A FRUIT-FULL MARRIAGE: GOODNESS
GALATIANS 5:13-26
Sermon Objective: The Fruit of the Spirit are most fully realized in relationships and no relationship is more basic than the marriage relationship.
GALATIANS 5:13-26
13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
SERMON
Thursday, January 15, 2009, was another ordinary day in New York City. Or so it seemed. But by that evening people were talking of a miracle.
They may have been right. But the full explanation is, if anything, even more interesting and exciting. And it strikes just the note we need as we think about Christian character and “goodness” in particular.
Flight 1549, a regular US Airways trip from La Guardia Airport, took off at 15:26 local time, bound for Charleston, North Carolina. The captain, Chelsey Sullenberger III, known as “Sully” did all the usual checks. Everything was fine in the Airbus A320. Fine until, two minutes after takeoff, the aircraft ran straight into a flock of Canada Geese. One goose in a jet engine would be serious; a flock was disastrous. Almost at once both the engines were severely damaged and lost their power. The plane was at that point heading north over the Bronx, one of the most densely populated parts of the city.
Captain Sullenberger and his copilot had to make several major decisions instantly if they were going to save the lives of people not only on board but also on the ground.
• They could see one or two small local airports in the distance, but quickly realized that they couldn’t be sure of making it that far. If they attempted it, they well might crash land in a built-up area on the way.
• Likewise, the option of putting the plane down on the New Jersey Turnpike, a busy road leading in and out of the city, would present huge problems and dangers for the plane and its occupants, let alone for cars and their drivers on the road.
• That left one option: the Hudson River. It’s difficult to crash-land on water: one small mistake-catch the nose or one of the wings in the river, say-and the plane will turn over and over like a gymnast before breaking up and sinking.
In the two or three minutes they had before landing, Sullenberger and his copilot had to do the following vital things (along with plenty of other tasks that we amateurs wouldn’t understand).
• They had to shut down the engines.
• They had to set the right speed so that the plane could glide as long as possible without power. (Fortunately, Sullenberger is also a gliding instructor.)
• They had to get the nose down to maintain speed.
• They had to disconnect the autopilot and override the flight management system.
• They had to activate the “ditch” system, which seals vents and valves, to make the plane as waterproof as possible once it hit the water.
• Most important of all, they had to fly and glide the plane in a fast left-hand turn so that it could come down facing south, going with the flow of the river.
• And-having already turned off the engines-they had to do this using only the battery-operated systems and the emergency generator.
• Then they had to straighten the plane up from the tilt of the sharp-left turn so that, on landing, the plane would be exactly level from side to side.
• Finally, they had to get the nose back up again, but not too far up, and land straight and flat on the water.
And they did it! Everyone got off safely, with Captain Sullenberger himself walking up and down the aisle a couple of times to check that everyone had escaped before leaving himself. Once in the life raft along with the other passengers, he went one better: he took off his shirt, in the freezing January afternoon, and gave it to a passenger who was suffering in the cold.
The story has already been told and retold, and will live on in the memory not only of all those involved but of every New Yorker and many further afield. Just over seven years and four months after the horrible devastation of September 11, 2001, New York had an airplane story to celebrate.
Now, as I say, many people described the dramatic events as a “miracle.” At one level, I wouldn’t want to question that. But the really fascinating thing about the whole business is the way it spectacularly illustrates a vital truth- a truth which many today have either forgotten or never knew in the first place. … Sullenberger had not, of course, been born with the ability to fly a plane, let alone the specific skills he exhibited in those vital three minutes. None of the skills required, and certainly none of the courage, restraint, cool judgment, and concern for others which he displayed, is part of the kit we humans possess from birth.
You have to work at mastering that sort of skill set, moving steadily toward that goal. You have to want to do it all, to choose to learn it all, to practice doing it all. Again and again. And then, sometimes, when the moment comes, it happens “automatically,” as it did for Sullenberger. The skills and ability ran right through him, top to toe. (source: N.T. Wright, “After You Believe”, p. 18ff.)
Flying that plane as skillfully as “Sully” did seemed very natural to those around him … like “second nature.” And it was SECOND nature. By that I mean it was not really natural but a learned, rehearsed, and ingrained action that over time Sully was able to make appear to be natural.
