Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
6. Sunday after Pentecost, 06/30/2013
Sermon on Galatians 5:1, 13-25, by Amy C. Schifrin
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery...
13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, 21 envy,[b]drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
I've seen him twice now, sixteen ounce Pabst Blue Ribbon in hand, children's toys and clothes strewn about in front of him on the ragged lawn. I've seen him twice, and said, "Good Morning," but he hasn't returned the greeting. So I just prayed a silent prayer for him, and for his family, as I kept moving uphill on my way home.
I walk by his house almost every day and usually I'm there before 8am, but I've seen him now when I've walked by at 9:30am, because that's when he must start drinking for the day. He's free to do so, of course, it's his house, his lawn, and he's way over 21. He can go to any convenience store in the county and buy as much alcohol as he wants on any given day, and as long as he's not operating a motor vehicle he's not breaking the laws of land.
Unfortunately, that's how we've often come to think of the law, as that which gives us as individuals certain rights or privileges, so that we can do what we want, when we want, and with whom we want. We call it freedom, but it's not quite what St. Paul had in mind when he said, for freedom, Christ has set us free. St. Paul names a whole lot of things-what he calls the works of the flesh-things that are legal to engage in, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, (and in case you've invented a few others of your own he's added, and the like)-things that are legal to engage in, but things that are not good for you or for your neighbor. The laws of the land will let you engage in every one of these in your own home. Some, but not all of these works, would even be legal if done publicly, for no one will arrest you for walking down the street and envying your neighbor, or for being angry with them, or even for lusting after them in your own mind.
In a free and democratic society we may have a hard time understanding that many of the things that are perfectly legal for us to do are signs of the deepest sort of bondage imaginable. There are few, if any laws about having sexual relations with another adult to whom you are not married. You have the freedom to fornicate in your own bed, or in the local motel, or in the back seat of the old Chevy. Given that most abortions and "Plan B" are also legal, you have the freedom to have sex with someone who won't remember your name in the morning, who thinks of you are no more than an object, and who could care less for the creation of a life made in God's image. That's what the world calls freedom, but it is just the opposite, for being free to live out the desires of your flesh, St. Paul says, is no freedom at all.
For freedom Christ has set you free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. When Israel sought freedom from the oppression of Pharaoh it was for the sake of obedience to the LORD God Almighty. It was so that they could worship this One God, the Maker of heaven and earth. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness." When they misused that gift of freedom, God brought the law down on them right before their eyes. He gave them the Commandments so that they could live in his freedom, under his gracious rule, trusting in his goodness as they came to experience it through a life of obedience. You shall not murder, he says, because it didn't take more than a generation before we were murderers. You shall not steal, he says, because the apple wasn't ours to take. So it is, that all the laws that he gives us in regard to our neighbors (Commandments IV-X) are summed up in one word, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. They are meant to protect us all, so that we might live together as a human community in the ways that God had planned for us from the beginning. St. Paul reminds us that such freedom was given so that we could serve one another in love. Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, for if you do so, you not only lose the gift of your neighbor, you lose your freedom...and when you lose your freedom, you lose yourself-you lose the ‘you' whom God intended for you to be.
What we see again and again, is that left to our own devices, the desires of the flesh own us as much as any Pharaoh could, for once we are slaves to such desires there is no escape on our own. It is only God who can lead his people into his freedom, for it is only in him and in the strength of his love that the chains of bondage, any bondage, come to their end. For when we are so tied up in wanting what we think should be ours we miss all that he has given us freely-the fruit of the Spirit, a life made for love, for joy, for peace, for patience, for kindness, for goodness, for faithfulness, for gentleness and for self-control.
We are incapable of getting this fruit on our own until he pours his life into ours, bringing us-all of us who thought we could pick it off the tree on our own-to live in the freedom of his love, where submission and delight are but a single breath. The fruit of his Spirit, of his breath in ours, will more than fill our every desire; it will lead us to desire what he desires. It will lead us to pray, Thy will be done, and to mean it. It will lead us do all the good that we can for any and every person we meet. This is the glorious liberty that belongs to the children of God, the great paradox that teaches us that having everything our own way turns out to be worst sort of prison, but living life under the gracious rule of Christ leads us to a life without fear.
When you hear the words, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," as if they were only a demand to take away your pleasure, you will never fulfill them. But if you hear them as God showing you the way to love, to joy, to peace, to patience, to kindness, to goodness, to faithfulness, to gentleness, and to self-control, then your actions will be the labor that allows the whole world to see the first fruit of his harvest. You'll be feeding the world his love until that great day comes when all earth's children will taste the sweetness of his fruit and rise to give him thanks and praise. Amen