Prautes (Gal. 5: 22-25; Mat. 11:29) 9/30/12

                I love to watch my dog Sadie. My wife Cindy will tell you that Sadie is her dog and my daughter Ellie will probably say that Sadie is really her dog. The truth of the matter is that it’s more accurate to say that we are Sadie’s family.  But that’s not the point. The point is that I love to watch Sadie, particularly around young animals or people.  Sadie is about 75 pounds of energy and she can play rough. But when she is exposed to kittens or babies or most any kind of newborn, she goes into her mothering instinct. She gets down on all fours, her tail wagging goes into overdrive and she just wants to lick and cuddle. She gets so intense and so happy, it makes me wish I had a tail of my own to wag. When a defenseless creature is present, our big strong playful dog becomes gentle as a lamb.

          People act little differently. Watch a mother of a newborn child. She instinctively holds and protects her baby, letting it find security in her arms. You don’t really have to teach a young mother how to hold her baby. Fathers do pretty well themselves. Perhaps it is just in our nature to become softer when it is required of us.

          Gentleness. That’s what the Greek word “prautes” means. Its synonyms are humility and courtesy. I like that. I think those words are good descriptors for gentleness, but I also think that gentleness has a meaning distinctly its own. You can see it in the eyes of my dog Sadie and in the eyes of any young parent cradling a newborn. Gentleness. It’s not just a state of mind. It’s a state of being.

          I want you to think about gentleness. You have been gentle. Think about when you were gentle for some reason. Think about how you felt. Gentleness is instinctive for us in many situations. It’s a good feeling and we know it’s the right way to be. But then, we walk away and the gentleness melts away. Most of us seem to be able to summon it for a season, but we don’t wear it as a way of meeting life.

          The Psalmist tells us that “a gentle tongue is a tree of life” (15:4). When Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, he characterizes his stay among them as “gentle, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thes. 2: 1). In his letter to Timothy, he mentions gentleness as a needed character trait for elders and contrasts it with being quarrelsome (1Tim. 3: 3). So part of being gentle is to not be quarrelsome. Paul tells Titus to “be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people” (3:2). James characterizes wisdom from above as “pure, peaceable and gentle” (3:17). Peter challenges us to be gentle to the unjust as well as the just (1Pet. 2:18) and later invites us to make our adornment not external but rather to cultivate hearts with the “beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Pet. 3:4).

          The first five books of the Old Testament are called the Pentateuch, which means five. They are also called the Law, for they contain not only the Ten Commandments, but also the various laws and regulations that accompanied the commandments from Mt. Sinai. Traditionally, the author has been thought to be Moses, although twentieth century scholarship has argued about that without reaching any final conclusions. Whether or not he wrote the books, Moses is certainly one of the most prominent characters of these books. In the final chapters of Deuteronomy, God comes to Moses and tells him his fate. After forty years of leading God’s people and preparing them for the next step, Moses will have to watch his people enter the Promised Land from a mountaintop. God gives Moses the words for a song and the entire 32^nd chapter of Deuteronomy records that song. Moses spoke the words of the song to the people of Israel before they crossed the Jordan. Contained within it is a verse on teaching, and God through Moses declares:

                   May my teaching drop as the rain,

                             my speech distill as the dew,

                   like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

                             and like showers upon the herb,

                   For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

                             ascribe greatness to our God!  

                                                                   Deut. 32: 2

Teaching as gentle as dew on tender grass. What a poetic way to describe the teaching of our Lord.

          Gentle goes with grandmothers and Sunday lunches with family. Gentle goes with infants and puppies. Gentle goes with parents of newborns. It is the softness in our eyes and the tenderness in our touch. It is the way we treat those who are infirm or weak or small or very old or very young. And yet, we see nothing in the Bible about having to qualify to receive gentleness. In fact, we see quite the opposite. When we look at these passages, we see what we are supposed to do, how we are supposed to act. We see nothing about the objects of gentleness. The very act of being gentle is an end in itself. It is part of the attitude of those who would be soldiers in the army of God. It is part of the Fruit of the Spirit. Gentleness is one of those essential fruits in Paul’s basket of righteousness, and it needs to be part of who we are and how we handle life.

          Well, we have heard from about everyone, haven’t we? We have heard from God though the song of Moses, We have heard from Paul and James and Peter. Before we leave this subject, let’s look at one more line from scripture. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus has finished the Sermon on the Mount and has begun the second of five discourses to be found in that Gospel. He is engaged in teaching in cities of the region of Galilee. He makes it clear that not all who hear will understand. He invites his audiences to trust him, to look beyond the historical facts of who he seems to be and where he apparently comes from. He invites those who have ears to hear to come and receive the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that those who are oppressed by the burden of religious legalism can now have their rest. Where is their rest? Indeed where is our rest in this world of taxes and rules and regulations and laws and deadlines? Their rest, as is ours, is in the man from Galilee, Son of Man and Son of God, He promised them and he promises us, rest for our souls. He says “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” He says that his yoke is easy and his burden light. He says to take him on as our way of life. He says: “For I am gentle…” says Jesus (Mat. 11: 29).

          He is, you know. He is prautes, gentle. He is the newness of puppy breath, the softness of a baby’s skin, the tenderness of the dew on new grass. He is all of those things and so much more. He is the Christ, the son of the living God. He is our Savior. Come now and bow your heads. Close your eyes. It’s OK. Go ahead. Feel him at your side. Find the rest for your soul that only the gentleness of his Spirit can bring. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, for he is gentle.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness…