1.19.20, Rooke Chapel Congregation
Galatians 5: 1, 13-25
Welcome back, friends,
to our humble Ecumenical Christian Worship service.
The angels’ songs have quieted. And the wise travelers from the east have returned home by another road.
And we are here again in the midst of holy, ordinary time,
to sing, pray, worship God, and love one another.
We will ponder, this semester,
“the fruit of the spirit.”
Laid out in Galatians Chapter 5,
and we will encourage our seniors,
to come share the pulpit,
and share with us how
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control”
shape their lives.
Or how they might like them to,
This is Paul’s reminder,
that life is Christ can look different,
that things do not have to be the way they have always been.
not because we’re bound to a different set of rules,
but because we are free,
to grow in real and deep love.
The only thing that matters,
he says in verse 6,
is faith working through love.
Our seniors – those who have signed up to speak, and those who haven’t! –
we’ll encourage to take one of these fruits,
or one of the many more we could conjure,
justice, humility, perseverance, etc.
Paul’s list is not meant to be exclusive,
simply instructive.
to take those fruits and run
with whatever they might inspire or evoke in their lives.
But today, I thought,
we’d examine the fruit,
in its context,
We’ve all likely encountered this snippet of scripture, disembodied,
as church banners,
or wall hangings,
“fruit of the month” calendars
or personal prayer guides.
Warm, inviting, positive.
But it’s wedged,
actually amidst some passionate and fascinating discourse.
Those who would suggest that scripture,
or theology is boring,
would do well to read Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
In which he calls his readers fools,
his detractors, dogs,
and suggests that those who advocate the necessity of circumcision,
might consider castration instead. (actually, though.)
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.