What If Our Walk Became A Crawl?

My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. For all must carry their own loads. Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

Galatians 6:1-10

I have some tough questions for you: What if your pastor (me) was not perfect and didn't have his (her) life together, would you be able to hear the gospel message from them? What if they had struggles, doubts, fears, and angst in their faith, would you be able to hear the gospel message from them? What if they were a sinner, would you be able to hear the gospel message from them? What if they stumbled and fell or wandered off the “straight and narrow” path from time to time, would you be able to hear the gospel message from them? What if a letter in the bible was written by a hypocrite, would you be able to hear the gospel message from them?

Must the one bringing the message to us be of purity and holiness, or is there room for sinners to preach and teach the gospel within the church walls?

What if your neighbor was a sinner, would you be able to worship with them? What if you are a sinner, would you want others to outcast you? What if you have stumbled and fallen, should we pass you by? Should we remove you from our faith community?

Today's scripture passage comes from a hypocrite, a sinner, the worst of sinners; and this sinner urges us to forgive someone who has transgressed against us and to restore such person in a spirit of gentleness. This sinner urges us to take care so that we are not tempted, not in a way that we do as they do, but tempted in the way that ignores the plank in our own eye, while we take our tweezers to remove the speck from the one who has fallen.

This great and terrible sinner, one who held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen, who went to Damascus, not to find God or Jesus or salvation, but to persecute, destroy, and murder, urges the people of Galatia to bear one another's burdens, and in this way fulfilling the simple law of Christ which is, as this sinner writes a few verses before, to love your neighbor as yourself (Galatians 5:14). Because if those who are really nothing thinking they are something, they deceive themselves.

A sinner, worst among them, urges the readers not to deceive themselves to believe that they are something and their neighbor is nothing. He urges them to remember not to be like the Pharisee who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like some other people—robbers, gamblers, liars, cheaters, addicts, or that person there at the other end of the pew. I never sin and I give a tenth of all I get!” Our sinful apostle reminds us to be like the tax collector who stood at a distance, not even looking to heaven, but beat his chest and said, “God. God, have mercy on me. I...a sinner.” Our sinful apostle reminds us of what Jesus said, “For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Paul, our sinful apostle, knows what it is like to be the exalter. He knows what it is like to pass judgment on sinners and ride tall on his high horse. He knows exactly what it feels like when the blinding light of Christ's infinite mercy and grace knock us to the ground, blinding us so that we may see what Christ sees. Paul knows terribly well what it means to be a hypocrite, to be a sinner, and because he knows this terribly, he knows the power of God's amazing grace and amazing love. He know what it means to love his neighbor as himself and what it means to be redeemed by Christ. Our sinful apostle knows this because he often refers to himself as such, a lowly sinner redeemed by Christ.

So, I return to my earlier question, “Must the one bringing the message to us be of purity and holiness, or is there room for sinners to preach and teach the gospel within the church walls? What if your neighbor was a sinner, would you be able to worship with them? What if you are a sinner, would you want others to outcast you? What if you have stumbled and fallen, should we pass you by? Should we remove you from our faith community?”

The Christian faith is hard. It is a difficult path to travel and we are not traveling alone. Each of us are running the same race as the other. Each of us traveling down the same path, jumping the hurdles before us, and at times, each of us, catching our foot when we thought we cleared, tumbling hard to the ground, scrapped, bruised, and battered. Yet, we act like parents who take their sick child to the doctor and become upset that other sick children sit, waiting to see the same doctor.

When a member of our community's race turns to a walk and then that walk turns to a crawl, when they stumble and fall; instead of reaching down and offering a hand, instead of sitting beside them awhile, we lift our stones ready to cast them. We become like Job's friends who refuse to listen and instead judge. Paul urges us not to make a judgment because judgment of a brother or a sister is something someone of the flesh does. If we sow of the flesh then we will reap of the flesh. If we sow judgment as one who is not of the Spirit does, then we will have judgment given to us in return. We too will be judged as we judge.

This is not a new concept. Paul is not creating something original, he is borrowing from the words of Jesus, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye?” Hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “The weak must not judge the strong and the strong must not despise the weak. The weak must guard against pride, the strong against indifference. Neither must seek their own rights. If the strong persons fall, the weak ones must keep their hearts from gloating over the misfortune. If the weak fall, the strong must help them up in a friendly manner. The one needs as much patience as the other. As the writer of Ecclesiastes writes, “Woe to the one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help!” (Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Life Together pg 102).

One who stands laughing or judging over a struggling brother or sister, saying, “Haha. What goes around comes around.” or claiming to be the victor in a dispute between another, is one who does not live by the fruit of the Spirit. Instead they live by the fruit of the flesh because the flesh, the world, taking solace and finding justice in the misfortunes and struggles of others. Those who live by the fruits of the Spirit do not take joy in the suffering of another. They do not seek to crush them as children seek to crush the ant hills.

