Sermon June 27, 2010 Gal. 5:13-25, 2 Kings 2:1-14

So often, we speak of the Christian life as full of rules, especially don;t do that. We do not get that Picture from scripture. In our passage from Paul, instead we are called to freedom. The only rule is the ancient one to -love neighbor as oneself and serve the other . Sometimes I wish that we had a few more specific rules for the Christian life. Sure we have the 10 Commandments and Jesus's 2 part love command. I guess I would like 10 christian commandments but not as difficult as those given in the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Please don;t see the flesh as equal to the body, but it is more an opposing force to the work of the spirit. Yes we see an opposition of flesh and spirit. This dichotomy is similar to the notion in  Hebrew of an evil and good impulse warring within us.So we do get a virtue and vice list- we are part of a conflict, like it or not. the vices .destroy community-(participle is continuing action over time)-this removes us from the way of God and the road to a more fulfilling life. While

fruit is singular,  this is what the harvest looks like. I think of Ezekiel looking toward a renewed Eden where the tree of life would supply fruit all through the year. here it is clearly inner, spiritual fruit. While love and self-discipline frame the list Paul does not provide a list of rules and even dos and don'ts. Instead, he presents them  both as a way of life. In Theology today an article speaks of the appeal of people joining monastic communities again. Really, the rules are quite simple, but they yearn for a way to learn to live together and with God in a structured way, where the bright lines of family life, work life, and recreation blur together.

 

Yesterday, I officiated at 2 community services for people in their nineties. in both instances, the family remembered and missed seemingly small things about them, laughter and enthusiasm. If we take a step back, Paul's virtue list looks a lot like a description of learning to be happy. the vice list looks like a recipe for making yourself and those around you miserable. Fruit emerges on its own, but it does require cultivation. Perhaps one way is to take one piece of Paul list of spiritual fruit a week, or a month. That way it would be a year's project, as in the Ezekiel image. . Ask yourself how a thought or action aligns itself with the particular virtue.

 

Let me try it another way. Elijah uses a mantle as a symbolic gesture when Elisha is called to be a prophet, and then he hands it over as a sign of authority to his former assistant. Sometimes, parents try to force a mantle on to us. sometimes it is just assumed that we will grow up to follow their dreams. Paul used a baptismal image of wearing a new garment to symbolize our new way of life in Christ. Think of the life in the Spirit as wearing one or all of the virtues. We used to have a saying that clothes made the person, back when dress was more formal than today. Wearing a virtue , inhabiting its space, will help mold us into the kind of person who embodies a particular virtue and takes off its corresponding vice. We can grow into the virtue, as we grew into a pair of hand me down clothes or my stomach wants to grow into whatever size belt I expand to.Keeping the virtue of peace around us in a conscious way could well help us on our road to becoming a more peaceful person. Filling our minds and hearts with thsoe virtues as aspirations gives us  a wonderful goal in life: to be happy and to make life better for those around us.