The Community of the Free

Bible Reading

Today's Bible reading is from Galatians chapter six, verse 1 to 18. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else. For each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives introduction instruction in the word should share all good things within the instructor. Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps when he sows. Whoever sues to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at all the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Okay, continuing verse 11, see what large letters are used as I write to you with my own hand. Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ, not even those who are circumcised, keep the law. Yet they want you to be circumcised, that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, to which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God from now on. Let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be with your spirit. Brothers and sisters. Amen.

Ah, Anaira, that was awesome. Thank you very much. And pinky weren't too bad either. Really good.

Oh, good morning again, everyone. we are coming to the end of our series in Galatians, and there is a bit of assumed knowledge. so if you haven't ever read the book of Galatians, Paul's letter to the Galatians, please feel free. we've got some New Testaments available in the foyer, if you would like to read it.

And you haven't got a Bible, or you can jump on the internet and just type in Galatians and you'll be able to read the whole thing. We've been particularly thinking about how the good news of Jesus brings freedom.

Freedom and Our World

So, we are in a world that is longing for freedom. And yet even this week, we experience the heaviness. I think, of the clash of freedoms. Where we see the freedom to bear arms, intersect with free speech. people's desire to take the law into their hands.

People's violence are at things that they disagree with. A terrible time, really, for us to see the way in which our world uses violence to try and enact freedom.

Now, of course, we see that in our own nation. we see that not just in the death of Charlie Kirk, but, others who died in gun violence in the US during the week. And of course, in all conflicts around the world.

And we talked last week about how, one of our challenges is, even though we long for freedom. And we want to see our our rights and our self-determination and all of these things become a reality. We really don't share a common vision of what it means for human beings to flourish and live in freedom.

What are we looking for when we are free from our chains? What do we long to have?

Paul’s Encounter With Jesus

Well, the Apostle Paul met Jesus on the road and he wasn't looking for freedom. He actually didn't feel like he was carrying a heavy load or that he was in chains. He felt very confident that he was enacting the call of God.

He was on his way to persecute Christians. He had already been doing so and he had been involved in violence for his views. And then Jesus revealed himself, the living, risen Jesus.

And Paul realized that instead of being free, he had been in chains. Instead of serving this God, he had been working against him, and he had been driven by heavy loads such as wanting to prove himself, such as desiring a good reputation, such as earning God's blessing, but that these would never get him where he wanted to be.

And so when he starts the letter to the Galatians Christians in Konar, Turkey area, he he says this the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father.

This is the good news that Paul encountered face to face on the road to Emmaus, on the road to Damascus, I should say. He was living in a present evil age that he had no hope of rescue from. And Jesus himself, Messiah, crucified and risen, gave himself to rescue him from the present evil age.

And so he knew that the message of Jesus that he had to give to the whole world, not just the Jewish believers, the whole world was about freedom. It was about rescue. It was about being delivered from all that enslaves us, whether that be the Jewish law or the sinful nature which he sometimes calls the flesh.

And he says this. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Our world longs for freedom. We long for freedom, and yet we have no idea how burdened we are until we see the gift of God in Jesus Christ, who brings freedom for all who would come to him.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, says Paul. And now do not let yourself come under a yoke of slavery again.

Circumcision and False Teachers

So if you caught the end of our reading, the part that pinky did. you'll see that Paul started talking again about circumcision, uncircumcision, those that want you to be circumcised, and that is his way of talking about the the false teachers who'd come into the church in Galatia, the churches in Galatia, and who were wanting to compel them to uphold all the tenets of the Jewish law.

And so circumcision for men was a big part of that keeping Sabbath, keeping food laws, various other ritual things. And he says. If you do that, you have entirely lost the freedom that Christ brings. You are yoked, as it were, to both law and he explained last in the chapter last week. and actually plenty of them that you're, actually yoked to your flesh as well.

