July 3, 2022 ~ Fourth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Worship Zoom Video Link & Sermon

This is the link for Worship:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Ya6ji7GQcJS0BsCWVleQtZkjIBMtTUjhE3fXNAg8uEVTRrbBoQs-9pr5H7Y3LG-G.TgRO0o_PxbASuY0G

                                                                                                07/03/22—Highland—Meute

“The Good of All”

Psalm 66: 1-9; Galatians 6: 1-16; Luke 10: 1-11

Pearl: Through the cross Christ advanced the grace that makes everything new.

Function: To promote the law of liberty and grace which leads to new life sealed through the saving work of Christ Jesus. “Working for the good of all” flows from this message producing new life now.

There is a lot of swirl lately concerning laws with the Supreme Court of the United States’ recent rulings on issues of gun violence, abortion, and even the climate crisis. These rulings mean a lot to our way of life in America.

The Apostle Paul addressed a problem in the church of Galatia. Similarly there was swirl broiling over the law.

1. Throughout the entire letter of Galatians, Paul wrote about a law of liberty and grace accomplished by the saving work of Christ which led to such life that no law could provide.
   1. He spoke about the flesh and the spirit because people were regressing to the fleshly sign of circumcision as being necessary for faithful spirituality.
   1. People in the church were clinging to the Old Testament law of circumcision as being necessary. Paul insisted that this and other Old Testament laws could not hold a candle to what Christ accomplished on the cross. Christ’s saving work introduced an all new law which restores, releases, and makes new. He called it the law of liberty.
   1. “Liberty” is an appropriate theme around the 4^th of July. And actually “liberty,” “freedom,” is in the air a lot these days in America.
2. True liberty comes from the grace of God, not from any law. Unless that law is the law of love. Unless that law is liberty.
3. Why do we tend to gravitate to cut and dry, hard and fast, black and white laws for security, instead of leaning on the law of liberty and grace provided by what Christ accomplished on the cross?
   1. Could it have to do with control and manipulation?
      1. The multiplication and enforcement of laws can be a useful tool to make things the way you want them to be. More often than not, some people are favored over other ones.
   1. Could it be rooted in meanness?
      1. We can hide a lot of passive aggressive meanness in the pretense of being spiritual.
   1. Could it be a matter of intellectual laziness?
      1. It is easy to say “the bible says it so I believe it” rather than actually doing theology.
      1. A lot of intellectual laziness abounds in the church, sadly.
4. Understanding the law of liberty takes some thinking and imagining about what makes for true human well-being.
   1. Christ gave his life for just this purpose.
      1. God wants his reign to fill our lives now. Eternal life is now not something which begins after we die.
         1. God wants his reign of goodness and wholeness to fill the world as the waters cover the sea. The prophet Habakkuk wrote “…the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
         1. The glorious knowledge of the Lord is the message of the gospel: it is the message of liberty and grace, of restoration, release, and new life.
         1. It is certainly not about returning to Old Testament laws of circumcision.

There was even law-based intimidation going on within the Galatian church. Some were using the ritual of circumcision as a way of counting sheep, boasting about how many were circumcised. This was a major diversion from what really mattered. People were being pressured to be circumcised when it meant nothing anymore.

1. By doing this they were denying the efficacy of the cross of Christ. They were diminishing what God in Christ provided.
   1. Paul pointed this out throughout the whole of the Galatian letter.
   1. He was passionate about this message.
      1. At the end of the letter, he grabbed the pen from his scribe and wrote: “See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand…neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! (Gal. 6:11)”
   1. That new creation comes from God’s gift of his very best, his gift of his Son, Jesus Christ.
      1. God gave his very best, as this is all God does, anyway.
      1. How could the Galatians or how could we today revert to the prior covenant of law-based righteousness?
         1. How can we revert to the old laws when we have the new law of liberty?
2. Christ provided the law of liberty, the law of love. What is this law of Christ?
   1. Paul wrote, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6.2).
      1. So if you are into laws, then your law is to bear the burdens of another.
      1. Bearing one another’s burdens is restoring, and releasing God’s Spirit into another.  Restoring and releasing makes new life.
3. As the law of liberty is practiced everyone is made better.
   1. This is the liberty we need today.
      1. The liberty we have in Jesus Christ is true liberty. Nothing else comes close to matching up.
      1. We boast about liberty in the USA but it is empty compared to the liberty Christ supplies.
      1. Put your trust in anything but the Lord and you will be let down.
         1. Bow down before the Lord alone in humble reverence and receive life which is truly life.
         1. Nothing else matches up.
            1. No creed;
            1. No affiliation;
            1. No country;
            1. No flag;
            1. No achievement, no degree, no honor, or any prize;
            1. No membership;
            1. No fortune;
            1. No fame;
            1. Nothing matches up to the power and the life that comes through the saving gift of Jesus Christ.
   1. Human laws and human constructs cannot possibly make new.
   1. The law of liberty in Jesus Christ grants restoration, release, and new life.

And that restoration, release, and new life is meant for everyone.

1. The gift of God in Jesus Christ is for everyone or it is for no one.
2. Much can discourage us and weigh us down. We can become weary in trying to do the right things for ourselves and for those we love.
   1. Paul encouraged the Galatians, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9).
   1. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor described when she feels like giving up.
      1. She said, “There are days where I get discouraged. There are moments where I am deeply disappointed. And yes, there have been moments where I have stopped and said, ‘Is this worth it anymore?’ And every time I do that, I lick my wounds for a while, sometimes I cry. And then I say, ‘Ok, let’s fight.”
      1. Because of Christ we do not give up, either. And we fight the good fight, bearing the burdens of others and seeking God’s reign in our world.
3. Our mission in Jesus Christ is to “bear one another’s burdens.”
   1. Drawing on Micah 6:8 we do justice, we love kindness, and we walk humbly with our God.
   1. This way of life opens God’s grace which flows in channels bringing floods of life for all that it touches.

Do not grow weary in doing what is right; do not give up on living out of and passing along the grace of God to self and to others.

This is liberty, this is justice, and it is for all!