We Are Set Free -- To Love Each Other in Community
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Lectionary 13
Third Sunday after Pentecost June 26, 2022
St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Yorktown, Virginia
You don’t hear many “Thou shalt nots” in a congregation
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
That’s because we are so Biblical!
(All churches say they’re “Biblical!” What that means, for us in the ELCA, is that
we interpret all that’s in the Bible according to Jesus. We give weight to those passages in the Bible
that witness to Jesus and Jesus’ model and Jesus’ teachings, and we don’t pay
much attention to passages in the Bible that contradict Jesus’ inclusive love, his
compassion. We give great weight to this
morning’s reading from Galatians.)
Biblical religion is not a religion of rules. It is a religion of love! That’s what the Apostle Paul is writing about
to the churches in Galatia.
Do you remember how the reading begins? For freedom Christ has set us
free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not
submit again to a yoke of slavery. “You have been set free from the
Jewish law,” Paul is telling the Galatians.
That has happened, through the death and resurrection of Jesus
the Christ. Because of that, Paul is
telling the Galatians, “It is a yoke of slavery to think that you need rules to
measure how much you’re pleasing God.”
Paul is confronting those in the congregations of Galatia who are
teaching a return to rules-based religion, and who are telling the people that
they need to submit to Jewish laws to please God; laws such as circumcision and
food restrictions.[1] Paul writes, “do not submit again to a yoke
of slavery.”
“For freedom Christ has
set us free.” So, that means: anything
goes. Right? Well, no!
That’s what the rest of this letter to the Galatians is about: In their
freedom, how are the Galatian Jesus people to live together in community? Simply put: They are set free – to love each
other in community.
So, think about what
this means. Does “anything go” when you
love someone? Are you selfish and
self-centered when you love another person?
Is it ok to disregard your loved one’s feelings and needs? To betray the other person’s trust? To refuse to take care of the other person
when she has a medical need or is restricted by a disability? If you love another person, it’s horrifying
to even consider acting that way towards her!
Instead, when you love another person, don’t you want to take care of him when he’s in need?
* * *
Let me tell you how I
learned of Pastor Joel’s COVID diagnosis, which made it necessary for me to be
here with you today. I was in McDowell,
Virginia. McDowell is a tiny village, on
Rt. 250, on a winding road over two and a half mountains west of Staunton,
about 10 miles this side of the West Virginia line. A United Methodist minister friend, named
Walt, has been minister to three tiny country churches. Moving day for Methodist ministers is June 29
– but Walt had recently had foot surgery, and his wife is disabled, so how
could they pack up their house?
Well, of course I would
help – because I love Walt and wanted to take care of him when he was in
need! I took my sleeping bag and pad to
sleep in the church building next to the parsonage. Walt and Betty’s daughter came down from New
Jersey. The two of us worked like dogs!
Now, you need to know
that there is no cell phone service in most of McDowell, Virginia. So, on Friday afternoon, somewhere on the
road between the town dump and the town recycling center, my phone suddenly and
briefly came to life. There was a voice
message that Pastor Joel had left, five hours earlier. He had tested positive for COVID. We there any way I could preach and lead
worship this Sunday?
Well, of course I would
do that – because I love Joel, and wanted to offer help to him! And I would be home on Saturday night!
* * *
Listen to how Paul writes about this to the
Galatian Jesus people. For
you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one
another. Then Paul writes: For the whole law is
summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as
yourself." (There Paul is just quoting Jesus’ words, as
you may remember[2] – and
Jesus was simply quoting Leviticus![3] This is Biblical religion in its most pure
form!)
Love actually requires
a much higher standard of behavior than following rules! When there are rules to follow, isn’t it
natural to ask: “What’s the minimum I need to do to pass?”
Does that describe love?! When you’re acting out of love, aren’t you
free from calculation?
Paul is writing about
our freedom from a religion of rules. That’s because we are freed from the need to
save ourselves (because Christ has already done that, through his death and
resurrection). Instead, we are set free
to love!
However, perhaps you see the tension of
this, in our freedom in Christ?
Martin Luther, that great interpreter of
Paul, describes the paradox, in two of his most famous sentences:
“The Christian individual is a completely
free lord of all, subject to none.
“The Christian individual is a completely
dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”[4]
Both
are true, you see, based in
what Paul is writing to the Galatians: For freedom Christ
has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery….For you were called to freedom,
brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for
self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single
commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus
the Christ has made you and me “completely free” to love! When we love other people, we want to serve
them! Right? We are “subject” to their needs!
Doesn’t this sound
wonderful, this religion of love rather than a religion of rules? If only that described the Jesus people in
Galatia...
Paul is having to write this letter to them
because they are not acting as dutiful servants of each other, in love. Instead, they are self-indulgent. They are competing with each other, out of
their self-centered egos. And they are
destroying their communities. They are
biting and devouring each other. Paul
writes: For the whole law is summed up in a single
commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If, however, you bite and devour one another,
take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Then Paul writes: Live
by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. I
have to make a comment here, about the word, “flesh.” In our sex-saturated culture, we immediately
associate “flesh” with “sex.” That causes
us to emphasize sexual sins, and to give less attention to sins that God is
much more concerned with, according to the Biblical witness: such as blowing
off worship and sabbath practice, and leaving the poor in their poverty, and treating
strangers as if they’re not welcome. Instead,
when Paul uses the Greek word, sarx,
flesh, he is naming our fallen nature, rebellious towards God. “Flesh” means our competitive behavior, our
self-indulgent actions. “Flesh” means
self-centered behavior that destroys community.
(For Paul, in his letters, without fail, his chief concern is the health
of the community he is writing to.)
Paul writes: For what the flesh
desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the
flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you
want. But if you are led by
the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. And then come two of Paul’s
lists of behaviors. First, Paul names
behaviors that are self-centered and without love for the others in the
community. These are behaviors that
destroy community: Now the works of the flesh are
obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities,
strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness,
carousing, and things like these. I am
warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit
the kingdom of God. Now: instead of these community-destroying
behaviors that Paul is observing among the Galatians, what does he invite them
into? He writes: By
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against
such things. For me, these are the most
important verses in the entire Bible.
They are the guide – to what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus.
“There is no law against such things.” Paul is telling us that we are freed from a
religion of law, of rules. We are
enabled, by God the Holy Spirit, to practice a religion of love: Biblical
religion! Because we love, of course we do not engage in behavior
that condemns people and excludes people and destroys community! That is because “For freedom Christ has set
us free.” And God the Holy Spirit bears
fruit within and among us: love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
In the name of God, who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor
Andy Ballentine
[1]
For instance, the verses we skip in the lectionary reading, Galatians 5:2-12,
is a call to reject circumcision.
[2]
Matthew 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-28
[3]
Leviticus 19:18
[4]
Martin Luther, “The Freedom of a Christian” in Timothy J. Wengert, ed., The Annotated Luther Volume 1: The Roots of
Reform (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), page 488.
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