Rejoicing in Galatian Freedom (an interruption to self-imposed online taciturnity)

Just back from doing the All Souls week away in Bath – my first major thing for work since I was off from 1st Jan. All seemed to go smoothly and happily, which was rather a relief for all concerned. The focus this year was the grace-freedom we have in Christ – which Paul expounds so superbly through Galatians (which i’ve come to think is the earliest NT document, taking the Southern Galatian view – not without its problems but there you go). It was such a good thing for me to get into after all this time – and in the end I found myself casting aside all the commentaries (apart from when I was chewing on some imponderable or another) and just wallowed in the text. Marvellous.

The talks are now available for download on iTunes as a podcast, or if you don’t have that, as a direct feed from Jellycast. The six talks went like this. And because you can’t have long music clips on them, these are the tracks I played with YouTube links for each one.

• Galatians 1:  DESERTING THE GOSPEL? (Jakob Dylan & The Wallflowers: God Says Nothing Back)
• Galatians 2:  SETTING GRACE ASIDE? (Jamie Cullum: Not While I’m Around)
• Galatians 3:1-23: IS FAITH REALLY ENOUGH? (U2: The First Time)
• Galatians 3:25-4:31: PLEADING FOR THEIR LIVES (Antonio Lotti: Crucifixus)
• Galatians 5-6: FREE AT LAST! (Cat Stevens: Matthew & Son)
• Galatians 2:21 (All-age talk): DID CHRIST DIE FOR NOTHING?

Some have asked where I got the 2 video clips from. They were both created by Dan Stevers

• Scars
• The Cell

Here is the handout booklet which you can also download to follow the proceedings.