The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Galatians 5:16-24

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This weekend usually marks the end of summer, but the meteorological calendar indicates summer still has a few weeks before fall begins. It’s also Labor Day Weekend, offering one last chance to visit the lake, go to a water park, or enjoy a picnic — a perfect excuse to take a break from work. 

The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882 in New York City; a couple of years later, the day became a Federal Holiday. As many see it today, it’s a day off from work, but its history reveals that the day would include speeches on the holiday’s economic and civic significance. Labor Unions might use these days as opportunities to build support for their causes and sway public opinion on pay and benefits for today’s workforce.

But what is a Labor Union anyway?

At the most basic level, a Labor Union is an organization of workers who join together to negotiate with employers for better pay, benefits, and working conditions. A Labor Union is a group of people, united in their work, their toil, and labor.

Have you ever pondered how the world around you might influence how you view the Christian faith? Have ideas about the labor force influenced the Church or the local congregation? A group of people, united in a common work, to “make” Christians.

But if the work conditions aren’t favorable or up to your standards, can you go on strike from “making” Christians? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? What we’re really asking here is this: can we go on strike from living the Christian faith if the conditions of faith aren’t favorable or acceptable to us? Can you negotiate better working pay, benefits, and surroundings so it’s easier to “make” a Christian? Or could there at least be some hazard pay when life becomes difficult?

The answer is no. To all of this.

The reality is that you dwell, live, and labor in this world, in the flesh inherited from your first parents, which means this life will be difficult, just as it was for your father, Adam, who worked the land full of thorns and thistles. Your flesh will be tempted, as King David’s was, to take for yourselves men and women who are not your husbands and wives, and to suffer the consequences of such sins.

Like laborers in the vineyard, you will complain and grow jealous of your neighbor who receives a higher wage than you, which in turn will lead you to jealousy, strife, and anger, if not with them, then within your own heart. If you permit these events to overtake you, if you permit your careers, positions, and places in society to become your sole focus and identity, you will likely begin to see yourself more at odds with one another than in union or unity with one another. 

The reason for this is that you’ve permitted yourself, or what you perceive as your “work,” to become a god. You began to idolize yourself and what you do. This is why some mutter, “No one appreciates me.”

And here is one of the reasons St. Paul warns you in this morning’s epistle: to walk in the Spirit so as not to gratify or give way to the works of the sinful flesh that clings to your bones and surrounds your heart.

The way we read the words of St. Paul is interesting, too, because we tend to lose something in translation. We hear “you” and think St. Paul is speaking individually, in the singular, but we need to take into account not only the context of his writing but also the Greek grammar. He is speaking in the second person plural, saying that you all, the whole community of the Galatians, are to walk in the singular Spirit of God. 

Likewise, you all, the people of Good Shepherd, the body of Christ, are to walk in the way of the Holy Spirit, to be in union with one another and led by the Holy Spirit in faith.

But here lies the divide: we wish to live according to the flesh, and when we do this, we are led away from the unity of Christ, living for ourselves through “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.”

In these ways, we live for ourselves; we aim to elevate ourselves above others, trying to control the uncontrollable. However, this only leads to brokenness, death, and eternal separation from one another and, most importantly, God. 

And of course, this catalog of vices is not exhaustive or conclusive; that’s why St. Paul ended it with, “And things like these…”

Still, St. Paul doesn’t simply end the sermon there; he continues to warn the Galatians, and we receive the same warning today that if we continue in these behaviors, these works of the flesh, we too will not inherit eternal life. So, Paul then moves forward by outlining the things that lead to faithfulness, unity, and eternal life.

Also, did you notice that Paul didn’t call these items works; no, he called them the fruit of the Spirit – “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

Again, if you reflect back to the Garden of Eden, what is it that Eve takes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to eat? It’s fruit. She ate the forbidden fruit, and now, by partaking of it, Adam and Eve, along with all their children, you, will have to labor and work for the things needed for this life. 

However, as we move forward, Jesus will also use fruit as an illustration to teach about faith, the Christian life, and eternity.

In the Gospel of John (15), Jesus says that He is a vine. However, the branches attached to Him that do not bear fruit are to be taken away and pruned so that the vine might bear more fruit.

Remove the bad so the good can grow. 

In this illustration, removing bad branches is achieved by confessing our sins and the works of the flesh we have committed and continue to commit. 

Jesus goes on to say that the branches cannot bear fruit by themselves unless they are united to the vine. This is an image of the Christian life. The Christian, you, cannot bear good fruit unless you abide in Jesus. 

He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” (John 15:5)

So, you are called to confess the works of the flesh, to be pruned through the work of God’s word, His Law within your heart, so that absolution, the forgiveness of sin, is announced and applied to you. This forgiveness then affects your heart and begins to form new fruit within you, and when this occurs, it’s because of what God is doing through you, how you “all” are being led by the Spirit as one, in communion, to possess the fruit of the Spirit.

There are no individuals in the Church.

And this is taught in the third article of the Creed as we confess the work of the Holy Spirit. We confess,

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

We go on to say in the meaning,

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.

Sanctification is God’s action of making you holy through the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is the way your faith is strengthened, and the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of faith, increases in you because the Holy Spirit is keeping you with Christ. 

In a wonderful way, the Holy Spirit works to gather you together, to bring you into communion, to remove the bad fruit from your heart and life, so new fruit may come forth. He leads you to walk together as a united people, not giving in to the desires of the flesh, which wish to separate you from one another, but rather to walk together, loving and caring for one another.

Unlike the chaotic and disjointed nature of the works of the flesh, we should note that the fruit of the Spirit is singular, and it begins with love.

Remember, we read that “the fruit” of the Spirit “is” “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

The list begins with the virtue of love for a reason, because everything that follows and is recorded as part of the fruit of the Spirit is a manifestation of love.

Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, all manifestations of love.

God the Father’s love is most clearly seen and understood in His sending of His Son to atone for the sins of the world, a self-sacrificing love demonstrated by dying on the cross for you, for all of you.

It’s for this reason that St. Paul is recorded as saying at the end of the epistle, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

The cross and the crucifixion of Jesus are the singular act of love that redeemed mankind from sin, death, and eternal separation from God the Father. For this love of Christ to abide in you, it requires a daily crucifixion, a daily pruning of the branches, confessing your sins, and putting to death the works of the flesh, so you can be raised in the resurrection of Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit, who produces life and new fruit within you, gathering you who were many into one people, one church, and leading you not only through this life together but also to the communal meal of fellowship at this altar, as people who partake and look forward to the day when your Savior will give you not just a day off for rest or a weekend to get away, but an eternal rest, as He says to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)

The reality is that few things in this life truly unify us as they ought. Too often, the entities and organizations meant to unify society only deepen division, often because we are led by the flesh rather than the Spirit.

The Church likewise must be on guard because the earthly rewards will never be satisfactory, the conditions of the Christian life will always be burdensome, nothing will be fair, and you can’t go on strike if you disagree with God’s Word.

But when you abide in God’s Word and permit the fruit of the Spirit to guide and gather you into the body of Christ, you learn to love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37). You also learn how the Spirit of God dwells and He works within you and through you, He alone does the work of making Christians.

Praise God for that!

So go ahead and take a holiday, take rest in the Lord not only this weekend but every day of this earthly life. Permit Him to work the love of Christ within you so that the fruit of the Spirit leads you through this toilsome life with joy. +INJ+

Rev. Noah J. Rogness

Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Tomah, WI

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Website: www.goodsheptomah.org

The Shepherd’s Voice Podcast: https://goodsheptomah.podbean.com/