Easter isn’t a day; Easter is a season.
He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!
On the way from the Last Supper to Gethsemane, Jesus apparently stopped in front of a particularly fine grapevine to make some points, as I mentioned last week. The most important point He made was that we must stay connected to Jesus as the branches of a grapevine must stayed connected to the main vine if they – or we – are to produce fruit. No branch cut off from the vine will produce fruit. And so we find the danger of trying to live our lives cut off from Jesus, cut off from other believers, cut off from the church. For if we are cut off, we will wither and die, drying up, eventually only suitable to be burned in a fire.
In today’s reading, Jesus continues His talk using the grapevine as a metaphor. He says:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
It would be less than 24 hours before Jesus would lay down His life for His friends. For in an hour or so, Jesus would be arrested, taken in front of the ruling religious council, the Sanhedrin, tried by the High Priest, and be found guilty of blasphemy, in this case, claiming to be equal with God the Father. He had repeatedly claimed to have a close relationship with God the Father, and this time he was charged with blasphemy, a capital crime in Jerusalem at that time. He was then taken to the Roman Governor Pilate for sentencing, a death sentence pronounced, and then, after a severe beating, Jesus was taken outside the city and nailed to a cross, where he died of suffocation that Friday afternoon. Jesus was dead. His body was placed in a rock cave tomb, the tomb was sealed with a 2000 pound boulder, and a 16 man guard rotation was set up to watch over the tomb by the High Priest and Pilate.
But then on Sunday morning, some women found the guards were missing, the tomb was open, and Jesus body wasn’t there. They told Peter and John, two of the disciples, who checked it out. It was true. Then Jesus appeared alive to Mary Magdalene. Then later to Peter, then to two disciples on the road, then to ten disciples in a locked room, and a week later to all eleven surviving disciples. Jesus spoke with them, let them touch him, ate with them, and later cooked breakfast for a group of them. He was eventually seen by over 500 people in at least eleven different appearances. He had died, claiming to be carrying God’s words for all people, He had claimed to be God’s Son, God Himself walking on the earth and had been killed for these claims, yet here He was, alive again.
And He told them that He had defeated Death – and with His help, they would also see Death defeated.
He spoke to His disciples, though, late that evening before His arrest:
14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Two commands here. Love each other – and go and bear fruit that will last.
And so, even today, we who are Christians know that love is a key command given to Christians. But what love? The Greek language that the Gospels were written in has four separate words for love. Eros, which is the physical love of a man and a woman. Philia, which is the love of two brothers for each other. Storge, or the affection children have for their kindly grandparents, and Agape, which is used here. Agape means a charitable love, love given without anything expected in return, a giving sort of love. This is the love that Jesus demonstrates with His death upon the cross and the love He asks of us when He says, “This is my command: Love each other.”
For when Jesus died upon the cross, He was fulfilling the ancient need for blood sacrifice to pay our debts to God for the sins, the crimes we had committed against God. And since Jesus was a human, His sacrifice was real on behalf of all humans. And since Jesus was also God’s Son, His value was infinite, valuable enough to pay all the sin debts of all the people every born before, during, and after Jesus’ time. Our sin was paid for by Jesus’ death upon the cross – and now we do not need to die the real death, but can simply sleep until Jesus awakens us. This gift was given to us by Jesus – all we have to do is accept the Gift by acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God, and therefore has the power to do what He claimed. And, of course, this means we must begin to follow Jesus, for if Jesus is truly the Son of God, why wouldn’t you choose to listen to Him and follow Him, for He has the wisdom of the ages and has shown that He will die for you and me, He loves us so much?
Jesus said that we are to love (agape)each other. Yet this seems to be a difficult thing for Christians to consistently do. So today we’ll jump forward to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which should explain why this is so difficult.
Paul has been talking about people being enslaved to their guilt under the law. Since everyone has disobeyed the moral law, everyone has guilt, and that guilt enslaves us. But Christ has set us free – His sacrifice paid the price for our disobedience – whether one great sin or many smaller sins.
Yet many people walk as though they are wanted men or women. We remember what we have done wrong – and do not fully believe that Jesus has actually paid the price. Although we are not in prison, we act like the wanted men or women who are expecting to be pulled over by the police at any moment, locked up and the key thrown away. We can’t seem to get it through our minds that we are free, even though we may have heard repeated sermons where we are told that if we pray to God and ask forgiveness, God will forgive us, because Jesus has paid the price for our sins, our wrongs, our crimes against God and others. And so we continue to act out of fear – and fear leads us to anger and anger to hate and from hate there are new sins, new wrongs done to others, new crimes against God.
You may say, “I know that God has forgiven me, but I can’t forgive myself because what I did was wrong.”
