Pentecost 4 – Year C
1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:51-62
Psalm 16 or 16:5-11

The Collect
Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

“Live by the spirit…”
In so many instances in the Gospels the image of following Christ is a literal one: people left what they were doing and walked after Jesus, they stayed around him, to hear what he said, and to see what he would do next. It is a metaphor rich with possibilities. We begin with Jesus calling the fishermen from their nets to become “fishers of men,” they follow Jesus as he travels around the region, then, at the beginning of this chapter Jesus sends them out to walk the paths that he has trod. That is, to go and be like him in preaching the kingdom of God and healing the sick. In John’s Gospel Jesus’ last injunction to Peter is “Follow me!”
It should be no surprise then that the earliest name for this movement of people who followed Jesus was “The Way” (Acts 9.2). In fact, in Judaism from Jesus’ time down to the present the regulations for how one is to live life is Halakhah, the term literally means “the way.” Why should this term be so popular? Because it is one of the simplest metaphors of life: we move through this world as pilgrims, trudging along paths, ways through the dark passages of this wood. The question is which way will we choose and how shall we walk upon it? John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress is no doubt the best-known and most fully developed example of this metaphor.
Today’s Gospel warns us that the cost of following the path of Christ is high. Once we join with him as heirs of the kingdom of Heaven, this world will never again feel like home. When we are focused upon the goals and purposes of God the needs and wants of this world should fade into the distance. But once we have accepted the call to follow Christ, to set out upon the Way that leads to the New Jerusalem, how shall we go upon the journey?
This question brings us to the reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Verse 16 sets out a seemingly simply standard of conduct: “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Sounds easy, right? If this was all we had to go on Paul’s directions would be hardly useful. It is true that Paul believed and knew that the Spirit lives and moves throughout the church and that we will know internally and instinctively the guidance of the Spirit in our lives. But one easy litmus is offered by Paul in the very next verse: “For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.”
Some of you may know that Paul has been much maligned in recent decades as a misogynist, homophobe, and a self-hating Jew. I don’t accept any of those accusations, but one thing I can certainly tell you he was is honest. Paul is able to tell us from personal experience that the Spirit and the flesh are opposed to each other, because he has wrestled with it in his own life. Remember his full disclosure to the Romans. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Rom. 7.15) Warner Bros. cartoons has immortalized this struggle for at least a few of us with the image of the angel and the devil above either side of Daffy Duck’s shoulder in all manor of moral dilemmas. But we still haven’t gotten a clear picture of what it means to follow the Spirit. Paul begins to explain this by telling us what it isn’t.

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

You may have noticed this morning that our reading excluded verses 2-12 in this chapter of Galatians. Had we heard those verses you would have found Paul arguing against those who want the Christians in Galatia to be circumcised, as all Jewish males were required to be under the Law of Moses. The freedom that Paul speaks of in verse 1 is the freedom from sin and the Law. It is a “yoke of slavery” that has been removed by Christ. Some, even in Paul’s day, interpreted this to mean that they could now do whatever they wanted; all those things that the Law forbade were now permissible. Indeed, it sounds as if Paul is saying just that in verse 18, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.” What Paul means is that we are not bound by it but we can now go beyond it. Consider Paul’s list of the works of the flesh. These, he tells us, are obvious sins. And indeed, they should seem obvious to us and most do, “idolatry, sorcery, jealousy, anger” those are all clearly bad things. Yet at the same time, how often have we rationalized one or more of these in our own lives? The first on the list, “fornication,” is an easy example.
I took a year off from college and ran the health club in our local Holiday Inn. While there I became friends with a young man who worked at the front desk and told me that he was thinking of becoming a Baptist minister. I said, “I am not doubting your calling, but you have told me more than I want to know about your relationship with you girlfriend. That sort of thing is considered a sin in the Bible.” He countered, “The Bible never says you can’t have sex with your girlfriend!” Well, I read him this passage and he replied, “So, where does it say we can’t have sex?” At this point we pulled out a dictionary and looked up the definition of fornication, “sexual intercourse between two unmarried people.” We are all very good at finding ways to justify our actions.
If we are honest, there is not one of us who has not reasoned away our guilt for many of these. Quarrels and dissensions? Our church is seeing a few of these, how about within our families? (But I am right!) Many of you know that I love gadgets and gizmos. When I see a mini-iPod it is very hard for me not begin to feel envy, even though I know I have absolutely no use for one! This is all very serious stuff, for Paul tells us, as Jesus did many times before, that if we are unwilling to let go of their fleshly desires, the gut lusts that we all have, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. To return to my earlier metaphor, these are the dark and perilous trees that we have to walk past and leave behind as we follow the bright and shining path of Christ. And it shines with the light of the Spirit.

Gal. 5.22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

Here at last is Paul’s description of how we are to live in the Spirit. If you compare this list with the works of the flesh you will see a correspondence. If we are loving, then we will not be prone to arguing. If we are generous, we will be less likely to envy and be jealous. It is not a one-to-one correspondence, but we can see that the fruit of the Spirit are what enable us to overcome the works of the flesh. So, we are to love, to be patient, kind, and generous. We are to control our appetites, put behind us our desires of power and control. In short, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. And the Spirit guides us and aids us in this struggle.
For each of us the path is slightly different. My own hands have planted the trees that grow along my path and the thicket blocking the path has been well tended, as I have nurtured my anger towards someone or desire for some thing. Consider what obstacles are in your way; they may not all be of your own making. Whatever the obstacles may be, no matter how straight or winding the path, our destination is always the same: the kingdom of God. By his grace, God sent his Spirit to guide and so we are called to follow Christ, living by the Spirit and guided by the Spirit.

Our Gospel reading concludes with Jesus invoking yet another metaphor of what it means to follow him. Those who would serve the kingdom are like the farmers who work, till, and harvest the field. Are we ready to commit to work in the fields of God?
Luke 9.62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
 

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