Trinity St. Luke’s Lutheran Grade School, Watertown WI

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Opening Service August 31, 2004 7:00 p.m. Galatians 5:22a

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

People of God, rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

Jim Sulkers is 52 years old—the same age as me! Jim Sulkers—they say—was a loner—liked to be left alone—wasn’t comfortable around lots of people. Jim Sulkers died—his body was discovered just the other day. The problem is—Jim Sulkers died about two years ago. It wasn’t until yesterday that anybody came to his home looking for him—that they found him dead. If I died—I would certainly hope and pray somebody—somebody would come looking for me—before I was dead for two years! Where were his parents? Where was his spouse? Where were his children? Where were his neighbors? Where was somebody—anybody who loved Jim Sulkers? Where was Jesus? Jesus was right there! Jesus loved Jim so much he died on the cross for him. Jesus loved Jim. I wonder if Jim loved Jim. I wonder what went wrong—that somebody Jesus died to save could possibly be dead for 2 years and nobody knew! We need to look out for each other. I need to look out for you and you need to look out for me. I need to come around all the time—making sure you are ok and you need to look out for me. Everyone will know we are Jesus’ students, followers and imitators if we love one another. And when we love each other then with Jesus’ blessing:

This will be the best school year yet!

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on—is part of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the people living in Galatia—Asia Minor—present day Turkey! The Galatians were new believers. They loved Jesus very much! They were very thankful that Jesus died and rose again to wash away all their sins. But then some guys came along who said—Jesus washed your sins away. That’s really nice. But you still have to be good. You still have to “be good”—still have to keep lots of Old Testament ceremonial laws. You still have to do stuff to be saved! That’s very appealing to our pride—to that little voice inside that says—I’m not perfect. Nobody is! But at least I’m better than some people I know! That’s not just wrong—it’s dangerous! Jesus took all our sins away. This is both the reason and the strength to live for Jesus—to bear the sweet and juicy fruits of faith that will make this the best school yet.

The fruit of the Spirit is love… Do you know how much your teachers love you? They do. The fact is while you were staying up late and sleeping late and watching TV and going swimming and playing baseball—your teachers were getting ready for this school year. They were reading and studying and thinking and preparing—they were praying and reading their Bible—and making plans to teach you better than every. Some were getting ready to teach a whole different grade this year. That’s lots of work, too! They were growing in their faith and their love for Jesus and for you—so they will be even better teachers this year. If you are a student—you can show love for Jesus by showing love for your teacher. That means when you are in your room you stay in your desk. When you are in your desk you don’t say anything to anybody—until you raise your hand and your teacher calls on you. Then it’s ok to talk. Love for Jesus means love and respect for your teacher. That means never ever arguing with your teacher. Do you think you are right—and your teacher is wrong? Do you think with all your learning—being in 3^rd grade—you are right—and your teacher who went to high school and college and more may be wrong? It’s possible! But even if you are right—and they are wrong—and that’s a really big “IF”—Jesus wants you to be respectful. That means even if you get one marked wrong—that you are pretty sure isn’t wrong—still—don’t argue! Always, always, always show respect—because your teacher is just like Jesus for you in your room. Your teacher is your shepherd. Jesus entrusted you to them. To respect your teacher is to respect Jesus. To disrespect your teacher in any way—it to disrespect Jesus!

The fruit of the Spirit is joy… The devil is going to try to steal your joy. When it’s Monday morning and it’s cold and rainy outside and your mom says it’s time to get up and get washed up and eat breakfast and go to school—you’re going to be tempted to say, “I hate school!” That’s a sin! That’s wrong! I will never forget standing in the hall one day at Western Avenue—and a little person came down the hall past me and I smiled at them and they said, “What? What?” They looked at me—then at their shirt—to see if there was a piece of cereal stuck on their shirt—to see if they had buttoned their shirt wrong! “What?”, they said. As if to say—if you are smiling at me—it must be at my expense! That’s painfully wrong! One of the very small—very sweet pleasures of being a pastor or staff minister—is being up I front of church—to hear children sing for Jesus. I don’t just mean special songs like Shine, Jesus, Shine and the First Song of Isaiah—but the Psalm and the Te Deum—and Oh, taste and see and more.

