May 4, 2008

The One Anothers – Serve One Another

Galatians 5:1, 13-6:3

May 4, 2008 Pastor Garrison

If you follow professional football you have probably heard of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. Ben is the youngest quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl.

In an interview Roethlisberger had with ESPN reporter Andrea Kremer in July of 2005, Kremer asked, “It’s not the law in Pennsylvania to wear a helmet (when riding a motorcycle). Why don’t you wear a helmet?”

Roethlisberger’s response was, “Because you don’t have to. It’s not the law. If it was the law, I’d definitely have one on every time I rode. But it’s not the law and I know I don’t have to. You’re just more free when you’re out there with no helmet on.”

Less than one year later, in June of 2006, Ben was involved in a serious motorcycle accident and was thrown through the windshield of a van whose driver failed to yield at an intersection. His bike was totaled, and emergency surgeons spent over seven hours repairing a broken jaw, a fractured skull, missing teeth, and several other facial injuries.

After being released from the hospital, Roethlisberger apologized to Steelers fans, his family, and his team for risking his life unnecessarily. In a subsequent interview, he said, “In the past few days I’ve gained a new perspective on life. By the grace of God, I’m fortunate to be alive.” He also added that, if he ever does ride a motorcycle again, “it will certainly be with a helmet.”

Freedom is something which is dear to us as Americans. In this election year it’s a word we’re hearing used a lot. Our nation’s leaders have said it is our desire to see other peoples also experience the same freedoms we have – freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to bear arms, freedom to choose governmental leaders. We value these freedoms which enable us to determine our own destinies, to rise above the constraints those in many other nations experience - class, race, or creed - and to become all we are capable of becoming.

In Galatians 5, Paul talks about freedom. “So Christ has truly set us free.” “For you have been called to live in freedom…” You might recall these words of Jesus, “…you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” “So, if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”

The 19^th century philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, said, “Be happy, and do what you like.” He rephrased something said centuries earlier by St. Augustine, “Love God and do what you like.”

There is a big, though very subtle, difference between these two statements. One – Nietzsche’s – expresses a self-focused understanding of freedom. “I am free to do whatever it is that makes me happy – whether it is good or not for me or for others.” St. Augustine’s expresses a similar freedom, a freedom which can also bring us much happiness, but its focus leads to a very different end.

Billy Graham tells a story which happened in the earlier days of his ministry following a crusade in Los Angeles when a well known gangster was invited by a friend to attend. The mobster responded to Graham’s invitation to receive Christ, having been impressed by several Christian athletes and businessmen who spoke. Later that evening, the new convert attended a gathering which also included some of the key leaders of Graham’s organization. They asked the man what he was going to do with his life now that he had accepted Christ. In all seriousness he said, “I guess I’ll be a Christian gangster.” His assumption was that he could simply continue with business as usual and just add “Christian” to his occupation like so many others did.

Ben Roethlisberger enjoyed the freedom permitted him under the laws of Pennsylvania to ride his motorcycle without wearing a helmet. In the end, that freedom almost cost him his career as a professional football player. The gangster rightly understood that, in Christ, he was freed from his sinful past – forgiven by the grace of God. In both cases, these men understood freedom as release from something.

What Paul is telling us here in Galatians, however, is that freedom in Christ is more. Christ has set us free from, but he has also set us free for…

What is it that we have been set free from? We have been freed from having to earn our way into God’s favor or what Paul calls slavery to the law. While he emphasizes this freedom we have in Christ, he knows we can easily fall back into old ways and he warns, “…make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” and also, “…don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature.”

The Good News Paul had brought into Galatia was a breath of fresh air for both the Jews living there and for the Gentiles. Many responded to Paul’s message that through Christ we are free; that through grace we are put into a perfect relationship with God; that we are already loved by God and nothing we can say or do can cause God to love us more. This was especially good news to those Jewish believers who had spent a lifetime trying to earn and deserve God’s love.

The trouble was that, not too far behind Paul, were Jewish teachers from Jerusalem who came trying to contradict his teaching about God’s grace. They came insisting that, while belief in Jesus was fine, the Galatian Christians still needed to keep the Jewish law – circumcision, the rules of ritual cleansing, dietary laws, etc. This had the potential to destroy their newfound faith and make the grace of God irrelevant. Paul called this teaching “slavery” and urged the Galatians to stand firm in the freedom they have in God’s grace through Christ.

