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[BLANK_AUDIO] Pray with me. [BLANK_AUDIO] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

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[BLANK_AUDIO] Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO] Galatians chapter 6, the second verse, Paul writes to his Christian friends.

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Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. I would suggest that on the very face of it, the intent of that word is obvious. We are to bear one another's burdens. We are to lift the loads of life from one another's shoulders.

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A whole host of corroborative scriptures immediately come to mind. We are to outdo one another in showing love. The first commandment is to love God, the second, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

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Inasmuch as we do such things for the least of the brethren, we are doing them for Christ. As I say, the explicit intent of the verse is so obvious, it is almost not necessary for us to say any more about it.

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I would instead draw your attention to that which is implicit in the verse. Just as real, but not so obvious. If we are to bear another person's burden, we must be aware of it. If we are to lift the load from another's shoulders,

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we must in fact know that the load is there. In other words, prior to bearing, must come sharing. We often think of the Apostle Paul as a great burden bearer. We know how he was willing to give words of advice and counsel and support and

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encouragement, how his correspondence meant so much to so many. How he would raise funds for churches that were in financial difficulties. He was a great burden bearer. We do not so often recognize that he was a great burden sharer.

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He did not hesitate to articulate his need to others. Come before winter, bring my coat, bring my books, pray for me, lest I myself be a castaway, and no less than five of his epistles. He specifically entreats prayer for himself.

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Paul did not hesitate to give to others the gift of his vulnerability. And that's about the most costly gift that we have to give. I remember a few years ago attending the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, which that year was being held in Denver.

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And just by coincidence, if I as a Presbyterian may use such a word, a group of classmates from seminary and myself encountered each other on the floor of the bookstore. And we immediately fell into the conversation that comes with such reunions.

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Ministers often do this, standing about, tallying their triumphs. Finally, one of the fellows said, well, I guess we're all doing so well. We really have no need of each other. In the light of that word of truth, we left the floor of the bookstore and

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went off into a place apart, and there, to use the parlance of our time, we let it all hang out. And we were able to minister to each other in the same way we had in our seminary days, but first, there had to be sharing, always before bearing.

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Now, this is very difficult for us. Our pride, of course, is part of our problem, but our American heritage contributes to the difficulty. We're part of a society which honors the rugged individualist,

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not noticing that usually the rugged individualist ends up a ragged individualist. The Stoic tradition is very heavy in our line of thinking. We could be perhaps best exemplified by Kierkegaard's great parable, The Geese. You remember the geese in the barnyard behind the high fence?

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And once each week, one goose would struggle up to the top of one of the fence posts and would address all of the other geese and talk to them about the great days of the geese in the past, of how the geese had flown to the four corners of the world, and with their wings touched all the world's sunrises and sunsets.

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And all the geese would agree that that was a great thing, but none of them would ever try to fly outside of the pen. They thought there was in the pen security and safety, when in fact what was there was the loss of their freedom and

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the loss of their opportunity to be what in fact they were intended to be. So often we lock ourselves behind fences, masks, barriers, thinking that in that there is safety. We do not make ourselves vulnerable, and we lose the ability to fly.

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A mother takes her little girl to a department store, Christmas time. Mother's very engaged in shopping. The child gets bored and starts to play in the dust on the floor. A man walking down the aisle,

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not expecting a child to be on the floor, steps on the child's hand. The child begins to scream. The mother picks her up and says in a voice that can be heard from many counters away, don't cry where all these people can see you.

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Here's this little girl looking at her throbbing, swelling hand, and her mother says to her, don't cry where all these people can see you. But that's the American way, isn't it? Never cry where anybody can see you.

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If you've had any experience at all in the counseling chamber, you know that there are times when you will spend week after week with an individual and then suddenly one day, that which you've been searching for, for a long time, erupts to the surface.

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It's barfed out right there on the desk. And oft times it's very ugly and not at all attractive and it's almost invariably accompanied with tears. And after the tears comes a sentence like this.

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I'm so sorry. I guess I got carried away. They weren't carried away. They were carried back to that unity which is supposed to be ours in Christ.

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Or they say, I guess I was beside myself. When for the first time they weren't really being beside themselves, but in fact were being themselves and fulfilling the law of Christ. Notice please, that Paul does not lay this down as a Christian option.

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Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now even the most cursory study of Galatians shows us that he's not establishing a new legalism here. But he is putting this down as a foundational principle

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of the Christian experience. No Christian is ever to live alone. We are to be sharing and bearing. I'm a bachelor.

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I have no immediate family about me. And therefore I have always, in whatever church I served, relied very much upon my staff, my colleagues in ministry as a family. But there are times when you want to widen the circle of your associations.

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And one day during my ministry in California, I was especially overcome with loneliness. And none of the staff were about. And besides, there was a new minister at a church not far from ours that I had met

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on several occasions and thought that I liked. And I wanted to get to know him better. So I decided I would call and invite him to lunch and we might share together and begin a new association.

