The Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
At Least 2 Ways People Know We’re
Christians
6/30/19 Pentecost 3C
There’s a story going around about a
driver stopping at a crosswalk to let a pedestrian cross safely, then of
course, missing the light himself. So
the woman behind him goes ballistic, pounding her horn, screaming and making
hand gestures because she hadn’t made the light, either. Still in mid-rant, she hears a tap on her
window and looks up to see a police officer telling her to pull over. He makes her get out of the car, hands up,
and takes her to the police station while she fusses all the way.. After a couple hours, he comes to unlock her
cell and let her out, and says:” I’m sorry for the mistake - you see, I was
behind you when you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of
you, cussing a blue streak. And then I
saw the fish sign on your bumper, along with stickers about Follow Me To Sunday
School and What Would Jesus Do, so.,,,, naturally I assumed the car was
stolen.”
Ah, yeah,....she wasn’t living her
testimony that day…..
Its interesting that this passage
starts with the concept of freedom, and it falls right here before our 4th of
July time in the U.S….. And it DOES talk about the Law - - BUT - before we take
off on police or national freedom here, we must note that the freedom the
apostle Paul is writing about to the church in the city of Galatia, ISN’T
national freedom, or civic freedom. In
fact, that’s the furthest thing from Paul’s mind! He probably wishes Christ-followers
were free to worship God without fear of reprisal from the government. But what he’s writing about is freedom from
the religious Law of Judaism, the Law of Moses, as kept and explained and
augmented and defined through the years.
The Law, as a part of Judaism, is meant to be a path of behaviors and
actions for those who wish to be obedient to God. Paul argues in several of his letters to
those early churches around the Mediterranean, that when we are in Christ, we
are no longer under a legalistic obligation to the Jewish Law, but come to God
in faith, made whole through Jesus the Christ.
Of course, in love and gratitude to God and Christ, we turn from our
former thoughtless actions, and take on the values of Christ’s kindom, asking
the Spirit that indwells us now, to help us live in love and respect of one
another, and show us God’s better way.
Its a difference in our motivations
and our starting place - in Christ, we don’t start with certain defined actions
and behaviors, but with the heart-felt response to God’s love that, yes, shows
us our brokenness, then invites us through God’s grace to turn and live in the
Kindom of Christ. Ego strength and
will-power can help us keep laws - and although
the Jewish Law is meant to lead us to love for God, people can and do miss the
point - take for example that rich young man who comes to Jesus and says he
kept the Law since his youth - but Christ sees that he is NOT at the point of
giving God his all. And Paul himself, a
very dutiful keeper of the Law, even a Pharisee, in his zeal for the Law was
ferreting out those he thought were against the Law - ie Christians - and turning them over to be persecuted and
even killed. That is, until his own encounter
with God turns him around.
So its important to the apostle Paul that, as believers in
Jesus Christ, we are NOT held captive under the Law and its stated
actions. We are brought into the kingdom
of God rather by something NOT of our own doing, and we are granted the
invitation and the grace to come to God through Jesus. However, he argues in this passage that we
are still expected to be show the virtues and values of righteousness in God’s
eyes. Not because its the law, but
because we love God for first loving us, and seek this higher way of life, both
in our inner self, and in our outward behaviors towards others.
This changing or transforming of our
behaviors comes because God’s Spirit now lives in our hearts, and leads us,
guides us, into what Love calls for. Our hearts are open to God, and we listen
for God’s voice arising from God’s Spirit who has come to live in us. Its not so much a list of rules that again
enslaves us, but a response of love that desires to please the one who is now
our Beloved, and calls us Beloved as well.
Its not a “has to” but a “want to.”
Paul’s cautions us that this freedom
in Christ doesn’t mean we can run wild in self-indulgence. You know, in another letter he takes on some
clever folks who try to argue that since forgiveness was a good thing, then if
they did more wrong things, there’d be more forgiveness! Ah….that misses the point, actually. In this
new relationship with God and one another, the spirit of the old
Law is still there - and he quotes Jesus telling us that the Law is basically
summed up in two parts - to love God with our entire being, and to love our
neighbors as ourselves. We moved from
the letter of the law to the spirit of the law.
We now live as God’s spirit tells us is right. We live by the SPIRIT and are guided by the
SPIRIT, Paul says at the end of this passage.
Don’t let anyone lay stuff on you and enslave you under defined laws, he
says.
HOWEVER - he then proceeds to lay
out examples of what some transformed and un-transformed behaviors are. And he says that these things can pull on us,
they seem as spontaneous even as they are hateful and harmful - and it takes some awareness on our part to
curb those impulses and respond in higher ways.
We saw it in my opening joke - we’ve all felt that way when someone
makes us miss the light, especially if its one of those lights on 501 that seem
to take 5 minutes per cycle. Its
frustrating! Even if we follow the (civil) law and wait for the pedestrian who
has the right of way, we can snarl at the delay. And the tourists, who only realise they meant
to turn left and not right, and cut across three lanes without looking. Of course, we’ve maybe BEEN the tourist who
is confused and afraid to miss the turn and get lost; but still… aagghh! I will admit to muttering things beneath my
breath, especially if I'm in a hurry.
It takes a mental reminder, doesn’t
it? It might take a couple deep
breaths. My anger does no one good,
including myself. And if I don’t control
myself, the road rage could overtake my good sense. The apostle Paul calls these kinds of
impulses “works of the flesh,” as they seem to be what we do when we give in to
our impulses and do harm. Its God’s
Spirit of love - love for me and love for the world - that calls us to better
actions….to considered responses instead of reactions. To remember our new nature in God, our new
love in Christ.
