Friday, July 2, 2010

Sermon Preached on the Fifth Sunday of Pentecost/June 27, 2010

This sermon was the first time I got to preach at my wife’s home church in Tillsonburg, Ontario.
I'm sure you've all heard the phrase, “If the world had a little more love, it would be a much better place.” If not then perhaps you've heard of John's Lennon's song which exclaims, “All you need is love!” Or there's also the more generic and much more recent phrase, “Where's the love?” We spend so much time looking for love, we want to be loved, we need to be loved, which might be why so many songs are about love and finding love. But no matter how much love we seem to find in our lives, we can turn around and find that the world is just as hard, ruthless and loveless as it was before. I think we can all agree that the world could do with a little more love, but love is not the only problem. In the Epistle reading today, Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia and points to a different problem that affects the world as our selfish flesh is more concerned with my needs, wants and desires, rather loving and serving my neighbour. Instead, Paul describes a love that we only find in our loving Father God and His Son Jesus Christ. And it is a love that only He can give to us.
I. Paul describes this love in verse 13 when he says, “For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom for incentive to the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
A. Love and service, these two things go together, but its also much stronger than that. The Greek word that is translated as serve has a much stronger meaning, that being “slave.” Through love be slaves to one another. Now, what does it mean to be a slave? A slave is one who, either by force or of his/her own will (though usually by force) gives everything she has over to her master. All that belongs to the slave, even their rights, belong to their master, in order to serve him. Paul describes this love again in his letter to the Ephesians when He says, “Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (5:21). Because of our faith in Christ, who gave Himself over for us, we submit ourselves to one another, so that we may “bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).
II. Yet we can not help but recoil when we hear about such a “sacrificial” love. “For the desires of the the flesh are against the Spirit,” Paul says. Our very own flesh is held captive to sin so that, “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. . . . For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Rom 7:18,19). But rather, this is a love that God works in us through the workings of the Holy Spirit.
A. We in our sinful natures are selfish beings, caring nothing for anyone else but only caring for what we want, when we want it. If you want to see some of the most selfish and demanding human beings on earth look no further than a newborn baby. Just three weeks ago, my sister gave birth to a baby boy named Noah, and if he begins to feel uncomfortable, he demands that the problem be fixed right now! It does not matter what time of day it is, what Mom is doing or what is happening around him, if he wants it, he must get it. Mom, I'm hungry! Mom, I'm cold! Mom, I'm gassy! Mom, I have a poopy diaper, change me! Night or day, it doesn't matter, Noah is going to get what he wants. This is not a learned behaviour, but started the very day he was born, and it is a behaviour that you and I have practised ever since we were born. The Bible says, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). We have all been infected with this fault, what is called original sin, ever since the day Adam and Eve fell into sin and separated us from God.
B. But it is in Christ that we have been set free from our sinful condition. Out of His love for us, Christ came to earth, wrapping Himself in flesh and giving up all that He had for you. The letter to the Philippians states that Christ, “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:6-7). In His suffering and death on the cross, Christ gave up all that He had and allowed Himself to suffer and die for you, so that you might be set free from sin. Through Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross, God shows us the love that He has for us, a love that lowers Himself to die on the cross. We hear again from Philippians that “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). It is this kind of love that we should show to others, a sacrificial love of putting others first. Christ saved us by this love and now teaches us to serve other with that same love as we bring our families and children, our neighbours and friends to hear His Word so that faith may be created in their heart and they too may be saved from their sin.
III. Christ has set us free from sin, and by His sacrifice there is no sin that is too great that it can't be forgiven. Yet Paul warns the churches in Galatia, and us as well, that this freedom does not allow us to indulge in every sinful desire we have, but to devote ourselves to the love and service of one another.
A. And yet so often, we do not live in loving service of one another, but rather engaging in behaviour that is described in the text, “But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (v. 15). Though forgiven, we still live in this sinful flesh and ignore God's command to love and serve one another, and instead we begin to look out for ourselves. When I see a friend of mine who has more wealth and possessions than I do, I won't want to help him maintain his wealth and protect his possessions, but instead I'll get jealous. I want what he has for myself, I might get a little angry knowing that he's been blessed far more than I have, I'll set up an idol in my friends wealth, working day and night to get that wealth rather than being content in what God has already given me. My jealousy and anger might cause a rivalry between me and my friend and bring about a division that can not be healed. Some of the best storylines in Star Trek, is for the adventuring heroes to come across a society that has destroyed itself in war over their own lust for wealth, status and possessions. Our sin works in much the same way. We can be so selfish that we hurt others and cause our relationships to break down, rather than doing what is best for each other and perhaps foregoing what we might want.
B. Through faith in God, and trusting in His promise, we receive forgiveness of our sins and the righteousness of Christ that reconciles us to God. In this, we are made His children and are now free to reject the works of the flesh and serve one another. For we are told that “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (v. 24) and again “our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6). And now, having been freed from sin, God works in us and cares for us so that this love, which we can not show on our own, can grow in our hearts and show through our actions. When we were visiting my sister, there came a time when Noah got fussy, he had grown hungry and demanded the attention of his mother, who had gone out for a short time. So my father, whom the grandkids call “Papa,” took Noah in His arms and began to bounce him. Noah settled down almost immediately and fell back asleep, but as Papa bounced his grandson I noticed that it looked as though Noah was nodding. As if to say, “Yes, Papa, I'll go to sleep now. Yes, Papa, even though I'm hungry I'll settle down and wait for Mom.” In much the same way, God has us in His arms, caring for us and nodding our heads so that we might say, “Yes, Father, I will love my neighbour. Yes, Father, I will serve my neighbour and reject my own selfish desires.”
C. In this way, God works in us to bring forth love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—the fruits of the Spirit. Jesus describes this work of our heavenly Father as a vinedresser when He says, “Every branch in Me that does not take fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). Through His Word and the sacraments, God works in us to strengthen our faith and to care for us, so that we may show these fruits to one another. God works through others around us, our families and friends, to support us in love and to provide us with all that we need each day of our life. God works in us so that as we show the love that He has fostered and grown in our hearts, we might confess to the world of His love and grace in the freedom offered to them in His Son, Jesus Christ.
In Jesus Christ's suffering, death and resurrection God has shown the world the love that He had for us, so that we might be freed from the sin that dwells in our flesh. In our text today, Paul commends us to show that same love to one another so that we might give ourselves over in loving service of our neighbour. Yet our sinful nature often gets in the way with its selfish desires that are constantly trying to pull us away from God and His plan for us. But Christ has freed us from the bondage of sin and has made us new creations, no longer bound by sin and the Law, but under His grace, which carries us and cares for us. And through His work in us, we are empowered to show that love to one another, and to all the world. Through our love and service to one another, God works through us to show His gracious mercy and the freedom that we received through the cross.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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