In our Lenten sermon series this year, we are looking at Paul's letter to the Galatians, specifically at his list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in chapter 5. And we are digging into the original Greek of Paul's letter, to get as much nuance as we can. The world and the flesh are aligned against these fruits, Paul tells us, and they offer the opposite, which invariably leads us away from the kingdom of God. We've already talked about the fruits of joy, love, and kindness, and now tonight we look at the fruits of peace and gentleness...
Roughly eighteen years before HE was assassinated in 1948, Indian leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi led his people in the Dandi Salt March. The British Empire had claimed a monopoly on the production and sale of salt in India, even in regions by the sea, where salt could be made easily by anyone just by letting sea water evaporate. Gandhi walked the 387 kilometres from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi on the coast, and illegally made salt, to protest the salt tax. Through this and other non-violent forms of protest, Gandhi accelerated the release of India from colonial rule, and proved the legitimacy of these quotes that are attributed to him, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world,” and “There is no path TO peace; peace IS the path.”
Paul's Greek word that we have translated as “peace,” is “eirhnh,” which also has the sense of harmony, order, and reconciliation. It's the same word Jesus says to his disciples when he tells them, “my peace, I give to you,” after which their hearts are not to be troubled or afraid. And while the peace of Jesus comes to disciples as a gift, there is also the striving to make peace in the world, which is seen by James as a righteous thing to do.
And where we have used the word “gentleness” in translating Paul's letter to the Galatians, Paul originally used the word 'pra-uths,' which also connotes “mildness” or “humility.” Jesus uses a form of this word to describe himself in Matthew, in the context of placing only light burdens on those who follow him. And James describes the Christian life as “works done with gentleness born of wisdom,” as opposed to works done out of envy and selfish ambition.
So what does the world and the flesh offer in the place of peace and gentleness? Today, what they offer can be summed up in one word: the internet. We have built the perfect system to reward the OPPOSITES of peace and gentleness, where the quickest way to satisfy the selfish ambition of your first 1000 likes, or first million subscribers, or first billion views...IF you don't own cute kittens...is to post something controversial, divisive, or just plain mean-spirited. The less peaceful, harmonious, and orderly, the better it works. And in the clamour for more and more clicks, our internet society has become the opposite of gentle – it has become brittle, and neurotic, and entitled, and harsh. And the more time we spend on screens, the more this behaviour seems normal to us in REAL life, to the detriment of real relationships and real community.