Our Story is His Story

Tabletalk Magazine, March 2016: One Another Serve One Another (Galatians 5:13–15)

What makes the church beautiful? The Bible tells the original love story of a damsel in distress who was trapped in the clutches of a serpentine foe. Emboldened by genuine love for her, her righteous Hero laid down His life in unhesitant sacrifice for His bride, fighting that dragon of old in a duel to the death, while His beloved stood helplessly by, watching and weeping. Death—our mortal foe—would seem to have won. But death did not win. It could not win. Death was conquered by the resurrection of Jesus, the hero of our story and the original hero copied by every worthwhile love story since.

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Galatians 5:13–15 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

The story of the American Descendants of Slavery is the main story of Black History Month. Unlike the story of the Children of Israel, it does not begin with us choosing to leave the place that God gifted to us by our own decision. Instead, it begins with the sin of kidnapping, continues through the sin of enslavement, includes the sin of rape, theft, embezzlement, torture, abuse of authority, and more. It took a brutal, bloody four-year war to begin to remove the legal scaffold that held the American version of Apartheid together, that yet lasted for about a century longer.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve 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, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

It is also the story of a people who heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, often in terms that somewhat limited its application, but nevertheless gave us enough of God’s promises to love one another, love our neighbor, and even love our enemies. It is rooted in the truth, rooted in history, rooted in a time and a place, and which has the power to reach beyond its time and place to encompass the whole world, all people, in all places and at all times.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 ESV

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve 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, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

It is the love of Christ that empowers us to look past those light and momentary afflictions that are part of our sojourn here in the land of our birth, past the pain of our past generations and the pain that many of us feel in the present circumstances, and know the peace that passes all understanding, not only to enjoy it for ourselves, but to share it with others through preaching, singing, the Fine Arts, and other modes of expression that God has blessed us to use to make His praise glorious. It is the reason why we sing, not simply because we are happy, but because Christ gives us joy. Not simply because we are free from chattel slavery, but because we are free from the burden of proving that we are loved by God. Not simply because His eye is on teh sparrow, but because His word is in our hearts and in our mouths, the Word of Faith which we preach:

2 Corinthians 5:17–21 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It doesn’t matter what others who share with us the impact of sin in the world say about us. It doesn’t matter what the world, the flesh or the devil try to do to lead us astray. What matters is that Christ is for us, and comes to us, and lives with us and in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. This Good News is God’s power that brings salvation to all who believe, and it is as powerful today as it was on the day of Pentecost when Jews from every nation heard it from Peter. It is to us, and to our children, and to those who are afar off, all whom God has called through the Gospel.

So let teh peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.