![]() ![]() And the Psalmist has God saying somewhere I recall, 'enter into the joy of the Lord.' And I remember then that it's a process, sometimes a very long, even life long process to be journeyed through at your own pace, dealing always with the sense of grief and loss but with the hope and realization and experience from time to time of the promised joy. To give up a death dealing way for a life giving way must lead, in the end to joy. And what comes after crucifixion? Resurrection. Choosing the life giving way over the sterile, self absorbed and in some cases death dealing way is, St. Paul says in verse 24 'And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.' And in the very next verse he reminds us, literally, that it's not a competition! St. And it's this that's laid me low so many times, asking myself how I can carry on or making me feel not worthy to be called 'Christian'.īut this morning, the truth of it was laid out in front of me in the text the vicar was preaching on. In making the change we experience loss, and grief, sometimes in the extreme. The hardship begins the moment we make the choice because it demands a change in us. But, and this is a big BUT, even with the help of the Holy Spirit, following that way that bears the fruit of the spirit is very difficult indeed. It's total self concern and self absorption, to the exclusion of everything and everybody else. That is, choosing and following that fulfilling, creative, life giving and life enhancing way rather than choosing the 'desires of the flesh' which essentially only serves the ego, the self. And we know the way Jesus went.Ĭhristian discipleship, being a follower of Christ is about becoming like Christ himself. all that makes for fulfilling, creative, life giving and enhancing relationships. Paul put it is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, i.e. That's not how the Temptation narrative reads but it's essentially what it's about. The 'devil' was constantly 'saying' to Him then, "'fruit of the Spirit' or 'desires of the flesh', you choose". All this was tested out for Jesus during the time, immediately after His baptism, that he spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. And the same is true for all who have been baptised in His name, even those we would label as the 'bad' ones. He lived it out in His humanity through the Holy Spirit that came on Him at His baptism. We believe He was the best example of this endeavour. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit from God the Father to help us in this endeavour. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 to 7) and you'll soon get the idea. Jesus put everything in terms of the Kingdom of God, one of the essential threads of which is about fulfilling and creative, life giving and enhancing, relationships with others, self and God. We've got to have a much more informed and mature idea of what Jesus was calling us to be and become. So the sooner we ditch the idea of Christianity involving being good or bad, the better. He definitely said 'be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect'. I can't recall from the gospels, Jesus ever telling anybody that they had to be 'good'. But the thing is, Christianity is not at all about trying to be 'good' rather than 'bad'. And every Christian who's more than Christian in name only knows all about their own personal struggle. Paul knew about this and wrote about his own struggle with it. So the latter tends to win us over most of the time. ![]() The 'fruit of the Spirit' demands hard work, but we can fall into the 'desires of the flesh' much more easily and comfortably. Or so it seems, if we don't think too much about the consequences. But we all know that being 'good' is not all that easy and indulging in the 'desires of the flesh' is much more pleasurable. The popular view is that the 'desires of the flesh' is what the Church waves its finger at saying 'no, no, no - naughty' and the 'fruit of the Spirit' is what being 'good' is all about and what the Church pats you on the back for showing. Paul talks about the 'fruit of the Spirit' as opposed to the 'desires of the flesh'. Lately I've been thinking, as many times in the past, that Christianity is TOO hard. As I said in my last blog post, one of the good things about being retired is being able to listen to other peoples' sermons, especially the good ones (sermons that is)! This morning the vicar was preaching on Galatians 5.13-26 and like any good preacher, his sermon drew me back to reflect upon my own spiritual journey. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |