Friday in the Second Week of Lent - Reflections on the Letters of Lent
Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart-- it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, "So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging." But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), "Let us do evil so that good may come"? Their condemnation is deserved! What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one." "Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
"Real Circumcision is a matter of the heart." The cutting or mutilation of one's body for ritualistic purposes has always befuddled me. Why would you hurt yourself to prove your relationship? Why would God require the removal of the male foreskin in order to prove that there is a bond? What purpose does it serve? This topic may generate more question than reflection today. But, that's ok.
If we listen to what Paul is saying, he is making the claim that it doesn't matter if you are circumcised if you are not going to keep up your end and honor the covenant. That those who keep the covenant and grow in love and relationship are circumcised by virtue of the relationship. I understand that the ancients needed to make an outward physical sign of their covenant, symbolic of the bond they experienced with God. A bond that affected their relationship with one another.
Paul is further saying that our lack of faithfulness to our relationship with God doesn't diminish God's faithfulness in us. I don't know how many times I have heard folks claim that they've been too bad, that God doesn't want anything to do with them. False! God is faithful and desires a relationship, especially with those who have gone astray. God's favor and grace for creation never decreases. Once the bond is there, it NEVER goes away.
So, what is the call to action amid all this circumcision talk? I hear God calling us to keep the covenant and nurture the relationship. Leaning on the fact that it doesn't matter if we are male and have a foreskin or not. What matters is that our hearts are right with God. Do we trust God? In the season of Lent, it is the perfect time to evaluate ourselves and our relationships, see what we are doing that destroys and remove it... recognize what it is that brings us closer together and do it. How deep is our commitment?
Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So, if those who are uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then those who are physically uncircumcised but keep the law will condemn you that have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart-- it is spiritual and not literal. Such a person receives praise not from others but from God. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true, as it is written, "So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging." But if our injustice serves to confirm the justice of God, what should we say? That God is unjust to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), "Let us do evil so that good may come"? Their condemnation is deserved! What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: "There is no one who is righteous, not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, there is not even one." "Their throats are opened graves; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of vipers is under their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery are in their paths, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
If we listen to what Paul is saying, he is making the claim that it doesn't matter if you are circumcised if you are not going to keep up your end and honor the covenant. That those who keep the covenant and grow in love and relationship are circumcised by virtue of the relationship. I understand that the ancients needed to make an outward physical sign of their covenant, symbolic of the bond they experienced with God. A bond that affected their relationship with one another.
Paul is further saying that our lack of faithfulness to our relationship with God doesn't diminish God's faithfulness in us. I don't know how many times I have heard folks claim that they've been too bad, that God doesn't want anything to do with them. False! God is faithful and desires a relationship, especially with those who have gone astray. God's favor and grace for creation never decreases. Once the bond is there, it NEVER goes away.
So, what is the call to action amid all this circumcision talk? I hear God calling us to keep the covenant and nurture the relationship. Leaning on the fact that it doesn't matter if we are male and have a foreskin or not. What matters is that our hearts are right with God. Do we trust God? In the season of Lent, it is the perfect time to evaluate ourselves and our relationships, see what we are doing that destroys and remove it... recognize what it is that brings us closer together and do it. How deep is our commitment?
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