“Live as God’s New People”

Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18

 My father has always been a fan of the Montreal Canadiens.  My brother and I would watch games with him, enthralled by his excitement for his team.  I fell asleep during the final game of one Stanley Cup season, only to be jolted awake by my Dad scooping me off the rumpus room floor and throwing me into the air with a cheer of victory for his Cup-winning Canadiens.  Today you hear people speak of hockey in Montreal as a religion, and it’s really not an exaggeration.  Sport serves as a symbol, idol or god to which the people turn for a sense of accomplishment, power and value.  It’s the same with World Cup Football.  Whole nations rally behind their teams, worshipping their players when they do well, and denouncing them when they lose.  Some may protest that it’s just a game, and sports certainly can be enjoyed as entertainment, but don’t try telling the President of Nigeria that football is just a game; he banned his country’s whole squad from competition for two years because they played so poorly in the World Cup. 

 We live in a weird world, don’t we?  But let’s be honest, none of us is immune from this weirdness.  Over the past few years, programs devoted to following the activities of the celebrities of movies, music and sports have become the staples of most networks.  These are weird shows.  On the one hand they lift up certain people as heroes and goddesses to be loved and imitated, while at the same time they expose the dark secrets of these people, encouraging us to criticize and condemn them for their excesses and infidelities.  I’m one of those who is quick to condemn the celebrities and those who produce the entertainment shows; I change the channel to avoid these programs.  And I feel quite proud of myself in doing so.  But should I really feel so good about myself? 

 Does my disapproval of the behavior of celebrities make me any better than them?  If I were devoted to them as some are, would that make me better than others who aren’t?  No and no, but all of us spend quite a lot of our time comparing ourselves to other people, hoping that we stack up just a little bit better than them.  We are experts at seeing the weaknesses in others, convincing ourselves that we don’t suffer from those kinds of failings, and therefore concluding that we are good.  If we are in the habit of attending church regularly, it is very easy for us to be impatient with those who attend less often.  But does our regular church attendance, good though it is to worship God, really make us better than those who come at Christmas and Easter?  Of course not, but then why do we feel so driven to act as if we can somehow earn our way into heaven by struggling to be better than others? 

 It’s just the way we are, but it’s not the way we should be.  It’s something about us that we can’t change, but God can.  God gave us His Spirit to help us change, and before that He sent us His Son, Jesus, to free us from the weird ways of this world and deceptiveness of our sinful hearts. The power that leads us to compare ourselves to others to judge ourselves better than them is sin.  Sin has stripped us of the righteousness God gave us when He made us, and it leaves us desperately looking for some way of getting it back.  It leads us to see each other as competitors whom we must outperform or gods who can lift us out of ourselves to something better.  All the paths down which sin sends us are dead ends though.  None of them make us better than before; they distance us further from each other and from God.  But God has acted to help us.  

 Through Jesus, God has begun to renovate His sin-stricken creation.  Jesus came into this world, born not in the usual way of a man and a woman, but by an act of the Holy Spirit, who caused Mary to conceive and give birth to a human son who was at the same time the divine Son, God from all eternity.  Jesus, the God-Man, brought heaven and earth back together in Himself.  As a man, He possessed the righteousness previously lost to human beings through our disobedience.  He lived in perfect harmony with God His Father.  Though Jesus was God and equal with His Father, He submitted Himself to live under His Father’s laws as a man.  Jesus lived as we were meant to live.  He trusted God’s wisdom and love completely, and He served Him faithfully by loving the people around Him.  Being righteous by nature, Jesus was free to live for God and others instead of imitating our feverish struggles to make ourselves look good.  He served us all when He offered up His life on the cross to die a death that He did not deserve.  For our sakes, to redeem us from the power of sin and death that works in us, Jesus suffered, bled and died.  With Christ’s sacrifice complete, God the Father stepped in, breathing the Spirit of life back into the lifeless lungs of His dear Son, and Jesus rose to make new people of His self-centered disciples.  On Easter Eve He breathed the Holy Spirit into the Eleven, on Pentecost He and His Father sent the Spirit with wind and fire to the 120 in waiting, and ever since Jesus has giving His Spirit all who are baptized in His name. 

 Have you been baptized?  Then, guess who lives in you and with you?  God the Holy Spirit, and guess why? The Spirit lives in us to make the life of Jesus visible in us.   Yes, we are all sinners.  We have no righteousness of our own.  No accomplishments of ours will ever be enough to remove the stain of our self-centeredness, but Christ is the One can wash us clean and make us new.  His death has atoned for our sin and guilt, so that we no longer have to answer for our sins before God.  His death has bought us forgiveness, and it has clothed us with the righteousness we need to stand before God assured that we are His dear children.  The resurrection of Jesus is the rock upon which we stand assured that God has given us a new life to live. 

 Paul describes some of that new life in today’s second reading.  Since Christ has given us His precious righteousness, He has also set us free from trying to make ourselves look good.  Why bother when, through Jesus, God already declares us good!  Jesus has set us free to live like Him with complete trust in God and sincere love for other people. 

 What should we do if we discover that a fellow Christian is being tempted to turn away from our Lord and return to selfish living?  Without Christ’s righteousness, we would probably talk about him behind his back, look down up him and scold and criticize him for his weakness, and finally give up on him.  Why?  Because all of those actions might make us feel better about ourselves since we haven’t fallen into the same trap.  But Christ has made us righteous before God by His death on the cross for us; we have no need for vain attempts to make ourselves feel better on the backs of others.  God has given us the joyful gift of new life in Christ, so that when we see a brother or sister in danger of losing that life through sinful living, we serve God by working to restore them.  We can go and have a talk with them, reminding them of God’s love for them, showing them from God’s commands how their actions dishonor and grieve God, and encouraging them to reconsider, repent and return to the Lord who redeemed them from sin and gave them eternal life.  All of this work, often hard work, is the work for which we were made.  It’s love, the love of God coming through our eyes, ears, and mouths. 

 Christ’s righteousness frees us to treat each other as the brothers and sisters that we are to each other in God’s family.  With no need to compete with each other for petty victories and no reason to put someone on a pedestal in vain hope of salvation, we can just be there for each other.  When someone needs a friend to listen and pray.  When a child needs an adult to teach her the stories of the Bible.  When a man is dying and longs for another to be with him.  When a woman struggles with guilt and doubts and longs for some source of light and hope. Dear children of God, hear and obey the Spirit’s call through Paul: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.” 

 Only one thing stands between us and the destructive power of this weird world.  What is it?  It’s not our positive attitude.  Nor is it our life accomplishments.  It is the cross of Jesus.  On that cross, Christ carried our burden of sin into the grave, and when Jesus rose and left the tomb, our sin stayed there.  Through the cross of Jesus, the world and all of its self-saving, self-serving ways have been crucified to us; we have died to the world, and we have been raised by Christ to live as new people – the new creation is what counts.