Rev. Victoria Millar

Covenant Presbyterian Church, Racine, WI

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

“Free”

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

In this reading, the word flesh is translated as false self.[1]

Listen for the word of the Lord to us.

5 For freedom Christ has set us free.

            Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;

only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,

but through love become slaves to one another.

14For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment,

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

15If, however, you bite and devour one another,

take care that you are not consumed by one another.

16 Walk[2] by the Spirit, I say,

and do not gratify the desires of the false self.

17For what the false self desires is opposed to the Spirit,

and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the false self;

for these are opposed to each other,

to prevent you from [only][3] doing what you want.

18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

19Now the works of the false self are obvious:

            fornication, impurity, licentiousness,

                        20idolatry, sorcery,

                                    enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,                                                                           21envy, 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.

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, generosity, faithfulness,

23gentleness, and self-control.

There is no law against such things.

24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the false self  with its passions and desires.

            25If we walk by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

The word of the Lord. 

Thanks be to God.

Fred Craddock is among the top seminary professors and storytellers known only to pastors.

    He was ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) which is Tim Aker’s denomination.

Craddock tells a story about visiting in the home of one of his former students.

After dinner, the young parents excused themselves and hustled the kids off to bed,

            leaving Fred in the living room with the family dog, a large, sleek greyhound.

Earlier in the evening, Fred had watched the kids roll on the floor with the dog.

“That’s a full-blooded greyhound there,” the father of the kids had told Fred.

“He once raced professionally down in Florida.  Then we got him. 

            Great dog with the kids, that greyhound.”

Now sitting there alone with the dog—and Fred Craddock, tongue in cheek, swears this is true—

            the dog turned to Fred and asked “This your first visit to Connecticut?”

Unfazed by a talking dog, Fred answered:  “No, I went to school up here a long time ago.”

“Well I guess you heard I came from Miami,” said the greyhound.

“Oh, yeah, you retired?”  Fred asked.

“No, is that what they told you?” replied the greyhound.

            “No, no, I didn’t retire.  I tell you, I spent 10 years as a professional racing greyhound. 

                        That means ten years of running around the track day after day, seven days a week,

                                    with a pack of other greyhounds chasing that rabbit. 

                                                Well, one day, I got up close.

                                                I got a good look at that rabbit.  It was a fake!

                                                                        I spent my whole life chasing a fake rabbit! 

                                                I didn’t retire.  I quit!  I’m free!”

----------------

That talking greyhound led me to wonder:

How often are you and I chasing after fake rabbits, chasing after a way of life that is false?

And what would it take to set us free?

St. Paul would say it’s in the nature of greyhounds and human nature to chase fake rabbits.

    St. Paul would say that God’s goal 

is to free us from chasing fake rabbits

and to help us use our new freedom in magnificent ways.

In today’s text, Paul writes:      

“Christ has set us free.”

In his Letter to the Galatians,

   Paul was writing to one of the earliest churches when it was drained by a bitter dispute.

            Some Jews who had become Jesus followers were insisting

that gentile followers of Jesus must first convert to Judaism

            and adopt Jewish laws and practices including circumcision.

In stern language, Paul says No, because Christ has set us free from the Jewish law.

The Jewish law must have been appealing because it was written.

When Paul wrote his letter to the Galatian church, the stories of Jesus were circulating

            but the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had not yet been written.

               The New Testament did not exist.

                 Since Paul rejected following Jewish law as a prerequisite for becoming Christian,

                        the question was how the community of believers would receive divine moral guidance.

Paul’s answer is that not the law but the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus,

            leads the believer.                    

Paul understands that faithfulness needs help

             to prevail against the part of our human nature Paul calls the false self.

Paul writes to the Galatians: 

            17For what the false self desires is opposed to the Spirit…

                                18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

Let’s say we are standing before Alec Trebek as contestants on Jeopardy,

            the game that gives you the answer and requires you to pose the question.

     This is the answer for $10,000.

            The assessment of human characteristics

            used to predict human behavior.      

And the question is:  what is human nature?

Throughout history,

the question “what is human nature?” has been answered in very different ways. 

• In the 1600’s, philosopher Thomas Hobbes claimed pessimistically

that man is naturally a wolf to other men. 

For Hobbes, human nature leads us to life that is 

“solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." 

He argued for an absolutist form of government

as the only sure protection against chaos and anarchy.[4]

• In the mid 1700’s, economist Adam Smith claimed optimistically

that individuals free to pursue self-interest

would be moderated by sentiments of fellowship and self-restraint. 

Smith argued that free markets would lead to 

the common good as if led by an invisible hand.[5]  [6]

To the question:  what is human nature?

• In the early 1900’s Sigmund Freud theorized 

that human beings are anything but unified creatures.

He claimed our psyches are not whole, but divided into 3 parts. 

• One part is an agent of desire that does not readily take no for an answer, called the id.
• Another part is the internal agent of authority, called the superego.
• The third part brokers between the other two with great difficulty, called the ego.

              For Freud, the human being is always a conflicted creature.[7]

What is human nature?

            The Presbyterian answer begins with scripture. 

Sounding like a page from Freud, Paul lamented in his letter to the Romans: 

“I can will what is right but I cannot do it. 

For I do not do the good I want,

but the evil I do not want to do

is what I do.”[8]

What is human nature?

            The Presbyterian answer traces  

from Paul to St. Augustine to Luther to theologian John Calvin.

                                    Together they answer:  The human race is broken.  Each of us.  Always. 

Augustine famously surveyed the history of humankind

and did not see any sign of upward spiritual progress. 

Instead, he said, the human race lay “like a great invalid” always in need of healing.[9] 

Presbyterians claim it was because

            The Founding Fathers shared our religious view on the brokenness of human nature 

 that they designed the American system of checks and balances

hoping to create good government by managing the flaws among us.

Given that we live with inner conflicts, it’s not surprising to find conflict outside us and among us.

Returning to St. Paul.

            In all his letters—Romans, Colossians, Galatians—

                        we can say Paul sees each human as consisting of a false self and a true self.

                                    Which means each of us has a false self which lives as though there is no God but us.

                                    It is human nature to slip and slide into a false self.

                                                How then do we recognize it?

                                    What might our false self look like?

In his recent book “The Deeper Journey,” seminary professor M.Robert Mulholland Jr. says this.

• “The false self [believes it has to earn its value and dignity].

“I am what I do” is one of the primal perspectives of the false self…

              [and the means by which] the false self receives the necessary

                        external affirmation of value.

                            We fear others who may…outperform us…

                                  Other [people] are constant threats to that fragile structure

                                        we have created to provide ourselves with identity,

                                             meaning, value and purpose.

•  The false self is often an angry self.

Our false self is often angry at anyone or anything perceived to be thwarting our agenda

            [the agenda that makes us competent, valuable and comfortable].

            It can also become a seething hostility hidden beneath the surface,

               held in check by our need to maintain our false self’s façade of control.

                  But anger can boil to rage often totally out of proportion to what triggered it.

•  The false self is a protective self,

    [with many elaborate defense mechanisms like denial, blaming and projecting].

•  The false self is a possessive self and sees possessions as a way to enhance its status in the world.

• The false self is a manipulative self.

   Our false self is a master manipulator, [seeking to manage the world] in ways most advantageous to    our own security, prestige and agenda.

              Others may be valued largely for the benefit they can provide for us.

                        When their [usefulness] diminishes, they may be expendable.

• The false self is self-promoting.

    The false self promotes us and our agenda above all others.

       Even our most noble actions are undertaken with one eye on those who observe the actions

            and the other eye on the benefits the action will bring.

                 The best of our behaviors become stained with the need for approval.

•  The false self is an indulgent self,

    often gratifying our desires at the expense of others,

            [at the expense of our health]

              [and at the expense of the ecology] in which we live.

• The false self is a distinction making self.

   Our false self is characterized by a need to categorize others in ways to give us an advantage…

  others must be evaluated and labeled in such a way as to keep them either inferior to us

    or affirming and supportive “equals.”

        This, too, is a way our false self attempts to secure our identity and enhance our value."[10]

We are each struggling with our false self.

            But false is not all we are.

                        Because we are made in the image of God, each of us also has a true self.

                                    Because the Holy Spirit dwells/tents/tabernacles in each of us.

In Jesus, we see the only complete, true self.

            In him we see all the gifts of the Spirit which Paul names as

            love, peace, patience,         kindness, generosity, faithfulness,      gentleness, and self-control.

Nobel prize winner in literature, Rudyard Kipling (who lived from 1865-1936) was the poet of the British Empire.

            One of his famous poems about virtue is titled “If.”

                        The poem is a long if-then statement.

                                    If you can by sheer determination acquire these virtues,

                                                then you will be mature.

An excerpted version is this:

• “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…
• If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you…
• If you can wait and not be tired by waiting…
• If you can dream and not make dreams your master…
• If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

                  to serve your turn long after they are gone…

• If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
• If you can walk with kings nor lose the common touch

            [then] yours is the earth and all that’s in it

                        And…you will be a man, my son!”

From childhood, I have always found the lines to be beautiful.

            Yet today I find it speaks about virtue as up from the bootstraps.

                        Kipling lauds the self-made man.

But Christianity says none of us is self-made.

            Christianity says none of us can move beyond the false self, can quit chasing after a life that is false,

                        except with the Spirit’s help.

I think St. Paul would write a poem titled not “If” but “When.”

            And I imagine it would go like this.

• When you see your value is unearned, and comes by gift, from being forever loved as a child of God,
• When you come early in the morning praying:

                  “God, stir in me the desire to be yours in all things today”

• When you pray throughout the day:  “Holy Spirit, lead me from my false self”

• Then you may act from courage and creativity rather than fear
• Then you may let your defenses down and operate without guile and without one-ups-manship
• Then you may enjoy others without trying to change them
• Then you may see what we all have in common as God-forgiven sinners

                   far exceeds our differences,

• Then you may live in gratitude, generous, open-handed, without clutching          

• Then you may know you are freed from chasing after a life that is false

            And even a talking greyhound would say,

                        you are freed for joy and for truer pursuits.

In the name of the Father who calls us beloved children,

             the Son who is true

                        and the Holy Spirit eager, responsive and powerful.

                                    Amen.