Galatians 5:1, 13-25
June 27, 2010
“FREEDOM TO SEE IN A NEW WAY”
We live in an area of the world that allows us to embrace the Apostle Paul’s metaphor of fruit…fruit of the Spirit. Surrounded by orchards of various fruit, we are mindful of good and bad years when fruit is either plentiful or sparse, whether our own cherries can be used for the International Cherry Festival or if they need to be imported from Washington state, or whether our grapes resulted in good wine or juice. It is so important to our area of the world that harvests, or weather that threatens good harvests makes for front page news.
Paul says that spiritual fruit is gift that is the result of Pentecost, the result of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our hearts. But the presence of Christ’s Spirit is also gift, along with God’s love that the Spirit brings. It is all gift. And Paul provides a list of the fruit, the spiritual values which are birthed on these human trees. Remember, each fruit Paul lists is not something we create or manufacture. Each is a gift. So, the Spirit fills us at baptism and as spiritual feeding and watering take place over time, fruit begins to be seen…fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As Christians say that a person is kind or patient or joy-filled or gentle we are talking about a by-produce of the Holy Spirit’s presence, God’s love that resides in that person. As Christians say that another is generous, faithful, or a person of peace, that Christian, in essence, is praising God for the fruit God has planted in that person. If we look at that list of fruit again, we notice that each fruit is meant to be given away, shared. A person is not deemed kind unless they live kindness, unless we have been the recipients of that kindness, that fruit.
Eugene Peterson writes, “People who live a life of faith often find fruit appearing in unlikely places at unanticipated times.” Listen to a story of the evidence of fruit at an unlikely time and place as told by J. William Harkins from Columbia Seminary in
“A dear friend and colleague recently died after a courageous, yearlong battle with leukemia. A priest for more than forty years, he was a wise and gentle mentor to those of us who were younger in ‘priest years,’ and a gift in so many ways. After numerous hospitalizations, second and third opinions, two extensive rounds of chemo-therapy, and a joyful short-lived remission, the cancer returned with a new vigor and intensity. In consultation with his family, my colleague made the decision to cease all but palliative care, and to die on his own life-giving terms. In one of our last conversations he said, ‘I have had so much love.’ ‘Yes, I replied, there are so many who love you and are grateful for you.’ ‘That may be,’ he replied, ‘but what I mean is that there are so many whom I have loved. I have so much gratitude for the love God has enabled me to give away.’” Dr. Harkins writes, “We were quiet for a few minutes. Then he said, ‘Having made the decision not to continue with treatment has freed me to focus on quality of life rather than longevity. It has given me the freedom to see in a new way how much love there has been, is now, and will be. Love is meant to be given away.’ We sat together in silence, in the early spring sun, on his back deck, with the goldfinches and nuthatches feasting on his birdfeeder. A few days later, he was gone.”
Isn’t it quite amazing that a person discovered a sense of freedom in the midst of his dying? In the midst of his dying, yet with the true meaning of Christ’s cross residing in his heart, this child of God chose the kind of life to be lived during his final days, a life that he could give away. He lived, he gave fruit, while he died. Dr. Harkins wrote, “Among the gifts my colleague gave us was that he was fully alive when he died.”
God’s Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, lives even beyond our life-span, because the fruit with which we have been gifted has been shared with others. Your kindness, your generosity, your wisdom in self-control, your love all live long after you have breathed your last breath…as long as you have shared your fruit. Through Christ’s cross we have been given the freedom to live life in abundant ways. But, did you notice the other list in our text from Galatians 5? Paul called that list “the works of the flesh”, and it includes things like fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like. If we put that list in a bucket, we would discover that each of them is self-serving, self-gratifying, the opposite of fruit that is given away, shared. That is why Paul tells that what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh.
Professor Mark Douglas calls the works of the flesh disordered desire. He writes, “Paul’s problem with the flesh is not that it desires but that its desires are disordered; it wants the wrong things or wants good things in the wrong way---usually too much or too little. Wanting sexual intimacy, it pursues fornication; wanting contact with the Divine, it pursues idols; wanting joy, it carouses. Connecting this point to Paul’s emphasis on freedom suggests that disordered desires enslave us to our passions and destroy community.” We don’t have to explain what such things as jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissentions, and factions do to any family or community, maybe especially the Christian community. In any relationship there is conflict, there is misunderstanding, there is hurt. What Paul is trying to get across to the Galatian Christians who were enmeshed in religious battles and divisions is to teach how to live in the midst of these inevitable disagreements. Paul encourages that his sisters and brothers in Christ share fruit in the midst of conflict…practicing generosity, patience, kindness, and faithfulness rather than jealousy, anger, quarrels and dissention.
Through the cross of Jesus Christ, you and I have been given the freedom to see in a new way. We have been given the freedom to see how much love there has been, is now, and will be. We have been given the freedom to choose to live the fruit planted in us, and in some ways, we have been given the freedom to choose the kind of legacy we seek to live. I think we all would hope that what others would have seen or say after we have moved into God’s eternal kingdom is that he or she belonged to and lived…Christ…he or she lived a fruit-full life.
Amen
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