Working for the Good of All: A Sermon on Galatians 6: 1-10

When I was preparing for this week’s worship service and discovered that one of the lectionary texts was the Galatians passage you just heard Mike read, I had to laugh. In addition to preparing for today’s worship service, I was preparing to accompany eight senior high students and two other chaperones to Norwalk, Ohio for our mission trip. For the past six years, David’s UCC has taken a group of youth to Norwalk to work on a Habitat for Humanity build. This trip is all about working for the good of all.
Now, I’d been on a few mission trips before and already had some expectations for what this trip might be like. I was the only newbie this year and I figured that the kids wouldn’t be returning if the trip weren’t deeply meaningful for them. But I didn’t realize what kind of dedication these kids were showing by heading for Norwalk each year. On my previous mission trips, the accommodations have included beds and the work schedule has been fairly lenient. The tasks have been significantly lighter than those required by home-building. I have painted dorms at the Appalachian Folk Life Center in Pipestem, WV and stained wood siding at a UCC camp in Ripon, WI. I’ve sorted through a storage area at a women’s shelter to discard unneeded items and cleaned preschool chairs and tables. I’d never eaten breakfast before 8:30 a.m. on a mission trip and the supervisors have always been keenly aware that our group consisted of novices, both teenagers and grown women.
The Habitat trip is nothing like I expected, even with the fear of drywall laid upon my heart. This is serious, hardcore mission work. We were awoken each morning at 6 (before that on Friday) by Jim’s electronic rooster and we hit the floor. After a quick cereal breakfast, we tied on our nail aprons and climbed into the van to head to the work site. No lazybones 8 a.m. wake-up for us! At the jobsite, the kids amazed me with their willingness to get right to work and with their wide array of construction skills. Now, y’all don’t know me very well yet, but Jeannene and I hire just about anything related to home repair out to professionals. We have been known to hire a handyman to come hang pictures for us. I had a serious learning curve all week. For the kids, getting up on the roof and doing shingle work was nothing. Snapping siding into place and nailing it in? No biggie. Ascending towering scaffolding to enable soffit work? Sure, no problem. Insulation and drywall? You can count on them! Even in the face of the most curmudgeonly of Habitat supervisors, the kids maintained their cool. Being required to shower at the rec center, in bathing suits, without being offered a refreshing swim didn’t seem to faze these teens one bit. It’s just what you do at Habitat.
I can’t say I remained as cheery. To be honest, by Wednesday, I was berating myself for having ridden up in the van rather than driving myself. On Friday, I very nearly quit altogether, fantasizing about sulking in the van with my book for the rest of the day, after having my first close encounter with the formidable Roger. I am convinced that had he been there all week and had there been another female chaperone, I would have been calling my aunt and begging her for a ride home, despite how much I was enjoying getting to know these very cool kids.
I was basically a big baby about the whole experience. The kids, they took all the hard work in stride. I honestly didn’t hear anyone seriously complaining about getting up at the crack of dawn. And when Roger sniped at them, it rolled off their backs like water off a duck. You always hear adults in churches and out in the wide world talking about how lazy teenagers are, how hard it is to communicate with them, how kids these days don’t care about anything but their own wants and desires, kids these days are all wrapped up in themselves. I have always argued against this assessment, but I just got a whole week of ammo for my defense of teenagers.
The teens at David’s Church go on this mission trip not because it’s a chance to visit an exciting new place. Norwalk is lovely and the glossy black squirrels are most impressive, but it’s certainly not Myrtle Beach or Colorado or Maine, where colleagues of mine took their youth this year. They go not because they get to do all kinds of fun activities. Yes, they went kayaking on Wednesday, but for the most part, they worked. They just worked hard and rested. They go not because they have nothing better to do. They are each giving up opportunities, opportunities for summer leisure time, opportunities to work for pay, opportunities to go to camps, all sacrificed to do this work. They go because they feel this call of which Paul speaks, to work for the good of all and to help others carry burdens which have become too heavy to carry alone.
