Centenary of Scouting and Paul's "flesh" and "Spirit"

Sermon preached on 08/07/07 at the 11am Eucharist at St. Alphege, Solihull
Trinity 5 (Proper 9) – Year C
Readings: Isaiah 66:10-14 Galatians 6:7-16 Luke 10:1-11&16-20



If you arrived early at our service today you might have caught the tail end of the Scouts leaving the 9.15 service where they made a presentation to us. They told us all about the centenary of Scouting which will be celebrated in 24 days time, on 1st August. It will be exactly 100 years from the start of Baden Powel’s experimental camp for boys on Brownsea Island, near Poole in Dorset, and this is the moment that is recognised as the starting moment of the Scout Movement. I would therefore like to spend a few moments reflecting with you on 100 years of Scouting.
Right from the beginning the Scout Movement was about fun and adventure in the open air, and about service to others, and service to one’s country. In Scouting for Boys Baden Powel wrote, “Every Scout ought to prepare himself to be a good citizen of his country and of the World.”[1] He emphasised the importance of getting on with people who are different from ourselves. The Scout promise and law emphasised that a Scout should do his duty to God and the King, and to help other people. The emphasis on helping other people was radical. Baden-Powell wrote, “When in difficulty to know which of two things to do, he [the Scout] must ask himself… ‘Which is best for other people?’ – and do that one. … He must try his best to do at least one Good Turn to someone every day.”[2]
At the time of the centenary, there are about 28 million Scouts worldwide in 216 different countries and territories. It is estimated that over the last 100 years about 500 million people have made a Scout promise. The Movement is still growing. The most rapid growth is occurring in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In the UK Scouting seeks to contribute to the full development of young people as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities. The emphasis on helping others and contributing to communities gives Scouting a counter cultural edge in our consumer driven and individualistic society.
In the 9.15 service today the Scouts showed us the contrast between a 1907 Scout and a 2007 Scout by reading the New Testament lesson set for today twice. First of all it was read by a 1907 Scout, wearing a 1907 uniform and reading from the King James version of the bible, which was pretty much the only English translation around in 1907. He started: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
The lesson was then read a second time, this time by a 2007 Scout, in an up to date uniform, and reading from a radical modern translation called “Good News on the Street”. His reading started, “Don’t worry: No one pulls a fast one on God. What you put in, you get out. If you invest your time in dark things, you’ll generate mess. If you spend your time on what God’s Spirit nudges you towards, you’ll generate limitless life.”
In this service we heard that same lesson again, this time read from the New Revised Standard Version. Hearing this text so many times, and expressed in so many different ways has caused me to reflect on it, and wonder what it means.
When I was a teenager I used to seriously misunderstand what Paul meant by “the flesh”, which he sees as completely opposed to “the Spirit”. Paul certainly didn’t mean that the human body is a bad thing. Quite the contrary in fact; when Paul describes the Church as the Body of Christ he means this as an extremely positive image, and he uses it on several occasions. Elsewhere in his writing Paul is clear that nobody should ever hate their own body, but should nourish and tenderly care for it, as Christ cares for his church. (Eph 5:28). Paul encourages married couples to live out the sexual aspect of their marriage (1 Cor 7:5). He encourages Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach to help him overcome the many illnesses he has faced (Timothy 5:23). So when Paul talks about “the flesh” as a source of corruption we should not understand that he is against human bodies. Rather he sees human bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), and as the weak and perishable seed from which our glorious imperishable resurrection bodies will grow (1 Cor 15:12-28).
When Paul talks about the flesh he means our self-indulgent desires. In fact some bible translations (e.g. NJB) actually use the word “self-indulgent” rather than “flesh”. In this sentence Paul is summarising his fuller teaching from chapter 5 of Galatians, which was our reading last week. He is saying don’t live according to the desires that lead to fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and carousing but rather live according to the Spirit which leads love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Paul always invites us to make a clear choice in favour of Christ. In this passage he describes this as the choice between “flesh” and “Spirit”. Elsewhere he talks about the “old self” and the “new self” (Col 3:9-10). He also talks about being “children of darkness” and “children of the light” (1 Thess 5:5).
In each one of us there is the saint, the child of the light, the “new self”, the new creation in Christ, destined for eternal life. It is wonderful, but unfortunately, there is also in each one us the sinner, the child of darkness, the “old self”, the flesh, which is destined for death. The skill of living on earth is to choose as much as we can to live by the “new self”, so that the new self grows and develops and becomes strong, and to deny our “old self” so that over time it shrivels and wastes away. Our “new self” is our true self, recreated in Christ that has nothing to fear from death. Of course, this side of death we can never lose our “old self” completely, but by living in our “new self” we can minimize what we will lose in death.
So let’s make this choice to live always in the “new self” choosing to live by love and generosity, by and joy and peace, so that our “new selves” can grow and develop. And let us not be afraid to suffer a little as our “old self”, our ego, our greed and our selfishness have to die in order to let the “new self” grow. In the fullness of time these aspects of our lives have to die anyway, so the loss may be less than it seems.
Recently I was interested to read a Cheroke Indian story, very similar to Paul’s talk about the “new self” and the “old self”. The story goes like this:
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said: "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all. One is Evil. It is hate, envy, anxiety, impatience, unkindness, greed, jealousy, arrogance and rage. The other is Good. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed.”
[1] 1963 edition of Scouting for Boys (reprinted 1981) published by the Scout Association – p 178
[2] p vii