Love in an Age of Apathy Charlie Dunn June 7, 2020

Last Sunday, we began a new teaching series on the Fruits of the Spirit. These are the character traits of Jesus that God, the Holy Spirit begins to grow in our hearts and our lives as we are walking with God. We certainly need those Fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, all the more so in our hearts, amidst all that is happening in our country today. Beginning in Galatians 5:13, here's what the Apostle Paul writes, this is God's word. “You, my brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour each other, watch out, or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want." "But if you're led by the spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Well friends, amidst all that we are facing in our country right now, in the wake of the extra judicial, brutal killing of George Floyd, amidst all of the pain, anger and the frustration that so many people are feeling as we recognize the racial injustice that continues to stain our country today. It may feel as if this global pandemic of the coronavirus suddenly feels like yesterday's news. For the 10 weeks of quarantine, my wife Brandi and I, we've been working from home together. We've enjoyed that extra time. Every day we have lunch together and we watch the TV show The Office. Earlier this week, we were watching episode two of season eight of The Office. Robert California, played by James Spader is the CEO of the paper company. He comes into the office of the manager, Andy Bernard, who's played by Ed Helms. And Robert, he asks Andy if he's attracted to one of their coworkers named Erin. Andy begins to share some of their complicated relationship story when Robert abruptly cuts him off. He says, "Andy, I'm afraid you have lost my interest." We laughed because we can relate with that feeling. Maybe where you ask somebody a question and then quickly they give you more information than you want, and you lose your interest, but you would never say it. We laughed because he says what you and I might only ever think, "I'm afraid you've lost my interest." Yet what if this laughable scene from The Office actually depicts a reality that is anything but laughable. What if it actually shows us what is the very opposite of love? What if in some way it conveys what may be for many of us who are white as Americans, the way that we have felt about racial injustice in our country? Maybe you see a news story, you see something like the brutal, horrific killing of George Floyd and it upsets you. For a moment you're angry, you sense that injustice, but it doesn't take long before maybe we say with Robert California, "I'm afraid you've lost my interest." If anything, these protests over these past several days, if anything, even if you would decry some of the cases of looting or violence that have come from a few of them, nevertheless, these protests have insisted upon our ongoing interest. They have demanded our ongoing attention. Elie Wiesel was no stranger to racial injustice and oppression. As a Jewish man, he was a prisoner of the concentration camp Auschwitz during Nazi Germany. As he looked back on the Holocaust, as he looked back on what would allow so many supposedly good and decent German citizens to essentially do nothing in the midst of such horrific evil, the death of millions of Jews, he came to this conclusion. He said, "The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference." It's apathy, because love is a willingness to act for the good of others. The first time I ever read Martin Luther King Jr's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” I was a freshmen in college. Yet words that he wrote so many decades ago seem to be so relevant and convicting for us still today. He says, "We will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." He says, "More concerning even than the actions of white supremacists or members of the Ku Klux Klan," he says, "Are the non-actions of white moderates who might prefer order to justice." What I've been recognizing in my own life over these past few days is that there is a significant difference between saying, "Look, I'm not a racist," to actually being somebody who is anti-racist. Someone who is willing to use their platform, to use their influence, to speak out against racial injustice, to be willing with our friends, our family members, our coworkers, to refuse to just sit idly by in the midst of racist jokes or judgments. Because the opposite of love is not hate, but its indifference. We see that in the very heart of God, don't we? Here in Galatians 5, Paul speaks of the works of the flesh. He says that those whose lives are marked by these works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. He's saying ultimately they will face the judgment of God for sin. Maybe you say, "Doesn't the Bible say, though, that God is love?" Absolutely. But remember, love is not indifferent. Love is not apathetic towards sin. In fact, it's God's love that moves him to anger towards sin. It's God's love that moves him to anger when he sees a police officer abusing his power to squeeze the breath out of a man made in the image of God and he thinks he can do so with impunity because of the color of that man's skin. It's God's love that moves him to anger when he sees injustice, when he sees people diminished and demeaned and discriminated against because of their race. Yes, it's God's love that moves him to anger when he sees the destruction of property, when he sees looting, when he sees violence and hatred toward police officers too. It's God's love that moves him to anger. When he sees us treating each other in certain ways, when he sees our sin tear at the people that he has created and at his good design for his world. Like a father who sees his child making self-destructive choices, like an artist who sees her artwork being destroyed. It's God's love that moves him to anger over sin because the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. So if you and I are to begin to love in the way that Paul describes in Galatians 5, if the fruit of love is to begin to grow up in our hearts, especially towards people who may look different from us, well then, it's going to have to overcome our apathy and our indifference. You might say, "Well, if indifference is the opposite of love, well then what is love?" Paul tells us in verse 13 of this passage, he tells us to humbly serve one another in love. In other words, love is not primarily an attraction, but action. That love is a willingness to take action for the good, the interests, the needs of others to serve the interests and the needs of others. As Bob Goff puts it, love does. It doesn't just say, "Hey, I care about you," but it actually shows that care through action. Some of you may know that a member of our church family, Leslie Baker was tragically and horrifically murdered in her own car in her own driveway on Memorial Day. I was struck as I read the comments of one of Leslie's good friends about her. She said, "When you needed it, Leslie was the first to send a card, to make a phone call, to bring you a meal. She didn't ask, what do you need? She was one of those people who just knew what you needed and she brought it and she gave it." I think that's part of what radiated through her was her faith and her love of God, a love that would take action. That love acts on behalf of another. Further, Paul tells us in verse 14, he says that the whole law can be summed up in this one command of Jesus, “love your neighbor as yourself.” In order to do that, love also means then a willingness to empathize, a willingness to try to put ourselves in our neighbor's shoes, to try to see the world from their perspective, through their eyes. That can be really challenging, especially when it comes to the topic of race. I remember in July of 2016, after the horrific shooting of Dallas police officers downtown, I was angry. I was angry over the death of five officers and the injuries of nine others. I thought to myself, these men and women, they put on their uniform, they're willing to risk their lives to protect and to serve within our community and they deserve our appreciation and our respect. I still believe today that there are so many good officers who do deserve our appreciation. But I'm grateful that at that time in my life, God placed a man by the name of Fred Nadavi. Fred is a black man, he's one of my best friends, and he was my roommate at the time. Some of you know Fred. Fred worked at Highland Park Pres for a number of years. He's one of the friendliest and godly centered people. I talked to Fred this week and he gave me permission to share this story. I was telling Fred how I was so upset over the shooting. Fred said to me, he said, "Charlie, I too am very saddened by what has happened to these officers. But you have to understand that you and I, we experience police differently within this country." He said, "When you see a police officer, how do you feel?" I said, "I feel safer." I'm not a particularly big guy. When I see police, I feel safe. Fred said, "When I see the police, I don't feel safe. I feel afraid." One of the guys in my Bible study, a black man, this week told me he feels the exact same way. Fred told me, he said, "Charlie, did you know that I have been pulled over many times in Highland Park? I've got all of my car registration in order. I didn't commit any traffic violations. I've been pulled over several times, simply for being a black man driving in an almost entirely white neighborhood." He told me a story about one night at nine o'clock, he was leaving Preston Center, and he was driving over to Pastor Cyprian's house. Some of you know Pastor Cyprian. As he was making his way over to Cyprian's house, near Highland Park High School, a police car started to follow him out of Preston Center. Wherever he turned, the car continued to follow him. When he got to Cyprian's driveway, the police car flipped on its lights. The officer got out of the car with his hand on the gun and he asked Fred, he said, 'Do you live here? Do you live in this neighborhood?" Fred said, at the time that he did, and then he got Fred's license and registration and he ran his plates. Then he said, "Okay, have a good night." Fred said, "Did you know that every time I've been pulled over, the officer always gets out of his car with his hand on the gun." He said, "I've walked through the streets of Highland Park, and I know what it's like for little kids to see me and to run to their doorway because they see a black man." For people to actually change the side of the street that they're walking on because they feel threatened by him. By the way, Fred's not a big guy. He's not particularly intimidating, but that's not the point. The point is this, is that you and I, we may have a prejudice in our hearts that we don't even