2008-07-27 - "Gospel Living"

"Gospel Living"
Life in the Spirit
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Text: Galatians 5:22,23 (16-26)

One of the greatest preachers of the last century, Harry Emerson Fosdick, told a story of a time in the 1930s when he was asked to speak to the American College in Beirut. He was to address an audience in which there were representatives of 16 different religions (and we should remember that this was prior to the creation of the modern state of Israel and the current Middle East crises), but Harry Emerson Fosdick said that he remembered a person who was a devoted Muslim and who was determined that he would never give in to the influence of Christianity. He remembered others like him who were equally on guard against a preacher from the West who would probably argue for his religion against theirs. Before he spoke, he said that he sensed the rival faiths bristling against each other and a tense quietness as he arose to speak. His first words, however, set them at ease. He said, “Today, I am not going to ask anyone here to change his religion but I am going to ask every one to honestly face this question, “What is your religion doing to your character?” This was a question that could be faced by all those there, without feeling that they were being evangelized. “What is your religion doing to your character?” Here at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, we may not need to worry about anyone changing religion, however, it is still a valuable question to ask, “What is your religion doing to your character? How has Christianity in particular affected you?”

On this continent, Christianity has been a main part of society for several centuries. In its ideal form, it has functioned as one of the supreme builders of good character. I recall having some lengthy chats with a Jamaican man some years ago. For several years I was his minister and we used to chat about cricket and soccer and Manchester United since he had lived in Manchester, England for a number of years. But one Sunday evening after church, I asked him a more personal question about his Christian life and his response has stuck with me. I asked, “Dennis, have you always gone to church?” Dennis replied that he had gone as a boy, but had stopped in his youth and early adult years until the birth of his daughter. I asked why that had made a difference and he responded that he wanted his daughter to grow up knowing right from wrong and learning the types of morals and standards that the Church taught. It seemed to him that the Church was an organization that helped build good characters. So Dennis started attending church with his wife and daughter and soon found within it something not only for his daughter, but also something for himself. He found faith and became very involved as a lay person and worshipper at that church. God works in mysterious ways, but I will always remember Dennis’s words about the Church, that it helped instil the type of values in people that he wanted for his daughter.

But if we think about it, it is not the Church as an institution that really puts right things in the hearts of children and adults. Of course, the Church tries to teach what we used to call “righteousness” and values in its Sunday Schools, youth programs, and through preaching, but this teaching can only go so far. The real power of Christianity, and the real change-agent of our faith, the real source of truly authentic living is God himself. It is God at work through the Holy Spirit that makes a life, a Christian life.

We have been working this month through St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. The young Church that Paul had founded had come under another gospel teaching … individuals were telling them that if they really wanted to be followers of God, they would have to be circumcised and follow Jewish law. When the Galatians did this, Paul was incensed and wrote back to them about faith. He told them that God had found them just as they were. In his grace and through the work of his Son, Jesus Christ, he had made them right with him outside of the law of the old covenant. In Christ, said Paul, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail (5:6). You are no longer under the law (3:13); you are free, do not, therefore, submit again to the yoke of slavery (5:1).

When Paul said this, there were, then, those who came along and accused him of being an antinomian, that is preaching a gospel that has no guidelines, no moral foundation, no law. “With no law,” they said, “everything goes, live as you like.”

But that was not Paul’s gospel at all and he went on to spell out that the freedom that Christians have in Christ is not a freedom to do what one likes, it is not a freedom to serve self or sin, it is a freedom to serve others and love (5:13). We are to show the same love to others as God has shown to us.

As we move toward the end of chapter five, we begin to find out what grounds the person of faith, what it is that keeps the Christian from following every wind of selfishness and desire. It is God with us, says Paul, it is the Spirit dwelling in us, and he exhorts all to walk in the Spirit (5:16 ff.). He contrasts the evils of immorality, idolatry, hatred and divisiveness with life in the Spirit and in one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament, he spells out for us exactly what life in the Spirit is – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law (5:22,23) … and since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (5:25).”

There are nine terms in this passage all linked to the work of the Spirit. I would love to have opportunity for a nine point sermon to end this series on Galatians, but I fear that what the Scots used to call “the long sit” would be very long indeed. I would, however, like us to think briefly about some of Paul’s thoughts here in order to get the flavour of what “life in the Spirit” is, because when we talk about what our religion is doing to our characters, we are essentially talking about what God is doing in our lives.

The first product of the Spirit is love. It never ceases to amaze me how many times the word love is to be found in the New Testament. Love seems to be the most critical aspect of Christian living. It is the key part of Jesus’ greatest commandment. It is something that the first believers are urged to do time and time again and here in Galatians, it has a preeminent position heading the list of the fruit of the Spirit.