In some ways we might be able to understand why the Jerusalem Jewish leaders felt the way they did. They had spent all their lives trying to live up to the demands of the law and now Paul – who himself had been one of them – comes along and says it’s not necessary to follow the Jewish law, that Jesus has freed people from its demands. To them that probably sounded like he was saying, you can do whatever you want, you can live however you want and that’s just fine. In essence they were accusing Paul of saying, “I am a Christian and that means nobody can tell me what to do!” They were missing the essence of what Paul was teaching. In being freed from the requirements of the law, from the power of sin over our lives, we are freed for something much more important and powerful.

He makes it clear – “…don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” In Christ, we are freed from having to earn our way into God’s favor and we also are freed for a relationship with the God who loves, which also means that we engage in such loving. When we love as Christ loves we fulfill the requirements of the law. For Paul, a Christian needs no law to make him love his neighbor. Such love is part of the new nature born into us when we come to faith in Christ.

Faith which focuses on earning God’s favor is a very self-focused faith. “I must do what I must do to get me into the good graces of God.” When our faith is a “what’s in it for me” faith, we’re missing the whole point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When we become the center, we are off center.

Actor Denzel Washington tells of a visit he had with his mother. He says, “I walked into the house one day and – feeling full of myself, a movie star – I said to my mother, ‘Did you ever think this was all going to happen?’ She was like, ‘Please – first of all go wash the windows for me. You have no idea how many people have been praying for you when you were being a knucklehead.’”

By God’s grace given us through Christ, we have been freed from what Paul calls “slavery to the law” which is slavery to our own self interests for the law tells us what we have to do to make ourselves acceptable to God. In Christ we have been freed from slavery to the law or our slavery to self to be something that we otherwise are incapable of being – a servant to others. Now, you might be thinking that doesn’t sound too much like freedom. I mean, who wants to be a servant? Most of us would rather be the one being served.

Whether we admit it or not, we are slaves to self – we put up protective walls around us, we don’t like to have someone else tell us what to do, we view freedom as being in charge. German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

In a workshop I was at this past week the presenter spoke about how we need to change from “human doings” into “human be-ings.” As long as we are focused on “doing” we are not truly free in Christ, we are slaves to our self interest. This is a difficult concept to grasp because serving would certainly imply that we are doing something. So bear with me here as we work through this.

There is one thing and only one thing that frees us from our bondage to self and Paul and Jesus and Peter and John – all the New Testament authors touch on it again and again. In Galatians 4:15 Paul spells it out: “For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Love is the difference. We have been freed from the need to make ourselves acceptable only by the love and grace God has shown to us through Jesus Christ. “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us...” We can love because we have been loved. And Paul tells us how we tap into that power of love: “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.”

On Easter Sunday I used Colossians 3:1-4 as my message text. To refresh your memories, in verse 3 Paul says, “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” Our true “be-ing” is in Christ – in accepting the Divine love into our own lives and then living in the power of that love. It is in Christ that we have life and it is through us that his life is made manifest in the world.

We tend to think that, as Christians, we need to be in the world for Christ. The problem with thinking of our life of faith in this way is that it is still self-focused. It is still doing. The danger with this way of thinking is that we approach the life of faith on our own terms and with our own agenda. The focus is still on me – I need to do something for Jesus. More accurately, we need to be Christ for the world.

That is what Paul is talking about here in Galatians. We live in true freedom when we live in such a manner that others see Christ in us. This is good solid Brethren and Anabaptist teaching – that Christ will be made known to others “by the manner of our living.”

I don’t know about you, but sometimes the manner of my living doesn’t show Christ. I struggle each and every day with the tension between my slavery to self and the freedom which is mine in Christ. Do you? Paul hit the nail on the head when he said, “The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just opposite of what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”

Remember Paul’s lamentation in Romans 7: “It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

I’m with you Paul. I know exactly what you’re talking about. The answer to this struggle within me is in Jesus Christ – in living in the power of his Spirit within me. It’s a choice I have to make every day. Sometimes I get it right and other times I don’t. That sinful nature is still there and sometimes I make wrong choices. How about you?

