How do you judge some one's sincerity about a cause? You may make a judgment based on how much money they devote to a cause. Time also seems a good basis for judgment. The ultimate price to pay for a cause of course is laying down your life. We honour those who have died in the line of duty and heroes to our country. Our life and literature pay homage to those who have died for us whether it is our country ( patriots ) or our faith ( martyrs ). Of course the biggest example of all is our savior. Would the saving graces of Jesus be with us today if Jesus had merely offered and not actually died for us? Our faith is not just about the offer, Jesus' power and glory is not in the offer but in the death and especially in the resurrection. We believe in the transition and transformation, the power of life and death and resurrection. All intimately physical. It is something we can understand because if we cherish no one else's life, we cherish our own and understand the import and depth of giving up our life. Serious stuff.
In Galatians today the argument is about circumcision, cut or uncut if you will. That too is an intensely personal aspect of our life. It may be an excruciatingly personal part of our life. Who does not cherish the family jewels so to speak. To 'cut' or have cut is a monumental decision especially when you are older than a few days old when you will forget the trauma rather easily. Adult circumcision would be a real scorcher it seems to me. It must have been a rather emotional argument for those early gentiles come Christians. We do base judgments on physical decisions and attributes. This is not a light topic for most.
As both physical and spiritual beings, if we really believe that, the physical is merely a transcendent phase. Our power and glory is our essence in who we are. Our physical nature is a small portion of that which in the scheme of things is truly minuscule. I would not however be one to flippantly argue then that 'what does being cut really matter'. I would say that it is an obfuscation and a sad human way to judge people's faith. I think that the Apostles came around to that same conclusion otherwise we'd all be circumcised.
All this talk about cut and uncut is then moot. What is truly important? What do we have to do to show or prove our faith? Die? No, not at all. If we are not to judge by our own physical death then it must be our lives that count. We must live life to the full, love well and in reckless amounts just as God loves each one of us with reckless abandon. We must cherish life, cradle to grave, not merely shouting and barricading as a pro-birther does. Life in all it's forms, life in every corner and plane of existence. That is a good judge of our faith. Do we cherish what God has created? Do we respect ourselves? Do we respect all of God's creation? Our planet? The resources we have been graced with? Put aside circumcision, rules and rubrics. How do we live life?
How do we live life and love? That is the question.
Galatians 6:11-18
See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh.May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Forneither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
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