In Galatians 5, Paul is on fire! Here is the sermon I will preach this Sunday - on FB! In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul breathes fire. He is angry that some have made the Gospel into a set of rules. He is angry at some who think that what matters is subservience to a set of traditions. But he doesn’t want to be angry at all. What he wants is that people put first things first. As he says elsewhere, what really matters is faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. Some of you know that song by Alicia Keys whose punch line goes, “This girl is on fire!” Don’t ask me to do the dance moves that go along with the lyrics. That would be very awkward. I assure you, in Galatians 5, Paul too is on fire. The fire of wrath and the fire of love are not far apart. So it is not that surprising that after much fire and brimstone, Paul concludes with one of the most beautiful statements ever penned by a human being. I repeat: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such there is no law." The nine fruits of the Spirit group themselves naturally into three triads. The first triad: love, joy, and peace. Here is the amazing thing: wherever there is love, there is joy. Wherever there is joy, there is peace. Paul also spells out the alternative to love, joy, and peace. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, knew all about the alternatives. His ministry was buffeted by conflict from within and without from the start. Wesley notes: "Take heed ye be not consumed one of another - By bitterness, strife, and contention, our health and strength, both of body and soul, are consumed, as well as our substance and reputation." The second triad goes like this: patience, kindness, and goodness. Once again, where there is patience, there is kindness; and where there is kindness, there is goodness. Where do patience, kindness, and goodness come from? People who feel cornered and people who are afraid do not have these fruits. These are marks of individuals and communities who live in the freedom that only God can offer. That is Paul’s most basic point. We have to live our lives in the freedom of the Spirit. If instead we live in fear of freedom and in fear of change, the opposite of what we want to happen then happens. Change overwhelms us and destroys us. The third triad goes like this: faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Again, where there is faithfulness, there is gentleness. Where there is gentleness, there is self-control. You can’t have one without the other. Last week, we read about someone Jesus welcomes who loved much because she was forgiven much. We live in a world in which people let other people down. People let themselves down, and find it impossible to forgive themselves. It all begins with a fall, not from perfection – there is no such thing – but from hope and grace. Emily Dickinson, a great American poet, put it this way. A great Hope fell You heard no noise The Ruin was within Oh cunning wreck that told no tale And let no Witness in The mind was built for mighty Freight For dread occasion planned How often foundering at Sea Ostensibly, on Land A not admitting of the wound Until it grew so wide That all my Life had entered it And there were troughs beside A closing of the simple lid That opened to the sun Until the tender Carpenter Perpetual nail it down -- A closing of the simple lid by a tender Carpenter who nails it down – that is how Emily Dickinson describes forgiveness. And forgiveness leads to freedom, and freedom leads to the fruition of the nine inseparable fruits of the Spirit. As Frederick Buechner put it, "But if good works are not the cause of salvation, they are nonetheless the mark and effect of it. If the forgiven man does not become forgiving, the loved man loving, then he is only deceiving himself." Nonetheless, the contrast Paul develops is between law and gospel. Law is about coercion. People who like law think it is very important to force people to do things they don’t want to do. The gospel, Paul says, is about freedom. Still, this freedom has a purpose. It is that space, that context, in which the fruits of the Spirit can flourish. That’s why Paul concludes by saying, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” To this day, there are two classes of people: those who want to control others, and those who know that self-control is the first and most important form of control. Let us, in our lives, be guided by the Spirit. Let us pray.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 13:04:54 +0000
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