Galatians 5:1-25 ; Luke 9:51-62
June 27, 2010
“To do” lists are not inherently bad. Without them, I would forget everything, not just some things like I do now. Most of us could not function without a “to do” list. But even as they are helpful in some ways, they often work in a more nefarious way for me as well. In addition to helping me get things done, my “to do” list sits there, judging me, taunting me, pointing out all my failures every day. For example, I received a letter a while back that I want to respond to – I need to respond to. So, I put that on my to do list. Now, every day that goes by that I don’t do it – and it has now been an embarrassing amount of time – it just sits there staring at me. I get a fresh dose of guilt and shame every time I look at my “to do” list.
It would be one thing if guilt and shame worked as motivators. But, I have found guilt and shame to be particularly bad motivators. I’m pretty sure they actually impede my getting things done. The longer I go without writing the letter, the worse I feel. And the worse I feel, the more I am sure the person is judging me. Then, I feel awkward about writing a letter after so much time has passed. So finally, I feel even worse than when I began, and I still haven’t written the letter. Each time, the guilt gets heavier, and the likelihood that I will actually do it seems to decrease.
Paul liked “to do” lists. He also was pretty fond of “not-to-do” lists. But his are lists of moral behaviors: don’t fornicate, get angry, quarrel, be jealous, get drunk; do be kind, patient, generous, faithful. And I believe these lists as people generally use them are not at all helpful to us, because they have produced more than their fair share of guilt and shame, and they don’t even have the more useful aspect of helping us remember the things we need to do each day.
At the same time, I think we have become obsessed with Paul’s lists. People fret and fuss about what is on his “to do” lists. They memorize them, recite them, insist people live by them, reject them, rephrase them, apologize for them. The problem is that this obsession distracts us over and over from Paul’s main point; we totally miss the forest for the trees. Today, his main point is: When we live in Christ, we are freed from the moral “to do” lists.
In Paul’s day, the list of laws – the 613 commandments – were not helpful to the people he was writing to…the gentiles. In fact, they were a massive burden. Yet people were obsessed with this list. They judged everyone by whether or not they followed every single commandment. The example Paul used was circumcision. Some were saying that before non-Jews could be a part of those carrying on Jesus’ ministry, they had to be circumcised – which then meant, by the way, you were subject to the other 612 commandments as well. Paul says this doesn’t make sense, especially given the fact that part of Jesus’ ministry was to free us from what these lists were doing to them – namely crippling them with shame.
So Paul is actually talking about how to be free from this massive burdensome 613-line “to do” list. But because we are obsessed with Paul’s lists of moral “dos” and “don’ts”, this passage about freedom quickly turns into a passage about all the things we’re not supposed to do lest we go to hell. Paul’s radical message was about freedom…if all we feel after we read this passage is a greater burden brought on by the to do lists, we are missing the point.
For Paul, the opposite of freedom was what he called, “works of the flesh” – sadly a phrase that today signifies all of the things people do that we think are shameful. And unfortunately, Paul uses a list to help people understand what he means. Darn that Paul. But given his primary message of freedom, we have to understand his lists not as a moral code, but as serving the purpose of making people free.
To do this, we first need to update this phrase of Paul’s – “works of the flesh”. We need a new phrase more appropriate to our context and more illuminative of Paul’s point…we need a word other than “flesh” because that word means very different things to us than it did to Paul. For him, it wasn’t just the title of the list of moral don’ts. It was a description of the dynamic that keeps people enslaved. He’s thinking about the things and behaviors that keep us from changing and choosing who we want to be. In our day and age, a better way to describe that dynamic is that there are forces that keep us trapped in cycles of guilt and shame – forces that come from all sorts of things.
I did a little experiment this week. I read through this passage substituting the word “shame” for Paul’s word “flesh”, and when I did, it took on a new life for me:
“Live by the Spirit and do not gratify the desires of shame. For what shame desires is opposed to the Spirit; and what the Spirit desires is opposed to shame. These are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want…Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified shame with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” It’s true: I do think shame has its own purposes, and they are at odds with what God desires for us. Shame wants to convince us that we are unworthy and, as Paul says, that prevents us from doing what we really want. Shame wants to keep us stuck in old familiar ways. Shame hates change. When we substitute shame for flesh in this passage, we hear Paul saying don’t feed shame with more shoulds and reasons to judge yourselves and others. If you do, you will never be a new person – free to change. Something will always hold you back.
