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Walking The Walk                   Galatians 2: 15-21                            June 17, 2007

Before we conclude our service with another Anthem and adjourn to the parking lot for our picnic, I’d like to leave you with a closing thought.

There is a wonderful poem by Rudyard Kipling, entitled If, that I think of every year on Father’s Day. I’ll tell you why that’s the case in a moment, but first, please listen while I read it for you:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you.
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

As I said, I think of this poem every year on Fathers Day. In part because it reminds me of my Dad, but mostly because it reminds me of what it means to be a Father.  I don’t know that Kipling was thinking about fathers when he wrote the poem, but he certainly could have been. 

The poem reminds us men – and particularly us fathers – that doing our job means keeping your head and maintaining an even perspective and managing to deal with success and failure without letting either get the best of us.  Basically, it is about living responsibly.

I also don’t know if Paul was thinking about fathers when he wrote that passage in his letter to the Galatians that is our Epistle Lesson for this morning.  Probably not, actually. 

But Paul’s message to his readers is in line with the message of Kipling’s poem, and a great message for fathers.

You are justified by faith, Paul reminds us.  You did nothing to earn it.  Indeed, there is nothing you can do to earn it.  It is a free gift – nothing to do with following the Law.  But, if we who are justified are found to be sinners, we are missing the boat.  We may be freely justified and unconditionally loved, but our job is to live in such a way as to reflect the fact that we are children of God.

It is not enough to talk the talk of salvation, you see.  You also have to walk the walk.  It’s not enough to be justified, you also have to act justified.

Fellow fathers, if on this Father’s Day we remember nothing else, let us remember that we have an awesome responsibility.  And at its core, this responsibility is to be responsible. 

That may have been the single most important thing I learned from my Dad.  It is clearly the message Kipling is conveying in his poem, and it is clearly the message of Paul as well.

And while we’re focusing, today, on Fathers, this message is valid for all Christians.  Living a Christian life means taking responsibility for our actions and reflecting the love of God in everything we do.

May all of us, by the Grace of God, walk the responsible walk of a Christian, today and every day, so that all around us know that we are children of God.

                                                                                AMEN