The Most Famous Galatians Passage

Galatians 5:16-25 - So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

 

So how did it go?  Last time, I encouraged you to make an effort to act lovingly towards all for one whole day.  I gave it a go as well.  I must say that I think I did better than I would have if I hadn’t adopted the conscious intention to love all day long.  I edited some of my smart-ass remarks before they came out of my mouth.  I made an effort to speak some kindness to others that I all too often withhold.  I tried to be thoughtful and do some favors for others that I could have easily gotten away with not doing.  The consciously-held intention to love did make a difference.

Before you applaud my efforts, I also have to say that I failed miserably.  I mentioned that I edited only SOME of my smart-ass comments.  I was only half-listening when someone I claim to love was talking to me.  I failed to follow-up with someone that was expecting to me do so.  I could go on and on, but the point is that although I made a bold effort to love all at all times for just one day, I couldn’t do it. Furthermore, it was exhausting.  Holding that intention all day literally made my brain hurt.  You might have had  similar experience.  We can’t will our way into loving perfectly. 

Willing our way into living right is a good way to describe what Paul says are the “acts of the flesh” above.  Left to our own devices, we invariably check off some of boxes on the list Paul makes of those acts of the flesh.  Even with good intentions, we can’t seem to avoid the pitfalls all the time.  Admitting that is Step 1; our lives have become unmanageable.  The surprise is that admitting our inability is actually the beginning of getting better.  It is this confession that helps us know that we need help and the help we need is God. 

Fortunately, God is willing.  God has given the Holy Spirit to all who have asked and the Holy Spirit is how Love begins to live through us.  When that happens, the fruit of the Spirit begins to bloom in us.  It’s not magic and instantaneous (I wish it were!).  Most often, it’s a gradual transformation of our character.  Theologians call this the process of sanctification, the gracious work of the Spirit living in us.  Hundreds of books have been written about it, but the process has yet to be demystified.  That’s because knowledge about such things is “too wonderful” (Ps. 139:6) for us.  The good news is we don’t have to be able to explain it fully to have it work in us.  We just have to believe and expect that it will work in us.

As I recall some “video clip” memories in my mind of who I was when I was a teen, I sometimes struggle to recognize that young man.  It makes me realize how much work God has done on my soul.  The crazy thing is that, at the very same time, I am so much more acutely aware than that young man was of how much more work God has yet to do on me yet.   The work will continue; I expect that it will.  I will try to cooperate.   I invite you to do the same.

 

Question:  Can you identify at least one bona fide difference in the “fruit” being displayed in your life now compared to the time before you knew God?

 

Prayer:  God of Sanctifying Grace, we know we are not who we are destined to be yet, but we thank you that we are not what we used to be.  We expect that you will continue to produce the fruit of your Spirit in and through us.  We can’t wait to see what you will do next. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time asking God to show you what the Spirit is doing in you during this season of your life. 

 

Song:  Breathe on Me - Hillsong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHnomHnH51A

When This Happens, We Should Take it Personally

Mark 15:15-20, CEB - Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, so he released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus whipped, then handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the palace known as the governor’s headquarters, and they called together the whole company of soldiers.  They dressed him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on him.  They saluted him, “Hey! King of the Jews!”  Again and again, they struck his head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt before him to honor him.  When they finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

 

            We live in a culture that is de-sensitized to violence.  The large majority of the top TV shows and movies have an abundance of it.  We’ve even learned to tolerate actual violence.  Lawmakers, in the shadow of more than one mass shooting a day in this country, do nothing to address the problem.  Lest you think I am scapegoating them for the rest of us, I remind you and myself that we keep electing the lawmakers that have done nothing to address the problem and we keep watching those violent shows and movies that get top ratings. 

            I do notice people who are different than this.  They tend to be people for whom violence is personal experience.  The most passionate activists for change are often people who have lost loved ones to violence or who have experienced it personally.  When it’s a problem that has affected other people whom we don’t know or have a relationship, we can distance ourselves and disconnect to protect ourselves from it.  People who know violence up close do not have that luxury. 

            In today’s passage, God Himself encounters the violence and cruelty of which of human beings are capable.  Jesus is whipped on orders from a Roman Governor that stated publicly that Jesus had done nothing wrong; Pilate gives the order to satisfy the bloodthirsty crowd.  Jesus is then mocked, tortured, and spit upon by a whole company Roman soldiers.  They were careful enough not to kill Him though.  For the real show of violence was still to come.  We’ll talk about that more next time.

            My point today is when we hear things like “turn the other cheek,” love your enemies,” and “do not take vengeance” coming from the lips of Jesus, we can know that He doesn’t say such things from a position of someone for whom violence is very personal thing.  When families are torn apart by the brutality “out there,” God knows the terrible idiosyncrasies of that experience.  When a spouse is verbally and/or physically abused, Jesus knows that terror.  When a missile explodes through an apartment complex full of innocent civilians in a country racked by war, God knows the incredible weight of that loss. 

