Easter People...are fruitful children of God

A review!

It’s Pentecost. We’re at the end of the season of Easter, but we’re also at the end of another year of the Narrative Lectionary. This fall, we’ll start on our third year in this four year lectionary.

The thing I like most about the Narrative Lectionary - beyond being freed up from decision-making around what to preach - is the way it helps to explore the BIG STORY of scripture and to better encounter the texts as part of this big narrative. I hope that as we do this, you are discovering how the Bible fits together, and also how your story intersects with the big story of God and God’s people.

You may or may not remember, we began last fall, with a series on Promises. And we prayed the Psalms together over that season.

We looked at our Origin Story in Genesis and then at the big promises made to Abraham (that we revisited last week!).

We traced the promises through Exodus and 1 & 2 Samuel and heard some of the promises made to and through the prophets Isaiah & Jeremiah. That led us into the season of Advent where we joined with some other CBWC congregations in a series called Disruptive Hope.

We dove into the Gospel of Luke, in the season of Epiphany, asking the question Who is Jesus? and then pondering the Journey to the Cross throughout Lent - during which we embarked on our second community bible reading experiments - reading through Luke for Lent.

On Easter, we ended by recognizing that “We are Easter people and alleluia is our song” and so for the season of Eastertide, or these 50 days following the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, we have been completing sentences that start with “Easter People.”

In Luke 24, we saw that Easter people meet Jesus in vulnerability and hospitality.

In Acts, we traced how Easter people experience community and conflict, are called to share the good news, and are marked by unity even in their diversity.

And that set us up for these three weeks in the book of Galatians as we have traced that Easter people are saved by faith, are heirs of God’s promise to Abraham, and now finally, how Easter people are free to be fruitful children of God.

So a quick reminder: How are we made children of God?

by faith, our own faith in Jesus, and in the faith(fulness) of Jesus Christ, we are saved.

By faith, we are heirs to the promise God made to Abraham. We have been woven into a story that we have no claim on.

And by faith, we listen to, we walk in and we follow the Spirit… seeking to let the freedom we have been given lead us to lives marked by loving service.

Let’s listen together to the reading from Galatians 5 - Ed, will you read for us?

As Easter people…we are called to freedom…and we like freedom, right? I mean, if given the choice between slavery and freedom, wouldn’t we choose freedom every time?

And this kind of freedom is expressed through loving service.

Paul tells the Galatians that Christ has set them free in order to serve one another in love.

We are free to be fruitful. But apparently, freedom doesn’t automatically lead to fruitfulness.

So there’s a warning. Paul is concerned that the Galatians might be prone to indulging their selfish impulses.

Might be likely to pick and bite and end up devouring one another rather than serving through love. (Of course, we might like to think that we aren’t in such danger. It was only the Galatians - there must have been something lacking in them.... But, I think we all know that we are in very similar danger…)

Paul begins and ends this section with a call and warning.

In vs 13 the call is to freedom and in vs 25 it is to follow the Spirit.

The warning is against destroying the community. In the opening verses, Paul warns against freedom being mistakenly used to indulge selfish impulses and to end up destroying one another. The warning at the end is against becoming arrogant, against provoking anger and against jealousy.

What we notice here then, or what I think we need to pay attention to, is that this freedom for fruitfulness isn’t merely personal. Or at least it doesn’t end with the personal.

If you neglect to be guided by the Spirit, it is not just that you will not grow into fruitfulness, as though that is some sort of personal achievement. But you will actively move in selfishness towards your own desires and that might well destroy the community of believers of which you’re a part. If I neglect to be guided by the Spirit.

If I refuse to learn discernment, to listen with you for the voice of Jesus calling us to be His people, well, then, it’s not just that we forfeit being “nice Christians” it’s that we will cease to be the community that gives voice to the gospel by the very way that our connection is marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Because none of those things can occur outside of the context of relationship. I cannot express kindness to no one. I cannot demonstrate patience except in relating to myself and to others. The fruitfulness that our freedom is FOR is meant to be expressed in the context of community.

And so Paul begins with the call and the warning.

Called to freedom and to following the Spirit.

Warned against the destruction of the community that results if we don’t embrace our freedom and use it to follow the Spirit.

Paul goes on to list the way our lives will look if we neglect to use our freedom properly. It’s not a pretty list. But it’s also not a complete list. It’s a “things like this” kind of list. And it’s not meant to help us judge others. It’s a measuring stick we can use on ourselves.

How do I know if I’m embracing my call to freedom? If I’m loving my neighbour as myself?

Well, if my trajectory seems to include things like his list here, it’s not such a good sign.

Am I headed toward or away from… sexual immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that.

And the thing is, with lists like these, we naturally emphasize the things we think we don’t struggle with and de-emphasize the items that are troublesome.

Or, we quickly use the list to point fingers at people who are “doing these things” and neglect to take stock of our own souls. Neglect to check our trajectories.

The contrast is stark when Paul goes on to describe the sorts of things that living “by the Spirit” leads us toward…

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

[sigh]

This is a really different list.

So how do we move towards the second the list and away from the first list? Can I do that? It feels like there are ruts in the road, that no matter how hard I hold the steering wheel, this car is going to end up going that way…

Ah. We skipped a verse. Did you notice? Look at vs 16.

“I say be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires.”

Notice that it doesn’t say “try really hard to be spiritual” and “don’t do the things on that first list.”

Notice that fruit isn’t something we can decide to bear. It requires a healthy plant… and if we think back to the vine and the branches from John’s gospel, the branch will bear fruit, but not of its own volition. The branch’s job is to abide in the vine. To make its dwelling in the healthy plant that will, with the Gardener’s careful attention, bring about fruitfulness.

So we are to learn what it means to guided by the Spirit. The NIV translates this phrase “walk by the Spirit” - this reminds us that we are not passively led by the Spirit, but we are guided by the Spirit as we take the next steps.

At the end of the section, in vs 26 the word for follow also has the idea of walking, but this time, with the added sense of “getting in line” or lining up with. So we are led, but we also follow. We are guided, but we also take steps and line ourselves up. And if we’re unsure whether we’re moving in the right direction, we take a look at the fruit… at the trajectory of our course… is it leading us towards the first list or the second. It can’t be both. It isn’t possible to be moving in both directions at once.

And again, we don’t move towards the second list by trying harder or being better - we walk towards the Spirit. Which means we have to be paying attention. To God, but also to one another. Remember how the beginning and the end are concerned about the life of the community? Our listening to the Spirit is also done in community. Discernment isn’t private. Even personal discernment - what should I do about this situation? - even that may well involve members of my community. It may, and often it needs to, because off on my own, I cannot see and hear and notice all that we might see and hear and notice collectively. So we have personal responsibility, yes. But not just for personal fulfillment or achievement.

The Law, the same Law that Paul is insisting need not be forced on Gentile followers of Jesus, is summed up in the statement Love your neighbour as yourself. And the fruit of the Spirit that make up that second list, are things that one cannot legislate. Paul says, “against such things there is no law” but the flipside of that is that there isn’t a law that can make you love. I can legislate some loving action, but it will not automatically make you do that action with love. I can legislate against violence, but that will not create gentleness.

Only the Spirit animating us and our life together, will free us to be fruitful children of God.

So, by faith, our own faith in Jesus, and in the faith(fulness) of Jesus Christ, we are saved.

By faith, we are heirs to the promise God made to Abraham. We have been woven into a story that we have no claim on. But that has made a claim on us.

And by faith, we listen to, we walk in and we follow the Spirit… seeking to let the freedom we have been given lead us to lives marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

May the Spirit of God make us fruitful children of God.

Amen.