Galatians 5 in the Lectionary

Paul lists the fruits of our sinful nature,
and we guffaw, surprising ourselves. What
triggered it—sorcery, wild parties—or
merely the and things like these, the glut
of specifics followed by a hand-wave?
We tried, I’m sure we did, to translate
these evils into modern terms: slaves
to our screens, we know idolatry.
Perhaps, it was the prolonged finger in our face.
Modern Christians, we’re not used
to a Jonathan Edwards fulminating in our house
of worship. We’re nice, mostly, and so refused
to shoulder shame in order to claim Grace.
Instead, we turned to God a laughing face.