The three assigned readings for this 6th Sunday after Pentecost are Isaiah 66:10-14; Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18 and Luke 10:1-20. The text upon which the sermon is based is from Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
If you look up the word “Karma” on the Internet, you will find that some sites find the teaching of Karma not only in Buddhism and Hinduism but also in Christianity! In fact, they use this verse from Galatains 6 as evidence that Christians also believe in Karma. Karma can be summarized by the notion that “what goes around, comes around.” It is the idea that in the long run, people get what they deserve. In Buddhism and other such religions, Karma is tied to the teaching of Reincarnation which is the belief that human beings today have had past lives and actions that have an effect on what kind of life they have today.
If they were evil in a past life, then they are reincarnated into a body–not necessarily human–in which they make up for their past sins. Karma then becomes a teaching that attempts to resolve why bad things happen to good people. One can break out of a cycle of being reincarnated into an inferior being by being more ethical in the present life so that in the next body one is elevated to a higher level.
The worse effect of Karma is that because people need to go through purification in the present life, there is not much motivation to help the needy, the poor, the sick and so forth because then you get in the way of the purification process. As an aside, this is one of the reasons why the unbelieving Pharisees were angry with Jesus for healing lepers and the demon possessed. He was in essence removing the deserved consequences of their sin attributed to them by God. Jesus was therefore getting in the way of God’s justice.
And that is the primary reason why Christianity does not believe in Karma as taught by false religions. For the Christian God is not a God of justice in giving everyone what he or she deserves. Rather the holy Trinity is a merciful God in not giving people what they deserve and a gracious God in giving people what they do not deserve; namely, the forgiveness of sins, the robe of righteousnses and eternal salvation.
What Galatians 6:7 does not mean by “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” is some unbreakable principle of karma. Instead, it refers to God’s plan that those who are believers reap the free gift of salvation while those who are unbelievers reap what they hope for; namely, an eternity without the true God. The Christian faith does not permit, therefore, the commonly held notion that when something bad happens to us and we can complian, ”What did I do to deserve this?” We believe, teach and confess instead that what we truly deserve is nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. Anything short of that is a gracious gift from a loving God Who became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ.
Name:Tom Baker