^{This blog provides a meditation on the Revised Common Lectionary. It’s more usual format will resume next week.}

^{GALATIANS 3: 15-22}

¹⁵Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. ¹⁶Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, “And to offsprings,” as of many; but it says, “And to your offspring,” that is, to one person, who is Christ. ¹⁷My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. ¹⁸For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.¹⁹Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made;

and it was ordained through angels by a mediator. ²⁰Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one.²¹Is the law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could make alive, then righteousness would indeed come through the law. ²²But the scripture has imprisoned all things under the power of sin, so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Paul thinks:

1. The law is inferior to the promise given to Abraham a) because it was given before the law and b) because, as Paul reads the Torah, the law was given by angels to Moses, that is at arms length.
2. The Abrahamic “offspring who will bless many nations” is Jesus.

1. The Law is an interim arrangement, which allows no one to be righteous until Christ makes people righteous through faith.

The various tricks Paul uses to make his points are foreign to us, but his main conviction, that Jesus Christ offers a trusting partnership with the holy God rather than a set of regulations, still rings true.

^{MARK 6: 47-56}

⁴⁷When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. ⁴⁸When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea. He intended to pass them by. ⁴⁹But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; ⁵⁰for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” ⁵¹Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, ⁵²for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. ⁵³When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. ⁵⁴When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, ⁵⁵and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶And wherever he went, into v

illages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Jesus is held in awe by the crowds but his own disciples cannot grasp his divine identity. Mark paints a picture of the man who is God, the “beyond in the midst”. The nearer people come to the man- and the disciples come very near- the harder it is to believe. The crowds see him as a wonder-worker, which is an even more serious mistake. The story of Jesus meeting the disciples on the sea as they struggle against the wind, has been an inspiration to Christian believers down the years.