Paul writes, “By contrast (of the works/fruits of the flesh, which are obvious: fornication, impurity, intemperance, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, etc.), the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5:22-26).

Allow me to rephrase my earlier question: What if you stumble or fall in your walk, would you want the person down the aisle to stand over, spitting on you as they say, “You have gotten what you deserve.”? If it were you, laying where they lay, would you want them to respond as we have often responded?

There is a golden rule that says we are to do unto others as we would have them to unto us. It is not an excuse to exact revenge or punishment out of self-righteous anger disguised as godly justice. It is the recognition of what Baptist statesman, Hardy Clemons, once said, “Every single one of us is 100% responsible for 50% of the relationship with your neighbor. I have heard about how hard you are to try to manage the other's 50% but not much about how you'll manage your 50%.”

The golden rule is not right to exact self-righteous justice but a reminder, as Paul writes, “All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride. For all must carry their own loads.” We are responsible for own actions, not the actions of another. While we are to bear one another's burdens, we can only be responsible for how we interact in community with the other. We are responsible in helping others in a spirit of gentleness, out of love and peace, and with patience and kindness. That is our responsibility as members of the Christian community and we are responsible for behaving in such a manner to everyone, not just those we feel deserve it. We are to treat others as Christ treated others, not just his dearest friends, but even those who sought to remove him.

Evangelical activist, John Perkins, while speaking to a group of church leaders in New Zealand, encouraged them to be open to good things found in the Māori culture (the indigenous people of New Zealand). He urged the church leaders to let the Māori people express their faith in their own cultural forms, and with their own music. When he finished making his plea, one minister said, “You don't understand, Dr. Perkins, everything about the Māori culture is permeated with the demonic. We can't embrace anything of their culture or allow Christian Māori people to use in worship any of what's in their culture because it's so demonically influenced.”

“You're probably right!” John responded, “But before you look for the expressions of the demonic in their culture, maybe you should look the expressions of the demonic within your own Pākehā culture (the white culture of New Zealand).” (Campolo, Tony. Red Letter Revolution, pg 234-235).

I believe one of the (many) things missing or lacking in our churches today is a spirit of mercy, grace, kindness, love, patience, and forgiveness. We are a people who seek forgiveness for ourselves and deny it to others. We are a people who seek mercy and grace for our own trespasses while denying the same mercy and grace to those who have trespassed against us. We are like parents who take their sick children to the doctor, looking to be healed, and become upset to discover a waiting room full of sick children, terrified they are going to get our child even sicker.

This morning, as we do every first Sunday of the month, we partake in the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine (or juice in our case) in the form of communion. We make a big deal out of this event, such a big deal that we deny anyone who has not been baptized the right to eat and drink with us because we have misunderstood Paul's words “of unworthy manner” in 1 Corinthians; if we fully understood them, as they relate to Galatians, we would see that we ourselves are taking part in an unworthy manner when we eat the bread and take the cup when we deny rooms for others at the table. For when we partake in this sacrament or ordinance, we are embodying the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom ushered in by Christ, where all have enough, and people are not treated differently because they sin differently or struggle differently than you and I do. As imperfect as we are, we come to this table as one, and when we deny others room at this table, or we come to this table divided, in anger or in self-righteousness, or with hatred or envy, or strife and quarrel, we come in an unworthy manner.

I'll close with one more story:

Shortly after Jim Bakker was exposed for his sexual misconduct and put on trial for financial fraud, Tony Campolo spoke at a conference of Presbyterian ministers and Tony recalls, “The moderator of that group, prior to introducing me, said, “We must learn to distance ourselves from the likes of Jim Bakker, lest the world out there think that we are all like him.” When I got up to speak, I said, “First of all, this is no time to distance ourselves from Jim Bakker. This is a time to embrace a Christian brother who is suffering. If we don't do that, we negate what Jesus is all about and contradict all that we say about unconditional love. We should be embracing him, not establishing distance from him in his loneliness and time of need.”

“Second,” Tony continued, “the only difference between Jim Bakker and the rest of us is that they haven't found out about the rest of us yet. There is enough garbage in each of our lives that if all that was true about us flashed up on a screen in the middle of a Sunday morning service, almost all of us would have to resign and run away and hide ourselves. Almost all of us have secrets, but we haven't been exposed, so it does not befit any of us to condemn someone else who actually has been exposed.” (Campolo, pg 28).

In the words of Christ, let those without sin, cast the first stone.

I ask once again, and I will rephrase, what would happen if you stumbled or fell? What if your walk turned to a crawl? Would you not want the love to continue? Then let us be responsible and worthy by extending that unconditional love to those in our midst who have stumbled, and let us surround them with love, grace, and mercy, so that they may know Christ words, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:28-29).

Lord, make us an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen