The Third Option

Our scripture reading for today is from Galatians 5, 16 to 26. Let's hear this word from God's word today. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And since we live by the spirit, let us keep it in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. 

Hey, I wanted to share before we get in, I don't know if you realize that the church has liturgical calendar and there's liturgical seasons. In those seasons we know through colors. And so, you know, on the pyramids that are on the altar table and the pulpit and lectern, if we were wearing a robe, we would have the stoles that represent the same colors.

Green is ordinary season. It's just kind of when there's not really a special season. Going purple or blue is Advent and Lent.

White are the High Holy Days, Christmas, Easter, Communion Sundays, Baptism sometimes, Red Pentecost. I was thinking today that there might be a new pyramid for the third Sunday of October after the third Saturday of October, if that's all right. So if you don't mind, this was made for me and I've been long waiting for an opportunity to wear it.

So I'm going to wear it today. We all have a little fun, right? Just a note, I take it and I owe Sam Cardwell, by the way, at lunch because of our little wager on the Brave Dodger series and I lost that. So if you're going to give it, you've got to take it and we can do that in all good fun.

Today we finish our Faith in Politics sermon series. And if you've noticed, we've done the Apostles' Creed at the beginning of it every week. That was Steve's idea and it was a really good idea because I think it reminds us of what's important.

As we're talking about things that divide us, the Apostles' Creed is that common bond that we have in common, the common bond of our faith. Last week I talked about how tradition is one of the lenses through which we view Scripture and the Apostles' Creed has taken, took its form in about the year 390. So we have over 1600 years that it's kind of been a standard of what we believe as people of faith and tradition has continued to confirm that.

So I think it's important throughout this series as we're talking about things that divide us to talk about that thing that brings us together, our faith, what we believe. That's what's important. What I've come to see is that if we get Jesus right and in the right priority in our lives, then we can disagree on just about everything else and still be in relationship together.

I think the problem is that sometimes we may say that that is our priority, that Jesus is our priority, but how we live it out tells a different story, especially around the world of politics. As John shared with our kids, we're known by the fruit that we produce. Because here's the thing, church, is we wind this series down.

In essence, we can either take up the sword of government or we can take up the cross of Jesus, but we can't take up both. We have to choose. And as we end this sermon series, I think that defines what we have hoped to accomplish through this sermon series, that at the end of the day, in our engagement in the political arena, the end goal that we have as followers of Christ is not to get a person elected or an agenda approved, it's to honor Jesus with our life.

Let me be clear as we end this series. We can champion the most righteous agendas, but if we do it in unrighteous ways, God is not pleased. God desires for us to live our life in a way that represents him, that honors him, and when we do the things that are unrighteous, God is not honored.

I hear during the political season all the time that people will say, if you don't vote for this person, then the world could be destroyed by that person. What does this say about God when we say that? When we say those things, we're elevating our role in it, we're elevating the politician's role in it, and we are downplaying God's role in all of this, saying that we have the control, or that the politician has the control, but that God doesn't have the control. I hope I don't hurt your feelings when I say this, but God doesn't need you.

God doesn't need me. God chooses to partner with us, to bring about his kingdom on earth as it is in having to carry out his will. In fact, I think how we engage in the political arena is to help us to learn and to grow so that we're ready to live in the kingdom that is to come, in preparation for what God has for us in eternity.

Politics may be a way for us to figure out how to live together despite our differences, and God gives us the chance to do that. I want to offer you something today that I think is an important image, and it comes out of the Apostles' Creed that we've been doing this entire series, that it says in there, we recite it. We've recited it every week of this series.

Every time you've said the Apostles' Creed, you've said that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. We say that, right? He suffered under Pontius Pilate. Who was Pilate? Pilate was the Roman governor.

He was an elected official over Judea. Judea is the southern kingdom of Israel. Judea was under Roman control, and Pilate was the governor over the Israelites in the southern kingdom where Jesus was.

Here's what I want you to see. Pilate tried to manipulate faith to allow him to control Judea better. Pilate gave status to religious leaders who would do what he said, who were willing to compromise their integrity and their loyalty to God.

To him, and if they did that, he gave them status, and that created sort of the hierarchy within the religious realm. And so when Jesus came along, not only did the religious leaders feel threatened, but Pilate felt threatened. And as Jesus' influence grew, Pilate's threat level grew as well.

And so Pilate began conspiring to have Jesus killed. He thought if he could take Jesus out that he could stop the movement that had begun, and it would protect his reign. And we know what happened.

Pilate eventually had Jesus arrested, on trumped up charges, found guilty in a mock trial, and sentenced him to the death penalty. And he carried that sentence out quickly, crucifying him on a cross. That's a lot of power that he exhibited in that moment.

And you would think that Pilate would be known throughout all of history because of the kind of power that he was able to yield, right? Yet let me tell you, the only reason we have any clue who Pilate is, the only reason we've ever heard Pilate's story, the only reason we have vaguely any understanding of who Pilate is, is because he is a footnote in the story of Jesus. He's a footnote in the Apostles' Creed as we talk about Jesus. We don't know him because of his power or his reign.

