Love & Fatherhood

Sermon planned for Sunday, June 19th, 2011

I invite you to open your bibles to Galatians, chapter five. Last week was Pentecost. If Pentecost is about being welcomed into a Life-in-the-Spirit, then it is fully appropriate that we baptize new Christians on Pentecost. Why? Because baptism is for those who want to take a stand for Jesus, whose Spirit is living inside them; and Pentecost names the ongoing reality of Jesus’ life with us in the Spirit.

We are now living in the season of Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit was not just a one-time deal. Instead, Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit came upon the Church in a unique way – but the Spirit’s presence is an ongoing event; the Spirit’s pouring-out among us is an ongoing event! The life of the Christian – and the life of the Church in general – is a life lived in the space of Pentecost. Our life is lived in the space of the continual outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The life of the Christian is a ‘life in the Spirit’. This ‘life in the Spirit’ is what you and I have been saved for. For this reason, I take time with Catechism students to catch glimpses of how the Holy Spirit is changing these individuals, turning them from sin and moving them towards Jesus.

The Church in the city of Galatia knew that they had received the Holy Spirit; that God had accepted them as Gentiles because of what Jesus had done for them on the cross, and because of their trust in Jesus. The Holy Spirit had claimed these people for God; and yet, Paul heard that there were some who were convincing the Galatians that they now also had to embrace all of the Jewish laws, customs, and holidays. God had accepted the Galatian Christians ‘as is’, and yet, now some were being convinced that they weren’t holy enough – that they needed the extra holiness of Moses’ laws and the various religious practices of Judaism.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written to clarify the issues at stake and to teach the Truth of the gospel. And so, Paul’s main arguments, in this letter, are about the Life in the Spirit versus the life of the flesh; about living by faith rather than living under the law. This summer we’re going to explore what it means to live in the space of Pentecost – what it means to live by the Spirit, rather than the flesh; to live by faith rather than under the law. We’re going to explore life in the Spirit by looking at Paul’s account of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians.

Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians earlier on in his ministry to the Gentiles. Galatians is considered one of his earliest letters. It begins with a defense of his ministry among the Galatians – that Paul’s ministry was commissioned by Jesus himself, and equal to that of the other apostles, and that he was received by the other apostles. After defending himself and his ministry, Paul restates the basic foundation of the gospel. In chapter two verse sixteen we read “that a person is justified not by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ” or “our faith in Jesus Christ”. In other words, we are saved not by what we do, but by what Jesus has done for us.

The rest of the letter explores, from various angles, what it means to live a life of trust in what Jesus has done for us, rather than a life that trusts in our own efforts. A Christian lives a life of freedom – freedom from the law. The reason that we call it freedom is because the Christian life is motivated and powered by the Holy Spirit. It is a life that isn’t held back by anything; but that doesn’t mean that the Christian life is a life of freedom for anything. Because it is a life in the Spirit, it is a freedom from the law, but it is a life freed for a specific purpose. The Christian life is made possible by the Holy Spirit’s living in us, transforming us. And what is the result of this transformation? What is the fruit of the Spirit’s work in our lives? What are the adjectives that describe our freedom?

“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” There is no law that prohibits these virtues. But with the Spirit living inside us, producing this kind of fruit, we are free indeed.

This morning we’re looking at the first part of the Fruit – Love. When the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ moves into our life, it produces love. We become loving people. The kind of love Paul is referring to here is not erotic love or the kind of friendliness you show to your pals at work. Paul is speaking about agape love, self-giving love – the love that we see most clearly displayed in what Jesus did for us on the cross, but also in his life of service, healing, hospitality and welcome. The freedom that we have as Christians is a freedom to love.

Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another. And in his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul said that the summary of the entire law was to love your neighbour as yourself. Is ‘love’ a matter of freedom in the Spirit, or is love a matter of the law or a commandment? And so we get this confusing message about freedom and law. Are we under a set of commandments or are we living freely in the Spirit? Some scholars and theologians even argue that Paul was pulling the Church away from Jesus’ more demanding gospel, by teaching them about a life of freedom in the Spirit. And, unfortunately, this kind of confusion has been part of the Church’s story since the beginning - this confusion between law and freedom, between works and grace, between flesh and Spirit.

How do you see it? Is your life as a Christian a matter of living freely in the Spirit? Or do you understand your Christianity as a matter of obeying God’s rules? In Paul’s time, there were many who went to opposite extremes on this question. Some were so rigid in their application of Moses’ law that they shut out any Christian who hadn’t been circumcised, and those who didn’t follow the practices of Judaism. On the other hand, some were so bent on living a life of complete freedom that they revelled in drunkenness and sexual immorality.

Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians in response to these extremes. He made it clear that nothing you or I do saves us. Everything hangs upon what Christ has done for us. And so living by the law isn’t what counts in salvation. One of our deacons always puts this in a nice way; he says, “nothing you do makes God love you less; and nothing you do can make God love you more than He already does right now”. Our job is to accept the fact of God’s love for us; to accept that love and to then allow God’s love to live in us. But the freedom we have, when we have God’s love living in us, is not just any kind of freedom.

Christian freedom is lived in the space of Pentecost. It is lived-out in a Spirit-filled life. That’s why Paul and Jesus both talk about love as a commandment, or as a summary of all the law. Since the same God who gave Moses the law is now also living in us by His Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit in us is going to be in harmony with the law, even though it is above the law.

