“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Today, we come to gentleness. This word gentleness is also sometimes translated as meekness or humility.
Throughout this series on the fruit of the Spirit, I have emphasized that the real example of each of these characteristics is God. We don’t often think about God as gentle, meek, or humble. When I started looking for hymns to go along with this sermon for today, I realized this just isn’t something we sing about. Many of our hymns talk about God’s greatness and his power—very few talk about his gentleness, meekness, or humility.
But the truth is, God truly is the ultimate example of these qualities. Jesus is a wonderful demonstration of this. The scripture we read from Philippians reminds us that in becoming human flesh, Jesus humbled himself. Imagine going from being God—Jesus is part of the Trinity and fully God—to being a helpless human baby born to a poor family in the
And if that was not enough, he continually restrained his use of power throughout his time of ministry. And even that time of ministry was a small portion of his 33 years of life. Then, the ultimate act of humility was his suffering and death on the cross. There simply is no greater act of humility possible.
God the Father also demonstrates gentleness, meekness and humility in the way he deals with humanity. Somewhere we have gotten a picture of the God of the Old Testament being an angry, powerful God of wrath. If you read the Old Testament, that’s just not the way God is at all. Yes, God becomes angry at times, and yes, he occasionally brings judgment on people. But for the most part, God is incredibly patient. Sometimes, in fact, it feels as if God is too patient.
Last week someone asked me why God doesn’t do something about all the violence and wars in our world. It’s a good question. To begin with, I want to be careful in answering for God. We know a lot about God, but it is presumptuous for us to say this is why God is doing what he is doing. The bottom line is that God does what God thinks is best, and we don’t always understand. But based on my reading of the Bible, my understanding of why God doesn’t do something is that God has given humans freedom to make their own choices. God is not like a great puppeteer in the sky, pulling our strings and controlling our actions. We do have complete freedom of choice.
Ultimately, God is in control and he will have the final say, but he allows humankind great latitude.
The Bible li
“To those of us who have children or grandchildren in our lives,
here is something to make you chuckle.
Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.
After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing God said was "DON'T!"
"Don't what?" Adam replied.
“Don’t eat the forbidden fruit,” God said.
"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve! We have forbidden fruit!"
"
"Yes way!"
"Do NOT eat the fruit! " said God.
"Why?"
“Because I am your Father and I said so!” God replied, wondering why he hadn’t stopped creation after making the elephants.
A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!
"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?” God asked.
"Uh huh," Adam replied.
"Then why did you?" said the Father.
"I don't know," said Eve.
"She started it!” Adam said.
"Did not!”
"Did too!”
"DID NOT!”
Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.
BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!
If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself.
If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?
Here are some things to think about.
1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and be quiet.
2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.
3. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
4. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.
5. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.
AND FINALLY:
IF YOU HAVE A
DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:
"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN"AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!
Well, that’s a little bit of silliness, but there is some truth there, too. God is truly an amazingly wonderful parent. He invites us to be his children, and to follow in his way. And he is very gentle with us.
The interesting thing is that often we wish he would be stricter with other people, but we’re grateful that he is so patient and gentle with us, aren’t we?
The scripture I chose for today is one that I really love. It’s found in Matthew 11:28-30. It reminds me that when life seems to be getting difficult and I’m working too hard, it’s probably not even God’s will for me. Not that God doesn’t want us to work hard—but he invites us also to rest.
Hear the words that Jesus spoke to his followers:
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The things that make us feel weary and burdened are usually not of God. We become weary when we think we have to do it all ourselves, without God’s help. We become weary when we let ourselves be squeezed into the world’s mold, and try to do what we think is expected of us. We become burdened by so many things—our worries, our possessions, our fears. None of these things come from God.
Jesus wants us to understand that if we will just put down all of our burdens, let go of all of our fears and come to him, we will find true rest.
The great truth of our faith in Jesus Christ is that we are saved by grace. Our salvation has never been dependent on our goodness, and it never will be. We can’t save ourselves by our own goodness. We are utterly and completely dependent on Jesus for our salvation. We have done nothing to deserve it. The only requirement is that we accept our salvation by faith.
The irony is that we forget so easily. We forget that we owe our salvation to the cross. It was on the cross that Jesus died for our sins, once and for all, and rose, triumphant from the grave. Death no longer has tyranny over us and we are free from the bondage of sin.
But yes, we forget, and slide back into our old ways. We try to earn our salvation by our goodness. And it is so difficult. Because the truth is, we never get it quite right, do we? We goof up and we are so painfully aware of our own ineptness. And it becomes a weariness; a burden. And we wonder why we are so tired.
Jesus says to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The kind of rest he gives us goes deep into our souls. He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”
I picture here two oxen, with a yoke across their backs. One of those oxen is me, and the other one is Jesus. Jesus is plodding along right next to me, talking to me, encouraging me, and helping me do the work. And when we work together, the burden is no longer heavy—it is light. I am learning from Jesus and he is right there beside me all the time.
He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Work is a joy when your heart is light and your attitude is right. Jesus says he is gentle and humble in heart. When we learn from him to also be gentle and humble in heart, we do find rest for our souls.
Throughout this series, we have noticed how countercultural these qualities or fruits of the Spirit are. We just don’t often praise people for their gentleness, or even encourage one another to be gentle and humble and meek. Our culture sees these qualities as weakness.
But the truly humble and gentle are the ones who are actually very strong. They have let go of trying to be in control.
Jesus invites us to give up our need to be in control and accept his yoke. We don’t have to be anxious or afraid, because he will treat us gently.
As I meditated on this passage, I asked the question, “How can I find rest while still being faithful to God’s call?” And the answers that came to me were these:
Obedience also calls me to rest, not just to work.
Obedience calls me to be still and know God’s presence; not just to be busy.
Obedience calls me to meditate on God’s word, not only to teach and preach.
Obedience calls me to share this God-rest with others.
Obedience allows me to work at my own pace and stop striving.
Obedience calls me to come as a child, not needing to always be the expert.
I’m going to read this passage again. I invite you to close your eyes if that’s comfortable for you and simply listen as I read it. As I read, listen and ask, “What does Jesus invite you to do, be or change through this passage?” If you are weary and burdened, why? Is there something you are carrying that you need to let go of? Are you learning from Jesus? What do you hear Jesus saying just to you today as I read Jesus’ words again?
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus’ arms are always wide open to you. He invites you to come to him and stay with him. He will treat you with gentleness, and from him you will learn gentleness.
Prayer:
Jesus, you are our gentle shepherd. We come to you, weary and burdened. And you, in your love and your gentleness, invite us to simply let go of all the things that trouble us, all the things that weigh us down. Lord, we simply give our lives to you. We ask you to forgive our past, knowing that you promise to remove our sins as far as the east is from the west. Gratefully, we accept your yoke, so that we might spend the rest of our lives yoked to you. Thank you for your wonderful promise of rest for our souls. We are so grateful for your love for us. Teach us to be loving and gentle like you. Amen
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