“Whenever Opportunity Strikes”
Preached Sunday, July 3, 2022
What are some things that are easier said than done?
Keeping your house clean, getting into a workout routine, seeking out mental or physical healthcare, raising children, training a dog not to bark, eating 7 servings of fruit and vegetables in a day, voting, turning your ripened bananas into banana bread… What else is easier said than done? (Shout it out?) Honestly, we could go on and on - because there are waaay more things easier said than done than easier done than said. We can say almost anything - following through with our actions is the hard part.
In this week’s reading from Galatians, Paul is saying a lot of easier said than done things. These are the last verses in the letter to the Galatians and Paul is summarizing all the points he has already made in his letter to them, a church and community steeped in conflict and division. And truly, there are many good exhortations here and fodder for at least half a dozen sermons. But my preaching professor told us, make sure you’re only preaching ONE sermon at once. So the easier said than done exhortation that stood out to me from this week’s Scripture was this:
“So let us not grow weary in doing what is right…”
Let’s start with defining “what is right” in this context - doing what is right according to Paul is fulfilling the law of Christ. Now what is the law of Christ? To quote Christ himself: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Concretely, pulling from our reading this morning, this looks like bearing one another’s burdens; sowing to the Spirit - which again, what does that mean? Galatians 5:22-23: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” So sowing seeds for more love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in this world.
So, re-cap: We fulfill the law of Christ when we bear one another’s burdens, sow to the Spirit, and work for the good of all.
And Paul says, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right…”
But friends, lately I have been feeling a little weary...even after a week off. Because not growing weary of doing what is right is easier said than done - it can seem so hard to do what is right as an individual when the powers-that-be seem stacked against you. The week's news has weighed heavy on me: fear and worry for the health and safety of women and children; loss of hope for the environment and the world we are passing on to future generations; and a world without gun violence seeming further out of reach. Every headline has just...added to the weariness. Added to the mountain that it seems you have to climb to do the right thing. Sometimes I just want to put my hands in the air, throw in the towel, call it quits. I'd be lying if I said my google searches from this week didn't include “Methodist jobs in UK” - speaking of “easier said than done” - moving or immigrating. But those google searches are nothing but escapist fantasies and we have to deal with the reality of the world we live in.
And I get the sense that many of you can relate, that you too are feeling weary - it may be some of the same headlines I’ve referred to or different ones, it may be particular situations going on in your life…I know that many of you are feeling weary of doing the right thing too.
And yet, and yet…the exhortation from Paul to the Galatians and to us is: Let us not grow weary of doing what is right…
It reminds me of a couple lines from one of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies..and then one quote from a politician who will remain unnamed so it’s not written off due to party bias.
From, The Fellowship of the Ring:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
And then from Frozen 2:
“Just do the next right thing
Take a step, step again
It is all that I can to do
The next right thing
I won't look too far ahead
It's too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can make
So I'll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the light
And do the next right thing”
Then, the unnamed politician:
“So while we can’t change the world in a day, we CAN and do have the power to make our own world within our four walls, or our own blocks. We can grow from there with the faith that somewhere out there, everywhere, others are doing the same. And we will come together. That’s why, if you’re a parent, how you parent matters. If you’re a neighbor, how you are a neighbor matters….Ultimately, we live in this world and in this time. We have no choice but to engage in it while we’re here. Even running away is a form of engagement. So will your engagement hurt or heal? Build or bring down? There is no neutral choice, so we can at least do our best to make good ones and learn and do better the next day. You are allowed to be scared. To grieve. To be angry. But you are also allowed to create good, to be soft, and enjoy the small reprieves.”
All of these quotes from our modern day and culture help us understand and better live out an exhortation from 2,000 years ago to not grow weary in doing what is right.
We do not get to choose the times we live in. But we do get to choose how to live in them. We can choose, over and over again, to do the next right thing. It may not always be a big world changing right next thing, but in our own worlds, our own lives, our own communities and relationships, we always have the choice to choose the right thing, to choose love, to love God and to love neighbor. The exhortation to not grow weary is not telling us that we should feel guilty for the times the world seems like it’s too much - it’s a call to care for ourselves so we don’t burn-out (or to care for ourselves so we can recover from burnout), it’s an encouragement to us that even when everything seems stacked against us, even when the world and the times we live in seem like they’re just too much - we can’t stop trying. Trying to do the right thing - to love God and to love neighbor as self.
Indeed, Paul continues in his closing in his letter to the Galatians: “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said this in his commentary on this verse:
“Therefore as we have opportunity—At whatever time or place, and in whatever manner we can. The opportunity in general is our lifetime; but there are also many particular opportunities. Satan is quickened in doing hurt, by the shortness of the time… By the same consideration let us be quickened in doing good. Let us do good—In every possible kind, and in every possible degree. Unto all men—neighbours or strangers, good or evil, friends or enemies. But especially to them who are of the household of faith. For all believers are but one family.”
