Tomorrow will be a life-changing day in the state of Wisconsin. It is a day
many have looked forward to, while others have dreaded. Tomorrow a ban will go
into effect that prohibits smoking in most public buildings.
You will no longer be asked the question “smoking or non?” when you walk into a
restaurant. Bars and taverns will be putting away the ash trays and making sure
that none of their patrons light up.
Now there are two interesting aspects of this new ban, both of which oddly
enough have to do with our passage in Galatians. On the one side, you have a
legitimate debate about the role of government in the private lives of citizens.
Does the government have the right to tell people that they can’t smoke in bars?
One thing we Americans tend to guard zealously is our freedom. Our ability to
choose how we want to live our lives and our willingness to accommodate others
who make different choices is one of the hallmarks of our country.
It’s one of the things that our country’s founders wanted to ensure, even though
their understanding of freedom was quite different from what most of us believe
in today. They made sure they guarded freedom and opportunity for white male
landowners; the freedom of most everyone else was not much of a concern to them.
Today we have a much broader concept of freedom than they had, and most of us
consider that to be progress. Until now, that sense of freedom has guaranteed
Wisconsin’s smokers the right to smoke at restaurants, bars and bowling alleys.
But we a society we have come to the point where many of us see the need to
balance that freedom with the freedom of non-smokers to not increase our risk of
cancer by inhaling second hand smoke. Second hand smoke contains twice as much
tar and nicotine as the smoke inhaled by a smoker because it isn’t filtered.
It contains 3X as much cancer-causing benzpyrene, 5X as much carbon monoxide,
and 50X as much ammonia. An estimated 35,000 to 40,000 deaths occur in the US
every year from heart disease in people who are not current smokers.
In fact a Smoke free ordinance in Pueblo Colorado saw reduced hospitalizations
for Heart Attacks between 2002 and 2006 by 27%. In other words, just because
someone has the freedom to smoke, it doesn’t follow that they should do so in
public. Think of how many people in Waukesha won’t have a heart attack in the
future because of this ban.
At the same time, one of the questions that still remains is, what else will
they ban? If they can ban smoking, what’s next? Fast food? Soda pop? Some of the
same arguments could be made for banning those products.
Many people argue that government should not be in the business of deciding
policy for business. The free market will take care of that problem. If people
really want a smoke free environment, they should patronize smoke free
businesses.
The thing that makes business owners serve their customers is competition. Since
they’re competing with other bars and restaurants for business, they’ll want to
compete for the business of non-smokers. The fact that there have been almost no
smoke free restaurants and bars shows that consumers don’t want a ban.
The problem with that argument is that our elections are also based on
competition. Candidates for state office compete against other candidates and
the voters choose who they want to represent them.
Back in May of last year the state senate, whom you and I elected, passed the
ban by a vote of 25-8. The Assembly passed it on a 61-38 vote. By anyone’s
reckoning it would seem that the people of Wisconsin have spoken.
Now you’re probably wondering what all this has to do with the situation in
Galatians. I promise there is a connection. No, Paul is not dealing with people
who wanted the freedom to smoke in church.
But he is dealing with the interaction between the issues of freedom and
competitiveness. In the church he started in Galatia, he has taught people that
they are not forced by God to follow a bunch of rules in order to make God
happy.
Instead, the Christian life is a life where people are freed to do what is
right. He tells them that they should not use their freedom as Christians to
engage in self-indulgence. They should use their freedom to serve one another
the way Christ served the world.
Instead of enjoying their freedom to do what is right and trusting God’s spirit
to lead them in the right direction, they went back to an ancient set of rules
that God gave to Moses, thinking that following those rules was still the only
way to make God happy, despite what Paul told them.
In fact, they started competing with one another to see who could do a better
job of following those rules. And those who thought they were pretty religious
looked down on those who may not have been as rigorous in following the
commandments.
I know that might sound confusing, so let me try to give you some background
here. Paul was an early convert to Christianity, though he did not follow Jesus
during Jesus’ life on earth.
Prior to Jesus coming, Jewish people generally believed that the way to live in
harmony with God was to follow this list of commandments that God gave to Moses
in the early 13th century BC. There were about 630 commandments in total.
Those commandments were generally seen as lasting forever. After Jesus came and
died, one of the questions his followers had to deal with was whether or not
they and those who became Christians still had to follow those laws.
Early on in the church most of his followers taught that Christians do have to
follow the Law of Moses. Men had to get circumcised, they have to observe
Passover, they are prohibited from working on Saturday, they can’t eat pork or
shellfish, etc.
When some of Jesus’ followers wrote about his life, they described Jesus as a
teacher who demanded that his followers obey those laws even more strictly than
even the most pious people they know. (Slide)
But not everyone agreed. When Paul went all around the area starting churches,
he taught people that they no longer needed to follow those laws in order to
please God. He taught that when a person is baptized the Holy Spirit enters into
that person’s mind and guides that person toward doing what is right.
So for Paul, Christianity was not a religion with a bunch of rules about right
and wrong. There really were no rules. Instead, the question was whether or not
the people in the church were going to allow themselves to be led by God’s
Spirit. If they did, they would always do what was right.
Bu they were still human beings, and their bodies still had the desire to do
what was wrong. For instance, even though the Spirit tells them not to cheat on
their wives, they have to deal bodily urges to have an affair. As long as their
mind, which is guided by the Spirit, is calling the shots, they will steer clear
of sin.
That’s how Paul taught the people in the churches he started to approach things.
