Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Gal 5:25-6:10

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, in our Epistle lesson today, it continues where the Epistle left off last week, as the Church is encouraged to put into practice the fruits of the spirit and seek the good of our neighbor for their salvation. Yet at the same time he speaks here of the forgiveness that is to be practiced towards our neighbors, and how we bear one another’s burdens. For the desire of the Church is not to isolate and cut someone off from the grace of God and forgiveness that Christ one but they may be brought out of sin. This is to be the desire not only of the church towards sinners, but the desire of each Christians towards those who wrong us, this is not an easy road, but is something that Christ calls every Christian to practice.

Living by the Spirit

This follows the fruits of the Spirit.

These are the fruits that we are to cultivate throughout our entire life, and the list there is enough to keep any person busy for years to come. For fruit is not something that borne quickly, but takes patience as grows over time. Why cultivate these fruits of the Spirit? Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Especially when they are hard? It is because

We belong to Christ.

We are not our own, Jesus has won and purchased us from all death, sin, and the power of the devil, not with Gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood, his innocent suffering and death that we may be his own, and belong to His kingdom. This is why we have nothing to boast of regarding our faith, our salvation is the work of Christ. He has fed us with each of those fruits. That is why

He warns about vain-glory.

This is glory that seeks our own personal exaltation, this is translated as conceit, pride, but the greek means literally empty glory. This would be a soldier who boasts of his greatness in combat, but was never in a firefight. A worker who wants an award and a payraise, but has not worked, or a student or an athlete who wants the accolades of high honors, but can’t be bothered to do their homework, and thinks that just showing up should be rewarded. It is foolish to boast, we have nothing. So

Why Are We Forgiven?

It doesn’t depend upon you.

You know this, it has to do with Christ, and what Jesus won there upon Calvary. Did you or I contribute to our salvation? No! For what does the Scripture say? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That’s why we in confirmation we learn the acronym for Grace,

God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.

It was Jesus that paid the debt we owed to God, for while we are forgiven freely, our forgiveness wasn’t free, our sins had a cost, a terrible debt that was required lest we perish and end up in hell. It was a debt that we could not pay, and yet Christ paid it for you. Without any merit or worthiness in you, me, or any one. It was not because we were worthy or deserved it, that is why it is called a gift.

This contradicts worldly wisdom.

If someone owes you a debt, you collect it. Who lets debts go? Who just eats the cost, or more than that, puts in additional effort to cover someone else’s debt that they owed to someone else? While we may grudgingly do that for friends, and family,but we often find a way to collect. But do we do that for those who have treated us with contempt, with scorn, who have mocked us, or treated us poorly? The world would say you are a fool, your an idiot to let someone else take advantage of you like that, what will they learn? They won’t appreciate it, don’t waste the little time you have, and yet

When did Jesus die for you?

It wasn’t while we were good or righteous, Jesus gave up His life for you, suffered for you, and was cursed for you while you were yet still his enemy. Why is the cross such a stumbling block, to the world? It’s because God showing true love to us, that is foreign to the entire world. Christ did this for you while you were yet caught in your transgressions. While you were yet still a sinner, Jesus shed His blood for you.

Caught in Transgressions

What Christ did for us, we do for others.

As though the first part wasn’t shocking enough, this is shocking to hear! That we should seek to restore our neighbor, and show them this love and mercy, and grace that God has shown to us. Why? Who would be so foolish as to practice this in the world? It doesn’t make any sense to worldly people. Yet Christ calls us to it.

Our flesh fights against forgiveness.

We like to receive it certainly, we need it, and yet we find this and many similar passages that call for us to forgive as Christ has forgiven us, and this is an additional stumbling block to our flesh. To let go of debts, to seek peace as opposed to justice, that is not how the world works. But

How has Christ forgiven you?

We hear the words of absolution regularly, and we can begin to think of them as being cheap, easy, or something of little consequence, and yet, those words can only be spoken and have meaning, because Christ paid your debt, and shed his blood for you. Did you make full amends for your sins, before the absolution was spoken? Did you restore to God the debt you owed to Him, before you heard the words, I forgive you? When Jesus pleaded on the Cross, Father forgive them, did they yet understand the depth of their sins? Do we yet understand them fully? No, and yet Christ gives it to us as a gift.

A Spirit of Gentleness

Gentleness is not weakness.

People confuse these two things, but gentleness is strength that is under control. Christ was not a wet noodle, or a piece of paper that could be blown over by a simple breeze, to those who needed the Law, He spoke the Law, depending on what they needed. He rebuked Peter strongly, saying get behind me satan, but then to correct Martha, He was not so harsh, but reminded her that Mary had chosen the better part.

The Law remains, and we speak it, but not out of hatred, but rather because we do not desire any perish. We remain firm on this, for if there is no sin, and Christ died for nothing. We are called to restore in a spirit of gentleness, and that is going to be important in what the Bible says next. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the Law of Christ.

To bear burdens means we pay.

This can be trying, and difficult, and vexing on levels that we struggle to comprehend. There is part of us that demands fairness. When the debt keeps mounting, it can embitter us against people, groups, work, political leaders, etc. because we keep score, we keep an account in our head of what we have already paid for them, and we get fed up.

Why should we suffer for someone’s sins?

It wasn’t my fault, that they were careless, that they were stupid, childish, inconsiderate, why should I have to be the one to pay, when they’re in the wrong, why would I put up with it. This is why we often find it easier to forgive strangers, than we do family. Strangers you don’t see again, but family, it becomes very easy to keep score. That’s why we have to ask,

Why did Jesus do it for you?

How many times have you confessed the same sin to Christ, and how much suffering have you laid upon him for your exact same sin? Why should He suffer for it again? Yet he is there upon the Cross for your sins, your guilt, and your shame, and bears it for you. Why? No greater love is there than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends. That is what Christ has called you, His friend. More than even that, Jesus so loves you that he secured for you adoption into His family, that you might share in His inheritance. Who or what are we to deserve this? Sinners whom Christ loves.

The First Fruit of the Spirit

It’s about the love that God showed us.

Love that was not earned or deserved, but originated in the heart of God, and has now been poured into our hearts through the Cross of Jesus. How do we forgive our neighbors, How did Christ forgive you? Now

It hurts when it isn’t returned.

Especially when the cost we have to pay is high. It is tempting in those moments to walk out and be done with a person, and to cut them off. That’s what the world teaches us, you only have so much time, why waste it on worthless people. Is that what Christ said or thought about me or you? Why waste my time on a sinner? He didn’t because Love

It isn’t to serve yourself.

When the Scriptures speak about Love, how it is patient, kind, doesn’t envy or boast, is not arrogant or rude, doesn’t insist on its own way, nor is it irritable, resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but with the truth, and what does love do? It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all thing. That’s the love that Christ had for you. It was His love that made you lovely in God’s sight that washed away your sins, and restored you to God’s grace. This first fruit is not easy, but it is a precious fruit to grow in the garden of our hearts.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I know this is a tall order, and is part of our sanctification, that is our holy living. There will be days that we do not want to bear the burdens of others, and that is why we must come before the Cross of Christ, and be reminded, who bore my sins, and settled my debt? Who shed His blood for me while I was yet still a sinner? Jesus, and why did he do it? It’s love, a love that the world would not know otherwise, but it has been shown to us there at the cross, and the love that He showed to me, I want to carry into a loveless world. In Jesus name. Amen.