliefs and no religious beliefs. We also work with our Indigenous Health Navigators and their department when we work with Indigenous Patients. Each patient is unique, but just as many Catholic patients request the priest visit to deliver the Sacraments, or Muslim or Jewish patients like to confirm dietary needs, our Indigenous patients may request certain things for their own practices, including smudging. Smudging is the ritual of burning dried sage or other plants depending on the community, allowing the smoke and incense to spiritually cleanse a person, their things, or the room. Patients can do the smudging themselves, or request assistance if needed.
If you have been in a hospital before you may see a few obstacles that, initially, caused problems. For example, the concern about openly burning something near oxygen sources. The smoke detectors and sprinklers are necessarily sensitive. Other patients or staff may have sensitivities, like asthma or breathing problems, especially in the ICU. In order to do a smudging ceremony safely in the hospital takes coordination with security, fire safety and property services, and many staff to make sure everyone is good. And especially at the beginning, it was treated as an inconvenience. “What is the point, when they can be discharged and do this at home?”
The Spirit of the “law” (the ethical priority of the organization) is to treat the patient, the caregivers, and the staff, with the greatest amount of care and dignity possible. The Short Term letter of the law would say it is to follow the policy as it is written, treating it as gospel. But when hospitals and care centres look at why those rules are in place, we are able to better build a community that respects all peoples. They are doing so now, with Sunnybrook and its Indigenous Patient Room, that allows ambulatory patients to smudge conveniently. St Mike’s just opened their centre last week. More care sites are offering dedicated spaces for Indigenous patients, not because it is the cheapest option or the one that would be the most effective. It is the more compassionate option.
The UCC has this problem as well. In trying to fulfil the letter of the law, the call by the church to share Christianity, we too have struggled with the spirit of the law. Loving each and every person as an image-bearer of God’s love. When we encounter another person, we encounter Christ, the nexus of creation and hope and love, in their very selves. This is not limited to race, sexuality or gender, disability, or religion. To be a Christian, someone who follows Jesus and his teachings, is to say that we believe each person is a reflection of God, as they are and God shapes them. In our need for rules around what that means, how we worship and pray, and govern, we decided that others should follow us with the letter of the law, rather than the spirit. There was no room to improvise, no room to experiment. Forcing Indigenous children into residential schools and day schools to convert them, refusing to let them speak their languages and embrace their traditions and teachings. Smudging was illegal, and considered pagan at best and sinful and offensive to God at worst.
We have seen progress across the UCC. The Indigenous Church, a separate governing body for Indigenous congregations and communities, has been in the works for a while now, per the call for reconciliation. We have established healing funds and worked towards a future where victims of the school systems have justice and compensation. And there is a renewed call from within and around the church to remember the spirit of the law- to work together as stewards of Creation to build God’s Kingdom here and now.
We will continue to need reorienting now and then. Whenever we are encouraged to fear the other, to hate the stranger, to detest someone else, we are being asked to breathe and remember the spirit of the law. When it is easier to be apathetic, to ask “who cares”, we are asked to remember that God cares. When conflict arises, and it will arise that is just a reality, we are asked if we are here for the letter of the law, to obey policy just because and to follow the rules without thought, or if we are here to follow the spirit of the law and to be willing to approach with care.
Paul’s vision needed discernment, so did the early church and the establishment of many denominations over the centuries. But in being willing to be flexible with the details, we can get to the essence of Paul’s vision; that there will be no hierarchy, oppression, violent conflict, or abuse. That all are celebrated as they are in all corners of the world. That in every person you see, you see the bit of love that is then reflected in yourself. That is how we accept Christ’s love.
%20(4).png)