Changes?

Today is the first Sunday of a new year. For many this is a morning when thoughts of resolutions come and go. Lose weight, spend more time with the family, quit smoking, get out of debt, learn something new, are but a few of the more popular ones.

The trouble is that many who make these promises fail to keep them and there is at least one reason why. It seems like these are good goals. It seems like these would be worth the effort. It seems like they would make life better.

Is it possible that in spite of making such resolutions the will to change isn’t strong enough? Or is it that the benefits aren’t clear enough, important enough to make the effort?

Take any one from my list: debt, smoking, weight, family time – whatever – why change those things at all? Why wait until January one to even think about it? Isn’t it possible that waiting is just another way of putting things off because it just doesn’t seem that important?

Isn’t it possible that many of us don’t change because we’re actually okay with how things are? In fact to change would cost more – we think – than staying the same. Can there be any other explanation for those who continue in dangerous activities be it smoking, over-eating, drinking or driving too fast?

Today is the first Sunday of a new year. As a congregation of Jesus’ followers we have a choice to make. Are we willing to change over the coming year? And if so in what way? Don’t decide just yet; let me explain the question as we go through a text in Galatians chapter 4.

We’re reading verses 4-7 where Paul is explaining to the congregations around the province that with Jesus’ coming things have changed. God’s plan to bring Jesus into the world through the Jewish people is complete and everyone else is now invited to share in what God has done. The trouble is that some of the people have gone back to the old ways of trying to please God to earn his love and that says Paul is a deadly mistake. They haven’t embraced the change.

Galatians 4.4-7

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, ⁵ to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. ⁶ Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Heirs not slaves

In the ancient world there were slaves. Paul uses that term a lot. Slaves were subject to their masters on pain of death. There were laws to prevent harsh treatment, but that would be similar to the SPCA today. A slave was owned by his or her master. In the letter Paul uses that blunt word to explain the relationship between people and their bad habits. He calls those who live to satisfy pleasures and willful urges – anything from physical lust to greed to envy – slaves a to sin. They are controlled by sin; owned by sin; can do nothing but be driven by sin. In today’s world we call some consequences of sin a disease and some demonic activity and some the consequence of choosing a dark path. The Bible seems to suggest that it may be all of the above, but the result is the same the individual is a slave of sin.

Over against this, Paul also likes the word heir. An heir or erfgenaam in Dutch means a son or daughter who will inherit some or all of the estate. Everything that has value; everything that makes like worthwhile. It’s not just stuff; it includes the responsibilities that go along with the inheritance.

Take Prince Charles. He’s the heir. When Elizabeth dies he will receive a lot of money, cars and palaces and he will receive the responsibility of being king. Acting a certain way and fulfilling the role for the good of the British people. To be an heir is a wonderful thing; to be an heir comes with responsibility. 

So, Paul makes the contrast clear: slaves have no choices while heirs have choices and responsibilities. Heirs are free. They are not forced to obey sin any longer, even though they may choose to. And that’s the problem we all have. Sin is often attractive. Attractive and deadly.

So Paul by the Spirit casts a vision. Our text reminds us that Christ came to give freedom by reuniting us with God as his heirs. In his coming, living and dying Jesus set slaves free – to all who will believe – says the Bible. Free to follow him and learn how to make healthy choices; free to follow him and learn to serve others in the world. That’s what we call the response of gratitude or a life of worship. It takes an entire life to learn it and by the Spirit we can. In fact, Paul says, that because God knows you there is no reason to be a slave any longer. There is no good reason to resist changes in attitudes or habits. Certainly some attitudes and habits are harder to set aside than others, but as the Bible also says: He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. That is, God is bigger than my weakness every time. So why be a slave any longer?

The truth is that God himself invites each person into life. Invited – not forced - except by force of love. God helps us to see the value in change, in becoming his heir. Yes, becoming a child of the most high. And the inheritance? To reign with Christ – Revelation 20, to partake of the divine nature – 2 Peter 1, to know the peace of Christ, the love of the Father and the power of the Spirit.

In verse 15 of Galatians 4 Paul asks people who are rejecting God’s ways – where is your joy? Where did it go?

The sad fact is that they had decided that life with God by faith was too hard. They liked the boundaries of religion: laws, rules, punishment better. They’d rather live by shame and obligation because then they no longer have to think for themselves and make hard choices. Freedom is too hard; being a slave is easier.  

That’s crazy, isn’t it?

God invites us into the journey of faith. Where mistakes will be made, so what?  Living by faith is filled with trial and error; in learning how to serve others, in learning how to set goals that bring life and wholeness. In learning how to love God and neighbour and learning to love ourselves. It’s an adventure rewarding, pure and holy. It’s worth everything that matters.  It’s the reason to change and change and change again: priorities, passions and habits.

So why live by dead religion? Trying to pay God off with money or scraps of time? In the hope that maybe disaster won’t strike; in the hope that maybe, just maybe God will leave you alone?

Again, that’s crazy! God is the source of life, who doesn’t want that?

God is inviting all of us every day to live by faith. That’s where the action is. The real action. That, I think is a vision large enough to live by. Have you taken hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of you? Have you taken hold of your inheritance in Christ Jesus?

2011 was a full year; how was it for you, for us? Were you able to hang on? Was the journey of faith a bit rough or surprising? Did you see God at work?

In what I think was my hardest year, I was speaking with a friend who lives in Michigan and I told him that throughout the pain and confusion of that period, I hadn’t lost my faith. I thought I’d reassure him. In response he said to me, but William, it’s not your faith to lose. God gives faith; God grants the status of heir; God does not take back his gifts.

So here’s what I witnessed in 2011. I found myself in a community that walked by faith. In fact I saw a community where the hard things drove people toward God. Sometimes in confusion and anger, but that’s the place to go at those times. I saw a community where others knew joy, forgiveness or reconciliation and ran to God in celebration. In either case, faith won out and God’s promises remain firm.

I found myself in a community where there is by God’s spirit strength. Strength to face what comes, both joy and sorrow. Strength to help each other by not passing judgment, by owning up to sin, by sharing the journey together.

Obviously we are not there yet. We’re not perfect, we still fail each other. But the vision Christ calls us to is what we need.

Because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

If there is a change to be made for 2012 it’s to take Jesus at his word, rely on him more fully and cry out to him more often that we may know the surpassing greatness of God more fully. Have you seen the reason to change? It’s now time to choose.