Not by Myself

I.        Vow of Affirmation 
“We devote our daily life to God, and to serving our neighbors as images of God”

3. I will live, speak and act with truth, compassion, kindness, gentleness, mercy, patience, generosity, and expectant hope that others will respond in kind.

When faced with lists of to-dos or to-bes, I can get slogged down in the hard demand of doing and becoming something better.  In my stubborn independence and "do-it-yourself" response, I miss something important about the discipleship life.  Yes, God’s calling demands sacrifice and perseverant hard work on our part, but only as a response to and an outgrowth of what God has already begun in us by God's Holy Spirit. In the end it begins with God’s faithful work and not simply ours.

("the shift" by Cornellia Kopp via Flickr)

After the tragic shooting at the West Nickel Mines school house, the Amish community persevered in the painfully compassionate work of forgiving Charlie Roberts. In Forgiveness, John Ruth notes that this Christian act was “not a strategy or skill, but the fruit of a radical reorientation.” Yes, it certainly took a stalwart moral commitment on the part of the Amish in Lancaster County to live, speak and act with kindness and mercy, but it was only made possible by the work that Christ had already begun long before in them as a tight-knit church community. Paul calls this preliminary initiating work New Creation. He likens it to fruit grown in us by the Holy Spirit, or new clothes washed and put on us by Christ. 

These fruit and new clothes are not merely a result of our hard moral work, but a result of our yielding and enslaving ourselves to the Holy Spirit who now works in us. Fruit of the Spirit (God’s initiative)rather than simply works of the flesh (our effort). Paul’s Galatians letter is so full of this insistence on Christ’s initiating work in us Paul goes so far as to proclaim, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Today with the help of Christ’s Spirit, we take on a vow of new creation, new clothes, Spirit-yielded fruit: “I will live, speak and act with truth, compassion, kindness, gentleness, mercy, patience, generosity, and expectant hope that others will respond in kind.”

Options For Reflection and Action:

(1) Read Colossians 3:1-17. Notice that there is still plenty of hard work for us to do, but ask Christ to initiate and empower that work, to “rule in our hearts, dwelling in us richly.”  

• In what ways has Christ made your church a new creation? Made you a new self?
• What are you being called to clothe yourself with, today? What fruit is God growing in you?

(2) Use Galatians 2:19-20 as a thanksgiving to God.

• What are the signs that Christ lives in you, that his Spirit is bearing fruit in you?
• What parts of you have yet to die so that the Spirit can enliven you to live, speak and act in the ways of Jesus?

(3) From Philippians 4:1-9, practice one of the following each hour today: Rejoice, be gentle, let go of worry through hopeful prayer, give thanks, think on and do true things, be honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, praiseworthy.

Prayer Focus

God who creates new life,

You have made your church a new creation,

you have made me a new creature,

you have filled me with your Spirit.

Thank you.

Now, give me perseverance to live by what the Spirit is producing in me today:

Spirit fruit, new clothes, a new mind, the peace of Christ.

Amen.