How do we know if we are letting the Holy Spirit guide our lives? It’s in the fruit. It’s in the fruit. What are the results of your actions? Paul gives us another of his lists of vices which are evident in lives focused on self – lives under the control of our sinful nature - “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.”

In contrast, the fruit the Holy Spirit produces in us includes “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control...”

What kind of fruit is your life producing? Have you ever taken some time to really think about it? If you really want to find out, if you really would like to know if you are growing in Christ-likeness, ask someone for their honest opinion:

· Am I more loving?

· Am I more caring?

· Am I more understanding?

· Am I more patient?

· Am I more compassionate?

· Am I more long-suffering?

· Am I more forgiving?

These are the fruits the Holy Spirit will produce in your life. These are the results of a life lived in the Spirit which enables us to serve one another in love. Each one of these is the fruit of love.

God taught me a powerful lesson while I was working on this message. The beginning of this past week was busy with a number of things which I needed to care for. I had a meeting Monday evening, pre-marital counseling Tuesday evening, Praise Band and choir on Wednesday and church board on Thursday evening. I also had registered for the annual district minister’s retreat and attended that all day on Wednesday. I didn’t really have a chance to sit down and work on this message until Thursday morning. The pressure was on. I had trouble getting it started and only got about halfway through it on Thursday which is usually the day I want to have it finished. On Friday, finally around noontime I had a chance to get back on it again. And then my cell phone rang. I won’t say who it was, but the individual was very distraught as he had a car accident and his car was not drivable. He needed help getting a tow truck and needed a ride home. Fortunately neither he nor the passengers in the other car were injured.

Then my struggle with my two natures started. I needed to get this sermon done. Isn’t there someone else he could call? I tried some, but no one else was home. It’s funny sometimes how God works. I think he knew I needed to be taught a lesson. I finally decided since I couldn’t get anyone else, I needed to help. So I left the sermon on the computer, drove over to Hershey, helped him with the details he needed to take care of, and drove him home. On my way back to Hershey it hit me. “God, this is really what it’s all about isn’t it?” I needed a real life lesson about serving.

When that call interrupted my thinking and my agenda for the day I confess I was feeling put out. I was being selfish with my time, time I needed to get this done. Doesn’t he know 200 people are expecting me to preach on Sunday and I need to concentrate on this now, not be running all over Central Pennsylvania! Ironic it is that the message is about service – service in love. Paul’s words hit me hard. “If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.” God, you got me. Thanks.

Serve one another in love. How do we do that? What does it look like? It’s a meal brought to someone who just got home from the hospital. It’s a visit to an elderly person confined to their home. It’s opening up our church parsonage to heart patients at the Hershey Medical Center. It’s providing personal care and cleaning products to the clients at Brethren Housing. It’s bringing in a bag of food for the food bank. It’s delivering Meals on Wheels. It’s taking time to pray for the needs of one another. There are many ways we serve one another and those around us. When we serve one another like this, we are his hands and feet ministering to others. When we serve one another in this way, we bring glory to God and to glorify God is to manifest some of his nature – his love - in us. In the things we say, in the service we offer in love, the heart of God is revealed. We become Christ for one another and for the world.

(Contemporary service – Steve’s video)

When we were cleaning out the church in preparation for the start of the building project we came across a sterling silver tea set in one of the cabinets. No one knew it was there and it obviously had not been used for some time.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus doesn’t want us to be like sterling silver tea sets stored safely in china closets where no one will use them. He’s looking for rough-and-tumble clay pots – the kind that can be used everyday. He’s looking for the kind of vessels that can be sent out into a reckless world, carrying with them his life and his love. The church was never meant to be a china closet, where precious pieces could be safely stowed out of harm’s way. The church was meant to be a working kitchen, where well-worn pots are filled again and again to dispense their life-giving contents to a thirsty world.

We are the body of Christ in this world, freed from the power of self by the power of the Holy Spirit in us to serve one another in love. While you are serving others, don’t forget, Christ is present in others for you.

When you find that conflict between your sinful nature and the Holy Spirit going on within you, remember the freedom you have to choose love, to choose to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Let us put away our old sinful nature and be Christ for one another and for the world. Let us use our freedom to serve one another in love. Amen.