            Despite our culture, violence should be personal for every follower of Jesus because it is personal for Jesus Himself.  So don’t read the above passage as would a story in a book or watch “The Passion of the Christ” as you would watch the latest episode of “Yellowstone.”  Your brother Jesus is the one getting beat up here.  The God who is our Father is losing His son here. When they mock, tease, and spit on Jesus, it should be as though they were doing it to us.  This is as personal as it gets. 

 

Question:  How has the suffering of real people in the world and of Jesus touched your life?

 

Prayer:  God, we confess that we have a complicated relationship with violence.  We have found ways to de-sensitize ourselves to it so it doesn’t overwhelm us.  But it has also distanced us from the violence You Yourself experienced.  Break our hearts for the things that break Yours.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the victims of specific occurrences of violence of which you are aware.  Pray for those people as you would a brother, sister, parent, or child in the same situation.

 

Song:  Towards the end of this song, hear these lyrics that are a prayer:

Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to the things unseen,

Show me how to love like you have loved me.

Break my heart for what breaks Yours, everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause

As I walk from Earth into eternity.

Hosana – Hillsong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVPYVXITk5w

More Important Than Serving the Poor?

Mark 14:1-11, CEB - It was two days before Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and legal experts through cunning tricks were searching for a way to arrest Jesus and kill him.  But they agreed that it shouldn’t happen during the festival; otherwise, there would be an uproar among the people.

Jesus was at Bethany visiting the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. During dinner, a woman came in with a vase made of alabaster and containing very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke open the vase and poured the perfume on his head.  Some grew angry. They said to each other, “Why waste the perfume?  This perfume could have been sold for almost a year’s pay and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.

Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me.  You always have the poor with you; and whenever you want, you can do something good for them. But you won’t always have me.  She has done what she could. She has anointed my body ahead of time for burial.  I tell you the truth that, wherever in the whole world the good news is announced, what she’s done will also be told in memory of her.”

Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to give Jesus up to them.  When they heard it, they were delighted and promised to give him money. So he started looking for an opportunity to turn him in.

 

                There is an awful lot to say about this passage, so I will try to economical in my highlights.

                First,  The passage begins and ends with the conspiracy to stop Jesus permanently.  In the beginning, it is the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus’s known opponents since His ministry started three years ago.  At the end, they gain the help of one of Jesus’s closest friends.  The implication here is that any of us on the continuum between friend and foe are capable of betraying the One who would save us.     

                In the middle, we have the controversial story an extremely expensive gift lavished on Jesus. He is anointed with perfume that is worth a year’s wages.  Most Christians have heard this story before and know that Jesus defends the woman’s incredible, if not wasteful gift.  But before we side too quickly with Jesus, I invite you to hear the legitimate protest.   What is your income in a year?  Hold that figure in your mind for a moment. Have you ever given someone a gift worth that amount of money just to show your love for them?  To put this in perspective, the average engagement ring given in America costs 4% of the annual salary of the person who gives it.  Also keep in mind that the woman would have been able to take care of her and/or her family for a year by selling this perfume instead of offering the gift.  To say that this is an extravagant gift is an understatement. 

                So why does Jesus defend the gift.  Jesus gives us a couple of clues in His answer.  First, he highlights that it is her choice to give the gift (She has done what SHE could).  The disciples don’t get to decide what is done with this woman’s resource; she does.  Second, Jesus points out that this is a once-in-history opportunity.  The compulsion to help the poor never ends.  This moment of uncalculated love on the woman’s part has marked a moment that will only happen once in history – the death of God’s Son.  There are rare moments where we have an opportunity to do something beautiful out of love that transcend conventional wisdom about counting the cost.  The extravagance of the gift is not the point.  The love that doesn’t care about the extravagance is.  Obviously, on almost all occasions, supporting the poor would be a better choice than wasting expensive resources on a fleeting gesture. We are reminded here though that we should not judge someone whose heart is driven by only by selfless love.  This woman’s gift foreshadows the unthinkable gift that Jesus Himself is about to give her and all the rest of us.   

                Jesus’s death is made even more imminent because Judas, the friend and pledged disciple of Jesus, helps the authorities do what they could not do easily without him – arrest Jesus discreetly so as not to attract the attention of the crowds of people gathered for Passover.  The fact that it is Passover further intensifies the cosmic symbolism of a sacrifice being given to save a people.  Jesus will become the forever sacrifice for all of us.  This rich and poignant story marks the beginning of Mark’s account of that sacrifice. 

 

Questions:  Two sacrifices are highlighted in this passage:  the sacrificial gift of the unnamed woman and the sacrifice about to be made by Jesus.  As you consider the striking comparison between them, how does what you have offered to Jesus compare? 

 

Prayer:  Dear God, may our hearts be guided by Your presence within us as seek to care for those in need and express our love to You.  May we not shy away from sacrificial giving of ourselves and our resources for Your purposes as we respond to Your sacrificial love for us.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the congregation where you worship as they prepare for the Lenten season.

