The readings are Galatians 5:16-26 and Luke 4:16-21
Today, our community is celebrating Father’s Day. So if you are a father, step-father, grandfather, godfather, uncle or brother – thank you, and we are praying for you as you father others. However, today is not always an easy day for some. Some fathers aren’t all they could be. Some long to be fathers but aren’t. Some are grieving for fathers and some fathers are grieving a child. If today is hard, we are praying for you too.
In the Bible, it often speaks about God as a good Father. In Luke 11, Jesus says:
9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father…”
I will finish that verse in a moment.
A sad but very precious part of my role is to conduct funerals. Often I find myself sitting with a family as they tell me stories about a Dad or Grandad. And very few talk about material things their loved one has given them. Instead they tell me stories of holidays or driving lessons. They tell me about lessons learned and values they live by. The best present their loved one ever gave them was their time, their wisdom – themselves.
So how does that reading from Luke end? It ends with “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” The greatest gift God can give is Godself – God with us to teach us and guide us and help us learn God’s values and live God’s way. That is the gift God gives abundantly – the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now the Holy Spirit can enable people to do remarkable and miraculous things – and we will be thinking about that more next week. But perhaps the most remarkable thing the Holy Spirit does is changes our hearts to make them more like Jesus. Paul is Galatians talks about the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The idea of fruit speaks to me of something which grows slowly and steadily. Fruit both carries the seeds of new life and nourishes others with its food. The Holy Spirit grows the fruit of God’s Kingdom in our lives enabling us to help others know Jesus and caring for God’s people and God’s world.
Now, just a quick health warning as we look at this reading from Galatians. For many years, this has been – in my opinion – mis-read to set up a false distinction between bodies and souls. Bodies are not bad things – in fact they are great. Jesus had a body. Bodies help us love others and care for the world. The flesh isn’t a bad thing.
I think that when Paul is talking about the flesh, he is talking about the selfishnesses or fears that only think about what benefits or brings pleasure to our own bodies. It doesn’t care about how our behaviour might affect other people. The fruit of the Spirit on the other hand is all about how we love others and treat them as precious children of God.
I think I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again. I have a friend who is an Old Testament scholar, and once she was talking about the concept of flourishing. Flourishing is a big idea in society and in the church right now. How do people flourish. My friend said that in the Old Testament there is NO concept of individual flourishing – we can only flourish as community.
With this in mind, of course the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives is going to be fruit that enables us to live well as a community. And when communities live well, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, the world around them is transformed.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus talks about the difference the Spirit makes in the world – he enables us to proclaim and be good news for those who are poor, captive, blind and oppressed. She empowers us to live God’s Kingdom into being.
Our church has welcomed many new friends over the last few years. They rarely come here because of my stellar preaching or an energetic programme or evangelism. They come because they encounter in this place, in the people of our church community love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and – so long as there isn’t chocolate about – self-control! In short, in the way we live together as a church family, they see something of Jesus.
Now, it feels like I am tempting fate to say that – asking for a major congregational fall-out! Because, we are not Jesus – we are people who all too often get it wrong. We have bad days. We mess up. However, the fruit of God’s Spirit is not dependent on us, thankfully. God’s Spirit is a gift and if we seek it, if we ask for it, this gift will be given again and again and again.
In the Old Testament book of Lamentations – a book as joyous as its name suggests – amidst page upon page of disaster, there is a beautiful little refrain:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
God’s mercies never come to an end
They are new every morning
Great is God’s faithfulness
Every day, every morning, we can ask God again for the gift of God’s Spirit with us. And every day, God our Father, God the best Father, a Father beyond our imaginings, will delight to give us that gift of Godself.
And slowly but surely, day by day, God will grow in us the fruit of God’s Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And by that fruit in our lives, God will help us help others and point them to Jesus.
Ask, seek, knock – and receive, receive with joy, the gift of the Holy Spirit, then go forth and bear her fruits in a world which so needs them!
Sermons at St Paul's 