It reminds me of the most famous quote attributed to John Wesley:
“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”
There will always be opportunities to do the right thing. There will always be cause to do all the good we can. Indeed, we can’t choose the times we live in - but we can choose to do what is right, to love God and to love neighbor, and to do good at every turn, in every way, and to everyone we can.
So my friends, do not grow weary of loving God, of loving neighbor, of doing good, of trying and trying and trying to do the next right thing. For Christ is with us. And we know that together, through Christ, when we collectively seek to love God and love neighbor, we can sow seeds of the Spirit, until the world reflects the love of Christ.
Amen.
But friends, lately I have been feeling a little weary...even after a week off. Because not growing weary of doing what is right is easier said than done - it can seem so hard to do what is right as an individual when the powers-that-be seem stacked against you. The week's news has weighed heavy on me: fear and worry for the health and safety of women and children; loss of hope for the environment and the world we are passing on to future generations; and a world without gun violence seeming further out of reach. Every headline has just...added to the weariness. Added to the mountain that it seems you have to climb to do the right thing. Sometimes I just want to put my hands in the air, throw in the towel, call it quits. I'd be lying if I said my google searches from this week didn't include “Methodist jobs in UK” - speaking of “easier said than done” - moving or immigrating. But those google searches are nothing but escapist fantasies and we have to deal with the reality of the world we live in.
And I get the sense that many of you can relate, that you too are feeling weary - it may be some of the same headlines I’ve referred to or different ones, it may be particular situations going on in your life…I know that many of you are feeling weary of doing the right thing too.
And yet, and yet…the exhortation from Paul to the Galatians and to us is: Let us not grow weary of doing what is right…
It reminds me of a couple lines from one of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies..and then one quote from a politician who will remain unnamed so it’s not written off due to party bias.
From, The Fellowship of the Ring:
“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
And then from Frozen 2:
“Just do the next right thing
Take a step, step again
It is all that I can to do
The next right thing
I won't look too far ahead
It's too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can make
So I'll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the light
And do the next right thing”
Then, the unnamed politician:
“So while we can’t change the world in a day, we CAN and do have the power to make our own world within our four walls, or our own blocks. We can grow from there with the faith that somewhere out there, everywhere, others are doing the same. And we will come together. That’s why, if you’re a parent, how you parent matters. If you’re a neighbor, how you are a neighbor matters….Ultimately, we live in this world and in this time. We have no choice but to engage in it while we’re here. Even running away is a form of engagement. So will your engagement hurt or heal? Build or bring down? There is no neutral choice, so we can at least do our best to make good ones and learn and do better the next day. You are allowed to be scared. To grieve. To be angry. But you are also allowed to create good, to be soft, and enjoy the small reprieves.”
All of these quotes from our modern day and culture help us understand and better live out an exhortation from 2,000 years ago to not grow weary in doing what is right.
We do not get to choose the times we live in. But we do get to choose how to live in them. We can choose, over and over again, to do the next right thing. It may not always be a big world changing right next thing, but in our own worlds, our own lives, our own communities and relationships, we always have the choice to choose the right thing, to choose love, to love God and to love neighbor. The exhortation to not grow weary is not telling us that we should feel guilty for the times the world seems like it’s too much - it’s a call to care for ourselves so we don’t burn-out (or to care for ourselves so we can recover from burnout), it’s an encouragement to us that even when everything seems stacked against us, even when the world and the times we live in seem like they’re just too much - we can’t stop trying. Trying to do the right thing - to love God and to love neighbor as self.
Indeed, Paul continues in his closing in his letter to the Galatians: “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said this in his commentary on this verse:
“Therefore as we have opportunity—At whatever time or place, and in whatever manner we can. The opportunity in general is our lifetime; but there are also many particular opportunities. Satan is quickened in doing hurt, by the shortness of the time… By the same consideration let us be quickened in doing good. Let us do good—In every possible kind, and in every possible degree. Unto all men—neighbours or strangers, good or evil, friends or enemies. But especially to them who are of the household of faith. For all believers are but one family.”
It reminds me of the most famous quote attributed to John Wesley:
“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”
There will always be opportunities to do the right thing. There will always be cause to do all the good we can. Indeed, we can’t choose the times we live in - but we can choose to do what is right, to love God and to love neighbor, and to do good at every turn, in every way, and to everyone we can.
So my friends, do not grow weary of loving God, of loving neighbor, of doing good, of trying and trying and trying to do the next right thing. For Christ is with us. And we know that together, through Christ, when we collectively seek to love God and love neighbor, we can sow seeds of the Spirit, until the world reflects the love of Christ.
Amen.
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