Introduction to Scripture:

Kathleen Norris comments,

When God-talk is speech that is not of this world, it is a false language. In a religion that celebrates the Incarnation – the joining together of the human and the divine – a spiritualized jargon that does not ground itself in the five senses should be anathema. But the human tendency to dis-incarnate language is a strong one.[1]

             There is a tendency in Christian life not only to “dis-incarnate” our language, but our lives, as well. There may be a tendency to hear Paul’s words that way, as well -- to suggest that to be Christian is to somehow be removed from all that is sensual, natural, physical – to be “spiritual” people. Nothing could be further from a proper biblical understanding of the goodness of creation. Living “by the Spirit” is not living a life free from the desires of this world; it is living a life, engaged with God, in every breath we take, because of those desires.[2] During this summer’s series of sermons, we will seek to better understand how we as individuals, and we as a congregation, can give ourselves to the Spirit, that we, in our own, very human ways, might continue to Incarnate God’s Love in this world.[3]

Sermon:

            In our culture, American, affluent, successful, productive, there is no right of passage more significant, no milestone of achievement more important to the formation of one’s identity and character as that of High School Graduation. Today is a hallmark in the lives of Addie Burke, Jay Niell and Philip Cramer, and of their families It signifies a great accomplishment, which is apparent by the pride in your eyes, and in the eyes of your families.

High School Graduation is a “big deal,” but for a much more important reason than what it signifies about your past. High School Graduation is huge because it stands as a symbol of your future. For this reason, your mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, and neighbors will greet you in cap and gown with mixed emotion on their faces. Graduation marks a turning point in your life, for when you receive that diploma, as dictated by our society, you necessarily begin turning from them, and toward yourself: toward self-definition, self-discovery, self-dependence.

Graduation not only represents the doorway of your future, the occasion also marks a “giant leap” in your journey toward freedom. Not just freedom from your parents, but more seriously and much more importantly, your freedom to become. You’ve been asked all of your life, “What do you want to be when you grow up?,” and you are about to begin answering that question in earnest.

High School Graduation is, I believe, our culture’s greatest right of passage because at no other time in your life will you be handed a more significant load of responsibility than you are about to be given. It is the complete responsibility for yourself. Addie, Philip, Jay – are you ready for that?

What are you going to be when you grow up?

Today, as a way of introducing our summer’s preaching series, “A Summertime Harvest,” I want to ask you to consider this question, and a slightly different one. I invite everyone else to eavesdrop. The question is not, What will you be…?,” but, more broadly, “What do you want?” In life? From life? For life?

As graduates, you stand on the brink of incredible freedom and the almost limitless possibility of life as an affluent, American, adult. What do you want? When you receive that diploma, you begin the journey that will take most of the rest of your life. It is a journey that will be guided by your wants. What is it that you really want? As you prepare to go, let me ask, also … if you can be trusted with those wants.

Turning to our scripture for today, the Apostle Paul sounds a good bit like a whiny, skeptical parent, because he says the answer to my final question is a resounding, “No! No, you cannot be trusted you with your wants!” (Sound familiar -- “You want to do what!?”) But, if it makes you feel any better, Paul doesn’t trust your parents either. He doesn’t trust your friends with their wants. He doesn’t trust your teachers. Dear, old, Saint Paul won’t even trust your pastors with their wants!

For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what… you… want!

Surely all of our wants can’t be that bad!? Can they? My basic instinct is to take issue with Paul, the pessimist... And then I open the newspaper, again. And I am finally unable to convince myself that he has it wrong. I read the headlines, listen to the shocking details, and I see why Paul is right. The Bible calls it “Sin.” The great theologian, Reinhold Neibuhr has called Sin “the only empirically verifiable doctrine in all of Christian faith.”[4] Each morning it’s there, in black and white. “Read it, and weep!”

As we develop and nurture our own wants, we need to constantly “read the headlines.” I will spare you the gory details this morning, but hear this brief and telling commentary from yesterday’s Observer. Scott Fowler writes:

American needs Smarty Jones to win today. We need a break from depressing news. We need a sports hero who is absolutely certain never to get arrested or be called before a grand jury. In a complicated time, we need something simple and sweet.

