Last week I heard an interview on NPR’s “Fresh Air” with
Terry Gross. The woman being interviewed was a graduate of Harvard Divinity
School and the author of a book on lessons learned from hospice patients. By
definition a hospice patient is one for whom the medical community is
prescribing only palliative care. The typical hospice patient lives for only a
few months under such care.
So Terry Gross asks this woman, “What lessons have you
learned from those who are living at the end of their lives?” And the woman
replies that there are many, but among them is the incredible ability to gain
peace in the midst of arguably the most difficult challenge of life.
I don’t remember too much about this interview, except when
the author turns the tables on Terry Gross. The woman is recounting how many of
the patients have found rest and peace in practices of prayer and the singing
of hymns. In the midst of her description Gross interrupts her and asks
something like, “Are you serious? Prayer and hymns?” To which the woman
replies, “Well, how do you handle serious stress, Terry? How do you gain a
sense of peace in the midst of withering circumstances?” Terry Gross is caught
off guard - she’s usually the one who asks the questions. But within seconds
she recovers and says, “I do breathing exercises.”
Now I want you to know that I’m all for breathing. You can’t
last too long without it! I’ve even been to childbirth classes where we
“coaches” were trained to distinguish between shallow breathing and cleansing breaths
– both of which are deployed in the trials and tribulation of labor. But, come
on Terry! We’re talking about the appropriation of spiritual power as you near
death and you want to talk about controlling your breathing and slowing down
your heart rate? Please!
If Terry Gross were a Christian and Paul had heard the
interview, he might say, “O you dear idiot Terry! At a time when you should be
lifting your eyes from yourself to Him and His, you’re stuck on you!”
If you were with us last week you know that we crossed into
Galatians 3 and looked carefully at what Paul says in Galatians 3:1-5. Here at
the beginning of chapter 3, Paul highlights two fundamental resources that the
Holy Spirit makes available to every Christian – the Cross and the Scriptures.
Last week we looked at what he had to say about the Cross. In verse 1 Paul
says, “It was before your own eyes that Jesus was placarded as crucified.” In
other words, the Holy Spirit can perfectly portray before every one of our eyes
the good news of the Cross. Paul’s argument is that they’ve forgotten what He’s
shown them already.
But there’s more that the Holy Spirit can do in the life of
the Christian and that has to do with our ears. Look what he says in verse 2,
“Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” You
see, what Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit not only shows us Jesus, He
speaks to us all about Him.
We are going to talk about hearing this week in a message
entitled, “Hearing with Power”, based on Galatians 3:1-9. In preparation for
the message you may wish to consider the following:
- In a word, what’s the Bible all about?
- Why is verse 8 so astounding?
- How does John 5:39 inform our understanding of verse 8?
- What do you make of Paul’s personification of the Scripture in verse 8?
- How does Paul define the Gospel in that eight-word quote spoken to Abraham?
- How many of Jesus’ recorded words in the Gospels are Scripture quotes?
- Do you think that Jesus thought the Scriptures to be man-made or God-breathed?
- What do you make of II Corinthians 1:20?
- How does Galatians 1:8 relate to our view of Scripture?
- Do you think it’s possible to understand the Gospel without the Scriptures? How about the Scriptures without the Gospel?