Over the years they have been working together, they’ve developed a kind of easy rapport and a knack for working well together. They extend their gracious approach to newcomers, as well. The kids showed a remarkable lack of judgment for deficiencies (especially mine), instead working to teach the deficient person (and I hope you’re hearing that as “Daria”) how to do something correctly. I can’t say that for all the adults on the scene, but the kids were remarkably gentle with one another and the other chaperones were patient, as well. When I was hammering and hammering and getting nowhere, Rachel gently advised me to hold the hammer closer to the bottom, explaining why this would be a help. When I wasn’t strong enough or skilled enough to complete a task, one kid or another jumped right in to help carry the burden. When I was in tears after being not-so-gently corrected by Roger, more than one member of the group approached me to offer encouragement. When the teenagers are ministering to the pastor, you know this is a special group of kids. This is a group of kids living out Jesus’ teaching, a group of kids following Paul’s advice to the Galatians, working for the good of all.
I was especially impressed with the group after we met the homeowners, a Muslim couple and their four kids. In the current climate, one might expect a Christian group to be turned off by the idea that their labor would be for the benefit of a Muslim family. When I was in Santa Fe for a two-week trans-cultural ministry class, I had the opportunity to see anti-Muslim sentiment up close. Our group had been invited to visit with a Muslim couple in their home in Abiquiu. They were such gracious hosts, offering us tea and pastries, making certain we were comfortable, engaging in dialogue with us about the commonalities and differences in our respective religions and worldviews. Honestly, I found that we had more in common than different. However, three members of our group opted not even to enter the building, instead sitting on the front porch in the hot sun rather than deigning to enter the home of a Muslim couple. These were supposedly mature Christians, failing to show the love of Christ. The group from David’s, on the other hand, didn’t show a bit of surprise or dismay upon discovering that they were helping a family who practice Islam rather than Christianity. It made me proud of them.
Compassion trumps judgment. We could have looked at the Muslim family, seen their difference and chosen not to work on that house for them. However, it is not our place to judge the religion of another. That’s between them & God. It is our place to work for the good of all…and that all sometimes includes people who don’t feel like “ours.” However, in the excited videotaping of the homebuilding, the interactions between parents and children, the breaking of bread together, we saw the sameness beyond the difference.
Today we are celebrating our country’s evolution from being under British rule to becoming the great nation we are today, honoring the sacrifices that have made that transition possible, enjoying all the amazing freedoms we Americans have. One of these freedoms is difference. In the midst of the fireworks and festivities, the parades and the pies, I’d like us all to take a few moments to think about freedom the way Paul would have thought about it. For Paul, and for all who would faithfully follow Christ, our freedom is not in place so that we might indulge ourselves and use it for selfish purposes. We have been given freedom in order that we might use that gift to serve one another. When we use our freedom wrongfully, as the popular culture would have us do, we are not truly free. It is only in the service of others that we can be free. We are called to be an alternative community, not treating one another as the world would, but with true kindness. The power of the Holy Spirit working in us makes this possible. A life of service and kindness is a truly radical thing in this world. We are called to be set apart from the world, to embrace this radical notion of sharing burdens and being gentle in correction.
We are also not meant to compare ourselves to others, either for good or for bad. We are all given grace and faith in different measures, we are all given different gifts for ministry. The church ladies who brought lunch to us on the job site were in ministry just as faithfully as everyone toiling with the roof shingles or the insulation. We can all lift burdens in different ways. Perhaps we can build a house. Maybe we have been blessed with money with which to support the work of charities. Some of you have musical gifts, others listen with great attention and empathy, still more are amazing cooks. We don’t all have to work for the common good in the same way. What’s important is that we are listening for God’s voice imparting our own particular gifts, looking for opportunities to help shoulder the burdens of others and always, always working for the good of all.