This is Jesus’ point as well. In our passage, he is on his way to Jerusalem and people say they want to follow, but it turns out they can’t – not until they are freed from what holds them back. And what holds them back are the shoulds and shouldn’ts – the lists of dos and don’ts. Look at the would-be followers. First, James and John. They were held back by the need to judge others. They held tight to the 613-point list and insisted others be shamed and punished they failed to live up to the moral code. They knew the Samaritans were not followers of the commandments, so they were ready to bring down the hammer. Jesus rebuked them for this, and if they were going to continue on with Jesus, they had to give up on that judgment.
The next person was held back by a need for security. There are things we are told we should have in order to be safe and secure in this world. This person wanted to follow, but in the end, when Jesus explained he had no home, no headquarters, no security, they couldn’t go.
The last two would-be followers were trapped by rules, tradition, notions of right and wrong. The list of societal expectations said they had to bury the dead within a certain time frame – and it said you must get permission from your family before you can move forward. That was just how things were done. Jesus told them they needed to let go of these rules if they were going to be free to follow him.
We are trapped by these same things: we love our lists and need to judge others by them. We need security and we trust those people who tell us what we need to be secure. And we believe that we and others must adhere to cultural and societal norms. Because of this, we are not always free to follow Jesus – we don’t have the freedom Paul knows. We stay locked in the world of guilt and shame, of fear and judgment.
So, how do we get this freedom of which Paul speaks? How do we become free to live as we want to live? How do we break out of the cycles of guilt and shame?
First, let go of lists – the lists that only make us feel guilt and shame. This is not easy. It seems counter-intuitive. We think having our lists is the only way to get everyone, including us, to behave as we should. After all, if I throw away my list, won’t I be condoning such things? Won’t I be assuring the very behavior I want to prohibit? It seems like letting go means letting go of being “right”.
Plus we all believe some lists are truly important. We are like Paul. Even as we want the freedom Paul talks about, in the very next breath we are enumerating the things that really should stay on the list. I know there are things on my list I am not willing to give up. I definitely have lists for others and lists for myself. Don’t accept poverty, take care of the environment, don’t be cruel, treat everyone as equal and other noble things, if I do say so myself. And I’m sure you have your own lists. We believe there are some things we and others must do and should never do, and we have to make those things clear. We have to judge people against them.
But when we tear up the lists, the things that were only obligations and didn’t belong on the list will fall away. The unrealistic shoulds and shouldn’ts will be revealed as having no place on the list to begin with. We will be free from those. And the things that were originally on the list that do constitute appropriate Christian behavior will now be possible for us and others. We will be free to choose what we want, but only when we know we will not be punished if we don’t.
It takes courage to throw out the list. But, Paul says because Jesus threw out the list, we can as well. Jesus refused to condemn people who didn’t follow the rules, and he tried to get the list keepers to let go of them. And lo and behold, when he refused to condemn people, when he freed them from lists, then they could and did follow him, live like him. They proclaimed the kingdom of God, and they forgave and freed others. If I really want certain behaviors, paradoxically, I have to stop judging myself and others for not behaving as I think we ought.
Even though I know I should take care of the environment, if all I feel is the weight of obligation, causing me shame every time I drive my car or leave the light on, I will never be free to choose to change. I have to free myself from the notion that if I’m not perfect, I’m a bad person. If I don’t find this freedom, feeling ashamed will demand more of my time and energy than doing what I can to help restore God’s creation.
So tear them up – the lists we make for ourselves and others. Then, on a post-it note, make a list of one: Love your neighbor. Paul says clearly that, and that alone, is the route to freedom. You probably already know this from your own experience. The more you love others, the more you love yourself and the more free you feel. The more you love others when they are guilty of violating something on your list, the less guilt you will feel when you violate the list yourself. And then everyone will be free to live by the Spirit.
Order is everything. Paul is often talking about the order of things. He thinks starting with the law and hoping that will lead to right behavior is simply the wrong order. He doesn’t think all of the law is bad. It’s just that he thinks the only way to fulfill the law is to stop using it as the guide to our behavior. The only guide is “love your neighbor.” That comes first, the freedom to choose comes next. Start with God’s love and forgiveness, then you will be free to choose love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. But freedom must come first. Releasing ourselves from the lists that cause shame and guilt will free us up to live guided by the Spirit. Order is everything.
What’s on your list? What do you think you should do and shouldn’t do? What do you judge others by? Maybe write it down this week. Then tear this list up and write, “love one another. Love yourself.” The bottom line is God does. God tears up the lists. God loves us. And that makes us free. Amen.