 

Song:  Lead Me to The Cross – Hillsong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuR3jXrIiNQ

The Gloves are Off

Mark 12:1-12, CEB - Jesus spoke to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower. Then he rented it to tenant farmers and took a trip.  When it was time, he sent a servant to collect from the tenants his share of the fruit of the vineyard.  But they grabbed the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.  Again the landowner sent another servant to them, but they struck him on the head and treated him disgracefully.  He sent another one; that one they killed. The landlord sent many other servants, but the tenants beat some and killed others.  Now the landowner had one son whom he loved dearly. He sent him last, thinking, They will respect my son.  But those tenant farmers said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’  They grabbed him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

“So what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.  Haven’t you read this scripture, The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.  The Lord has done this, and it’s amazing in our eyes?”

They wanted to arrest Jesus because they knew that he had told the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.

 

Jesus continues his challenge to the religious leaders at the temple with the telling of this story which is obviously about them.  Almost complete scholarly interpretation makes the following connections between the parable and reality:

God = Landowner

Vineyard = Israel

Tenant Farmers = Religious leaders

Servants sent to tenants = Prophets

Son = Jesus

The parable is both convicting and prophetic.  The religious leaders knew the story was told against them and they do not try to argue.  In fact, they proceed to continue down the path that the parable predicts; they set out to throw the Son/Jesus out of the Vineyard/Israel and kill him. 

                Jesus’s commentary on the parable is the centerpiece of this passage.  The “vineyard” will be taken away from the “tenants” and given to others.  Mark makes it obvious that those “others” are the church formed after Jesus’s death, resurrection and ascension.  Jesus then quotes Psalm 118 to make a further connection with the parable and further prophecy on what is about to happen.  The Stone/Son that was rejected has become the Cornerstone.  The Lord will make the crucified Jesus the center of the in-breaking Kingdom of God. 

                The takeaway for the twenty-first century church is that those who lead Jesus’s church are now the tenant farmers.  If they are not good stewards of the vineyard/church, the same fate should be expected as the first-century temple leaders;  the vineyard will be handed over to others.  The message is to be good stewards of all that God has given us influence over and be faithful in offering fruit back to God.  The church provides our spiritual (and in some cases, even physical) livelihood, but its purpose is to provide a harvest for God.  We forget or forsake that at own peril.

 

Question:  How effective is the church where you belong at producing a harvest for God?  What is your role in that purpose?

 

Prayer:  Lord of the Harvest, as leaders and laborers in Your Vineyard, give us clear awareness of the fruit You expect to see from the investment You have made in us.  Forgive us for the ways in which we have strayed from Your purposes.  Give us the wisdom and strength to be good stewards of all that you have given. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for two specific people today.  First, pray for someone you know you can learn from right now.  Second, pray for someone you can help right now.

 

Song:  Cornerstone – Hillsong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izrk-erhDdk

Praying in Faith and Faithful in Prayer

Mark 11:20-24, CEB - Early in the morning, as Jesus and his disciples were walking along, they saw the fig tree withered from the root up.  Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look how the fig tree you cursed has dried up.”

Jesus responded to them, “Have faith in God!  I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen.  Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you.

 

                As we noted in our last reflection, Mark uses the story about the fig tree as metaphor for the fruitlessness of the Temple and its leaders.  In today’s reflection, it serves another purpose.  The day after Jesus condemns the confronts the money-changers and Temple leaders, Jesus and His disciples are walking by the tree Jesus had cursed the day before.  Peter notices aloud that the tree has withered and dried up.  Jesus uses the observation as an object lesson on prayer.  His words bear repeating:

“Jesus responded to them, “Have faith in God!  I assure you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea’—and doesn’t waver but believes that what is said will really happen—it will happen.  Therefore I say to you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you will receive it, and it will be so for you.”

These words from Jesus have been woefully misused over the years.  Jesus is not saying that we can ask for literally anything and it will be done.  As we have discussed, hyperbole (purposeful exaggeration) was a common oral and literary device used by Rabbis in Jesus’s day.  No one since these words were uttered have cast a mountain into the sea (and you know there have been people to attempt it).  Jesus’s point here is that the combination of faith and prayer is very powerful.  This combination accomplishes miraculous things that would otherwise be impossible. 

                When we pray with faith in Jesus, we bring the power and authority of Jesus into the equation.  Prayer is not a way to control this power and authority, but rather it creates a partnership.  We invite Jesus to be involved in the issues we are facing.  This is important because way too often, we don’t invite God into our affairs.  Many people tend toward two approaches in which neither is healthy or effective.  Either we actively work to accomplish things on our own and exclude God or we just let things happen as they will, not really believing that we can have any effect on the outcome.  The first is a lack of prayer and the latter is a lack of faith.  Jesus invitation is to engage both.  Prayer invites Jesus to be involved and faith trusts that doing so changes what is possible.  The miraculous becomes more commonplace for people who live engaging this powerful combination.

 

Question:  When have you witnessed the miraculous as result of faith-filled prayer?

 

Prayer:  Lord, You know the challenges I face right now.  I invite you into a partnership in facing them.  I believe that You getting involved will make all the difference! Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Invite God into “the impossible” in your prayers today.

 

Song:  All Things are Possible – Hillsong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GQwqnwVeSk