Scripture Galatians 6: (1-6) 7-16

Doing Good to All

    1Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, 5for each one should carry his own load.

6Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.

7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature[a]will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Not Circumcision but a New Creation

    11See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

    12Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. 14May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 16Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

The Garden app

Some of you may have heard about an iPhone or and iPad which has a number of icons called apps or applications.  When you press one of these application icons the iPad launches a program or a subroutine that the user finds helpful.  There is an app for the weather, your daily thought, or how to clean and filet fish, whatever you want.  Our jPad also is filled with apps.  Our scripture today suggest we try the gardening app (you reap what you sow).  With our gardening app today we will attempt to plant a seed, water it, give it some fertilizer and watch it grow.  But first we will turn to the Holy Spirit and ask for guidance with this app. Let us pray.  May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you O lord our rock and our redeemer, Amen. 

Few people in our congregation can trace their ancestry back to the native people who lived in the land we call the United States of America.  That means that your ancestors and mine came from someplace else.  When many of the early settlers came to this country there were few guarantees.  First of all,  if you ancestors like mine came from northern Europe, there was a long ship voyage with a lot of risk.  Many of the voyagers never made it and die along the way.  Once they arrived they were not out of danger as most of them came with little money and few skills.  Even back then they had swindlers, confidence people and hustlers who were more than anxious to fleece the new arrivals of anything of value.  That is exactly how the apostle Paul saw what was happening in the churches of Galatia.  The teachers or Judaizers were having some success at robbing people of the sense of God's grace and forgiveness by simply believing in Jesus Christ and spreading fear in the hearts of the new believers that unless they become circumcised and follow all the Judaic laws they were really not a true believer.   Paul was trying to emphasis that Jesus' coming to earth was a new creation, God starting a new garden.  In this new creation Paul sees Jesus as the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.

“Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

The writer of the book of Hebrews states that, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."  Abraham did not have an instruction book or a set of 625 rules for daily living but what he did have was faith.  Paul is pleading with those who were being pulled into this false sense of security in the law to put their faith in Jesus Christ and to trust in this new creation.  I don't know if you planted a garden this year but I remember last year when the youth group and others went out to Edith Tisdal's farm last to start a new garden.  When we got there you could see that it had been a garden before but it had grown up in tough weeds.   The early church was being planted in a place where there had been a garden before but it had become infected with the weeds of self righteousness and ignorance of the poor and suffering of the people around them.
 
The first thing the youth did was to get a rototiller and grind up the soil, weeds and all to prepare a new bed for the seeds.  Jesus coming certainly turned the Jewish community upside down.   His coming had a leveling effect as the tines of the tiller mix some of the old with the new soil and chew up the weeds so that their goodness can be returned back to the soil again.  Look at the Sermon on the Mount where he says things like, "Mt 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Mt 5:40 and if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Love for Enemies “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"  I am sure these words had the Jews totally knocked off their feet with these earth chewing words, words that were meant to let the people know that he represented a new creation, a new garden, a bigger garden.   Paul's words to the Galatians were also meant to shake things up, turn over some of the ground that was beginning to choke out the new converts just as weeds can choke out new seedlings. 

Fertilizer may not smell very nice to us humans and other animals but in the plant kingdom it is a feast, a 7 course gourmet dinner with two desserts.  The main course of his message in our text today is this,    "bear one another's burdens"  We can remodel our church, invite people get to know Jesus Christ, but the miracle grow which makes us become a vibrant church is when we take on the issues and challenges that are weighing people down, bearing one another's burdens.  Paul says that by doing this we are fulfilling the law of Christ.   When we get together as a fellowship of Christians, even though we all have our own burdens and responsibility, there always seems to be enough left over so we can help someone who is struggling. 

I remember the first time that I tried to grow a vegetable garden, it was pathetic.  A neighbor told me that of course it was a poor garden, because your soil is poor, it needs some fertilizer.  The next spring I went to a farmer friend of mine and he let me have a load of the fresh stuff.  I worked it in with a roto-tiller and the rest as they say is history.  We had cucumbers the size of watermelons.  A little fertilizer goes a long way.  The fertilizer in our app is sharing each other's burdens. 

Jesus Christ is a new creation and he has prepared the soil for us and planted the seed, it is our job to fertilized and water.  One of the critical steps in sharing one another's burdens is to keep in touch with one another.  I think that this is what the apostle Paul was referring to when he said, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."    John Wesley said "“Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.”
Let's take our gardening app and use it this week.  Let' start by seeing ourselves as a part of God's New Creation in Jesus Christ and then reach out to those around us  as a kind of fertilizer in the new Garden to help others grow in faith and love. 

Amen.