see. We may have privilege in the way that we relate to the police in a way that we do not see. What it means to love our neighbor as ourselves is a willingness not to go to that place of immediate defensiveness, but to actually be willing to try to consider what it might be like to live in America as a black man or a woman. Of course only Jesus, that perfectly loves in this way where he puts our interests ahead of his own, where he's willing to enter into our place. But the more, as Bryan said last Sunday, the more that we abide in Jesus, the more that this fruit of his love begins to grow in our lives. You might say, "Well, what does that look like practically?" How do you begin to cultivate that fruit of love in your life? I want to suggest to us two things from this passage this morning. First, we have to enter the conflict. Secondly, we have to learn to examine our motives. Enter the conflict and examine our motives. So first we've got to enter the conflict. Did you notice that Paul, in Galatians 5, he tells us that if you are a Christian, that your heart is a battlefield. That within your heart, there is a conflict between two distinct natures. He says the flesh and the spirit are opposed to one another. They are in conflict with each other. On the one hand, there's the flesh. Paul's not speaking of our body, he's talking about attitudes and desires and actions that are set in opposition to God. It's that part of ourselves that still wants to be our own God. Still wants to run our own lives, to be our own judge, to decide what's right and wrong for ourselves. That says, "Look, I'm really out for number one, what's in it for me?" So there's the flesh. Then there's the Holy Spirit. The moment that you put your trust in Jesus as your savior. God, the Holy Spirit enters your heart and therefore from that point forward, there's part of us that longs to please God and that wants to obey God and wants to become more like Jesus. Paul says that these two natures, they are battling, they are in conflict within us. You may say, "Well, gosh, I don't really feel that sense of internal struggle. I don't feel that sense of battle or conflict in my heart." That's because it's possible to essentially be limping through the Christian life. Maybe you feel anxious, you feel unhappy, and you’re not really growing in your relationship with Jesus. The conflict is there, that division is there, but you're not really experiencing it because you haven't really entered into the battle. Maybe you are like Switzerland and you're neutral. But you see, the moment that you enter the conflict, the moment that you say, "You know what? I want to be led by the Holy Spirit. I want to grow in my love for other people. I want to grow in the fruit of love." I can guarantee you there's going to be conflict. There's going to be resistance because the flesh and the spirit are at conflict within us. I mean, here's an example. Let's just say today that you make a commitment and you say, "You know what? For the next two weeks, for the sake of wanting to grow in my love for other people, I'm going to carve out 15 minutes every day to get alone with God, to read Scripture and to pray. To invite him to help me to grow in love." I guarantee if you do that, your flesh will come up with every sort of distraction, every sort of reason to keep you from following through on that commitment, that part of our lives that doesn't want to be brought under God's rule over us. Here's another example. Let's say you say, "You know what? I want to address the racism in my heart. I know that there may be prejudice. I know there may be certain assumptions. I know that maybe there's apathy and indifference to the suffering of black brothers and sisters. I want to grow in my love." Is there going to be struggle and conflict in your heart? Absolutely. On Friday, Sarah Good, who's the Executive Director of Highland Park Pres, she sent an email to all of our staff. In that email, she said, "Sometimes as a white woman, I don't know how to respond in the face of racial injustice. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do." But she said, "You know, what we can't do, is we can't do nothing. What we can't do is we can't say nothing. That's not an option for us." I read that and I thought, "Yes, I agree with that. That's true." But then I had a pretty full weekend and Sunday afternoon came around and I hadn't done anything. I hadn't said anything. I was lying on the couch and Bryan sent me a text. He said, "Charlie, I'm going to the pastors' prayer vigil downtown, outside the police station. Do you want to go with me?" In that moment, my answer was no. No, I didn't want to go with him. I wanted to lie on the couch. I was feeling tired. I was feeling lazy. Frankly, I'd heard about the curfew downtown. I was a little bit anxious about going to be a part of that. But what I've learned over the years is that that was my flesh talking and that there are these two sides to me. And that was my flesh. That part of me that wants to be comfortable. That part of me wants to be safe. I knew that was not the voice of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit would be saying to me, "Charlie, you need to grow in your love for your black brothers and sisters." Praise God, I have a wife who spoke some courage into me in that moment. She said, "Charlie, you need to go to that vigil." I'm so glad that I did. Because friends, by being