The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
June 30, 2013
St. Andrew’s Church
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel, Jr.
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Spirit Walking
We Americans love to celebrate Independence Day. Thomas Jefferson’s declaration that every person has an “inalienable right” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” still sounds sweet to our freedom-loving ears.
Despite the imperfections of our political system, we still enjoy tremendous economic freedom, political freedom, and personal freedom. Our second lesson helps us to understand our freedom in a godly way. The real test of freedom is how we use it.
The Apostle Paul gives us two opposite ways of using freedom. One way is destructive and the other way is constructive. Paul labels destructive uses “works of the flesh,” and constructive uses “the fruit of the Spirit.” Paul writes,
vv. 19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul writes about freedom from the perspective of human slavery to sin. God gives us all free will to indulge ourselves, if we wish, in destructive uses of our freedom. One problem for us is that the enemy of God doesn’t play by the same rules. Sin has a way of enslaving us whether it’s through addiction or plain desire.
In Addiction & Grace, psychiatrist Gerald May says,
After twenty years of listening to the yearnings of people’s hearts,
I am convinced that all human beings have an inborn desire for
God. Whether we are consciously religious or not, this desire is
our deepest longing and our most precious treasure. It gives us
meaning. Some of us have repressed this desire, burying it
beneath so many other interests that we are completely unaware
of it. Or we may experience it in different ways – as a longing for
wholeness, completion, or fulfillment. Regardless of how we
describe it, it is a longing for love. It is a hunger to love, to be
loved, and to move closer to the Source of love. This yearning is
the essence of the human spirit; it is the origin of our highest
hopes and most noble dreams.
God nourishes this desire, drawing us toward fulfillment of the two
great commandments: “Though shall love thy God will all thy heart,
and thy neighbor as thyself. If we could claim our longing for love
as the true treasure of our hearts, we would, with God’s grace, be
able to live these commandments.” p. 1
May adds this thought:
But something gets in the way. Not only are we unable to fulfill the
commandment; we often even ignore our desire to do so. The
longing at the center of our hearts repeatedly disappears from our
awareness, and its energy is usurped by forces that are not at all
loving. Our desires are captured, and we give ourselves to things
that, in our deepest honesty, we really do not want… pp. 1-2
In Romans, chapter 7, Paul writes
vv. 15, 18 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want… For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
We all know what Dr. May and the Apostle Paul are talking about. This is the human condition. We all know that the vices that Paul lists in Galatians, chapter 5 are bad for us, but every one of us is drawn to one or more of them.
Peter Sagal, host of the National Public Radio show, “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” says
“Best (period). Software (period). Ever (period).”
New York Times’ columnist Peggy Orenstein says “I am still surprised by the relief that floods over me whenever I bind myself from going online.”
Nick Hornby, author of About a Boy and High Fidelity calls it “Absolutely brilliant.”
They’re all talking about a $10 application that has over 300,000 users. The app is called Freedom and it is a productivity tool that locks a user off the internet for a predetermined amount of time. That time period can be a few minutes or up to eight hours.
I’m intrigued by the language used to describe it, like Peggy Orenstein talking about binding herself “from going online.”
Or Vanessa Romo, who delivered an essay on NPR’s “All Things Considered” titled “Stop Me Before I Facebook Again.”
Or Dale Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, who says “This program called Freedom… saves you from the internet.”
Do you hear the kind of language these people are using? Orenstein talks about having to bind herself from using the internet. Romo pleads for help: “Stop me” from Facebooking. Eggers needs saving from the internet.
Even the advertising copy for Freedom talks about fighting “evil distractions.” [macfreedom.com]
This is about a personal holy war of a spiritual nature. We have met the enemy, he draws us to the internet, and we can’t free ourselves from it. The enemy binds us and we need deliverance. This is sin language going on here.
Commenting on Romans, chapter 7, May says
In writing these words, Paul was talking about sin. Theologically, sin
is what turns us away from love- away from love for ourselves, away
from love for one another, and away from love for God. p. 2
Sin breaks our fellowship with God and others and destroys our personal peace and well-being. In complete contrast, the Holy Spirit works in the life of the Christian believer to bring wholeness and health. So, the apostle Paul says,
vv. 16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
When you walk by the Holy Spirit, God builds into your life qualities that Paul calls “the fruit of
the Spirit.” He writes
vv. 22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…
These are all one fruit, not separate ones. These were some of the defining characteristics of
Jesus Christ when He lived as one of us. These nine spiritual graces are what God builds in us as
we walk in the Spirit. These virtues strengthen our fellowship with God and one another. They
also feed our personal spiritual and emotional well-being.
In our epistle lesson last week, Paul speaks about putting on Christ. This week, he says to us,
walk in the Spirit. Paul uses two ways to speak about the same action. Use whichever one works
for you. Pray to put on Christ or ask God to fill you with His Spirit. Either way, God will
empower you. When you put on Christ, you are putting on the fruit of the Spirit.
Please open a pew Bible or your own Bible to Psalm 1. Let’s read together the first three verses
of Psalm 1:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
In monasteries around the world in our time and throughout centuries of the church’s existence,
the psalms have been read out loud in worship throughout the day. A day begins in the Bible
with nightfall, as Genesis 1 says, “there was evening and there was morning,” one day.
Saturday evening, at the Vespers worship for Sunday, psalms 1-8 are chanted. The opening
words of the church’s week are from Psalm 1. The first words of Psalm 1 are “Blessed is the
man,” man meaning male and female.
First, there is a caution against sin and evil, and then the Psalmist describes the life of the
blessed ones. In verse 3, a picture of a person whose life is nourished by God. According to
verse 2, it starts out in beautiful, enduring fruit in the life of the believer. The blessed ones
draw their life from God and God feeds and nourished the lives of His people.
Because of God’s gifts to His people, they flourish and bear fruit. Scripture and prayer are two
gifts from God that are essential for bearing godly fruit.
In John, chapter 4 records our Lord Jesus Christ speaking with a Samaritan woman, saying
v. 14 whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Psalm 1 describes this as sinking our roots deep in Scripture. As we meditate of Scripture day and night, our thought-life is transformed and the fruit of the Spirit blossom in our lives. This is not a quick fix. The fruit in our lives grows in season – this is a life-long pursuit. This is our life-long pursuit as children of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, put on Christ and walk in the Spirit. And when you’re celebrating Independence Day on Thursday, remember and give thanks for the freedom that God has given you through His Son and our Lord Jesus Christ.
