Wednesday, October 12, 2022
           (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Fruit of the spirit
Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord. He is like a tree planted by running water. Whatever he does, prospers.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians has reached its climax. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. And in that freedom we are led into the presence of the Holy Spirit.
If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Paul does seem to be thinking either-or here. Either you are guided by the Spirit, or you are not. If you are not …
The works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies and the like. I warn you … those who do such things will not enter the Kingdom of God.
Fifteen acts of evil, but that’s just the beginning. And besides that, what is going on under my hood – not just what I am doing, but what am I THINKING? Jesus is as clear as he can be: what I’m thinking matters just as much, maybe more.
We will not stop the sinning entirely, but we can confess, we must confess. Here’s a simple acronym: NANCy: when I sin I notice it, acknowledge it, and name it. Then I confess it and receive God’s forgiveness, God saying YES to me, and me saying YES to God.
And in the midst of my repentance and confessions a welcome Visitor arrives, bearing fruit:
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
For years our Kogudus team spent weekends all over the state of Illinois, in every correctional center that would have us. That included Joliet’s Stateville, Menard’s death row, and a multitude of minimum and medium security prisons. Early in the retreat we sat in small groups and talked about the fruit of the Spirit. Which one do you lack? Pick one. Let me pray for you, as you pray for me. Often, I chose “kindness.”
Later in the retreat, as we became closer to each other, we stood in a circle before our communion service. In our churches this is the time for corporate confession. The Lutherans taught me to say: “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess all my sins and iniquities, and justly deserve thy temporal and eternal punishment.” When I was a child I blunted the power of these words by refusing to take them seriously. When I became a man, I still took them with grains of salt. God is a god of love.
Of course He is. Gradually I began to allow his love to shine through his justice and acknowledge my deep, usually less than subtle betrayal of both, as I pushed my own way through life. In the prison, as Saturday evening approached, we stood in a circle, inmates and retreat guides.
The leader turned to the inmate on his right, who knelt and bowed. The leader put his hand on the inmate’s head.
George, in the name of Jesus, all your sins are forgiven.
Around the circle, we watch and wait. George rises to his feet and turns to the next person.
David, in the name of Jesus, all your sins are forgiven.
Peter called us a “chosen people, a royal priesthood.” In the name of Jesus, we forgave each other’s sins.
The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.
(Galatians 5, Psalm 1, John 10, Luke 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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