Here’s the problem with this – you are making God smaller than the Law which God created. For without God, there would be no moral law worth anything. God created the moral law – and God can forgive you of breaking the moral law, for God is much greater than that law. God is more foundational than the law, for God created the law. If God has forgiven you – will you be so arrogant to tell God that your thoughts on the matter are so much more important than what God has said about your forgiveness?
Receive God’s forgiveness – you are free from the guilt of what you have done. And now Paul tells us our path forward. Paul says, we were called to be free. But we should not use our freedom to commit more sins, but instead to serve each other humbly in love, in agape love. “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
Paul says then that “we should walk by the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is given to each believer, normally at baptism, and the Spirit becomes a quiet whisper in our minds, guiding us in right action and speech IF we will listen to the Spirit’s voice.
Paul reminds us that our flesh, our natural body, desires what is contrary to the Spirit – and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other. How does that work in our lives?
Has anyone every tried to go on a diet or a fast? The Spirit tells you that you should only eat fruits and vegetables, but the flesh says, “Cheeseburger, French fries, and plenty of chocolate for dessert!” The Spirit wants you to live until you are 85, but the flesh says, “Another three slices of pizza would be good today!” The Spirit says you need to take a walk around the neighborhood, but the flesh says, “Let’s get a quart of ice cream out of the freezer, sit on the couch, and watch “Dancing with the Stars”.
Paul goes on to tell us that you can look at yourself and see what Paul calls the “acts of the flesh”. He says they’re obvious: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft;” (So far, we’re doing pretty good, eh? But now Paul gets personal with us) “hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Paul then says, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
So we should look at this list as a list of warning signs for us as Christians. Let’s look at them one more time, the acts of the flesh: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
But then Paul goes on to talk about “the fruit of the Spirit”: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Let’s look at those again: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Now I want to be very clear about something. These are the FRUIT of the Spirit. Fruit is what happens at the end of the branches. Don’t get things turned around – You won’t get this fruit by working very hard on your love, your joy, your peace, etc. You get this fruit by listening to the Spirit – and then the fruit will naturally blossom.
So you are going through a stressful situation, your response should clearly not be a fit of rage – that’s one of the acts of the flesh. But it should also not be “OK, body, lets work hard at self-control.” That’s trying to grab the fruit with out listening to the Spirit, and the only thing that will happen is that some other act of the flesh will pop out, like jealousy - while you’re trying to grab that fruit of self-control.
No, instead, the proper response when under stress is to pray under your breath, “Holy Spirit, what should I say or do?” And then LISTEN HARD for the response deep in your mind. It may be something as simple as “smile” or “go home” or “Say the Lord’s Prayer.” It may be something more complicated. But pray, listen, and do. Pray to the Spirit, listen to the Spirit, and do what the Spirit says.
And the amazing thing is that Paul’s prescription comes true. The fruit of the Spirit will pop out for you and you’ll show one or more of those fruit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
What do each of these fruit words mean?
Love is agape love. It is doing something for another without the need for a response. For example, your neighbor goes on vacation or is in the hospital. The flesh says, “Their yard is SOOOO messy. I’ll call the city on them.” But agape love fires up our lawn mower and mows the neighbor’s yard or weed’s her flower garden, especially if we don’t know him or her. And furthermore, it is doing all this even if we know that our neighbor is a crabby trouble-maker. We do it because we know that act makes us beloved by God and a better person – it has nothing to do with the person whose yard needs mowed.
Joy is not happiness. No, joy is that feeling of knowing that life – even death – is filled with hope, a feeling that all will turn out just fine, no, just WONDEFUL in the end. Turn to your neighbor and say, “If you follow Jesus, you will live forever”. And SMILE at them, for that idea is surely good to give you Joy. The Spirit has told me that you need to hear this song today:
SMILE
The Holy Spirit will remind you that you can always choose joy, even when you can't be happy.
Peace is knowing that all is well with our souls, that God loves us, and that nothing bad will happen because we have turned our life over to God completely.
Forbearance is sometimes known as “long-suffering”, which is the opposite of “short tempered”. Forbearance is when we look at the little dog next door who barks at us when we walk nearby with a feeling of “how cute” rather than “how irritating”. Forbearance is when we listen to the child cry and think, “Oh, she’s hungry!” rather than “Will someone shut that kid up!” Forbearance is when we see the homeless man walking through the neighborhood for the fifth time and offer him a bottle of water and friendly conversation instead of a very hard stare.
Kindness is simply being nice and polite when you don’t need to be.
Goodness is when you are known for doing good actions instead of being stern or harsh.