That, my friends, describes the Fruit of the Spirit better than anything I can think of. If reading Galatians 5, or listening to me, makes you think that adopting and adapting these traits is easy then I am not communicating this very successfully. You see, the Fruit of the Spirit are not your first or natural inclination; the works of the flesh are – the sinful nature is. The only way these become the new you is by walking with Christ and discipline. It is as you follow Jesus that these become ingrained in you and, like Sully, when you come to a time of crisis these come out instead of anger or debauchery or some of natural toxin of the heart.
But the point is … like sully they CAN become “you.” Remember, these traits are not about you becoming a better person … they are about you becoming a new and different person! You have been reborn and have chosen to “put off the old man” (Romans 13:12; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 2:11; 3:8-9).
Goodness is that way. The word translated goodness in 5:22 (agathosuné) doesn’t simply mean “polite” or “nice.” It is a passionate spiritual word that describes God and particularly God as seen in Jesus Christ. And when we look at goodness in action, as we would in a marriage, we see how it reflects God’s transforming activity in the human heart. Because if the Fruit of the Spirit, which are expressed most fully in relationships, don’t work in a marriage then they aren’t working at all.
Goodness.
It is a cousin to “kindness” but has a more “aggressive” or “assertive” inclination to it. Goodness actively creates an environment that is “good” … that is “just.” It seeks to create an environment where justice (goodness) can flourish; where it becomes the norm.
The Church father, Jerome, illustrated “goodness” through Jesus’ cleansing the temple with a whip and condemning the Scribes & Pharisees. Kindness, on the other hand, was illustrated by Jerome in the way he dealt with sinners like the woman at the well, or the prostitute, or Zaccheus.
“Goodness” is love in action.
It not only desires the welfare of others – it secures that welfare. It sacrifices and risks and sets aside one’s own comfort to bring well being to others.
It may be illustrated in 1 Corinthians 13:7 … “Love always protects.”
And, in a moment of honest inventory, we would all have to admit … that is NOT our first nature. Such character is evidence that God’s Spirit is making us new / different people.
May I ask you this morning, does this kind of goodness describe you? When you are at home, behind closed doors, does this describe how you interact with those you are inrelationship with. That is when the real you is revealed.
The other day I had a very full cup of coffee. VERY full. To top it off I had to walk back to my desk with it and, as fate would have it, I bumped into the desk corner while walking there. The coffee spilled. There’s no hiding spilled coffee on a book or paper and, sure enough, the stains are there on the book I was reading for all time.
It’s like that at home, in your marriage too. When you are “bumped” the real you spills out and if that real you is soiled … well … the stains will be on those who you are spilled out on for all time. But, if you are filled with the Spirit while being bumped … that too will spill out.
You cannot hide the real you but you can have the real you transformed by Christ’s Spirit into a NEW you!
Goodness is love in motion. Goodness is love motivated to act. I want “Goodness” to spill out of you.
So what does Goodness look like? I will give you some Scriptures portions to answer that:
• Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
• Luke 22:26 “He who is greatest among you, let him be as … he who serves”
• Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
• Mathew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
• Mark 12:31 “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor (i.e. spouse / children / parents) as yourself.’”
WRAP-UP
When I was in London I discovered a wonderfully curious candy. It was called Brighton Rock Candy. I have placed a picture of it on the projectors. In one sense it is just a stick rock candy but it has a curious characteristic. The brand name “Brighton” can be found all the way through the candy stick. ANYWHERE you take a bite you can see the name “Brighton.”
Character, Christian character, is that way. If it is real, anywhere, and at anytime somebody takes a bite out of you they will be able to see the Fruit of the Spirit. That is the power of the transformation that God does in the human soul. And what that can do to enrich a marriage is beyond my ability describe. After all, MARRIAGE IS MORE ABOUT BEING THE RIGHT MATE THAN IT IS FINDING THE RIGHT MATE. THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT MAKE YOU THE RIGHT MATE.
Communion
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** I am grateful and indebted to those who have shared their applications from the fruit of the spirit for marriage. I found the following authors particularly helpful: Rev. David Maxson of Embry Hills Church of Christ, Mr. Stephen Gla of Divorce Hope, and Paul Canner.
This sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
