Reflect the Church's Glory!

7th Sunday after Pentecost, 7/11/10
Galatians 6:1-10, 14-16


Reflect the Church’s Glory!
I. In a proper self-evaluation
II. In your Christian care for others


In April, 2009 an article appeared in Newsweek entitled, “The End of Christian America.” It cited statistics from the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey which found that the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent. It also discovered that the Northwest US is no longer the most unchurched region of our nation. That “distinction” now belongs to the Northeast. Imagine that! More than 200 years ago European immigrants settled the northeast corner of our nation because it offered them religious freedom. Now that area of the country leads the nation in claiming no religion at all.

Many would agree with the title of the article, “The End of Christian America.” Others would go even further and say that the Christian church in general is headed for a lengthy decline into oblivion. What has happened to the Christian church in Europe is now happening here in America. Soon the church will be no more.

Have you heard that opinion from others? Probably. And the ones sharing that opinion seem to be learned people with plenty of statistics to back their sentiment.

But the only one who really counts doesn’t share that opinion. That one is none other than the one who established the Church by his death and resurrection—Jesus Christ. We heard him declare through his prophet Isaiah how eternally glorious that Church is. His disciples were amazed at the power of their Lord’s word to make that church grow as 72 of them shared the gospel on their limited mission trip.

In fact, the glory of that Church is seen every day by the Lord Jesus himself and by others as God’s people—members of his Church—live their lives as God’s people.

That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul urged the Galatian Christians to do in these closing words of his letter to them—the words before us this morning. It’s what our Lord urges us to do as well. The Church isn’t dead. It’s alive and its glory still shines in you, one of God’s children. So reflect that glory! Reflect the Church’s glory! Let’s listen as Paul shares with us some immensely practical ways of doing that.

Part I.

I won’t reread Paul’s words to us this morning, but how did the words strike you when I read them earlier? Even though the sentences were uncharacteristically short for Paul, they packed a tremendous amount of information. In fact, you may have viewed that reading as a long list of things we should do as Christians. And you’d be correct.

But realize what you’re up against when it comes to such a list of things we Christians should be doing. It’s none other than Satan himself.

And he’s going to tempt you in one of two extremes. First, he’ll tempt you with laziness and our sinful nature loves to be lazy. We all agree that these are the things we should be doing, but we just don’t seem to ever get around to doing them, at least not like Paul describes. It takes too much work. It’s much easier to be lazy. That’s one temptation extreme.

But if Satan can’t succeed in tempting us to be lazy, he’ll tempt us with sinful pride and arrogance. We find ourselves doing the things Paul speaks about and we thank ourselves very much. How our God must be pleased with us! How displeased he must be with others!

Paul has a solution for both temptation extremes. First, get real with yourself. He says, “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” What we have become—one of God’s children—had absolutely nothing to do with us. It had absolutely everything to do our God’s grace and mercy. So get real with yourself.

Next, test your actions. “Each one should test his own actions.” And the test is divine, not human. What does God say about the way you’re feeling right now? What does God say about the way you’re thinking right now? What does God say about what you’re saying or doing right now? If we honestly answer those questions, we’ll find that often God isn’t pleased. We sin far more often than we realize.

But then Paul says something that puzzles us. “Then he can take pride in himself.” Some think Paul is speaking sarcastically here. We really can’t boast at all. Others feel that Paul is speaking about a godly boasting over what our God has made us. We are his forgiven children by faith in Jesus. In other words, to boast in the Lord. He’ll talk more about that later.

Next he urges us to carry our own load. He’s not speaking about your aches and pains or problems in life. The word he uses indicates a load you’re expected to carry because of who you are. For instance, a soldier carries a certain load of equipment because that’s who he or she is. As Christians, we know that we are accountable not to ourselves or just to others, but accountable to God for what we think, say and do. That’s the load we carry.

But again, realize what you’re up against as you do those things. Paul speaks about sowing to please your sinful nature verses sowing to please the Spirit. Your sinful nature screams each day, “Forget the Lord! Do things my way. It’s more fun!” Christians who continually indulge their sinful nature eventually get what they want—life without the Lord. Our New Self as a Christian battles that way of life. And it’s a constant struggle in every Christian. Paul faced it and so do we. Sometimes the Old Adam wins. Sometimes the New Self wins.

But no matter what, as God’s forgiven people, we can find our comfort in our Savior Jesus Christ. In fact, we can boast about him and not about ourselves. Paul writes, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” There’s the proper evaluation of yourself. It’s not about us or what we do; it’s about what Jesus has done for us and what he has made us—members of his glorious Church.

Reflect the Church’s glory in a proper self-evaluation!

One of the glories of the Church is people serving one another out of love for Christ. But the very fact that Paul has to mention the topic of sinful pride which taints that glory indicates that you and I struggle with it. As I mentioned, Satan either tempts us with laziness so that we don’t serve each other as we should, or, when we are serving others, he tempts us with sinful pride. So, when is the last time you analyzed why you do what you do? Or, why you don’t do what you should be doing? It can be a painful exercise. But that’s why Paul urges us to boast in the cross of Christ. That cross did for us what we could never do for ourselves—win our forgiveness and eternal life. The blood of Jesus bought us and he made us his own by faith in him. By our baptisms the power of his resurrection lives in us. That power enables us to make a proper self-evaluation—why we do what we do. Reflect the Church’s glory by making such an evaluation every day!

Part II.

Jesus once urged us to take the beam out of our eye before we help our neighbor take the splinter out of his. He was speaking about making that proper self-evaluation. But he urges us to do so, so that we can help our fellow Christians.

That’s exactly the point St. Paul makes in our text.

We live in a tolerant world. Almost any lifestyle is tolerated in our country. But as Christians we are not to tolerate sin. Part of our service to one another involves pointing sin out when we see and hear it.

Paul says, “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” The Lord wants us to serve such a person by pointing out their sin so that they can be restored to living the Christian life. That’s critical because sin never brings God’s blessings, only his curse.

But do so “gently.” Harsh criticism and a “holier-than-thou” attitude won’t help and they aren’t God-pleasing either. But that doesn’t mean that we should hide behind the excuse, “Well, I shouldn’t say anything because I’ll do more harm than good.” Remember, we have the power of Christ and his word with us. He will use what we say for his glory.

And when we do so, then we’re loving our neighbor as ourself. Paul calls it “fulfilling the law of Christ.” Jesus said that all the law can be summed up with two commands—love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. When we provide Christian care for others, we’re fulfilling what Jesus commands.

In another one of his letters, Paul wrote, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). Imagine that! Instead of helping our fellow-Christian himself, God planned that you would do those good things. And he planned them out long ago; in eternity. Look for the opportunities the Lord places before you. Ask yourself, “What good things for others does God have planned for me today?’ And then get busy. Because that’s part of the Church’s glory—God’s people serving one another in love.

We live in an age of consumerism and we Americans are some of the biggest consumers in the world. On the one hand the glory of Christ’s Church is meant to be consumed. It comes to us through word and sacrament. Jesus wants us to consume as much of that as we can. But the Church is also about serving one another, about giving back to others. That’s part of the Church’s glory—that we willingly, lovingly, eagerly serve our Lord as we serve others. May our Lord give you not only the abundant power to do so but also abundant opportunities in your daily life. And then glory of the Church will shine through you. Amen.