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And this would minister to my loneliness and also perhaps to introduce him more effectively to the community. I dialed the number of the church, a very large church, and was quite surprised when he answered the phone.

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I expected to get a secretary or two. >> [LAUGH] >> I said to him that I would like very much to have lunch with him. He said, fine, we'll have to do that someday.

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I said, well, what about today? He said, well, I said, do you have an appointment at lunchtime today? No, I don't have, but you have something you're preparing for this afternoon. No, no, it's not that.

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Well, is there any reason, I'd like very much to have lunch with you today. >> [LAUGH] >> And under the pressure of that, he said, all right, I'll meet you at Churchill's at 12 o'clock.

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Now, because I'd come on rather strong, when we got to Churchill's and were seated, I said to him, look, let me explain my motivations. I just feel kind of separated and apart today. And there's been, I think, the beginnings of a kinship between us, and

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I'd like to nourish that. My heart needs it, my soul needs it. And he stopped me, reached across the table, put his hand on top of mine and said, when I got home from the church last night,

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I found my wife in the arms of another man. It is the greatest tragedy that I have known in my life. I went back to the church. I've been there ever since.

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I told the secretaries that I would take no calls. As a matter of fact, I had misdialed on the telephone by one digit. And that one digit was a private line that went into his office, as distinct from the public lines used by the church.

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He said, I wouldn't have shared this with anybody if you had not pushed me. Thank God for your shared loneliness. Out of that came a period of mutual ministry. He lived in my home for eight weeks during a period of

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separation recommended by the marriage counselors. And we have moved to a level of friendship which is one of the deepest and richest that I have known in all of my life. The sad thing is that if we had passed one another on the street that day,

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I would have said to him, hi, how are you? And he just said, fine, how are you? And I'd have said, great, how are things going at the church? Couldn't be any better.

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Yes, that's the way it is with us too. >> [LAUGH] >> And we would have passed like two lonely ships in the night. And we would not have shared, and we would not have borne for each other.

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I am not suggesting that we are to go about belching our inmost feelings to everyone we meet. Only certain ones are able to hear our confessions. Only certain ones are able to carry the load of that.

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But I am suggesting that James calls us to a very solemn truth when he says that in confessing to one another, we are healed. Therefore, when we are in that place in life, when in sharing we can be healed, we must share.

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We hear great talk about oneness in the church today. And some talk about organizational oneness, and frankly, I don't have much confidence in it. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, has had organizational oneness for

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centuries, and yet there's tremendous discord and dissension within that church. And some people talk about the oneness which is true of the mystical body of Christ, and that undoubtedly is one of the most profound and beautiful doctrines of the church.

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And yet, it seems to me that that oneness which is described in scripture is woven of the warp and woof of more tangible things. And some people talk about positional unity, and some people talk about legal unity, and the unity, it seems to me, which Christ enjoins is this.

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By this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for the other. And loving is sharing and bearing. The recognition of this truth has affected every dimension of my ministry.

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It has affected my preaching ministry, for example. There's a great story of T. DeWitt Talmadge, the great minister of the Southern Church, who on one occasion preached a sermon in his church in the morning.

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And that evening went and preached the same sermon in another church, two of his elders accompanying him. In the morning, the sermon was mightily used of God, and that night, the same sermon landed like an overdone souffle on the chancel steps.

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>> [LAUGH] >> And his elder said, how is it that the same message given in the morning and the evening in almost identically the same way could be so powerful in the morning and so powerless at night?

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And he replied with some words which I think ought to be written across the chancel of every sanctuary in the land. Poor preaching is God's curse on a prayerless congregation. But how can your congregation pray for you, preacher?

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If you don't share with them your need. How can they lift you up if you do not tell them when you have fallen? How can they scratch if they don't know where you're itchy? This truth has affected my counseling ministry.

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I was interested to discover in your bookstore, one of the authors most represented in that section is Tournier. I suppose Paul Tournier has taught more ministers more about counseling than anyone else who has ever written.

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One of the lessons which I learned from him is this. He says very early in his writings that when he began his ministry of healing, he wore a white coat and played the role of Monsieur le docteur. Then he said, I discovered that when I took off the coat and

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shared myself, others were freed and enabled to share themselves. William Glasser picks up exactly the same theme in his reality therapy. He says you have no right to call another to responsibility before you in honesty. If you are unwilling to be equally responsible and honest before them.

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And this truth has meant a great deal to me in my own personal life. Let me give one illustration of that. A few years ago, I was invited to give an address at the presidential prayer breakfast in

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Washington, DC. I don't know to this day how that happened, but it did. And I was terribly frightened by it. That is a terribly august group, you know.

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The president and vice president and their wives and the Supreme Court justices and most of the members of Congress and the joint chiefs of staff and the cabinet and the outstanding athletes. I remember sitting next to Johnny Bench and Pittsburgh won last night, by the way.

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>> [APPLAUSE] >> And the presidents of the major universities and the presidents of the major colleges and the presidents of the major industries and banks and leaders in the world, they're all there.

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They hold the thing at 7 o'clock in the morning because there are so many there and it's such an august group, they want to get it over early in the day. Before I left my church in California, I shared with some of my people the fact that I was really intimidated by this.

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Very, very anxious, not at all at ease. And then I went off to this ministry. When I awakened about 5 o'clock in the morning wanting to go over the speech one more time before going down to speak to all of the clergy that were there.

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The little red light on my telephone was blinking, indicating that there was a message. So I called the desk and I said, is there a message for me? And she said yes, and there was the rustling of papers.

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And then she said, this is funny, usually I can read the name but not the message, but in this instance I can read the message but not the name. I said, miss, it's 5 o'clock in the morning, I don't understand at all what you're telling me.

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>> [LAUGH] >> She said, well, here's what I'm telling you. The message is this, we love you. But she said, I can't read you the signatures because there are hundreds of them.

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And then she kind of chuckled and said, that's a good way to start the day, isn't it? >> [LAUGH] >> And I thought, by this will all men know that you have love for one another.

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There were over 400 signatures on that telegram. I'd had diarrhea for two days before that. >> [LAUGH] >> But in the power of that telegram.

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>> [LAUGH] >> I went down and gave the best speech I ever gave in my life. >> [LAUGH] >> I would not deceive you.

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I would not lead you to believe that out of such sharing and bearing always comes victory, always comes peace, always comes laughter. I think this morning of David, a young man in the church I served, who developed ulcerative colitis.

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Six times I was called to the hospital for David's dying, but six times he came through. He was a very strong young man, he was the captain of the basketball team at Redlands University in California, was a straight A student, most valuable player. He was outstanding, very strong, healthy, aggressive, Christian young man.

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But the disease had done terrible things to his body. When I was called the last time he was in intensive care, and I realized almost immediately after getting there that this would be the last time. His mother and father were already there, and

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the boy was for the first time showing fear. Not fear with regard to his salvation, he had known Christ for a long time, there was no doubt of that. But fear about death itself, the separation that death means,

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what it's like, the questions. He tried to articulate this to his father. And his father said things like, now come on, Dave, we've gone through this six times, we're going to go through it now.

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Your doctors are here, I'm here, mom's here, Bruce is here, we're going to get you through this, this is a team effort. He even said things like, I'm gonna change the name of the business to and son, trying to boy up the boy.

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And the lad tried to share his fears with his mother. And all his mother could do was weep and put cool claws on his brow, and perhaps that's all a mother can do when her son is dying. So I went over and I sat down beside his bed.

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I took his hand in mine, I can remember how marked it was from where they used all those intravenous needles, and it was very thin and white, but still strong. And we talked, David and I, with hands locked tight about dying. And we talked about the fear of it, and what it must be like, and

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what the journey there must be, and who would be waiting to welcome him. And as we would share, he would drift off to sleep, and then back to wakefulness again, but never once releasing the grip. And we shared deeper and deeper, until I thought my heart would break.

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This beautiful young man. And once, when he slept, Jesus came in the spirit and said, David, get up out of that bed, you don't need those tubes and needles anymore. And David got up, and they went off into eternity together.

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But it was very hard. And I remember thinking to myself as I drove home that perhaps that night I'd come to understand as I'd never understood it before what it means when it says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

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To comfort means to stand with, to stand with in mourning. But that kind of sharing and that kind of bearing sometimes breaks your heart. I would not want to bet many exegetical chips on this, but it's interesting, I think, to notice that Paul,

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in the earliest of his epistles, the Galatian letter says, Paul, an apostle, without a moment's hesitation, he lays claim to the highest office in the church, apostle. But seven years later, he wrote a letter to the Corinthians, and

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in that letter he describes himself as Paul, the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle. And eight years after that, he wrote a letter to the Christians in Laodicea. And he said, unto me, less than the least of the saints, and

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remember saint means church member, unto me, less than the members of the church, is grace given. And finally, at the very end of his ministry, he wrote to his young son, Timothy.

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Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. You see, as he deepened, he opened. As he climbed higher, the expression of his own need grew wider. We are, you see, like islands, and seas separate us.

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And sometimes they're the deep and silent seas of no communication. And sometimes they're the stormy seas of anger, and sometimes they're the wide seas of disagreement. But Jesus is the bridge over the troubled waters.

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And he unites island to island until you have an archipelago. And archipelago to archipelago until you have a country. And country to country until you have a kingdom. And the name of that kingdom, the name of that kingdom,

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my young sisters and brothers in Christ, and the name of that kingdom is the kingdom of God. [BLANK_AUDIO] Let us pray.

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[BLANK_AUDIO] Our Father, if by thy grace some word has been spoken which is true, then write it forever upon our hearts. And if because of our sins some word has been spoken which is not true,

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then drop that word into the deepest seas of our forgetfulness. For we would remember only that which is approved and blessed of thee. [BLANK_AUDIO] We lift our prayer in Jesus' name.

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[BLANK_AUDIO] And the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and

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give to you and to all those whom you love. And to all those whom nobody loves, his peace. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]