Faithfulness means trusting God completely, and also being completely trustworthy to other people. Do you follow through on your promises? Do you keep confidences secret?
Gentleness refers to the old sense of the word, which means to be a “gentleman” or a “gentle lady”, not rough, not crude, not loud, not given to fighting or arguing, but yet strong when goodness and the right are needed.
Self-control is that ability to control your actions and, perhaps more importantly, your tongue.
These are the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
So many people think the fruit of the Spirit are goals to work hard for, ideas to strive for. While they are goals, we cannot get the fruit of the Spirit through hard work. For example, we can’t work everyday for joy, we recognize that. But we will also find that we can’t really work hard to be kind or Good or faithful by ourselves. We only get the fruit by praying to the Holy Spirit, Listening for the response, and then doing what the Spirit asks us to do and say.
Why does it work this way?
When we strive for the fruit of the Spirit as our goals, we are saying, “I can do it! I am tough enough! I am good enough!” But that is is the same as the Buddhist who tries to meditate hard enough to relax – and gets frustrated because she can’t relax because she is working so hard to meditate. It is the same as the Scientologist who tries to become strong enough to climb a skyscraper and is frustrated because he can only 150 lbs. It is the same as an atheist who plans to learn enough to defeat death and eventually decides to freeze himself in a tank of liquid nitrogen. Working hard is simply another way of saying, “Even though I have cut my branch off from Jesus, I will still succeed!” But Jesus told us that we are the branches and He is the vine, and we must remain connected to Him. We cannot succeed except in the very short term without Jesus.
The Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father and from Jesus, God’s Son. We must stay connected to Jesus, and two-way prayer with the Holy Spirit is the way to do this. We ask, the Spirit responds, we do – and the Spirit steps in with extra power to ensure that good happens.
And the reason this all happens is because we have recognized that we are just the instruments of God’s grace upon the earth. God works through us for good. If we try to do it alone, we will mess it up because we don’t have the power or the wisdom to accomplish great things by ourselves. We need the power of Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit. And so, pray to the Holy Spirit for help, listen to the response, and do what you are asked to do. And the Fruit of the Spirit will appear in your life: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” And that alone will be a great blessing in your life, for you will find that, while the Fruit of the Spirit are wonderful indeed, the closeness to God that you have found in watching the Fruit grow in your life is more wonderful still.
Amen!
Let us sing,
Closing Song: It is Well with my Soul
Benediction: May the Lord God, the Adonai, inhabit your praises. May you find “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Through listening to the Spirit.
Song: Soon and very Soon
Go and Praise God all week long!
Receive God’s forgiveness – you are free from the guilt of what you have done. And now Paul tells us our path forward. Paul says, we were called to be free. But we should not use our freedom to commit more sins, but instead to serve each other humbly in love, in agape love. “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
Paul says then that “we should walk by the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is given to each believer, normally at baptism, and the Spirit becomes a quiet whisper in our minds, guiding us in right action and speech IF we will listen to the Spirit’s voice.
Paul reminds us that our flesh, our natural body, desires what is contrary to the Spirit – and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other. How does that work in our lives?
Has anyone every tried to go on a diet or a fast? The Spirit tells you that you should only eat fruits and vegetables, but the flesh says, “Cheeseburger, French fries, and plenty of chocolate for dessert!” The Spirit wants you to live until you are 85, but the flesh says, “Another three slices of pizza would be good today!” The Spirit says you need to take a walk around the neighborhood, but the flesh says, “Let’s get a quart of ice cream out of the freezer, sit on the couch, and watch “Dancing with the Stars”.
Paul goes on to tell us that you can look at yourself and see what Paul calls the “acts of the flesh”. He says they’re obvious: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft;” (So far, we’re doing pretty good, eh? But now Paul gets personal with us) “hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Paul then says, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
So we should look at this list as a list of warning signs for us as Christians. Let’s look at them one more time, the acts of the flesh: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
But then Paul goes on to talk about “the fruit of the Spirit”: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Let’s look at those again: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Now I want to be very clear about something. These are the FRUIT of the Spirit. Fruit is what happens at the end of the branches. Don’t get things turned around – You won’t get this fruit by working very hard on your love, your joy, your peace, etc. You get this fruit by listening to the Spirit – and then the fruit will naturally blossom.
So you are going through a stressful situation, your response should clearly not be a fit of rage – that’s one of the acts of the flesh. But it should also not be “OK, body, lets work hard at self-control.” That’s trying to grab the fruit with out listening to the Spirit, and the only thing that will happen is that some other act of the flesh will pop out, like jealousy - while you’re trying to grab that fruit of self-control.