Is humanity really so far beyond redemption that we have to turn to a horse for inspiration!? (And Smarty Jones lost!) Paul might agree, for I think he would want to make clear to you, today, you who are poised for graduation, you who are headed into the world finally on your own… that you cannot trust even your own wants! It is disappointing, dis-spiriting news. But it is a good reminder to take with you as you go. Somewhere deep within the condition of our humanity, the state of our reality, a battle rages.[5] It is primal, basic, instinctual. Deep within each of us, a voice calls. Sometimes it screams. Sometimes, it only whispers, seductively. But always, it calls: What do you want? (Did you hear it?) What do you want?

            Before going on, I have to tell you, that Paul must be read very carefully. For despite the polarizing sound of his argument (flesh vs. spirit), Paul was not a “dualist.” That is, he had not divided the world into two distinct realms: One: earthly, fleshly, corporeal, and, therefore, sinful, and the other: heavenly, ethereal, spiritual, and, therefore, good. Such was the thinking of much of the philosophy and theology of his day. Many of Paul’s brightest contemporaries insisted that all material reality was corrupt, and therefore, everything of the world was to be shunned. Many of the brightest minds of our day still fall headlong into this heresy. But Paul, a Hebrew by training, was raised on an amazing story: In the beginning… God created… and it was good… and it was very good. The earth. The stuff. The animals. The plants. The created inhabitants. All. Very. Good.

            We must bring this knowledge into our understanding of Paul’s argument. Far from condemning the sensualities of the world, Paul affirms that God is to be found everywhere, as he reminded the church at Ephesus: [For God is] above all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4.6). The world is not to be escaped – it is to be enjoyed. Sexuality is not to be castigated – it is to be celebrated! Human relationships are not to be feared – they are to be embraced! The pleasures, all the sensual pleasures of earth, are not to be bridled – they are to be desired! For God gave them. God is in the song, and in the dance. God is in the intimacy, and in the ecstasy. God is in food, and in the drink.

Look at Paul’s list of the “obvious, works of the flesh.” What do we find there? Aspects of human experience, each one based in one of the good gifts of creation: sexual expression (fornication)… cleanliness (impurity)… pleasure (licentiousness)… healing (sorcery)… relationship (enmities, strife, dissensions, quarrels)… enthusiasm (jealousy)… hard work (factions)… success (envy)… good food and drink (drunkenness)…friendship (carousing)… Paul’s list of the “works of the flesh” is a catalogue of that which has the potential of making the created order “very good,” indeed. Yet potential is the operative word, for in a free world, where there is potential for good…

There is also potential for abuse.

Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia was not written to encourage Christians to escape the world and its desires. God is in the world. And God is in our desires. To prove my point, I would have you compare Paul’s “works of the flesh” with his contrasting “fruit of the spirit.” Notice that you will not find “celibacy” on his list, to counter “fornication.” You will not find a call for “T-totaling,” to counter “drunkenness.” You will not find a demand for an ascetic life, the life of a cloistered walk, to counter the sin of carousing. Hardly.

What you find listed as the “fruit of the spirit,” are the expressions of human capacity, which allow us to make the undeniably sensual nature of our existence -- as it was intended – very good. Sexual relationships must be characterized by love, not lustful passion. Enthusiasm must be curbed in gentleness and kindness, not expressed in jealousy. The feeding of our bodies must be characterized by self-control, not the excess of consumption. Material possessions must be acknowledged in joy, but not worshiped. Relationships must be pursued in faithfulness, so that they issue in peace, not in quarrels, enmity, strife…

There is an old expression that I have heard the “old folks” use it when children pout and cry, not getting their selfish way. “Well,” they say, “you’re old enough now for your wants to hurt you!” And indeed we are. At a young age, that primal selfishness calling, “I want…”

What Paul is encouraging, I think, for us to grow up. To grow up in maturity “in Christ,” who is our example. To grow up so that our Wants… no longer hurt us! Augustine once exhorted, “Love God – and do as you will!” If we could learn the impetus of the spirit – to follow that desire to Love, to Love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12.29) – and to love our neighbors, if we could learn to live by that Spirit, to discern and follow God’s calling, which competes with the other voices calling from somewhere within… In every desire, we could find yet another hint of the grace of God. In every expression of this sensual earth and our sensual lives on it, we would find a new, refreshing Breath of Spirit.

Graduates, as you go, you go with our prayers. You go with our best wishes. You go with our genuine hope that in this life you will get everything that you want. But you go with our challenge this day: let the Spirit guide your wants.

God is not to be found in the satisfaction of our desires. God is to be found in our appetites, themselves.

What do you want? Go, and learn, in life to obey your truest, deepest desire… for only in so doing can we be truly free.

May it be so!