FREEDOM!!! Doing whatever I want and the Fruits of the Spirit.

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gives you s the fruits of the Spirit.

We’ve reached the last two weeks of our look through Galatians this summer, and now we’ve reached the heart of the matter. Paul has spent 4 chapters talking about not being constrained by the law any longer. How the gospel frees all, Jews and Gentiles alike, how it’s not about the outward things or works that you do, like circumcision, it’s not about following all the rules perfectly, it’s about Christ saving us on the cross and faith found in that. It’s the grace of God that loves us even when we fail, even when we break the rules, doing things we shouldn’t, or not doing things we should. God loves us, sends us his grace, and ignites our faith, freeing us. 

Our first verse includes our theme for this look through Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free!”

We’re free! We can do whatever we want right? Freedom means no ramifications right?

We did an exercise in the 7th/8th grade confirmation class this year asking them what they would do if nobody had to follow any laws. Some came up with crazy things to do, eat only ice cream, get all the video games systems there are, but a couple of them saw through the exercise and stated that we need to have rules, otherwise it would be chaos and anarchy. If everyone gets to do what they want, everyone is going to do things that other people don’t want you to do. Things you do will affect how other people live and behave. Freedom can’t really mean everyone gets to do whatever they want to do. In fact, Paul even hints at that as he follows up the line. The rest of the verse goes, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” I think Paul means this in more than don’t forget you have been set free, but also, don’t let your idea of what freedom is enslave you.

It really asks the question, what then does freedom mean?

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”

Paul uses a style of rhetoric, or persuasive speech and writing, that is rather formulaic. He will give his point and then follow up with examples of each side of the point. Here he gives his point, don’t use it for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. And then he gives a big list of things that lead to self-indulgence. impurity, idolatry, strife, jealousy, anger, envy, drunkenness to list a few he gives. All these things here are self-interest things, all things related to self-indulgence. Paul even has a way to describe these things. Desires of the flesh. Paul uses this term flesh differently than we do, it’s not our physical body, it’s the unspiritual part of ourselves. The earthy part vs the spiritual part. To Paul, the flesh, or to use the greek word, sarx, is the earthly creature focused on the survival of the self. It’s all the things in us that make us think only about ourselves, that are only concerned about our own wellbeing and salvation. That’s exactly what Christ frees us from, Paul is saying, so don’t immediately turn back to those things. Freedom doesn’t mean we’re free to do whatever we want to do, to be people who only understand things through sarx,, earthly survival. Paul says that freedom is from exactly that, we are free from earthly survival. We don’t have to be concerned about it, because ti’s already been given to us. As we stated the last few weeks, Christ is already in us, and we already belong to Christ. Everything has already been achieved and accomplished, we don’t have to do that. To use a phrase, we already know the end of the story, God wins. So, we don't have to be concerned about making sure we save ourselves, because we already have. What we are asked to do is respond to that saving. 

And that’s what he gives next, spiritual fruit. There’s another line I like, What God wants is spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What’s the big difference between this list and the other list? These are concerned about others first. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Freedom means freedom from having to worry about yourself allowing you to care for those around you.

Work to bring about love. Care for and encourage your neighbor. Let them know that you care for them, that they matter to you.

Work to bring about joy. When something good happens to a neighbor be excited and glad with them. Give praise to God and to others when they do things for you.

Work to bring about Peace. An end to violence and war, but also an end to anxiety, fear, trepidation and unease. Be a calming presence with those you know who fear and grieve.

Work to bring about patience. Be patient with one another. Don’t be easy to anger or snappy. Take a moment to realize that maybe there’s a reason they’re late or slow. 

Work to bring about kindness. Help each other. Go lend a hand when someone needs it. Be willing to put your own stuff aside for a time to help someone. Thank people for helping you. Realize they went out of their way to do something for you, and acknowledge it.

Work to bring about generosity. Give, give, give. What you have is not yours, but gifts from God. Give of your monetary resources, to the church, to other charities, those those you know in need, but give!

Work to bring about faithfulness. Share to others why you do all of this. Back up your words with actions. Don’t just tell people about Christ without following it up with how you act and treat others. Teach others about what Christ means to you in your life, and invite them to join us here to learn more about themselves and to know better than they too are loved and set free.

Work to bring about gentleness. Don’t be rough with each other. Don’t force people to do things they don’t want or can’t. Don’t hold it against people that they might have different gifts than you. encourage rather than pressure. 

Work to bring about self control.  I sort of thought this was an odd one to end the list with, but I think it makes sense now. We need to work on all the rest first, and if we do, this will come with it. It’s so tempting to see freedom as watching out for numero uno first, looking for our own interests first, being sarx people not faith people. But, if we start with this, we don’t have anything to replace the other, so of course we fall back to normal methods. Start with the other fruits first and this will come.

But, in all of it remember that this is a response to what God has already done. We know the end of the story, we have been freed from sin and death by the actions of our lord on the cross. May you know that deeply. Amen.