We know him because of God's power and God's reign through Christ. The Apostles' Creed mentions him because he lost, because he couldn't stop what God had started. Suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified, buried, and on the third day he rose.

On the third day he rose. And he, Jesus, not Pilate, will judge the living and the dead. Church, this gives us a good understanding of the difference between faith and politics.

It helps us to understand where the real power, eternal power, is held. It's Jesus. Everything else are the powers and principalities that seek to thwart God's plan.

We need to remember that, and we need to remember as we seek to have an impact in the political arena of where our power lies. It's not a person or a party or a circumstance. It always has been and still is in Jesus.

One of the most misunderstood scriptures in the Bible is one that Pastor Steve read today. It's in that text from the book of Galatians as Paul's writing to the church of Galatia. But before I get there and help you to understand what's so misunderstood about it, I want you to hear what's kind of prefacing it, what leads into it, that we also read, because it's something that we sort of pick and choose on how we talk about it as well.

Paul talks about the acts of sinful nature. And boy, you know the ones that stand out for us, right? We tend to get hung up on some of those that really grab our attention like sexual immorality, debauchery, orgies, drunkenness, and witchcraft. Those get our attention, sure, for sinful nature.

But in the same breath, in the same sentence, Paul has some other characteristics about our sinful nature as well. Things like idolatry. I don't think it's hard for us to see how this plays out in the political world.

Hatred. I see a lot of hatred and name calling around people whose politics we disagree with. This has been a recurring theme in this series because it's a recurring theme in Scripture when we seek to cause discord instead of unity.

Fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions. These are the acts of sinful nature along with those others that Paul addresses. And he says, those of you who live by these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

That should be a wake-up call for us, especially as we engage in the political arena. Now to the misquoted part of Scripture. I'm referring to that part that we've grown to know as the fruit of the Spirit.

You know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And every teaching that I've ever seen on this, from children's stuff to adults, it has like an image of like a supermarket produce section or a produce market. And each of the different fruits that are there, it'll have a word superimposed over it.

It might have over apples' love and over peaches' joy and over the candle oak patience and on and on and on. But the image that that puts in our mind is when we go to the grocery store, we don't ever buy every single fruit every single time we're there, right? I might like mangoes and pineapples and peaches, but I may not like papayas or kiwi. And so I pick and choose what I want when I'm at the grocery store.

And so we begin to think that the fruit that Paul's talking about is a choice that we have. And then we're not expected to have all of them. But that's not what Paul writes.

That's where we miss the mark on this text. Because the way we have it in our mind, whether we understand that or not, I would think most, if not all of us, is we like to think of it as the fruits of the Spirit are. But don't take my word for it.

Look at the Scripture. That's not what Paul says. He says, the fruit, singular, of the Spirit is.

Third person singular is, not third person plural are. The fruit of the Spirit is. There's only one fruit of the Spirit.

I was a little worried this morning when I saw John with a basket of different fruits, but he did a good job on that. But there's one fruit, and it has nine attributes. And it's our expectation from God, as written by Paul, that we would strive to model all nine.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I've tried to think, what would be a better image than a fruit stand or the produce section of the grocery store? And the best I could come up with, and I don't think it's perfect, would be a bunch of grapes. One fruit, all on one stem, several different parts of the one fruit, several different attributes of the fruit of the Spirit.

And when we're lacking some of these attributes, church, we're lacking exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit contains all nine of these, and that's what we strive for. Let me ask you this, church.

When you engage in the political arena, does it bring out the fruit of the Spirit in you? I can answer for me, it doesn't. And let me ask you this, when we look at the political arena, does it emulate better the fruit of the Spirit or the acts of sinful nature? I don't think we have to answer that, do we? I find it interesting, in light of this sermon series, as I look at the text that Paul says of the fruit of the Spirit, that against such things, he says, there is no law. I never thought about that part of what Paul says.

He says, the fruit of the Spirit is, and he gives those nine attributes, and he says, against such things, there is no law. There is no legislation that can prevent you from exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit. He's separating our faith from politics, from the government.

So church, as we finish this series, when you engage with someone who disagrees with you politically, do it with love, patience, kindness, gentleness, exhibit self-control. When you campaign for someone, do it with joy. When you go to vote, allow it to bring peace in your life.

As you look at who and how you're going to vote, do it with an eye towards goodness, and how it's going to make a difference for good in the world, being faithful to our ideals. Against these things, there is no law. I think it's important how Paul ends this section of his letter.

I end my sermon series with this. Those who belong to Jesus, those who belong to Jesus, have crucified that sinful nature that includes hate, discord, dissension, factions, idolatry. Instead, Paul says, live by the Spirit, which we will be known by, by how we keep with the fruit of the Spirit, how we live out the fruit of the Spirit, one fruit, with nine attributes.

As Paul says, let us not become conceited, and let us not provoke or envy one another. Thanks be to God. Amen.