Love can be many things. There can be romantic love, such as that of a young man for a young woman, a love filled with passion. Love can be a warm thing such as the love we feel for our nearest and dearest; a thing of the heart. Love can be an affectionate thing; perhaps like the love of a parent for a child. But love, the Greek word here is agapé, has been described as unconquerable benevolence. It is a love rooted in God and is revealed significantly in the cross.

I remember going to see the film, The Passion of the Christ. While many critics were unhappy with the graphic violence in the film, and I myself thought it over-the-top, I found the visualization of the Gospel accounts and Christ on the cross riveting. I sat in the theatre transfixed on the story, on the events, and as they were unfolding I had one thought that I don’t think was spoken in the film, “Greater love has no man than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends (Jn.15:13).”

The love that God revealed, you see, is a sacrificial love. It is the type of thing that, no matter what another person may do to us by way of injury, or insult or humiliation, will never seek anything else but the highest good for that person. It is a love that never seeks anything but the best for those who would seek the worst for us. To love in the agapé sense is to be willing to give everything for another. Some of us may think it impossible but Jesus lived it, Christ calls us to it, and the Spirit will empower us to express it in our lives. Love one another!

The second product of the Spirit I want to talk about is joy, from the Greek, chara. A few weeks ago, someone introduced me to the British comedian, Eddie Izzard. Eddie has a wonderful act that has found its way onto YouTube.com on the subject of religion. In it he speaks about the Church and Christian singing. He says, “Have you ever heard anything more dreary than the singing in many churches? (He mimics – drearily) “O – God – our – help --- in --- ages --- past…” and “Hal---le---lu---jah! Hal---le---lu---jah! “It’s awful,” he says. “God must be up there with his fingers in his ears saying, ‘What on earth is that?’” Eddie Izzard says that the main Christian churches contain the only people in the world who can sing “hallelujah!” without it being a “hallelujah” moment. And he is right; there are far too many Christian services that are dreary and sad. But this is not how things are supposed to be. Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit bringing happiness and joy.

You may remember all the press a church called the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church had about 15 years ago. It was what is called a charismatic church. There were all sorts of supposed ‘movements of the spirit’ and people were coming from all over the world to “catch” the “Toronto-blessing.” One of the things that was expressed in their services was what was described as “holy laughter,” people would just sit and laugh, some even rolled around the floor, laughing. While I am aware of excesses there, perhaps those people were onto something. The Spirit is supposed to produce a radiance in a person’s life. It is a joy founded in Christ, in his salvation, and in the assurance of an eternal future with God. O, yes, there will be things in life that will get us down. There will be times of struggle, despair and grief, but in the midst of everything, good and bad, there ought to be an under-girding joy in the life of the believer, a joy deriving from a knowledge that God is with us and that one day we will be with God. Perhaps we do not need to jump right in to ‘holy laughter’ here this morning, but we could express more of the joy that should be ours in Christ.

The third product of the Spirit’s work is peace from the Greek word eiréné. Eiréné was one of my Dad’s favourite words. He evidently mentioned it so much that after he passed away, my mother had a special use for it. There is, in the British Isles, a custom of giving houses a name and people will refer to their house by that name. It is quite a formal thing and it will be used when sending letters as part of the address; and one can say, for instance, “Let’s go to Chartwell,” which I always knew was the home of my aunt and uncle. My mother named our house eiréné; and for seven formative years, every day as I entered my home, I was greeted by the word eiréné, beside the door, “peace.” The fact that my mother named it so says volumes for the work of the Spirit. You see, we moved into that house about 10 months after my father died. We had to vacate the manse of the Glenburn Methodist Church of which my father had been the minister. My mother, in her early 30s and with three young children, was grieving, was back in her public health career, she was busy, and was having to move house and home. Life was not easy. But my mother had, and has, a strong faith and she had an assurance of God’s presence that was uncanny. She carried on and even in the midst of great tragedy, she had a peace that passeth all understanding and she named our new home eiréné, peace. As with joy, when a person is aware of the power of God and the good things he has in store for his people, there is a tremendous assurance, a peace that underlies one’s thoughts, even when the rest of the world is crying out in anguish.

We move down to the seventh term, pistis in Greek, a word that is translated by the English word, “faith,” or “faithfulness.” Faith is usually something we connect with God. We talk about people of faith, individuals who have great faith, those who believe in God, and certainly the Holy Spirit is at work in the world encouraging faith in God.

Being faithful, however, also has its people-aspect. In this sense, pistis suggests fidelity, trustworthiness and reliability. We see the importance of faith in relationships, for instance, in the way the financial markets respond to those whom they trust and those whom they aren’t sure about. Countries such as the United States of America or the United Kingdom are countries that are trusted almost implicitly. They have long track records of paying their bills and meeting all their obligations and so individuals and firms are willing to lend them a great deal of money, personal money and corporate money, to finance their programmes. In these countries, 30-year bonds are quite common, and are deemed to be sound investments. But I recall reading in The Economist, a number of years ago, that this was not the case with Germany. I had thought at the time that Germany, being the economic powerhouse that it is, would have been up there with other countries like the US and UK, but not so. In spite of all the good economic things that were going on in Germany at that time (probably in the mid-90s), I read that one could not buy a 30-year government bond from Germany. I’m not sure what it is like now in 2008 but in the mid-90s, a German long bond was 10 years. Why? It was because in the early part of the 20th century, burdened by huge debts and rampant inflation, Germany had defaulted on all its debt. Even many years later, in spite of their successes, that action still haunted potential investors. Thus, trustworthiness, fidelity, faithfulness are of critical importance in how we relate to others and others relate to us and, when the Spirit works in us, we become a people who are faithful and trustworthy in all things.

I remember a friend of mine talking about a new will that he was making and he had chosen someone, a friend, to be his executor. “Why not your brother?” I asked. “Or you sister?” He looked at me and said, “O they’re okay, we’re good friends, but you have to know Bill. He has been my best friend, closer than a brother, and I would trust him with my whole being. He is the one I would like to look out for my children if it ever comes to that. I know that he would do it and do it well.” Bill had shown himself to be a person of faith. The Spirit had been at work in him such that he was faithful in friendship.

The eighth and last term I would like us to look at here is praütés. Praütés is one of the most difficult words in the New Testament to translate. The NRSV uses “gentleness.” But sometimes praütés can mean being submissive to the will of God. Sometimes it can suggest a person who is teachable (James 1:21), sometimes it is a person who is considerate and gentle (1 Cor.4:21), and sometimes it is used of an animal that is not a wild animal but is an animal that is completely under control.

Someone asked me last week about dogs, they were thinking about getting one. “What is the best dog with young children?” they asked. Immediately, I replied, “A Labrador or a Retriever, and probably a female more than a male.” I think they may have thought I was being a little partial, since I had grown up with Labradors and my mother had bred them for a while, but it is true Labradors and Retrievers are the most gentle of dogs. I have seen children jump all over them, I have seen them teased and played with until they are tired, these dogs will never attack. They are gentle. A person can put their hand into a Lab’s mouth and not fear they are so gentle. They are large dogs and have large teeth, and to the person who doesn’t know dogs, they can look rather awesome, but these big dogs are like little kittens, so, so gentle.

A Labrador is perhaps a good illustration of what praütés means. When the Spirit works in a human life, that person too will be gentle and non-threatening. Like a Labrador or a Retriever, that person will be able to take all the nonsense and teasing and bother another may throw out and never retaliate. Gentleness will enter all aspects of life. When that person sees others hurting, he will go to their aid. When people are grieving, she will be able to grieve with them. And even when correcting another, and sometimes that is necessary, it will be done with gentleness, trying to avoid hurt. This is praütés. It is a very wonderful disposition and for those who think it may be too soft, the concept of “gentle” is after all, the base of the word “gentleman.”

Well, there are four other words here that I have not addressed, “patience, kindness, generosity, and self-control.” I shall leave you to think through those products of the Spirit. This morning, however, we have thought about five of them and gained a flavour of life in the Spirit. The Spirit produces love, a love that would even lay down one’s life for a friend. We have thought about joy, a joy that we need to see more of in the Church, a joy that under-girds our whole being. Peace, a peace that underlies our lives even when things are not going well. Faithfulness, a faithfulness that makes us trustworthy in all things. And gentleness, a person who is non-threatening and easy to be around.

Here is Harry Emerson Fosdick’s question again, “What is your religion doing to your character?” For a while as one reads The Epistle to the Galatians, one almost gets the impression that there are no more rules, one can live as one wants. But nothing would be farther from Paul’s mind as he tells the Galatians that they are no longer subject to Jewish Torah or law. “We are free,” Paul says, “free to live by the Spirit.” Freed from the constraints of the past in order that we may love, and that we may show the joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that is ours in Christ Jesus.

Let us end this study of Galatians with Paul’s own words. We have said much about faith alone being the thing that brings us into right relationship with God, but there is much more to it. For Paul then sees God working in the believer’s life, giving him/her a make-over and enabling a new and better character. He writes in chapter 6:

If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith... May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brothers and sisters. Amen (6:8-10; 18).