there, by praying alongside brothers and sisters in Christ, and that unity of the Spirit, God was working in my heart. He was giving me an increased compassion for the suffering of black men and women in our country. He was giving me a greater sense of conviction for the way I've often been apathetic and indifferent. That fruit of love began to grow in my heart. But the only way that that happens is if first we're willing to enter into the conflict to say, "Yes, Holy Spirit, I want to be led by you." But then secondly, we have to learn to examine our motives. I was so helped in this, by the way, by Tim Keller's commentary on Galatians. We have to learn to examine what's moving us, what's motivating us, what's driving us in any given moment or response. Did you notice in Galatians 5 that Paul in verse 16, he says? "Walk in the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Then in verse 18, he says, "Be led by the spirit. If you're led by the spirit, then you are not under the law." Do you see the parallelism there? It's as if he's saying the same thing in just two different ways. To gratify the desires of the flesh is like the same thing as to live under the law. But what does it mean to live under law? Paul's been talking about that all throughout the Book of Galatians. Essentially, what it means is to live as if you're seeking not to be your own savior. To say, "Here's this law, here's this bar. Here's the standard that I'm trying to live up to." Could be your own standard, could be your parents' standard, and could be some standard of society. You determine what it is for you. So you say, "But if I live up to this standard, then I'll feel like I'm enough, then I'll feel like I'm okay. Then I'll feel like I'm acceptable. That I'm good." It's a project of building your own self- righteousness to live under the law. By contrast, we can live under grace. That is to live, knowing that I am loved and accepted completely because of what God has done for me through Jesus. So I don't have to build my own righteousness, because God has given me the righteousness of Jesus as a gift. You see, what Paul is telling us is that as a Christian in any given moment, in any given response to a situation, you can either operate under law, or under grace. If you're operating under law, well then the fruits of that are pride, discord and selfish ambition. But whereas if you're operating out of grace, well then the fruits are love, joy and peace. What we have to do then as believers is learn to examine our motives, to understand in any given situation, am I operating out of law, or operating under grace? Let me give you an example. When I first saw the video of George Floyd being killed brutally, having the breath squeezed out of him, I was horrified. When I saw Ahmaud Arbery gunned down, running in the street, I was sickened. Yet why is it that something began to shift in my heart when I saw the video of Ahmaud Arbery trespassing in a construction area? Why is it that something began to shift when I learned that George Floyd had been in a convenience store where he had tried to pay for cigarettes allegedly with a counterfeit bill? Why did something begin to shift in my heart where I thought, well, if they had just been law abiding, well, then maybe this terrible killing wouldn't have happened to them? In spite of all of the sin that exists in my life, in spite of the fact that regardless of whatever minor crimes they may have committed, what happened to them was just plain wrong. End of sentence, period. It was outrageous. It was unjust. It was terrible. Yet, why did my heart go to that place of defensiveness, of judgment, of criticism? Because I didn't want to have to be convicted. Convicted of the fact that maybe I'm a part of a system where I have certain privileges because of the color of my skin that other people do not. The reason my heart went to that place of self-righteousness is because in that moment I was responding under law, not responding under grace. I've learned over the years that some of the telltale signs of when I'm operating out of the flesh, when I'm living under the law, those signs are judgmentalism, pride, superiority, fear. So much fear of the approval of other people. I was living under law, not living under grace. But you see friends, the good news of the gospel of Jesus is that we can begin to live under grace. Jesus, he took all of our sin upon him, including our prejudice, including our racism, including our apathy and our indifference. Jesus died for it on the cross. He took all of the judgment of God, all of God's anger towards sin was satisfied in the death of Jesus for us. When you believe that, you can begin to be honest. You can begin to look more squarely at the ugliness that resides within our hearts. We can be honest about our sin. We don't have to get defensive. We don't have to move to that place of judgementalism, of self-righteousness. Because we know that we don't have to build our own righteousness anymore. God has given us the perfect righteousness of Jesus as a gift. Friends, it's that grace, it's living under Jesus' grace that enables us to begin to repent of our racism and to change. It's God's love that leads us to repentance. It's in that grace that we then are able to see that fruit of love begin to grow up into our hearts. And it's at the table, the Lord's Table, that we celebrate that love and that grace of Jesus together this morning.