Galatians 5:13-25
August 3
Lauren J. McFeaters
Jump to audio
When I was a teenager, my father gifted me with the first edition of The Book of Lists. You may or may not remember this book. It was a publishing phenomenon; the first of its kind; a compilation of unusual facts, a collection of cultural curiosities, and lists from the mundane to the bizarre, like:
- Jane Austen’s best heroines.
- The world’s greatest libel suits.
- Actors who turned down great roles.
- The Holy Land’s most sacred spots.
- Unusual stolen objects.
- And my favorite: 18 Sayings of Oscar Wilde. [ii]
I was very grateful for this gift because, as a kid who read the Encyclopedia Britannica for fun and who would rather be in a library than a softball field, I found a collection of the most interesting information. And remember, this was decades ago – no internet, no online research, no Google, so here was a guide that helped me catalogue and synthesize information. It helped me in school and in church because I suddenly had a new way of visualizing details. I started making lists, and I experienced history and literature as accessible and within reach.
My lists were academic and fun. For instance: Lauren, what are your favorite films? My Favorite Films are Ship of Fools, Raise the Red Lantern, Kind Hearts & Coronets, and Looking for Bobby Fischer
Greatest Actors? Alec Guinness, Sidney Poitier
Best Vocalists? K. D. Lang, Bill Withers, Rhiannon Giddens, Van Morrison
Favorite Authors: Kazuo Ishiguro, James McBride, Ngaio Marsh, John le Carre
Beloved Hebrew Prophets: Miriam, Micah, Deborah, Jeremiah
It’s become a hobby, keeping a journal of lists – prayers to be said, books to be read, liturgical readings to be followed, series to be watched, museums to be visited. It’s had an unexpected effect on me, because there a kind of security, when you have a place to keep track of things, a place to remember.
Our text today is a kind of a Biblical Book of Lists. Paul, who never shied away from a list, takes us through a registry of faithful living in the Spirit; an inventory of a life with God, and the security of knowing a freedom in our Lord leads to liberation and blessing.
It is absolutely clear, God has called you to sacred freedom, Paul says. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your Spirit-given freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows.
My friends, says Paul, everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And a free spirit is incompatible with selfishness.
It’s obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get our own way all of the time; when selfishness takes over? Here’s Paul’s list. We experience repetitive, loveless, and cheap sex; fetid accumulations of emotional garbage; frenzied indulgences; joyless grabs for gratification; merciless competitions; brutal tempers; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives. We could go on. It’s a list that shakes and crumbles us.
But what happens, asks Paul, when we “love your neighbor as ourselves, when we put away the devouring of one another, and pause before we gratify our egos? Well, if we commit, together, to live by the Spirit, then, by contrast, God brings gifts into our lives that we can hardly imagine.
It’s the same way fruit appears on the peach trees at Terhune Orchard, or the tomatoes ripening on the vine in your gardens, or the sweet corn freshly harvested at the Trenton Farmers’ market. All fragrant and all gifts from God. God gifts us with a deeply scented concern for those who are suffering and the ability to act on their behalf; an aromatic affection for those in anguish and a new capacity for openhandedness; and God infuses us with an understanding of injustices meted out to the poor and then the skills needed to feed, clothe, visit and to turn poverty on its head.
Living in the Spirit also comes with serenity and composure; a peacefulness that gifts us with groundedness and allows us to live in our world filled with incessant political tantrums that try to distract us from the truth. Living in the Spirit obliterates these distractions, and we live with poise and calm. Poise and calm – the antidotes to the toxic chaos that tries its best to divert us, but will never have the last word. [iii]
And here’s the thing. There will be constant moments throughout this day and week when we’ll be tempted to detach ourselves from our groundedness in faith. It often happens when something is dangled in front of us as a promise to distract:
- It’s the lure of an iPhone Pro Max in Barbie Pink.
- The car that promises us a “Season of Dreams” if we purchase the Mercedes-Benz EQB 300 4MATIC.
- The HP Z Book Fury 16 G11 Mobile Workstation PC might set us back 9K, but promises that in using it, we can “expand and evolve.”
The temptations of this day will never end. Somewhere out there, we’ll find a microbrewery offering us the fellowship of the pub; a yogurt that will cure our gut woes; a deodorant that, head to toe, is going to make us feel better about our bodies; and Macy’s, which this very week, is generously inviting us to start our Christmas shopping.
Paul, however, would like us to cease the nonsense and to stand with Christ, who does not deny the existence of the things of the world, but gives those things the perspective they deserve.
We’re not created for the things we want, or own, or have to have, are we? We’re not created for the things we crave or desire. We’re not created to be seduced into purchases, relationships, and possessions. We’re created for the Lord who calls us to freedom.
In our world turned inside out and shaken up and down, Paul comes to us with a prayer that convicts us to get down on our knees, asking God to fortify us and to love us into sanity.
When you have experienced the anchoring love of God’s sanity – you can never be the same – that the breadth of God’s love will never leave your side; that you are then bowled over by wonder, and that there is nothing left to do, but to come to the Table of Joy, and feast with the One who frees us.
So come with joy even if your hearts are broken, for here is our joy, here is our nourishment, and my friends, here is our freedom.
ENDNOTES
[ii] David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace. The People’s Almanac Presents the Book of Lists, New York: William Morrow & Co., 1977.
[iii] Inspired by Eugene Petersen’s The Message. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 397-398, 1993.