The problem for Paul was that after he left to go start other churches in other
places, there were other people who came into the church he started, people who
were convinced that Paul misunderstood Jesus’ teachings.
There people were probably sent from other churches where people were taught
that good Christians have to follow the Law of Moses. The claimed to be more
qualified than Paul to speak on these matters. They told the Galatians that God
would not be pleased with them unless they followed all these laws.
They told the Galatians that they had to stay away from certain foods, that the
men had to go and be circumcised, that they had to start observing Jewish
holidays which were mandated by the Law of Moses.
Instead of sticking to what Paul had taught them, the Galatians were swayed by
these teachers. They started obeying these laws and doing the things the
teachers told them to do. It wasn’t long before this obedience became a wedge
issue.
As I said before, those who thought they were good about following these laws
looked down on those who were not so good about it. Cliques formed in the
church, and before long they started sniping at each other, tearing each other
apart over the issue of who was more righteous.
Paul eventually got word of all the sniping and division in Galatia. He was
mortified at what these teachers had done, and he was angry at the Galatians for
listening to them. The book of Galatians is the letter he wrote back to them,
chastising them for abandoning his teachings and following those laws.
His response is very strongly worded. In Galatians 3 he begins a main section of
the letter with the words, “You foolish Galatians!” I think that’s a rather kind
translation of what he really said. In the verse just before the passage we read
this morning, Paul says that he wishes those teachers who insist one having the
men get circumcised would castrate themselves. Ouch!
He tells them in our passage today that if they don’t stop sniping and pecking
at each other, they may eventually eat each other up. He draws contrasting
pictures of what it’s like when people allow themselves to be led by the spirit,
vs. what it’s like when someone tries to be righteous by following laws.
Among other things, he says that people who judge one another based on whether
or not a set of rules are being followed invariably end up with jealousy,
quarrels, hatred, conflict, divisions and envy. And that’s simply what happens
when people try to follow the Laws God gave to Moses.
Paul is saying that the history of people trying to follow those laws is
disastrous. They never really were successful because they were at war with
their own natural desires to do what was wrong. God never intended those laws to
last forever. They were in force until God came up with a more permanent
solution by sending Jesus.
Now that Jesus has come, and now that his Spirit enters the mind of a Christian,
they are no longer relying on their own ability to be good. They are led by
God’s own Spirit. If that’s the case, then it would be crazy to go back to
following those laws. You would actually be going against what God had done
through Jesus.
When you think about what that means for us today as we try to live by what we
read in the New Testament, it’s good to know that as Christians we have the
ability to do what God wants simply by listening to God’s Spirit. We don’t have
to follow a bunch of laws in order to be righteous.
At the same time, history has shown us that there have been lots of folks who
claim to be led by the Holy Spirit, yet they did lots of really terrible things
in God’s name. One question we need to ask ourselves every day is, “How do I
know that God’s Spirit is leading me? How do I know that I’m not just doing what
I want?”
The fact is, no one can really answer that question definitively. If we started
to try and construct a set of rules and say, “OK, you know you’re going against
God’s Spirit if you do this and that and the other thing.”
“You know you’re following God’s Spirit if you do X, Y and Z”; if we did that,
then we’d simply be trading one set of rules for another. Which is the exact
opposite of what Paul’s telling the Galatians to do.
Before long we’d be sniping at one another about who’s doing a better job of
following those rules. I’ve been in those churches. Believe me, it’s not a very
spiritually nourishing experience.
Instead of giving us a bunch of rules, Paul paints a picture of what it looks
like when a church allows the Spirit to guide them. First, there are no
divisions. No one sees someone else as “other”. Paul says Christians aren’t
divided by race or gender or social status. We are all the same in God’s eyes.
Period.
Secondly, he speaks about an environment that can be described as loving,
peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, a place where self control
is the rule. If that’s an accurate description of a church, then they are led by
the Spirit for the most part. If it’s not, then people are letting their human
nature ruin their faith experience.
I came to this church nine years ago, and one of the things that has always
impressed me about this congregation is that even though we have our share of
disagreements, and even though we are the most diverse congregation I have ever
had the pleasure of working with, these are the words I would use to describe
this congregation.
Now let’s be honest; things weren’t always this way. Many of you have told me of
the days when there was quarreling and dissension and grudges and jealousy.
There were people who literally told us that we wouldn’t last as a church five
years without them and their money.
That was probably thirteen years ago. And let me be clear: I don’t credit myself
with creating the kind of environment that we have in this congregation. The
reason why those who insisted on quarreling and creating conflict left is
because this congregation considers God’s Spirit as the guiding force in the
life of this church.
We honestly don’t care what other people think we should be doing. We really
can’t be concerned with whether or not the way we do our ministry matches up to
the standards set in place by other congregations. We don’t have to follow
someone else’s rules. That’s what I like about being an American Baptist.
But we are responsible as a congregation to ask ourselves, “Where is the Spirit
leading us? How does the Spirit teach us to act toward one another? Am I doing
something from selfish motives? Am I loving my neighbor as myself?” Being
American Baptist means being freed to do all those things.
I want to close this morning with a quote from a gentleman named Learned Hand,
one of our country's most outstanding legal minds. He once asked himself, "What
is the spirit of liberty?" In answer, he wrote these eloquent words:
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other
men and women. . .it weighs their interests alongside its own, it remembers that
not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded. . .the spirit of liberty is the
spirit of Him who, 2,000 years ago, taught humanity a lesson it has never
learned but has never quite forgotten: that there may be a kingdom where the
least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
Sisters and brothers in Christ, may our pledge of allegiance be this day to that
kind of kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven.