Christ United Presbyterian Church
June 30, 2013
Sermon
Galatians 5:13-25
“How Fruity Are You?”
John the Baptist said: “Bear
fruit worthy of repentance [Matthew 3:8].”
Jesus said: “Either make
the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for
the tree is known by its fruit. [Matt 12:33]”
And again: “My Father is
glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my
disciples [John 15.8].”
And “You did not choose me
but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that
will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name
[John 15.16].”
Throughout the scriptures, the
metaphor of bearing fruit comes up over and over again. Bearing fruit is what a tree or plant is
supposed to do. It’s not some
extraordinary action that comes about by some great effort of will: it’s what healthy plants do. Sometimes plants may yield up good fruit and
sometimes they may yield up bad fruit, but as long as they are alive they
produce fruit.
Jesus tell us that God is
glorified when we bear much fruit. In
fact he said that he has appointed us to go out and bear fruit so that God will
give us whatever we need to preserve and spread the name of Christ. God is glorified by the fruit that we
bear. God is glorified by the simple,
normal process of how we live our lives.
If we are Christ’s disciples then the fruit we bear for God’s glory
doesn’t take extraordinary acts of willpower:
it’s just what we do if we are following Christ.
Sometimes we oversimplify
God’s plan for us. We may read John 3:16
and say, “Okay. I believe, so I’m saved,
now leave me alone.” We sometimes get
very complicated in trying to understand God’s plans for us. “Just what does the Holy Trinity mean?” Or,
“Was Jesus always aware that he was God, or did the realization of it come
gradually? Does that mean that a human wasn’t really crucified: that we
crucified God?” “Do I have to renounce
my way of life and go off to some foreign land and be a missionary among people
that I don’t even know?”
The folks at the congregation
in Galatia seem to have been having some issues with Christian identity. Some of them wanted to impose strict legal
regulations that would define the behavior of a Christian. We do that too sometimes. We think that preserving our Christian values
means that our behavior must fit into some narrowly defined categories. Holding fast to our values is not the same as
holding fast to our traditions!
Paul is trying to explain to
them – and us - that the behavior of a Christian is something that follows our
faith as surely as fruit is produced by a tree.
Our behavior doesn’t need to be codified in some rigid set of rules and
regulations. He says that you have been
freed from those laws and traditions because if you are a Christian then your
life will bear fruit that shows that you are a Christian.
We haven’t been freed so that
we can do any stupid or cruel thing that we like. We have been freed to allow our life to
naturally bear the fruit of a follower of Christ. Paul warns them: “the whole law is summed up
in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ If,
however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed
by one another.”
As Christians we have been
given the Spirit of Christ to lead us as we struggle through this world. Paul tries to help us understand what the
fruits of someone who is not in Christ are likely to be. They include sexual excesses and substance
abuse most certainly, but there are some others that will most assuredly result
in our biting and devouring one another: “enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels,
dissensions, factions.” Have you ever
seen any of those “fruits” growing in a church?
Sometimes the simplest of
things are the hardest to take seriously.
Paul says that the fruits of the Spirit of Christ, the obvious products
of the lives that you and I lead if we are calling ourselves Christian, are
this: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
It amazes me, the number of
people who don’t understand the value of kindness, gentleness, patience,
generosity and self control as expressions of their Christian faith. These are the fruits that grow naturally from
the tree of Christ’s followers. These
are the gifts that the Spirit implants in each of us as we strive to live as
Christ would have us live.
I am always intrigued by
people who say those things are too simple.
There must be something more.
Generally we hear that from people who aren’t able to live their lives
in this “ too simple” fashion. We want
our religion to be a bit more specific about what we can do to assure ourselves
that “we have been saved.” Preferably
something that we can do for one hour on Sunday morning. We look for ways to exclude others. We look for ways that may require a change in
our external behavior patterns, but we don’t look for ways that require a
change of heart.
Yet a change of heart is what
happens if we let Christ into our lives.
A change of heart as dramatic as a heart transplant is what happens when
the Spirit enters into our lives. It may
sound “too simple,” but it is the most difficult thing that any of us can
do. Turning our lives over to Christ means
turning our hearts over to Christ, and that means changing our hearts.
People sometimes complain:
“Why doesn’t that preacher just tell us how to live our daily lives as
Christians.” Some preachers will tell
you who to vote for, how to spend your money, how to discipline your children,
how to treat your lover or your spouse in some very specific terms.
I am unlikely to do
that. All that I can tell you is what I
think scripture is telling us. I can’t
tell you exactly how you can be a Christian other than to let Christ into your
heart. I can only tell you what
scripture tells us will be the recognizable signs of a Christian’s life once
they have let Christ into their heart: “love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control.”
It’s not simple, and it may
not be specific enough for you, but those are the fruits that naturally are
produced by the life of a Christian. Are
you fruity?
Amen.
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