This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:
Burmese Govt. tries to control religious violence between Muslims and Buddhists
Burmese PM Thein Sein
Galatians 4:12-20
12 Friends,* I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong.13You know that it was because of a physical infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you;14though my condition put you to the test, you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.15What has become of the goodwill you felt? For I testify that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.16Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?17They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make much of them.18It is good to be made much of for a good purpose at all times, and not only when I am present with you.19My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,20I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
In these words, Paul speaks about his relationship with the church in Galatia. We don’t know what precisely lies behind some of the enigmatic details but we can respond to the affection which Paul feels. In my book “Paul: An Unauthorised Autobiography” (Kindle) I tried to imagine the journey Paul must have made in order to get to Galatia-almost certainly across arid uplands with dried- out salt lakes (whose glare might have injured his eyes); and what sort of people he would have encountered there ( a Celtic people renowned for their warrior culture and elaborate use of pattern in decoration).
The dying Galatian-statue inspired by conquest of Galatia
The most telling phrase in this passage is “my little children with whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.” We think we understand this metaphor-Paul is in spiritual labour giving birth…. to what exactly? To Galatian believers surely? But no, Paul also has a picture in his mind of Christ being born in those believers. So we get a strange image indeed: Paul is in labour until Christ is born in his converts! Still we know what he means. (Perhaps someone should write a study of birth images in Paul’s writings: this is not the only one.) His visceral , motherly concern for the Galatians should be taken at face value, I think, rather than being interpreted as a way of pressurising them to do what he wants. Paul is not above a bit of pressure at times but he is a very great man and quite different from the sex-obsessed control-freak he’s often made out to be by people who haven’t bothered to study him. He is genuinely concerned that the Galatians may lose their faith in a welter of religious observance.
An earnest concern with what other people believe is today considered embarrassing and possibly unethical: people should be allowed to believe what they want without interference from spiritual or political busybodies! Yet we live in a civilizaton which is daily menaced by the actions of people with passionate beliefs: capitalists with a blind faith in markets; jihadis with a blind faith in a distortion of Islam; racists with a blind faith in their own ethnicity. In such a world, we might well learn from Paul’s patient personal concern that people should not put their faith in anything less than the inclusive love of God.
Matthew 15:21-28
The Canaanite Woman’s Faith 
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon.22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’24He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’25But she came and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, help me.’26He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’27She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’28Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed instantly.
By accepting the role of a dog, the woman invites Jesus to look at what he’s said to her and to reconsider his response. Pious commentators say that Jesus is testing the woman. I think she’s testing him: is he real in in proclaiming a kingdom of God or is it only a kingdom of Israel? She reminds him of who he is and he responds by praising her faith and healing her child. Moses is sometimes depicted as reminding God of his own nature; Abraham famously reminds God of his own justice. This anonymous woman reminds the son of God of the universal scope of his own mission. She refuses to believe that God has a racial bias.
I have written in another blog ((Bible Blog 333) emphasising that the perfection of Jesus’ character, far from excluding his capacity to learn, is based upon it. He doesn’t have a Son of God implant in his head but rather learns continually how to respresent the father’s love.
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