Sermon - 2013-06-19

Within the letter to the Galatians, Paul is striving to gather the people and remind them of the important gift that is Jesus Christ.  Paul wants to get rid of the false teachings that have sprung up within the community and unite them once again as a community of faith in Jesus Christ.  How the Law that was given to us by God does indeed point out that we are sinners and in need of God’s love but that it is not through the Law that we are saved and what we do but we are free through Jesus Christ, the very son of God.  If our salvation would be determined by what we do and not what God has done for us, then the death of Christ was indeed for nothing. 

Now most of the people that were gathered together in Galatia were born into Jewish families and became Christians. However, people came into their community and informed them that they needed to be more Jewish in their practice in order to really be a community of faith.  What the people were doing was living in the Gospel and someone gave them the Law once again.  Has that ever happened to you?  You are living the life that God has given to you, teaching others about the good news of Jesus Christ and then the person said, “Well that’s not what we do. You have to be a good person too. You have to live a certain way so that people will know that you are a believer of Jesus Christ.  You have to follow the Ten Commandments.”  

For the record, Jesus never said that. In fact, that is not at all what we believe as Christians.  How does God judge us? God judges us based upon the lives that we lead and how we handle the relationships that we are blessed with. For it is through the gift of the Ten Commandments that we were given insight and understanding of the true love that God desires us to have within our relationships between ourselves and God and among one another. The first three commandments allows us to understand that God, who is our creator and sustainer, wants us to realize that we should give thanks and praise in all that we do for God.  

Through realizing that all within our life is indeed a gift and something that should be cherished and given thanks for. Along with that, our actions and words should be honorable to God.  Not only that, but we should also take time within our life to spend time with our creator so that we can have a faithful and solid relationship with God.  The next seven commandments give us insight into the important relationships that we have and the important care that we should give to them.  Often this is how people think that God shall judge us, based on our actions among one another.  Yet Jesus pushes each one of us farther and with even more discipline.  For Jesus notes that even if a thought crosses your mind about committing a commandment,then you have already broken it.  (This also pushes you to realize that you basically always are breaking the commandments and thus are sinning.  Yet again, we turn to our creator and sustainer.)

When Jesus comes and tell us this, it is too much for us to take.  We send Jesus to the cross.  We crucify Jesus.  Which is perhaps not what you intended to do, but still you do it without even realizing it because it was not something that you could prevent.  Jesus had to die on the cross. For even on the cross, Jesus says, "Forgive them Father for they know not what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)  Here on the cross, Jesus suffered and died for you.  Yes, Jesus is raised from the dead and ascends to the right hand of the Father.  

Then we are given the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us.  Which brings us to your second question, "Do we feel the same suffering because we have the Holy Spirit?"  It is not because of the Holy Spirit that we suffer but because of sin.  This does not mean your own sin alone but a combined sin, yours, mine and all those who you encounter along with those who you don't. We suffer because sin is still present in the world.  Yes, Jesus did conquer sin, the devil and death, However, Jesus did not conquer YOU.  Jesus loved you so much that he could not and would not destroy you, but instead suffered and died for you so that you may enjoy the new life that is found within him.  Here in this world, we are able to realize what life was like before Jesus (suffering, painful, and hard) but then realize that Jesus loves us and calls us to be free to help those around us because we have already been given all that we need and we do not need to strive for anything else.  It has all been given to YOU but YOU are now called to be instruments to help others.

Do not worry about being judged by God.  For God has already judged you and his judgement for you is LOVE.  It is because of that Love that God wants to share you with those around you, with those people who have not realized that God loves them, or those who have realized but then forgot, or for those who know and will share God's love with you.  You WANT to do the Law because Christ has set you free from the Law.  I know that doesn’t make sense when you first hear it but then again life doesn’t always make sense.  

Ok, so how can this look in life? When I grew up, the church I belonged to had a great youth program.  We were able to do so much with our friends it was amazing.  I can still remember going down to Kansas City, Mo.  We were going down to help a church, to see how they worshipped and what their life was like.  We drove down on our church bus.  The week before, the adults warned us not to bring our expensive CD players, cell phones, or other expensive items.  You won’t want them or need them.  In fact, it would be better if you did not have them.  As we drove down, we did what we normally did, played cards.  After that long drive, we began to see where we would be spending the weekend.  It was not the nice part of Kansas City, but the abandoned cars with broken out windows, the houses that were boarded up, and the grass that was waist high indicated to us, “we weren’t at home anymore”.  

Our leader pulled up to a house that needed a lot of care on the outside and said, this is where we were staying.  We got off the bus, grabbed our stuff and was welcomed by a middle age white man who was the pastor there.  He opened the front door of the church, a thick bullet proof door with three locks.  We could then proceed into the church.  When you got inside, it was a home that was changed into a church.  The kitchen was still in place, the living room was now the sanctuary, and well anything else they needed it to be.  The Pastor informed us that we shall be staying here, but that we were perfectly safe.  The door was new after the last break in three months ago and the security system would notify the police if someone did try to break in.  As such, we would not be outside in the dark because it was not safe.  

After that, we got to go on a tour of the neighborhood.  The Pastor took us and showed us around.  The church had been reclaiming the neighborhood from the local gangs.  As we walked down he would point out how many people would live in each home, often it was several families.  When we came to the boarded up homes, he would inform us that this use to be where drugs were sold. Here they had a meth lab explode.  We would be working on some of the lawns and painting some of the buildings that had been cleaned up and were going to be reclaimed for families.  The first thing I helped out with was mowing the lawn.  It soon became apparent that it was not simply going to be using a lawn mower to trim.  First we would kind of thrash it down and then mow it.  That took a few hours and then we had only one mower that worked.  So we took turns, and while those of us who didn’t mow, started painting.  I got to paint with the Pastor and I remember painting a hole.  I stopped after my brush went over it and I could put my finger into it.  He informed me that it was a bullet hole.  

The church was working at bringing new life into the neighborhood, to bring hope, comfort and a sense of community here.  It was a slow process.  You see, destruction is easy but to create something that takes some time, that takes a community.  Yet what I was reminded of more than anything is that even when things are terrible and even God seems against you, God still loves you.  God’s love for you overcomes that anger and that work that you are doing against God so that God can bless you.  For no matter how much you may run away from God, no matter where you go or what you do, God will find you and care for you. 

That Law that was given to us does point out what we are doing wrong but after Jesus we WANT to do the Law to actually take care of those around us because God has taken care of us.