June 20, 2010

One In Christ Jesus

June 20, 2010 ~ Father’s Day

and the Celebration of the Gifts of Men

Psalm 43 read responsively and Galatians 3:23-29

Preached by Linda Jo Peters

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Psalm 43 read responsively
We all have yearned to know God, to be intimate with the divine. Much seems to separate us from a close relationship with God. The psalmist knew this yearning and the desire that God would guide us clearly and definitively.

1Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; from those who are deceitful and unjust deliver me!
2For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?
3O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.
5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.

Galatians 3:23-29
Our passage begins with Paul's assertion that the Law functioned to enslave us and expose our weaknesses. It functioned like the slave who was responsible for disciplining children for their education (frequently very harshly!). People who see in the Biblical Law something with ongoing relevance as an expression of God's guidance will be appalled by Paul's descriptions. In the next chapter, Paul will speak of Gentiles who were once enslaved to false gods! You can almost hear the affront that he would associate commitment to scripture with enslavement to pagan gods! Paul made such claims because some of the Galatian Christians had turned the Law into a set of demands which became almost a set of qualifications one had to meet before one was acceptable to God. Does this sound like some Christians today for whom biblical laws have become not a source of generous guidance but an instrument of oppression? We have been given something much more wonderful than the Law, we have been given Christ Jesus!

23Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

SERMON

Today we celebrate and give thanks for the gifts of men, in particular fathers and grandfathers, who provide safe havens for children, in their homes as well as in their hearts. But also for men who are disciples of Jesus Christ and lead others to know and serve him. I want us to move away from the great macrocosms of my last two sermons that exposed what breeds slavery, pollution and greed to the microcosm of intimate relationships between family, friends and church. The power to grow healthy relationships and make effective changes in our society comes from being open to the Holy Spirit.

For me the best image of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit is that of fire as the church has used for many years. When the Holy Spirit is present there are no laws that can contain our love and it shoots across rivers of distrust and hate and jumps barriers erected by prejudice. It consumes us and reforms us in the body of Christ. No wonder the Galatians wanted the Law back. They had actively participated in the fire of the Holy Spirit and they were afraid of the glorious uncontrolled freedom it brings! Are we not just as afraid?
We write law after law in an effort to change human behavior. But without changing the human heart, no significant change can last. What turns a self center, egotistical man into a loving and devoted father? A change of heart! If a child can do that, think what being open to the Holy Spirit can do for a man. Men are sometimes derided for being so task oriented. But that is how God designed them to be. Here is a story that affirms the movement of the Holy Spirit using men’s gifts to set a goal and accomplish a task.

Water in the Presbytery of the Mid-South didn’t flow — it froze. Inches of ice built up until the weight began snapping trees and power lines throughout east Arkansas, the boot heel of Missouri, and northwest Tennessee. “All we could do was shake our heads. We didn’t know where to start,” related the Rev. Warren Wilkewitz, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Blytheville, Arkansas. A week later, in February 2009, the first Disaster Assistance Relief Teams (DART) arrived in Blytheville with chainsaws, water, and batteries.

The Spirit started moving through the presbytery a couple of years before the ice storm. One man’s ministry was organizing disaster relief groups. Then a group of folks gathered to discern a call to “do something” and DART was born. After just one announcement, many churches offered people power and equipment to the team. Then the ice storm hit. Largely unprepared but willing and able, DART answered the call.

“We didn’t know who would respond — sandwich makers, counselors?” said Jayn Lando, elder at Advent Church and DART leader. “It quickly became clear that we’re a chainsaw team first and whatever else is needed after that. They just brought their equipment and sleeping bags and were ready to help.”

“Do something” ultimately meant restore hope, bring order, listen to the stories, hold a hand, pray. With friendships forged, the team members share more than chainsaw oil: they share the willingness to listen for the next call and answer together, being blessed by becoming the hands of Christ.

Even their prayer is simple and to the point:

"Tell us what to do, O God, and give us hearts to respond. Amen."

The good news is that God has a plan for each of us and for all of us working together. We have different gifts and passions but bound together with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can make a huge difference. Together we are all “heirs according to the promise.” Men and woman, fathers and grandfathers, single and married, with children and without, we are all one in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Resource: Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study The Presbytery of the Mid-South for June 14, 2010