A Sermon delivered on June 22, 2025 by Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley.
Paul had a fundamentalist problem. Upstart second-generation missionaries have come to town and have begun sowing seeds of dissension in the Galatian church’s congregation. Paul founded the church on the gospel news that Jesus Christ’s atoning work opens the door for all people to be right with God through the graceful love of God in order to become healed and made whole. These missionaries who came after Paul are telling the church members there is more to it than mere faith in Christ. They are reinserting the notion that Gentile followers of Jesus need to become circumcised like their Jewish counterparts and follow the Mosaic Law. Paul is exasperated; He begins chapter two writing, “You foolish church! Who has bewitched you in this thinking!”
Our scripture this morning is Paul’s concise reminder that although the Mosaic Law had its place, it could not do for us what we needed in reestablishing our relationship with God; it is the Law, after all – no one is able to fulfill its requirements. Listen to our text from Galatians 3:23 and following and note what Paul does say about reconnecting to God in relationship. Hear the Word of the Lord.
Galatians 3:23-29
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be reckoned as righteous by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.[1]
Fundamentalism in any form is heretical. In other words, fundamentalism always overreaches itself in giving itself more power and authority than it really has. It makes its declarations to be the final word on any given subject without offering room for intelligent, thoughtful dialogue so others can engage. Fundamentalism is rife with hubris; it reeks in pride for itself and displaces any room for others as it crowns itself as the self-sanctioned authority. For religion, people’s pride assumes to know the mind of God and usurps the Lord. For politics, fundamentalism is when a platform and agenda is more important than the Constitution that provides the foundation for political discourse. For race and ethnicity, it is the belief “my” country, my state, my skin color, my denomination, or my religious belief is better than yours; I take it upon myself to ignore, exploit, demean and harm you because you are not like me and my people. Paul speaks as a former fundamentalist, a Pharisee of Pharisees. In a writing flurry in Galatians 5, his frustration erupts at the religious fundamentalists in the Galatian church when he writes, “I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!” Fundamentalism, if left unchecked is dangerous.
Friends, we are seeing signs of increased fundamentalism in our nation and in our world. Fundamentalist thinking is easily revealed in binary thinking, declarations, and statements. For example, I am correct; you are wrong.
My way of thinking, doing, speaking is best and yours is stupid.
I am saved; you are going to hell. Jesus died for people like me, not you.
I can say all this because I am a recovering fundamentalist; I know the signs of fundamental creep reemerging in our culture today. Can you? In the last few weeks, some 50 United Methodist churches left the denomination in Alabama and Florida districts because of the issue of gay ordination[2]. The Southern Baptist Convention rails at woman pastors in their churches even though the apostle Paul had women pastor leading his churches (so Phoebe[3]). They also have decided to challenge the court systems to overturn protections for the LBGTQ+ population[4]. Race relations are heating up to where now in our National Parks, no mention of the actual history of what took place there can be heard or construed as disparaging to “the principles of our nation.”[5] I am sorry: The only appropriate response to slavery and the vast displacement of indigenous Americans in our country is to disparage them.
For much of my ministry I have had to hold the lines of two opposing sides of the church together; it wore me down and out. I had one group encouraging me to split the church out of the PCUSA for its inclusion of LBGTQ members in leadership and marriage. I had a second group urging me to keep the church in the fight. At one point in my church in Washington state, I preached upon ordination standards that should be followed if we are to be orthodox Christians. My daughter, who is now a Ph. D. In Franciscan Historical Theology, was visiting from college that weekend. I got home from church that morning and I was getting the cold shoulder from her and my wife. It got uncomfortable for me and I so I asked her, “Hey, is everything OK?”
“Dad, I have sat under your teaching and preaching my whole life. I have always learned and agreed with what you have said until today. You’re wrong and your views are not biblical.” My little girl took a baseball bat to my fundamentalism. Her comments began for me a journey of re-reading the scriptures with fresh, grace-full eyes. Her comments burned off the cataracts of my narrow thinking. It made me understand that the singular thread that runs through all the Bible is that God goes to any length to establish and have relationship with those God created. The overarching arc of God’s character is always bent on demonstrating love and inclusion and the most prominent proof of that love is Jesus.
As Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale, I was asked to have the Session approve a wedding between two very involved members of the congregation who were gay. This couple was involved in volunteering heavily in our music and youth ministries. They were active in pastoral care. They gave financially to the budget of the church with a pledge. They consistently brought people to the church with them and wanted me to meet them. They were there every Sunday and beloved by all that knew them. If you wanted to show someone what a committed church person looked like, these two were it. There was just one snafu. The Session of the church 10 years before I arrived demanded all church officers sign a purity letter and that each officer agreed in writing that gay relationships were verboten. Before a gay wedding could occur, I would have to have the Session either reaffirm its purity stance or change it.
After about an hour of loving and thoughtful conversation, the Session unanimously approved the wedding. The reasoning was simple: All people fail to live up to the standard of the Mosaic Law. All we can do is thrive to do our best, live into the Beatitudes, and love and serve others as God in Christ loved and served us. As much as we are all united in Christ in our baptism, we are united with him in our death. All the questions new members are asked on the day they join are questions pertaining to faith; this is the criteria for being a church member. Paul’s words from today’s scripture became the great leveler at the meeting. Paul reminds us that…
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
A favorite contemporary Christian writer I glean a lot from is Brian McLaren. Years ago he authored a book entitled, Generous Orthodoxy. Based upon the work of Yale University professor Hans Frei, it simply asks people in the church to put aside their personal assumptions and engage in dialogue to look for a third way forward together. It moves from a model of “Me and you” to a way of thinking about “We and Us.” The word orthodoxy means correct thinking. Dr. Frei says, “Generosity without orthodoxy is nothing, but orthodoxy with generosity is worse than nothing.”[6]
Did you catch what he meant? It is one thing to have right or good thinking but it is not enough. Good and right thinking demands that we demonstrate good, correct action. The fifty-cent word for that is orthopraxy – literally, good practice. A generous orthodoxy is when Christians can come together from various traditions and seek to move forward making a difference for the cause of Christ. The cause of Christ is more vital, valuable, and necessary than our individual traditions and disagreements. It is not an easy thing to do but it is the right thing to do.
On this heritage Sunday when we celebrate the lives of the members of this church, I am grateful First Presbyterian is a church that embraces and lives out to the community a generous, loving orthodoxy. We are demonstrating what it means to live as one in Christ.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.
© 2025 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, New York and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.
[1] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] See https://www.al.com/news/2025/06/united-methodists-close-27-churches-in-south-alabama-and-panhandle.html.
[3] Romans 16.1-2— I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, 2 so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well.
[4] See https://www.cbsnews.com/news/southern-baptist-same-sex-marriage-ban-delegates-overwhelmingly-back/.
[5] See https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/06/censorship-see-national-park-visitor-responses-after-trump-requested-help-deleting-negative-signage/406176/.
[6] Brian McLaren, Generous Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 2006), 14.
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