Difference between revisions of "Sermon for June 23rd, 2013"

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Galatians 3:23-29

23Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Galatians: An Evolutionary Love

At the end of their first date, a young man takes his girlfriend home. Emboldened by the night, he decides to try for that important first kiss. With an air of confidence, he leans with his hand against the wall and, smiling, he says to her, "Darling, how 'bout a goodnight kiss?" Horrified, she replies, "Are you mad? My parents will see us!" "Oh come on! Who's gonna see us at this hour?" "No, please. Can you imagine if we get caught?" "Oh come on, there's nobody around, they're all sleeping!" "No way. It's just too risky!" "Oh please, please, I like you so much!!" "No, no, and no. I like you too, but I just can't!" "Oh yes you can. Please?" "NO, no. I just can't." "Pleeeeease?..." Out of the blue, the porch light goes on, and the girl's sister shows up in her pajamas, hair disheveled. In a sleepy voice the sister says: "Dad says to go ahead and give him a kiss. Or I can do it. Or if need be, he'll come down himself and do it. But for crying out loud tell him to take his hand off the intercom button!"

Today I'll be talking about a revolutionary love--the love of Christ. But before you look at today's sermon title in your bulletin and think that I misspelled it...I'll also be talking about an evolutionary love. Without the R. Evolution can be a dangerous word to use in some church circles, so let me start by saying that I believe in evolution. I don't put much stock in the argument that says an intelligent, thinking Christian has to choose between science and faith, as if the two were mutually exclusive. I believe that God is the creator of the universe and all the laws of science, so if evolution is God's tool and method for the creation of humanity, I'm perfectly ok with that.

But at the same time, my understanding of evolution is not limited to the narrow scope of the origin of species. As a person, as a pastor, as a husband and a father...I am continually evolving. Changing, growing, I am not the same person I was twenty years ago, or even twenty minutes ago. In this sense, we all evolve. Over time, churches evolve, business evolve, nations and cultures evolve. We are surrounded by evolution--and by evolution, I don't mean just random change. Evolution is slow, incremental changes by which we adapt to our circumstances and become better.

A few months ago in our sermon series on Revelation, I showed several charts, graphs and statistics that tracked everything from war, famine, poverty, and disease to show that, despite what we may fear, over the past few centuries humanity across the board, even in developing countries, has become stronger, healthier, more peaceful, and we are living longer lives than ever before. We are evolving.

But unlike some proponents of evolution and natural selection, I see God's hand in this process, guiding all of us forward as we evolve into the Kingdom he has prepared for us. I believe in natural selection, because I believe that God, by his very nature, has selected or chosen us to be his people. And I believe that this selection process, this evolution, is reflected in the scriptures, in the story of God calling his people out of the wilderness, into the land of Israel, and into faith in Jesus Christ.

In today's passage from Galatians, Paul speaks of a time "before faith came"--a time when God's people were "under the law." Elsewhere in Galatians, Paul also speaks of a time before the law, so we have three distinct phases here in Paul's thought, three different stages of evolution: Before the law (this is the time of Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham), under the law (Moses, the Kings and Prophets), and after the law (from the time of Jesus onward).

To best understand these stages of evolution, I think of my children. When they were first born, they kind of just did what they did. They cried, they ate, they slept, they made special presents for me to dispose of...and not much of anything I did could change that. As much as I would have liked to have laid down some rules for them (no crying at 2am, no peeing in the middle of a diaper change, all baby food must remain within one foot of the high chair...) I don't think it would have done much good. Amy and I expressed our love for them by simply taking care of them, no matter how loud or smelly they sometimes were. And mostly they were cute and happy. Mostly.

When they got older, though, and began to understand the difference between right and wrong, we made rules. We're still in that phase. The rules aren't just for our own benefit (although no crying at 2am is pretty nice now!) but for their benefit. The rules are an expression of love--our desire to keep them safe, healthy, and happy in a world they share with other people. Our kids don't always understand the rules, but we try to explain them as best as we can, and regardless of whether they are understood or not, we certainly enforce them. We'll be in this phase for another 15 to 20 years.

Some of you with children have already passed into phase three: Your children have grown up and become adults out on their own. You can make all the rules you want now, but I suspect that enforcing them would be an exercise in futility. The hope is that they have internalized all the rules they grew up with, that they understand the reasons behind them, and they make their own decisions, for better or for worse. They are no longer "under the law" but hopefully most of the time they do the right thing not because it's a law, but because it's the right thing to do.

Evolution.