In my head are echoes of some of my mother’s favorite sayings: "You can’t have your cake and eat too," "You can’t have it both ways," "You can’t have it all; you have to choose.".

In the passage we read this morning, Paul was talking about what is perhaps our most fundamental choice: Are we going to live by the flesh or shall we live by the spirit? None of us can escape choosing between the two. We cannot have our cake and eat it too. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t have it all; we must make a choice. From the passage we read today, it is clear to the most casual observer that there is a fundamental incompatibility between the two. What Paul describes as "works of the flesh" and what he calls "the fruit of the Spirit" are polar opposites.

To begin, it might be helpful to try to understand what Paul meant when he spoke of "the flesh" and "works of the flesh." He was not talking about physical bodies or physical appetites. To be human is to know the reality of physical hunger and sexual desires. Paul was using these physical realities of all humans as a kind of metaphor for talk about a deeper and more subtle reality of life.

When Paul wrote about living by the flesh, he was talking about trusting only that which we humans can see, handle, measure, physically experience and possibly control rather than living our lives trusting in God. When we live by the flesh, we may believe there is a God, but our belief does not control our living; we do not place our primary trust in God. When we live by the flesh, what controls our daily living, what determines our priorities and finally motivates us to say and do what we say and do, is whatever we see makes sense in our world. What shapes our living is what we believe will get us ahead in the world. What we value is what is valued by our society. What we long for is what we think will bring us the most pleasure, enjoyment and fun, or bring us the rewards, applause and approval of the we long to please or impress. When we live by the flesh, we live looking out for ourselves. When we live by the flesh, even our love for others is distorted so that it becomes merely another subtle expression of selfishness.

We may say we believe in God. We may even have correct beliefs about Jesus, but what controls our living is not God and what God has made known in and through Jesus Christ; what controls our living is a collection of very self-centered desires and needs. This way of viewing life and living life is what Paul’s phrase "living by the flesh" means.

In the passage we read, Paul lists several illustrations of works of the flesh, and what this list describes is what happens to us when our living is centered on ourselves and focused on getting what we want and doing whatever we want. The results, the works of the flesh, are we tend to abuse our lives, we use and even abuse others, we even find it okay to take advantage of others, and when we cannot have our way or when others call us into account, we flail about in self-indulgent angers, self-indulgent resentments. When the weight of this way of living begins to be too much for us, it is not uncommon for us to seek escape in self-indulgent pleasures. Some of us seek relief by medicating ourselves with alcohol or some other drug.

In the passage we read, Paul told us that when we live by the flesh, when we live by the values of our world, focused on ourselves and what we want, we are going to misuse our lives, abuse our relationships with others, and make a mess of things—even while perhaps winning some of the awards our world has to offer. And as long as this is our way of living, regardless of how religious we are in our heads, we will not be able to inherit the kingdom of God.

As long as our living centers on ourselves it is impossible for God to be at the center. There is a fundamental incompatibility between living by the flesh and life in the Spirit. As long as getting what we want is what drives our decisions, then it will be impossible for us to serve God as God wants. There is a fundamental incompatibility between living focused on ourselves and living centered on Christ. As long as we rule our lives, it is impossible for God to rule our lives. As long as we are busy building and protecting our own little kingdoms, we will be unable to enter God’s kingdom. There is a fundamental incompatibility.

In contrast to the life of the flesh is what Paul calls life in the Spirit. This is living with God at the center. This is living with the Spirit of God permeating all that we say and do. When we turn our lives over to God, when we allow God’s agenda to set our agendas, we are living in the Spirit. When God’s priorities determine our priorities, when seeking to be the person God wants us to be replaces our desire to be who we want to be, we are living in the Spirit. We are living in the Spirit when the love of God revealed in Christ is what is at the center of our living.

The by-product, the fruit of such living is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Notice Paul did not say "the fruits are", but rather: "the fruit is." The reign of God in our lives produces not some of these qualities, but all of them.

When we contrast the fruit of the Spirit with the works of the flesh, what we discover is the difference between living selfish lives and living lives of loving others as God in Christ has loved us. It is the difference between striving to get what I want when I want it, and striving to do what God wants when God wants. It is the difference between seeing other people as tools I can use to get what I want or as opponents standing between me and what I want, and seeing other people as God’s children and as our brothers and sisters.

There is a fundamental incompatibility between what Paul calls life of the flesh and life in the Spirit. Life of the flesh sets human beings with conflicting desires in life and death struggles. When we live by the flesh, self-centeredness clashes with the self-centeredness of others until we are involved in such conflict with one another that all we can realistically expect is mutual destruction.

It only in living by the Spirit that there is hope for ourselves and also hope for the world. There is hope because when we live in the Spirit compassion replaces selfishness, cooperation replaces competitiveness, humility replaces arrogance, and trust replaces suspicion, and we humans begin to be the persons God created us to be.

But how? How do we become persons who live by the Spirit rather than by the flesh?

A choice must be made. We cannot have it both ways. We cannot worship both the world and God. We cannot have both the world’s priorities and God’s priorities shape our living. We cannot have our cake and eat it too. We must choose either to live by the flesh or to live in the Spirit. A leap of faith must be taken—one way or the other, either toward or away from the kingdom of God.

It is not an easy choice; after all, we can see, touch and taste the fruits of the flesh. We can count money. We can experience physical pleasures. We can show off the various kinds of trophies the world has to offer. In the face of all this, how can we leap toward life in the Spirit? How can we center our living in and around the mystery of the unseen God?

How do we learn to swim? Never, as long as we live in such fear of drowning that we are unwilling to trust the water to hold us up. We begin to swim by trusting the water and discovering we can float. Then, little by little, we learn how to move ourselves through the water.

Living in the Spirit is something like that. We begin by placing our faith in God, trusting God is for us and not against, even in terrible situations. Even when we are in waters of trouble way over our heads we trust God, and in the process we discover we are not drowned by our troubles. Then, little by little, as we grow in faith, we begin to learn how to swim through troubled waters. We may not win any prizes as Olympic swimmers, but by faith and doing the best we can we make it to the other side.

As we trust God, as we turn our lives over to God, as we learn to move through life trusting God, we experience what Paul called the fruit of the Spirit. Even in bad times, we discover love and joy. In the midst of storms we discover there is peace. Regardless of what we are facing, we discover we have the ability to be kind; goodness and trustworthiness become part of who we are even in the midst of troubles, and gentleness and self-control enable us to deal with others even though the times that are bad. This is what happens to us when we make the choice, really make the choice, of turning our lives over to God. We live by the Spirit.

 

God, help us to do this. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, we thank you for your merciful understanding, especially when we have to make decisions regarding complex problems that have no clear and easy answers. We are grateful for your mercy when the only choices we can see are between the lesser of evils. We give thanks for your amazing forgiveness when we discover that even though we tried to do what is right, what we did made a bigger mess. When we have fallen in the mud, we are grateful for your amazing grace that sets us on our feet and washes us clean. When we are suffering the consequences of the wrong we did and the good we failed to do, we are grateful for your mercy that enables us not only to endure what we have brought on ourselves, but also to discover ways to make positive use of those consequences. For all the ways your grace claims us and makes use of us—even after we have abused our relationship with you—we are not only grateful but amazed at the extent of your love.

God, thank you for loving us even when we are unlovable—especially when we are unlovable. Thank you for enabling us to make the most of the situations we are in—even when it is a mess of our own making.

It is in gratitude we offer this prayer and the prayer Jesus taught us: "Our Father …"