The fruit of the Spirit is peace… You can tell when people don’t have peace. There is a funny feeling in your stomach—like a bunch of little butterflies are flying around in there. There is a tightness in your chest—it’s not easy to swallow. There is a pain that starts in the back of your head and comes over the top. It hurts—when we don’t have peace. Peace comes—not from being the smartest person in your class—or the best basketball player or the most musical. Peace comes because Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. That’s where self esteem comes from—from Jesus unconditional love. That means it doesn’t matter how thin you are. It doesn’t matter how straight your teeth are or how flawless you complexion is. All that matters is peace from Jesus’ forgiving love. That peace makes us strong so we will not cheat. We will not copy from somebody else’s paper. We will not peek at the answer book. We will not turn in somebody else’s work and pretend it is our own. We will not lie. When we make a mistake we will admit it—not because if you admit it—you don’t get punished. We will admit a mistake becaue that’s the truth—the opposite of a lie. Oh, sometimes—if you tell a lie—and then deny, deny, deny, deny—you might trick your mom—who really doesn’t want to believe her child could tell a lie—but you never ever fool Jesus—and Jesus is the one that matters most. Peace means we will do the right thing—no matter how difficult or unpopular that might be—we will do the right thing—because we have peace with God for Jesus’ sake.

The fruit of the Spirit patience… Patience isn’t easy. It’s not easy for teachers to be patient—when they ask a question—and nobody seems to know the answer. It isn’t easy for students to be patient—when they think what they are being taught is boring—and doesn’t have anything to do with real life. I think—sometimes—after growing up with TV—with Sesame Street and big purple dinosaurs that are always singing and dancing—where every 3 to 5 minutes there’s a commercial and so you don’t have to pay attention any longer than that. It isn’t easy to be patient—to pay attention—to concentrate. It isn’t easy. But then—nothing that’s really precious or valuable is ever really easy.

The fruit of the Spirit is…kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control… It’s all about attitude! Kindnesss—doing the right thing—being faithful and gentle—is about doing the right thing. Mrs. Schultz and I were at the Waukesha Hospital this morning. She had some tests and I waited in the garden café’. I watched out the windows—where the curbs are all painted that glow in the dark yellow—no parking. There are signs all up and down the entry way that say—no parking this side—no parking at any time—no parking! How simple is that? Every little bit—somebody would pull up—park—get out of their car and come inside—leaving their car parked—right in front of the no parking sign. What do you think of that? Do you think to yourself—boy, I wish I was a cop. I’d write up tickets so fast. I’d give every one of those guys a ticket! Where are those cops anyway? Is that what we think? Or do we think—you know—I’m not a cop. It isn’t my job to worry about where everybody else is parking. It’s my job to take care of where I park my thoughts and my car! I was sitting there—studying my sermon when a lady came by—trying to count a fist full of change—so see if she had enough to buy a cup of coffee and she spilled that whole hand of coins—pennies and dimes all over the tile floor. Now what? Would you jump to your feet—hurry over and start picking up coins as fast as you could? Or would you think—how embarrassing is that? When you are walking down the hall—and somebody spills their books and papers—what do you do? Do you stop immediately and help them—or walk around—or walk over their stuff? Kindness, goodness, gentleness—says Jesus would stop and help me!

The fruit of the Spirit is…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, self control… I had a cousin—who passed away—and nobody knew it for a couple of days. Days came and went—and nobody knew—nobody checked—nobody actually made physically certain he was ok—and he wasn’t! How sad is that? This new school year—we need to grow closer and closer to Jesus. We need to read our Bibles—not just when it’s homework but to refresh our faith. We need to memorize God’s Word—not memory work—but memory treasures. We need to lookat Jesus in God’s Word. Then we need to look for Jesus in the wonderful things Jesus made and the wonderful things Jesus does every day. Then we need to look out for each other. We need to listen to each other—with our ears and with our eyes. We need to look into each other’s eyes to see if anyone looks tired or sad or afraid. We need to watch out for eachother. It’s a dangerous world out there—so, hey, hey, hey—let’s be careful out there. And then by grace alone—this will be the best school year ever—for Jesus’ sake. Amen!