No, instead, the proper response when under stress is to pray under your breath, “Holy Spirit, what should I say or do?” And then LISTEN HARD for the response deep in your mind. It may be something as simple as “smile” or “go home” or “Say the Lord’s Prayer.” It may be something more complicated. But pray, listen, and do. Pray to the Spirit, listen to the Spirit, and do what the Spirit says.
And the amazing thing is that Paul’s prescription comes true. The fruit of the Spirit will pop out for you and you’ll show one or more of those fruit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
What do each of these fruit words mean?
Love is agape love. It is doing something for another without the need for a response. For example, your neighbor goes on vacation or is in the hospital. The flesh says, “Their yard is SOOOO messy. I’ll call the city on them.” But agape love fires up our lawn mower and mows the neighbor’s yard or weed’s her flower garden, especially if we don’t know him or her. And furthermore, it is doing all this even if we know that our neighbor is a crabby trouble-maker. We do it because we know that act makes us beloved by God and a better person – it has nothing to do with the person whose yard needs mowed.
Joy is not happiness. No, joy is that feeling of knowing that life – even death – is filled with hope, a feeling that all will turn out just fine, no, just WONDEFUL in the end. Turn to your neighbor and say, “If you follow Jesus, you will live forever”. And SMILE at them, for that idea is surely good to give you Joy. The Spirit has told me that you need to hear this song today:
SMILE
The Holy Spirit will remind you that you can always choose joy, even when you can't be happy.
Peace is knowing that all is well with our souls, that God loves us, and that nothing bad will happen because we have turned our life over to God completely.
Forbearance is sometimes known as “long-suffering”, which is the opposite of “short tempered”. Forbearance is when we look at the little dog next door who barks at us when we walk nearby with a feeling of “how cute” rather than “how irritating”. Forbearance is when we listen to the child cry and think, “Oh, she’s hungry!” rather than “Will someone shut that kid up!” Forbearance is when we see the homeless man walking through the neighborhood for the fifth time and offer him a bottle of water and friendly conversation instead of a very hard stare.
Kindness is simply being nice and polite when you don’t need to be.
Goodness is when you are known for doing good actions instead of being stern or harsh.
Faithfulness means trusting God completely, and also being completely trustworthy to other people. Do you follow through on your promises? Do you keep confidences secret?
Gentleness refers to the old sense of the word, which means to be a “gentleman” or a “gentle lady”, not rough, not crude, not loud, not given to fighting or arguing, but yet strong when goodness and the right are needed.
Self-control is that ability to control your actions and, perhaps more importantly, your tongue.
These are the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
So many people think the fruit of the Spirit are goals to work hard for, ideas to strive for. While they are goals, we cannot get the fruit of the Spirit through hard work. For example, we can’t work everyday for joy, we recognize that. But we will also find that we can’t really work hard to be kind or Good or faithful by ourselves. We only get the fruit by praying to the Holy Spirit, Listening for the response, and then doing what the Spirit asks us to do and say.
Why does it work this way?
When we strive for the fruit of the Spirit as our goals, we are saying, “I can do it! I am tough enough! I am good enough!” But that is is the same as the Buddhist who tries to meditate hard enough to relax – and gets frustrated because she can’t relax because she is working so hard to meditate. It is the same as the Scientologist who tries to become strong enough to climb a skyscraper and is frustrated because he can only 150 lbs. It is the same as an atheist who plans to learn enough to defeat death and eventually decides to freeze himself in a tank of liquid nitrogen. Working hard is simply another way of saying, “Even though I have cut my branch off from Jesus, I will still succeed!” But Jesus told us that we are the branches and He is the vine, and we must remain connected to Him. We cannot succeed except in the very short term without Jesus.
The Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father and from Jesus, God’s Son. We must stay connected to Jesus, and two-way prayer with the Holy Spirit is the way to do this. We ask, the Spirit responds, we do – and the Spirit steps in with extra power to ensure that good happens.
And the reason this all happens is because we have recognized that we are just the instruments of God’s grace upon the earth. God works through us for good. If we try to do it alone, we will mess it up because we don’t have the power or the wisdom to accomplish great things by ourselves. We need the power of Jesus, God, and Holy Spirit. And so, pray to the Holy Spirit for help, listen to the response, and do what you are asked to do. And the Fruit of the Spirit will appear in your life: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” And that alone will be a great blessing in your life, for you will find that, while the Fruit of the Spirit are wonderful indeed, the closeness to God that you have found in watching the Fruit grow in your life is more wonderful still.
Amen!
Let us sing,
Closing Song: It is Well with my Soul
Benediction: May the Lord God, the Adonai, inhabit your praises. May you find “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Through listening to the Spirit.
Song: Soon and very Soon
Go and Praise God all week long!
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