Today’s passage is Galatians 2:11-21. Paul tells the story of confronting Peter and his hypocrisy concerning Jewish customs being applied to Christians after men from James came to Antioch. He scolded Peter for living like a Gentile but wanting Gentiles to live according to Jewish customs out of fear of the circumcision party. He says that we are justified by faith in Jesus, not by observing the law, and that those who seek justification by the law say, in effect, that Jesus died for nothing.
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What is Peter afraid of?
Why is Paul fearless?
The survey of our school by the teachers has generated some interesting results.
The few teachers who are unhappy in their own lives submitted extremely negative comments. I feel sorry for them because I failed to reach them at all.
They believe that changing their circumstances, not themselves, will change everything.
They are utter humanists who think that they and others like them can change the world with programs and proper administration of their ideas.
They reject absolutely the fact that we are basically bad, selfish, self-centred, self-righteous and self-justifying.
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More interestingly were the teachers who came up to me just to say thank you, that they are happy coming to work here, suggest a new idea to help make us better, and shake their heads at the other teachers who decided to grumble and complain about the imposition of having a half-day of work turned into a full day, adding three hours to their schedule in an upcoming week. The emotional support of the satisfied teachers touched me.
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These last weeks of preparing the end of school and hiring last minute teachers and preparing for next year, have led me to a lot of reflection on what progress I made this year#8212;not enough!#8212;and the mistakes I make#8212;many!
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The reflection and prayer kept circling back to my absence in the school.
By this I mean, I wasn’t present enough in the lives of the teachers and the students.
There are a few exceptions because I spent a lot of time with certain teachers and certain classes, but overall I was absent.
My physical, emotional, and spiritual presence was largely absent.
And because of that, the school drifted into more minor problems than it should have.
I didn’t do enough little things well.
And the main one I didn’t do was talking more to the students and the teachers about why we’re there and where we’re going and why it’s important to keep thinking and talking and sharing about those things.
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I didn’t die to myself and let Christ live in me (20).
That’s why I failed. Paul did die to himself let the Christ who loved him and died for him live in him. That’s why he was fearless.
And because he was fearless, he met with people, confronted them when necessary as in today’s passage, but mostly he encouraged others to believe in Jesus, to have faith in his crucifixion, for that faith justifies us before God and lets us go free.
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Application: to do what God has made me to do, to talk to others and unify them in the Spirit
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Lord, let me be fearless because you live in me. Let me be more of the man you created and redeemed in order to bring your love and your harmony to our school.