Paul gives us some lists of things that seem to be strong
impulses in us, physical urges given over to power instead of love - I mean, sexual attraction and desire in
itself is good - and necessary to the species.
Using it to take power over someone who is unwilling - well, that’s not
good. Jealousy or envy just kind of
spring up in our emotions without any thought - we don’t have to work to feel
those. We DO have to wrestle with these
feelings in order for them not to get the best of us, ruin relationships and
destroy friendships. Quarrels and angry
words just pop up when we disconnect our mouth and brain, when we speak out of
our first rush of anger without any consideration - our basest responses, right
there out of our mouth, never having passed through the screen of our minds
that can tell us what is loving and what is helpful.
God’s Spirit plants new desires in our hearts and souls -
what Paul calls the “fruit” of the Spirit, what grows from the indwelling
Spirit. Love. Joy.
Peace. Patience. Kindness. Generosity. Faithfulness.
Gentleness. Self-control. These
are outward signs of the inward Spirit of God in us. Christ-followers,
Christians, in other words, will show these signs. They’ll know we are
Christians by our love.
They won’t know the truth about God by our
anger. By our exclusions. By our hate.
By our divisions. By our mouthing
off. By our brutality. By our losing it when we’re ignored or
maligned. By our power over other
people.
The development of these spiritual “fruit” are
rather a testimony to the work of God in our lives. If they are not there, one has to wonder at a
person’s spiritual maturity. One has to
wonder what difference God has made in their living, and how they are listening
to the Spirit. In my experience, these
gifts don’t manifest all by themselves - even if the Spirit piques our
conscience about it, we still have to do some work. We have to realize what our words and actions
are doing to other people, and care. We have to want these characteristics more
than we want to just do what springs to our minds and mouths. We have to practice what they look like. One day they will become an inner part of us
that is so important that we act that way almost naturally, and to act
differently feels odd. We consciously
choose to let the Spirit show these fruit in us. They come from spending time with God in
prayer, in seeking forgiveness and change.
In saying “Yes” to God’s love growing in us. In biting our tongue before we let these
other kinds of things out of our mouths, or taking deep breaths until the urge
to strike back takes over.
Many folks tell me that this is how they
witness to Christ in their lives, and it is a strong witness.
There is however, another way of telling about
our faith in Christ - the kind we do intentionally with words; words that are
illustrated and given validity because of our transformed lives. Yes, the dreaded “E” word - yes, evangelism. While our actions and our transformed nature
can witness to our faith in God, there comes a point when we have to explain
why and how…. Why we bother to bite our tongue and not lash out, even in
great provocation. How we’ve come
to see and respect all people, despite differences that often DO separate
people. What led us to confront our own racism. Why we now listen to what women say
about being attacked, or about the microaggressions that still affect us in
where we work and how we’re treated. Or why
its important to hear the stories of our black friends, and learn about how
they experience racism. How we
found healing and forgiveness for our wounds from others’ bad actions. How and where we found the strength to
overcome an addiction. Why we
care that poor children are suffering malnutrition in our country, in our
county - as well as around the world. What
is it that moves us in our acts of mercy and mission? Why bother?
There comes a time when words are necessary,
when it is important for us to be able to say how much we care about God’s
Word, Jesus Christ. Why the values of Christ’s kingdom have become our
values. How God supported us in our time
of grief. What it means to us that God loves
all people, and how that love has changed us, so we see that love, too.
In my background, I did that buttonholing
thing to folks out eating lunch in the park, coming up and asking them that if
they died tonight, are they sure of heaven?
Trying to get them to read a booklet about the 4 Spiritual Laws, and
pray to “receive Jesus” while leaving what that means unspoken. All they knew of me was that I was earnest
and rude about it. It was quick, and it
was over. In what I think was a genuine
Christian spirit, I beganto feel too
badly for the people I was buttonholing to keep doing it. (It was weird to be at the Presbyterian
Seminary studying for the ministry and to have earnest young people come and
try to “witness” to me, as if we Presbyterians didn’t “really” know God. Less than 10 years prior, I was them.)
Vital Congregations uses the big words,
Incarnational, Authentic Evangelism - ie words that come out of who we are with
God as we live as a human person. A
truth-telling of what has changed or convicted us. What is real and meaningful to us about our
faith.
We don’t even talk at this level among
ourselves too much, so we’re not super comfortable with it. We haven’t worked out what words to use, and
maybe even what we think or feel,...so the words are choked off and difficult. It takes practice to speak of things that are
deep in our hearts, and especially it takes inner courage. Its easiest to practice with people we trust
to not make fun of us, to believe us, to listen to us. Hopefully we’ll design some times to work at
finding those words for ourselves, so we’ll be ready and not too super scared
when someone asks, Why are you at this soup kitchen? Or, why do you give your
hard-earned money to the church? Or, How come you didn’t totally smack that
person who dissed you? Or, why are you
nice to that loser? The occasion will
arise when the fruit of the Spirit are showing up. That’s what ‘authentic ‘is. Living it is what
‘incarnational’ is. Evangelism is what
happens.
Caring about people will lead us into
situations of friendship and sharing.
Having the inner courage ( and the words) to tell about what forms us
and what is important to us, and why God matters to us, goes a lot farther than
just a nice, “You should visit our church sometime.” Or hoping our actions intrigues them enough
that they ask someone besides us to explain it all.
Someone once described Christ’s Church as the place where hungry
people share the bread they’ve found with other hungry people. We offer the
spiritual bread that has met our spiritual hunger, and can also meet
theirs. AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment