Living Creatively

Galatians 6:1-8: (THE MESSAGE) "Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life."

Paul's letter to the Church at Galatia has some wonderful advice in it ...and here in the 6th chapter is no exception. He gave us two words .... LIVE CREATIVELY, and then proceeds to give us ways in which to do just that. When I was reading this chapter a few days ago, the 'sermon' just jumped out at me, grabbed me by the throat, shook me a few times and said, "This is it! Do it! Do it NOW!" and so, I made a note to just that, for this week!

Live creatively. Two lovely words, neither of which are hard to understand. They may be a bit harder to put into practice, but with all the help he gives us, in this same chapter, immediately following these two words, we should be able to at least get started!

Here are some of the idea he mentions:

1. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself.

2. Share their burdens.

3. Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.

4. Take responsibility for doing the creative best that you can do, with your own life.

5. Enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you.

6. Plant in response to God.

OK ... there you have the outline of the service. Now, let's put some meat on these bones!

1. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself.

You have probably heard it said that the Church is a hospital for sinners, and that OUGHT to be true, but unfortunately, it isn't always the case. What happens is that the Church seemingly more often is the execution chamber for those who make mis-steps along the way. It has also been said that the Church is the only agency on earth that kills its wounded members ....and that seems to be the pattern far more often.

Let someone do something someone else thinks they should not have done ...and the gossip mill heats up rapidly. Whispers fly from one member to another. Many years ago it was noted that the telephone was used more for gossip than for business ... and I suspect it is still very much true, today.

Many years ago, back in the 1960's, the pastor of the Church of my youth and one of the choir members decided to become a couple. Both were married to someone else. The incoming pastor was incredibly critical of them, and let it be known. Move forward 20 years .... I visited the critical one who was in the mental ward of a local hospital. He had been having a relationship with a lady to whom he was not married, although he was married to someone else.

He said to me, "Jerry, you remember how critical I was of ... name change here ..... Howard and Sally .... and I said, that I did. He told me, "Now, I am in the very same situation." And he was.

Paul gave good advice when he wrote, "If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself." Immediately after that sentence, though, is the crux of the matter. The next sentence says, "You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out." And there my friend was ... needing forgiveness for the very thing for which he had been so unkind in his comments and thoughts about .... Howard.