This sermon finished a series of sermons on Galatians. it probably should have been two sermons, but it was scheduled for only one week, so I did it all in one sermon!
“Another Way of Living” July 21, 2019; SAPC, Denton; Galatians 5 and 6 Richard B. Culp
Galatians 6: 11-18 See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. 14 May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For[b] neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! 16 As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
17 From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.
18 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters.[c] Amen.
Move 1: With all that Paul writes about not living by the law, we know the temptation;
we know why the Galatians are tempted to live by the law;
We know why Christians through the centuries have been tempted to live by the law;
We know why we are tempted to live by the law.
a. Living by the law seems easier.
1. The law lays it out there.
2. Do this or do not do that.
3. It would be easy to take Paul’s list of living by the flesh and make it into a series of laws that would keep us in line.
3. the laws would give us a measuring stick to judge ourselves.
4. Better yet, the laws would give us a measuring stick to judge others.
5. And, as an added bonus, we could begin finding ways to work around the law, and rationalize why it is ok for us to work around the law, but not okay for those others.
6. Easy to see the attraction of living by the law.
b. But Paul invites us to another way of living - living by the spirit.
1. When my girls were in pre-school, there pre-school would bring in guest artists.
2. One of the guest artists was Jim McCutcheon, who was the “Guitar Man.” He would come in and show off and play all sorts of string instruments related to a guitar.
3. of course, he also sold CDs.
4. of course, we bought a CD for our kids.
5. Or course, my kids quickly outgrew any desire listen to the CD, but I still have it. Still listen to it. in fact, recently it was playing as I drove around Denton.
6. One of my favorite sons is “The Kingerdarten Wall.”
7. I goes something like this:
When I was a little kid, not so long ago,
I had to learn a lot of things I didn't really know,
How to dress myself, tie my shoes, how to jump a rope,
How to smile for a picture without looking like a dope.
But of all the things I learned, my favorite of them all,
Was the little poem hanging on the kindergarten wall.
Of all you learn here, remember this the best
Don't hurt each other and clean up your mess.
Take a nap every day, wash before you eat
Hold hands, stick together,
Look before you cross the street.
Remember the seed in the little paper cup,
First the root goes down, then the plant grows up! (Kindergarten Wall, By John McCutcheon; guitar man; https://lyricstranslate.com/en/john-mccutcheon-kindergarten-wall-lyrics.html)
1. Notice, the kindergarten wall teaches the children how to live togehter by calling them to a higher expectation than obeying a set of laws.
2. you could legislate those values, I suppose.
3. You could make a series of rules - no biting, no hitting, no kicking. That might help the kids not to hurt each other, but no there are more ways to hurt someone than laws you could make.
4. or what about clean up your mess? You could come up with rules about putting your pencils back in your desk, or throwing away you lunch trash; but could you ever have enough rules to encompass “clean up your mess.”
3. Paul tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.
4. How do you legislate that way of living?
c. To live by the spirit is so much more ambiguous and ambitious than living by the law.
1. Go back just a few verses in Chapter 5 and we discover Paul’s admonition to love one another and be slaves to one another.
2. How much harder to love and be a slave than obeying the law.
3. Yet that is the Chirstian calling - love one another and serve one another.
3. that is what is at stake for Paul - as he envisions a world where we are free from the law, but bound together by love, the only way he can see for us to live is by the Spirit, not by any laws.
Move 2: For Paul, living is the spirit is what is means to be new creations.
a. Just before Paul’s admonition to be a new creation in Chapter 6, we have this odd verse when Paul comments on his writing style.
1. It suggests that Paul had been dictating the latter to someone else, but now what he has to write is so important that he grabs the stylus himself to write the words.
2. What is so important?
3. these words: For[b] neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!
4. Only as we give up our pre-occupation with the law and submit ourselves to live by the spirit can we be shaped and molded by the Spirit into the new creations God calls us to be.
b. For Paul, living in the spirit happens in the real world.
1. Paul does not call us to some “cloudy and vague spiritual world.
2. Paul does not give us the option to say that living with the Spirit is for spiritual people among us - we want to just obey the laws and follow Jesus.
3. All of us, along with along with all those first-century believers, have been called into a world that is empowered by, filled with, and shaped in accordance with the Spirit.
4. Paul expects us to be able to look t the world around us and see the difference between living a Spirit-filled life and choosing to chase after the law.
5. The Spirit-filled life has a higher calling, is more challenging; the Spirit-filled life demands we not settle for our rationalizations, but instead give ourselves over to following the Spirit and living for each other as Christ has lived for us.(http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1684, Sarah Henrich, Luther Seminary)
Here is where we But if good works are not the cause of salvation, they are nonetheless the mark and effect of it. If the forgiven man does not become forgiving, the loved man loving, then he is only deceiving himself. (Frederich Buechner http://www.frederickbuechner.com/blog/2019/7/15/weekly-sermon-illustration-the-fruit-of-the-spirit?rq=galatians%205
Conclusion: Paul finishes his letter to the Galatians much more abruptly than he does most of his other letters.
no flattery or commending of others; just a quick “let no one make trouble for me” followed by “may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brothers and sisters. Amen.”
As if Paul understands the choice between choosing the law or choosing life in the Spirit is a serious battle with so much at stake, flattery is of no use.
they have to make a choice - law or Spirit.
We have to make a choice.
Amen.
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