Skip to main content

Galatians 5:18-25: Green Grenade

Gerry Fostaty tells this story in a book entitled, As You Were: The Tragedy at Valcartier: In a class of very young army cadets, the adult instructor is handing out dummy grenades for children to examine. Apparently, one can tell dummy grenades from real grenades because the dummies are brightly coloured - orange, pink, blue – not the military green colour of live combat weaponry. The children are encouraged to take apart these dummy grenades, put them back together, and examine how they work. Apparently and disastrously in with the orange, pink, and blue grenades is at least one live green grenade. The children are passing this live green grenade along with the toy grenades down the line of cadets. They are taking the pin out and placing it back in; they are holding the safety lock and they are disassembling and reassembling the green grenade along with the coloured grenades when one little boy pulls the pin and putting the grenade in the wrong place, or holding it the wrong way, or holding the pin out for too long… There is a loud noise. This one deadly green grenade mixed in with the harmless other-coloured grenades brings much injury, destruction and death.

The result of this green grenade in a room full of children is essentially the same as what results when hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like wind up in our churches (Galatians 5:19-21). These are our green grenades. When we put ourselves first, engaging in selfish ambition instead of thinking of others as greater than ourselves (Philippians 2) the results are essentially the same. Just as the green grenade brings physical death when people handle it improperly; Paul reminds us that hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like bring everlasting death to those who are consumed with them. Paul says that those who indulge in these  – Galatians 5:21 - will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So what can we do about this? The Apostle Paul says, in essence, that we need to remove the green grenades from the room; we need to remove these things from the church. We need to, Ephesians 4:31-5:2a: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us.” Christians, by definition have already done this. Galatians 5:24: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have [already] crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Today let us remove the green grenades from the room. When have you had the chance to put away the green grenades by being kind and compassionate to one another and forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you?
 Read more daily blogs at 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hosanna! The Triumphal Entry into Holy Week (Matthew 21:1-11)

Today  is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when we commemorate the Sunday before Jesus’ death. Jerusalem was occupied then, like it is now; now it is occupied by the Israelis, then it was occupied by the Romans. The Judeans in the first century didn’t like being occupied then any more than the Palestinians like it today. The Romans were harsh, not nearly as brutal as modern Israel, but harsh enough that the first century had their version of … (Remember the suicide bombers of the ‘70s and ‘80s?) …suicide bombers: the Sicarii (zealots), Judean terrorists / revolutionaries would walk into crowds with daggers looking for Romans to kill –. One of Jesus’ followers, Simon, was arguably a Sicarii or zealot.   Passover is the commemoration of ancient Israel’s birth as a nation. The Angel of Death passed over Egypt and the nations of Isreal and Judah were created through the Exodus. Passover, in the Roman period, was a time when many people of Judean descent descended upon Jerusalem. I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lanterns (Matthew 25:1-13, Psalm 146)

  The topics I chose from our Lenten list for today are “God has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness”; “He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin”; the Kingdom of God is at hand. Do we believe that? Do we live that?   In theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time when the Kingdom of God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection of Christ and His return at the eschaton. This is the time in which we are living and as Christians it is our responsibility to be willing instruments of God to display what it means that He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin, that the Kingdom of God is at hand. But do we even actually believe that He has already done this? And if He has why does it not seem that the Sin and Darkness still reign?   We know the parable of the bridesmaids (holy ones) in the Bible who needed to keep their lanterns lit – because lit lanterns were to be there when the Bridegroom Jesus returns...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bah Ram You Shaggy Goat (Daniel 8)

This book is written in a couple of different languages as we  have it  tod ay. Ch apter 7  that Susan looked at with us  is the last Aramaic chapter - if that is on purpose then chapter 7  probably concludes  the first  section  of Daniel  rather than  beginning  the  next  section   but Ch apter 8  that we are looking at today  (and everything flowing from it)  is obviously connected to  Chapter 7  as Da n iel  refers to the first dream when relaying the second one.   Chronologically speaking,  Chapter 8 and  Chapter 7 take place before  C hapters 5 and 6.  In Chapter 5, Babylon falls, Belshazzar is killed and  the Persians take over. None of that has happened in Chapter 8 which we are about to read .   Verses 1-4   8 In the third year of King Belshazzar’s reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, after the one that had already appeared to me. 2 In my ...
2 comments
Read more