Bearing with One Another

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

When it comes to financial decisions there are really two type of people. There are the savers and then there are the spenders. The savers will do anything they can to save every nickel, every quarter to make things more bearable and the spenders do really have a concern about saving any kind of money, they are more concerned with just enjoying life. No matter what “camp” you fall into - we all know the saver kinds of people. The scrap every coupon - maybe even enough to share with their friends, the hunt every kind of deal - even if sometimes it means putting more work into a project. There was a man who was the complete saver - that you can think of, this person fit every stereotype, and this person finally worked up the courage to complete the project of finishing the basement. As the pricing numbers came out for the project his “saver” ways took over and he - said well I’m just going to do it myself. So he began to the project by demo-ing the basement walls and to his unplanned surprise - he found cracked foundation, that’s not good - so he thought he would focus on a different area of the basement. He went over and began to look at the lights - and he saw the wires were all frayed - that’s not good, so he thought I can at least do something to save some money. So he went and looked at the plumbing and he saw all the different pipes were corroded and again - that’s not good. This saver was all about to try and save some money on this project by doing it himself, but he quickly discovered that those jobs were above his pay grade. When he discovered the hard or difficult things, he wanted nothing to do with the project. This “saver” renovating his basement was attempting to do some work himself searching for some benefit, not the burdens.

In this world, we too find ourselves searching for benefits for ourselves, and not burdens. We generally want things that are positive, we want to experience “good things” that can enhance or add to lives in this world. There can be moments - where things can become too difficult, too challenging that we want nothing to do with them. This view of searching for benefits instead of burdens bleeds over into our mindset when it comes to being church, being a Christian community. Maybe we look outside of ourselves to try and find a benefit or enhancement to our lives. Perhaps we argue that I want the church to or my Christians friends to be positive retreat or break from the rest of world. Or maybe we say I deal with enough hard things at work or in my everyday live - I want to get something positive out being connected to a church or Christian community with others. Or we say I want to be apart of Christian community to get some long-term like minded friends - I’m just so lonely. We hope that Christian friend we make will have the same interests, same sense of humor, similar to me because that will be a good thing. Or maybe there are moments when look and reflect on our lives, we see the burdens and struggles we face and deal with and we attempt to hide those in hopes that other people who seeing being connected to us as a benefit. We hope that others see our life experience as a benefit to their life, or we hope that they see our knowledge of the Bible as a benefit for the Bible study that we are apart of together. We hope that our burdens remain hidden - so that we won’t be overlooked, ignored, so that others will find some benefit in us. We typically whether it is in our presentation of ourselves to other people or it is our desires for Christian community - we are looking for benefits - instead of burdens.

In our text today from the book of Galatians, Paul is addressing the church and is not just talking about the benefits, but he is talking about the burdens and what it means to be the church. He brings up the burdens of others and gives us some reminders of how we can be the church to each other because no one is perfect -everyone has burdens. First Paul talks about the burden of sin felt in the lives of other believers., “Brothers, of anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness, keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” One of the things we are called to do, empowered to do by the Holy Spirit is to restore one another as people fall into temptation and are overcome with sin. And we are to approach the fallen or sin laden person not as a superior, not a someone looking down at them, but as someone who is a brother in Christ, as someone who is equal to us. We are called to that brother or sister in Christ’s side not to destroy them but reminding them of a the saving power of Jesus. We aren’t just to simply overlook the sin, we aren’t to pretend that it never happened, but at the same we aren’t supposed to treat this sin as unforgivable, we aren’t bringing the judgement of God on this person. We are called to restore; forgive. Then he states, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Paul is reminding the church - reminding you and me to be active in helping each other. Paul doesn’t say that we are simply to acknowledge someone else’s struggle or burden, or we are question and judge how did this person get in this difficult moment in the first place, but we are actively carry out the love of Christ as we too have been loved by Jesus. To bear someone else’s burden it means forgetting yourself out of love for the other person, it may mean giving up some freedom’s in order that person may know Jesus, it may using your gifts and talents not just for yourself but for the other struggling person. And Paul gives a warning, “ For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” As we step into someone else’s struggle - we are not to think of ourselves more highly than others. We aren’t supposed to look down on them, because we are no better, we have flaws we have have burdens - I think many times we are simply just better at hiding them.

The Good News is that Jesus didn’t come to this world because of the benefits you could bring Him, He came for your burdens. Jesus saw the sin in your life that no one else sees; He saw the struggles and challenges that no one else knows you are going through - that you insist on remaining hidden; Jesus sees your flaws. And like the prophet Isaiah says, He was pierced for iniquities. Jesus came to this world to take your burdens upon Himself -He died on the cross and through His death - we are given the benefits of Jesus. We are given the gifts of the Kingdom of God, through faith we are given the gift of salvation and life, through faith we receive the fruits of the labor of Jesus. You are claimed as His because of His work. Your burdens are carried by Jesus - He has done it all!

In this life, as Jesus has done all the work and as Jesus is with us even now, you and me today - are encouraged to continue to live in community with others. We are continually called to share this good news of Jesus - and in the mean time we are invited to us the freedom that Jesus gives us to use our hands and walk alongside the other people in our lives who are burden.

Now may the grace of God the peace of God which surpasses all understanding may it guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.