Beginning and Continuing with the Spirit

Buechner on the Spirit
Galatians 3:1-5

I really do think at the risk of being overly simplistic,
at the root of how we go wrong as spiritual people
is when we let fear drive our decisions and our responses to what happens to us.
I know that is too simple. But it seems that a big driving destructive force in our lives is fear.
In contrast to fear throughout the scriptures we are given the examples and the teaching of faith and love.
And here in Galatians we read of Paul's frustration that the path of faith and love is being compromised by fear based decision making.
For Paul, the Galatians are changing horses in midstream.
They began their spiritual journey, awakened by love for God and by a realization of God's unconditional love for them.
And it was the faith in this reality, this new creation, which paved the way for the Spirit of love to fill them and move them towards a new way of being human.
But along come some teachers who instill fear and doubt about their qualifications for being considered true children of God.

And fear begins to corrode the love that once radiated from them, and they begin to make decisions for themselves and for their community based on fear of not being good enough to received God's blessing. The old way of relating to God, in servile fear – the way that characterized their life before the gospel – comes back and motivates them to begin to make changes in their way of life so that they might be certain that they truly are right with God.
And Paul is noticeably frustrated.
O foolish Galatians!
But why is he so riled up?
Because he seems them returning to fear-based decision making, fear-oriented responses to the world.
How did you receive the Spirit? He asks.
Did you receive the spirit by doing the works of the law?
Or did you receive the spirit by receiving what you heard in faith?
And so if you received the Spirit in a moment of grace, why do you feel like you have to follow the law in order to maintain your relationship with God?
Another way I've thought about this passage this week relates not just to who we are in our own relationships with God, individually.
But our relationship to God as a community of faith over time in Acworth.
The church
(this church in Acworth and the church as a whole, crossing continents and centuries)
The church is made up of people who believe that the Spirit of God is received by faith and not because of how we eat, pray, and act in our daily lives.
Not because of some points we've earned in the game of spirituality.
But because of God's love of us before we ever could stretch out our fingers to make a high-five.
And the church itself has a relationship with God which is often in identity crisis.


Does God love this church because of how we worship or make decisions, or how well we serve the community?
Or does God love this church with a love that cannot be gained by extra effort nor lost by letting the ball drop.


If God's love for this church is measured in numbers of attendance and checkbook balances, then we are not God's favorite child.


But is that the way it works?
This church is loved by God. This church is made up of people who are loved by God.
And God's love is not altered by what we do or do not.
God's love is as constant as the sun. And God's mercies new every morning.
This is what it means that God is faithful.


And we as a church will make our worst decisions when we forget that God is with us and loves us not in spite of who we are, but because of who we are as a unique expression in time and space of God's mission that all might know grace in their lives.


So as we remember St. Francis,
who was poor in material goods but rich in the spirit,
may we remember that it is human beings who judge based on outward appearance,
but God looks at the heart.
And God loves us as children.


So as a church we can live in the world of scarcity, fearing that the future of our community depends on our efforts to do the right thing and fundraise and have the right kind of attractive appearance so that more people will come and more money will flow.


Or we can stay with the one who called us in the beginning by love.
And instead of living in anxiety about life,
we can live in the freedom of the Spirit, going forth to love even as we are loved.
In anxious times, and for many of us these are anxious times,
we can easily lose sight of the heart of our faith.
And I would say that at the heart of our faith is the confidence that God will provide.
God will take care of you. God will take care of God's church.
Our focus need not be on how much we have to do to preserve ourselves, maintain community, or keep our checkbook balance up.
Those things are secondary to what we've been called to.
We've been called to give witness to the Spirit of God in our midst, in our hearts, the faith that we were given when we first heard of God's love and that we are continually renewed in as we hear again the life-affirming message.
May we stay true to the path that we've been called to.
As individuals and as a community.
Don't let fear be the driving force for decision making.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 timothy 1:7
As st. Augustine put it,
Love God and do as you will
For when we are grounded in trust of God, we will be free to decide for love and not fear.
And we will be instruments of peace. Amen.