Dear Faith Family,
When we began our journey into Galatians, I said that Paul's letter was first and foremost a response to the gospel, to the good news that God is here and sharing his life with us. For Paul, the cross of Jesus was the focal point of this good news, the moment in history when the story of salvation converged with his own story,
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." (2:20a)
"far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (6:14)
We are free because "the Lord Jesus Chrsit...gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." (1:4) Paul won't let us get too far from this cosmos shifting event in his little letter. Every few sentences, it seems, there is yet another reminder of the means and manner of our free lives. While immersed in Galatians, it is nearly impossible to wander too far from the denouement of salvation history. Yet, the death and resurrection of Jesus as my own is rather too easily submerged under the routines and rigors of daily existence.
So, what can I do to be filled with "a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in [such] knowledge of [Jesus]"? Well, breathe.
Malcolm Guite reminds us of our faith family's old and cherished practice of letting the most natural and necessary physical process for living, reinvigorate our living faith:
"Contained in the pattern of our breathing is the whole story of our salvation. For a Christian in prayer, the very act of breathing can become a return to our birth: receiving of original life from the breath of God, as we breathe in with Adam in the garden of our beginnings; an offering of all that needs letting go and redeeming as we breathe out with Christ on the cross; a glad acceptance of new life in the Holy Spirit as we breathe in again receiving our life and commission afresh from the risen Lord."
Breathe in--breathe out--breathe in again, and the story of salvation converges with our own. A process that can be repeated without preparation, wherever we find ourselves, and as often as needed to live.
Might we breathe in the good news today, and tomorrow, and as long as there is breath in our lungs, finding that "the life we live now in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us." (2:20b)