don't need no butterflies

when you give me the whole damn zoo


A Pentecost sermon on the fruit of the Spirit:

Remember that week before Lent began when I went to Des Moines to talk with other pastors about leadership? Well, one of my extracurriculars was to join Dr. Jones in his “Life and Thought of Martin Luther” class. 
That’s where it all began for me

Well, they were working through “Freedom of a Christian.” 
Dr. Jones asked about the famous claim; ‘although a Christian may be perfectly free and subject to none, a Christian is also a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.’
He asked the students how could that be. One earnest, young man offered the theory that, when you do something good for someone else you feel good about it. 

Conventional wisdom at its finest, but not what Luther was after. 

As I’ve thought about that, I’ve come to realize the profound challenge Luther and his ilk put to us. 
Paul once put it like this, “I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I feed you with milk, not solid food.” 
They speak about the hard, real stuff of faith. Stuff that can only be experienced. And they’re experiences that don’t come easily. 

It’s like that parable of the two fish swimming along, as an older, graying fish swims by. 
Passing, the aged fish calls, “Good morning, fellas! How’s the water?” 
Well, the other two fish keep swimming along, when one of them stops and turns to the other, and asks, “What the heck is water.”

That’s the kind of challenge the likes of Luther and Paul are up against. To get us to notice the water we swim in now, now that Jesus has been raised from the dead. 
I was thinking a lot about that after the last sermon. This promise that Christ binds himself to you so completely, it becomes hard to tell where you end and Christ begins. 
And how, if that’s true; and it is, how will we ever come to see that?
& truthfully, you can’t, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

That’s what Paul is up against in this part of the letter to the Galatians. 

He had founded First Lutheran in Galatia. Then, after they were up on their feet, he left to start another congregation.  As he does. 
Well, it’s not long after that, that some other would-be church planters show up. And when the check out First Lutheran in Galatia, they’re decidedly unimpressed

The Galatians may know a thing or two about Jesus, but as these others see it, they Galatians still need to get serious.
“Sure,” they admit, “Paul gave you a good start, but it’s time to get to work. You need the law. A constitution. Discipline procedures. What are you going to do when there’s trouble? Here, subscribe to our church consultant service. We’ll have you up and running with the big boys in no time.”

When Paul gets wind of this, he pens a response that’s so faithful, it’s hard to hear. It is no spiritual milk. It’s the real deal, the good stuff. 

We always think too much freedom is dangerous. But Paul tells us, that it’s too little that’s the real problem. Because freedom, true freedom, real freedom, is freedom from what really wrecks things, Sin and Death. And no law can free us from their reign of terror. 

And to make his point, Paul gives a long list; a bunch of works of the flesh. 

And indeed, as we all know; if you’re going to have a shot at keeping all that in check, you’re going to need a long list of do’s and don’ts. And, you’re going to need someone to stand over you to make sure you keep every jot and tiddle. 

But Paul says that’s not the way things are anymore. That, that’s not who those who have been marked by the cross of christ are anymore

That life of trying to live by our own efforts, trying to keep all the right rules, is over. It’s been crucified with Christ! In other words, it’s dead
And the life you now live, is one in the Spirit of him who was raised from that death! 

You live,” Paul says. “But the life you now live is not any old life, it’s life by the Spirit!”
And not just any spirit, either. But THE Spirit. The Spirit of God in the flesh. The Spirit of the one God raised from the dead. The Spirit of Jesus Christ. 

And to make his point, Paul gives another list. A shorter one. Just one thing, the singular fruit of the Spirit, and all the goods it gives! Not some litany of works, but one fruit and all it gives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 
And the best thing about that fruit is, there’s no law against all it produces. It’s fruit is so good, how could there be??? 

It’s like the lyric in that song that was on the radio nonstop a few months ago. “Don’t need no butterflies when you give me the whole damn zoo.”

Because God’s no miser. God doesn’t hold back. When God gives the goods, God gives them all!

We always worry that God’s holding back, though. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. 
But Paul declares that not the way it works!

When I first moved to Burlington, The Capitol Theater was showing this great silent, black and white movie called “The Artist.” 
(Ever seen it? I know Jim has…)

It’s about this experienced, popular actor meeting a young woman who wants to make it in Hollywood. He can see she has talent, but he can also see that won’t be enough. Good as she is, he know’s she’ll need more
So he takes some makeup and marks her. Gives her a fake beauty mark, right  above her lip.
And it works like a charm!
As she goes to work as a background dancer, the director notices her. He pulls her forward, and even gives her a small role. She attracts so much attention in that role, she’s offered another, a larger one! And on and on. 
Almost by magic

In fact, it works so well, it’s easy to forget that everything she’s gotten, hasn’t come by any of her efforts, but by this mark she’s been given

And that’s how it works with God
Because you too, sisters and brothers, have been marked.

Now, you may not be able to see it. And it may be easy to take it for granted, but that doesn’t make it any less real.
In your baptism, the pastor took oil and marked you with the seal of the cross of Christ forever. And that's the spirit you live by now!

You’re not on your own anymore. You have Jesus’ life and death. His Spirit, is your Spirit. 
And now, all there is, is to let it lead you. And as the old hymn puts it, “and grace will lead me home.”

That’s just the water we swim in now. It’s easy to miss. I know I have. 
Like when I first came to Faith, after Vonda’s funeral. I found out a bunch of folks had gotten together with Dwaine to paint the house. 
At the time I said, “that’s just how you are at Faith.”
Now that I’ve gotten to know you better, I’ve learned. That wasn’t you, was it? That was the Holy Spirit, that was Christ alive in
you.

Or at Trinity, the mistakes I’ve made. The times I’ve spoken up when I should’ve kept quiet. Yet all along, because of a vow, “Will you receive him as your pastor,” none of you have withheld the goods. 
You’ve called me “pastor” in the good and the bad. And God has taken that, and made me into a pastor. And for that I am so thankful today. 

See, that’s been the miracle that’s so easy to miss. And yet, it has never ceased to amaze me either. 
How, in spite of everything, the Holy Spirit has never withheld the goods from us. All our sins. The times we’ve turned away. God have never stopped pouring out the Holy Spirit. Making us into saints we never could have been on our own. 
There was a time when I was just as cynical about the church as anyone. 
But getting to serve in this frustrating little corner of heaven, I’ve come to learn that what the church needs most, isn’t people who are willing to ask tough questions, but people who are willing to actually sit quietly at her feet and listen. Learn. Be made into the servants we need. 

I bet my folks wish I learned that lesson 27 years ago

The temptation today is to go from here congratulating ourselves. But that's never the way it works, is it? 
All the moments that matter most to us. What we’re most thankful for today, it hasn’t been our own doing. It’s been the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on us. The Spirit of Christ come alive in us. Being led by the Spirit. 


It’s what Paul already said, “If we live by the Spirit, all that’s need it to just let it guide us.”

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