So you think that, you're getting a good deal by being guided by the Ten Commandments and the the law of Moses, these things you need to do. But actually, all they can do is kind of yoke you to the power of your sinful nature.

You end up being stuck between these two things that work together to take you on a path further and further into this present evil age. You are trapped. The law can't release you from your sinful tendencies. In fact, they just work together to take you down a path further and further away from the intention that God had for you. The glorious image of God in you as a human being.

An Alternative: Life in the Spirit

But there's an alternative, Paul says, rather than be guided and trapped by these two masters. You can live by the spirit, keeping in step with the spirit.

I had dinner with some parishioners during the week, and we talked about this passage. I'm not always that holy and disciplined, but we just happen to get on to it. and, this this, image of keeping in step with the spirit. the person suggested that maybe, maybe it was an alternative way of being guided and yoked to something.

So if you are, enslaved by these two masters of law and flesh, you are pushed a certain way. But if you are connected to maybe yoked, maybe holding the hand of the spirit, you are guided into the path of human flourishing, the opposite, and yet still being connected to something that will give you direction.

And of course, this is exactly how Jesus described being his disciple. Matthew 11 Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Perhaps in our state as glorious and vulnerable human beings, freedom always needs to be guided. God is our creator. God is the one who intends to show us the way to human flourishing. And there is no way that we actually walk alone.

We either are yoked, enslaved to a master that takes us further in to the path of this present evil age, or we are yoked to a master whose burden is so light. And whose path is so life giving that it feels not just like nothing at all, but in fact, that it would lift us up.

Augustine’s Picture

Augustine. Saint Augustine of Hippo was writing in the third century, thinking about Christ's yoke and imagining it as though it were the wings of a bird. And he said, if you see a bird and you want to lighten its load, you could think about removing its wings. But should you do that, it is forever destined to stay on the ground.

You've actually made it impossible for it to do the thing that this yoke enabled it to do. And so in being yoked to Jesus, in being in step with the spirit, in having an entirely alternate way of living your life, you are not burdened with heaviness, but instead you are lifted up.

By being yoked with Christ. By keeping in step with the spirit, we are actually lifted to greater and greater heights of freedom, joy, and energy. Rising on the wings of freedom in the spirit doesn't require us to carry nothing.

We are yoked to him. We keep in step with him, we walk with him, and we are actually enslaved to one another to carry things in this community of the free.

Don't think that if you are to experience true freedom, you need to make sure you're not encumbered by responsibilities for other people. Paul says that's the opposite of what you will find in the community of the free.

You will rise when you carry. He says each other's burdens. Your own load, the responsibility of enabling word ministry and the goal of doing good to all.

Carrying Burdens, Loads, and Doing Good

So let's have a look at the text in chapter six. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

There is a burden that we each carry that comes with our frailty, our temptation, our sinfulness, our weakness. Sometimes that is our addiction. Sometimes that's sinful habits.

Sometimes that's the words that we speak. Sometimes it's the things that we go through, and sometimes it's the things that are external, but that are just part of our life. Having a hard relationship with someone. Not having enough money in the bank.

Going through instability at work. Finding yourself anxious or depressed. Feeling like you'll never measure up. Having a dream that you haven't been able to reach.

All of these things, both our own weakness and suffering, as well as our sin and rebellion. Our burdens. And Paul says we are to carry them for each other.

Last chapter, he told people that if they were to be free in the spirit, they ought to enslave themselves to one another. And this indeed is an expression of that freedom from law leads to an obligation to love.

We are enslaved or servants of one another. And when Jesus talks about loving one another as I have loved you, it is deeply inconvenient. Bearing each other's burdens is inconvenient.

It is hard. It takes time. It's hard to come in hope again and again. For someone who has turned back to a particular habit or addiction.

It's hard to guide someone or walk with someone who is deconstructing their faith. It's hard to support someone's weakness when you feel you haven't got the resources yourself to help them.

It's hard to keep yourself from critiquing or criticizing or judging or directing. When you are being called to walk with. But this is the call of Christ that as we bear each other's burdens, as we restore each other gently, as we hold each other to account, and as we love one another with our time and our words and our empathy.

We are actually going to find ourselves more free than we were before now.

Of course, our temptation is to feel like, well, I will then wait for someone to come and help carry my load. I will wait until my experience in this church is more inclusive, that people will come to me, that they will bear my burden and I will wait. And I think Paul would say, don't wait.

Take the opportunity to both bear someone else's burden and also carry your own. You are a powerful being when you are filled with the Spirit of God. You can take responsibility for the burden that you carry.

You are not a victim of circumstances. You can carry other's loads whilst you also struggle with your own stuff. You can because God enables you to do so.

No one's expecting anybody to be perfect. But we are all able to access the power of Jesus and bear not only the loads of others, but also our own loads, so that we don't look around and say, well, at least I'm doing better than that guy over there who dropped his drink bottle. Huh? That wasn't in my notes, Jerry.

We don't compare ourselves to others. God bless you, I do not. We test our own actions. We carry our own load, and we expect others to help us as well.

But we also have a responsibility to enable word ministry. It's so fascinating that he would go from, we're all in this together. It's a really kind of flat picture that, you know, this is a very mutual experience of being in community.

And yet there is something about this community that requires someone to have extra knowledge of the word, and for that person to be supported in having given their time to do that. Now, of course, we here at Deep Creek, we pay our ministers. You pay me the diocese, don't pay me, you pay me the diocese.

Give a little bit of money because I'm an archdeacon. But it's about 4500 dollars for the entire year to the church. So, it's exactly that, actually, you pay me, it's a blessing that the dioceses have set the amount so that we don't have to stress about that. but we are fulfilling this.

By our gifts in enabling someone to be set aside to teach. But it's also really important for us to think, well, is it more than just money? What do we enable the teacher to do? What do we share with them?

I spend heaps of time doing things that a small business owner would do, compliance and finance and things like that. And it's up to you whether you feel comfortable having someone with a theological degree, doing those things for you.

But there are ways that we can support those that are set aside to teach by using skills that we have as well. So it's not just about money, it's sharing what we have so that this part of our life together, the teaching of the word, the explaining of God's truth, keeps being enabled in our midst.

So we carry other's burdens. We carry our own. We support those that teach. And we do our best not to become weary in doing good.

This was my second Vision Sunday message, because we had just had a year of Covid lockdowns for the first time, and we were already weary and we didn't know we were going to have another year. So this was November 2020.

I preached to us about not being weary in doing good, and we have not come into a world that has naturally given us more energy since that time, and we have not come into a world that has less opportunity to do good. Since that time, there is more and more need, and there is perhaps less and less energy.

But part of being the community of the free. Is that we seek to do good. We do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.

Doing good might be

• Doing good might be looking after kids.

• It might be making meals.

• It might be giving to charity.

• It might be standing with someone when they need to go to the tribunal or to court.

• It might be visiting those in prison.

• It might be mentoring. Released prisoners.

• I know we have people who do that.

• It might be. And I heard a parishioner has done this in the last 12 months using our professional skills overseas on short term mission trips.

• This person went to Cambodia and was able to help people with eye surgery.

Doing good will keep us sowing into the spirit. You see, Paul says, you can't turn upside down the way God has intended life to be. You can try to sow to yourself.

You can try to keep things for yourself. You can try to manage your own time for your own benefit. You can try and carry your own burdens without carrying others, but it doesn't work.

Whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. I love this picture of sowing to the spirit.

The text doesn't have please the spirit. It's just a way of helping us understand it in English. But sowing to the spirit as a way of life, which is the alternative to carrying the burden of the law.

You see, the spirit is the one who has given us life. God's Holy Spirit raises us from spiritual death, and when we live our lives with little things and big things that sow to the priority of the spirit, that invest in that way, that give time, spiritual energy, physical energy to the things of God.