Imagine, if you will, a man, a lawmaker in a city not so different than ours. The man goes to his work and writes up a law that all Fathers should love their children. The law passes, and numerous officers are instructed to check on the homes in the city. And so, the officers go from house to house, checking-in to determine if fathers are obeying this new law. One day, a few of the officers come to check on the house of the man – the lawmaker – to see if he too is obeying the law that he made. When they ask his children, and the father, whether or not the Father is obeying the law, the Father responds: “of course I love my children, and I don’t need a law to do that.”

The same God who gave the law to Moses is now with us, by His Holy Spirit. That’s why much of our Christian freedom still connects with the law of Moses. God’s heart shaped the law of Moses. God’s goodness was the foundation of that law. Now God’s heart and goodness are intimately close to each and every one of us, as His Spirit takes up residence in our life. That’s at least one of the reasons why the New Testament is so close to connecting spiritual freedom to the law; and the confusion and extremes on this issue are understandable, even though they’re wrong. We live a life of freedom by the Spirit, which is drawing us closer and closer into a likeness of Jesus Christ. Jesus gives us a new commandment: that we love one another; and yet, because of Jesus’ presence in our lives, love for our neighbours is what comes naturally to us. Love is the fruit that grows in the heart where the Spirit reigns.

In closing I want to turn our focus to today’s celebration of Father’s Day. And what I have to say about Fathers this morning is just as applicable to moms – but I’m talking to dads today because it’s Father’s Day. As with my example, I think Fatherhood, and parenthood in general, is a great way to understand the dynamic between freedom and law in the gospel. For example, it’s against the law for Father’s to abuse their children; but any Christian Father will tell you that they personally don’t need a law for that – because they love their children. It is an unfortunate mark on our culture that we have laws like that, because it reminds us of the many times when Father’s do not love their children. But the love that is imprinted on the heart of Christian Fathers goes far beyond that. The love that Christian Fathers have for their children has numerous other marks; let me name a few of them.

A Christian Father’s love for their children is a love in relationship. It takes time to communicate regularly. A Christian Father spends his evening inquiring about their child’s day at school. A Father’s love takes the time to plan trips to the Ice Cream shop, or a picnic at the park. A Father’s love seeks to build relationship by creating spaces of family time, away from the busy humdrum of everyday life. An example of this is Bill Turner. After many years of a busy life, working in Winnipeg, Bill wanted to change things up a bit and do something special with his family. He looked into employment opportunities in the Caribbean and found a job in his field on some sunny paradise island. Bill, his wife Karen and their two daughters moved to the Caribbean for a year. Bill wanted to have a special memory for his family and his daughters, and so he risked his career, sold all of his possessions in Winnipeg, and headed out for a family adventure. Bill is an example of what can happen when love for their family takes priority.

A Christian Father’s love is a love that guides. Although Christian Fathers understand that being a Christian isn’t about rules, but about freedom in the Spirit, Christian Fathers also recognize that this freedom is directed towards Christ. A Christian Father’s love will set boundaries and limits for their child, explaining how certain paths will lead to destruction, and how some attitudes and habits will make their children captives to sin and death. My dad’s guidance wasn’t always appreciated, but I thank him for it now that I’m older. He strongly warned me about the hatred growing in my heart for the kids that bullied me and teased me at school. He knew that this kind of hatred could grow into something evil and murderous. As a Father, he knew that his role wasn’t to encourage me in everything I was doing; he knew that his role was to provide guidance, boundaries and limits, because His primary calling was to point me, not to freedom of choice, but to freedom in Jesus Christ.

A Christian Father’s love is a love that prepares and instructs. Are you sheltering your child from the world or training them to be courageous disciples in the world? A Father’s love provokes him to teach his children how to navigate the challenges of life. But it’s about more than just giving them good advice or rules-of-thumb. A Christian Father models a life of trust in God. A Christian Father teaches his children to navigate the storms of life by depending more and more on God and His Spirit. This means that Christian Fathers are called to teach and explain the Christian faith, the scriptures, and the meaning of discipleship as best they can. You can’t just leave it to Sunday School teachers or to preachers. As a Christian Father, your job is to give your children the tools they need to navigate life – and from a Christian perspective this includes an understanding of the Christian faith, of Scripture and discipleship.

Now it might sound like I’ve just given you Father’s a bunch of laws to follow; the reason it feels like that is because the Spirit of God is inside you. That Spirit makes no qualms about spelling out the implications of love. As Christian Fathers, we live in freedom because of the Spirit in us – but the fruit of that Spirit isn’t optional stuff. You don’t get to take a bite of love, but leave self-control to someone else. There’s a reason you feel guilty about not spending enough time with your kids – why? Because Christian love moves us to prioritize and put money and business in its proper place – and to put faith and family first! There’s a reason you feel guilty about not giving your children a good understanding of the faith, leaving it up to Sunday School teachers or school teachers – why? Because Christian love compels us help our children see the world from a Christian perspective – that’s your job. You don’t see birds hiring pastors or teachers to help their chicks fly out of the nest – it’s the parents job!!! The Christian Father’s job is to give their child a good understanding of the faith, of scripture and discipleship.

As we all consider the freedom we have in Jesus Christ: may you prayerfully open yourself to the Spirit at work within you. Allow the Spirit to build up the fruit of love in your heart. Live in the freedom of that love! I will close by reading Paul’s words to the Romans:

“you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ...”