We actually find that God's gifts are growing more and more in us. I sometimes have the opportunity to help people think about their spiritual growth. I've had someone recently approach me, saying that she's going on some long service leave herself, and that she wanted to use that time to be intentional about her spiritual growth.

And she said, I, I'd really like to pray more. And so I asked her, I don't know her all that well. And I asked her about, well, what you know, when you have implemented spiritual practices in your life, how's that gone? And she told me about how they've got Sabbath and they and she gets up every morning and I was like, ha, you've got a lot of discipline already.

and, I, I don't feel like some of the more practical things that I was going to suggest are actually of use to you. You're a very disciplined person. But here I've found this picture of sowing to the spirit, of knowing that there's a promise that when you do things with your time and your own soul that are connecting with the Holy Spirit of God, that he will grow fruit in you beyond what you could have imagined, that he will be using you, that you will be someone who is living in freedom.

I found that deeply motivating. I wanted to spend time praying. I wanted to spend time connecting with God because, actually, the way that I will improve my Christian life is not through a checklist, is not through, making sure that I do this and do that and making sure that I'm more perfect than I already am. that's not that's a big joke. it's giving priority.

It's connecting with the spirit and seeing what he does. I just so it's so exciting to think God has so much growth, so many things planned. And we just. So to the spirit, just connect with him.

Say, I'm going to spend this time. I'm Lord, I'm yours. Lord, do what you want to do. Lord, I want to be with you and see what happens.

And we can kind of do this on steroids as well. when we gather. Right. That's part of why we gather so that we've got a structure around these things and, and that you've got someone ravaging onto you about the scriptures for 35 minutes, or that we spend time in worship together, in prayer together, that someone is guiding us in prayer.

Did you notice that Cheryl's prayers were from Galatians six? Thank you so much. And that is sowing to the spirit on a large level.

I know so much about farming, that I know that this one here is pulling things that will both dig the ground and put the seed in, and also fertilize at the same time. Right. Let's make some sort of metaphor for church with that.

Boasting Only in the Cross

Paul wants us to know that we are a community that is free, but in that freedom, we will be deeply productive as we dig into freedom, not as we dig into must do, must do. Desire him. Seek him and see what happens.

Like he is doing stuff, revealing things to me. I am not a model of awesome, awesome discipline and giving myself to this all the time, I promise you. And yet, the Lord's desire to free me of things is so much greater that he just does it.

He reveals things to me and I go, oh, that's an entirely new way of looking at it. He shows me how to pray for people's blessing rather than hold them in judgment. He says, this is the way that you're relating to those people, and that's how it's going to make things bad. Let's not do that.

And I say, oh, oh, I had no idea. God's desire to grow us and to free us is so much more than you can imagine. And he's not asking us to free ourselves. He's simply asking us to sow to the spirit.

The chains that we bear, all of us are going to be broken. That is what he does. He has taken them. And when he takes them, their days are numbered.

So Paul concludes his letter. Don't. Don't listen to these people who are still being driven by the need to impress others, by fear of persecution, by pride. Don't listen to them.

Only boast. Only rely on the one thing, the one mechanism given by God to free you. The cross of Christ through which the world has been impaled. There is no more connection to a life of slavery for you.

If you have come to the cross of Christ and said, yes, you are my Lord, you are my Savior. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. Oh, freedom to not do this, not do that. Desire to do this, not do that. It's nothing.

What counts is the new creation that God has broken in to our world of being yoked to slave masters of law and sin, which only led us down to death. He has broken into that and entirely changed. Entirely changed our life.

We are free. We are set free in Christ. The chains of law, flesh, human approval are gone. We are a new creation.

The only thing that counts. Is that through the cross of Christ. Faith expressed through love. We are new and free by the spirit.

So let's not return to slavery ever. But keep in step with the spirit, because the community of the free is nothing less than the first glimpse of God's new creation in the world. Amen.