SUNDAY REFLECTION for OPEN PRAIRIE UCC – SEPTEMBER 10th, 2017
SPIRITUAL FRUIT
In the gospel of John, Jesus says:
John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
That’s an interesting statement. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone”. Do you ever feel alone? even when other people are around? Have you ever been in a crowd, surrounded by shiny happy people, and you still felt disconnected? isolated?
“but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit”
I think there’s another dimension here. Not just seeds making more seeds, seeds making fruit. In this passage Jesus was comparing himself to a seed, and telling us about a harvest that would come after he finishes his mission of dying and then rising again.
Remember what he said in the gospel of John:
John 2:19 Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up
His return showed us the way – the beginning of a harvest of fruit that will live forever.
Jesus was the “first fruit” of the resurrection.
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he writes,
1Co 15:20 But now Christ has risen from the dead, and has become the first fruit… (snip)
So that’s one interpretation of this verse.
but….
Maybe some of you don’t believe in the resurrection, or in any form of afterlife.
I can understand that.
I used to think that way, too.
But there might be ANOTHER way to look at this concept that’s important to YOUR life, the life you have right now.
I think our lives can be compared to a seed.
A seed is filled with potential, but it’s encased in a hard protective shell, and it can last a LONG TIME in that state. I think they’ve found seeds in tombs that are over a thousand years old, and they’re still able to sprout.
But those seeds are lonely seeds.
They’re unfulfilled.
Surviving, but not changing in any way.
Nothing of any real significance happens to a seed until it falls to the ground, and cracks open.
What happens when a seed begins a new life?
Things begin to happen.
Once it puts down a root, once it starts sending leaves up toward the sun, it’s a plant. It’s not a seed anymore. And whatever happened to it as a seed, whether it got stuck to an animal’s paw and carried around for a while, or blown by the wind for a while, or eaten by a bird, to come out the other end and fall to the ground to sprout, all that is unimportant.
Once it is PLANTed and becomes a plant, its SEEDy-ness is forgotten.
That’s a transformation worth thinking about. I like seeing examples in nature, and the example Jesus uses here seems easy enough to understand.
Another example that we can see in nature is a caterpillar that seems to die, but then transforms into a completely different way of being. It changes into a butterfly.
But think about how a caterpillar lives…
It crawls forward, eating everything in its path. It lives in a fairly one dimensional world. Maybe it turns right or left every now and then, or maybe it takes one twig or another, to whichever has the tastiest leaves.
Maybe you would call that a two-dimensional world, but it has one basic activity – EATING.
It just chomps through life one leaf at a time.
One step at a time….
chomp Chomp CHOMP.
Do you think a caterpillar has any concept of what it could become?
Could it even imagine the three-dimensional life of a butterfly?
flying?
swooping?
sweeping arcs and circles through the sky?
no.
For the moment it’s just happy to chomp, Chomp, CHOMP its way through life, like many of us are chomp, Chomp, CHOMPing through our lives.
Only concerned with the needs of the day,
marching forward one step at a time in a two-dimensional slog.
Wondering if that’s all there is…
What do you think is going through the caterpillar’s mind,
when it has finally had enough to eat,
stops eating,
and begins sealing itself up inside of a cocoon?
Can it have any concept of what it will become?
I don’t think so.
That willingness to die to the world, without really being sure what will come next is a big step. But look at the rewards! I think the butterfly is a beautiful little illustration of the birth-death-rebirth life cycle.
Well, we probably shouldn’t assign human traits to caterpillars, so maybe you think this example is kind of silly, but by Jesus becoming the first fruit, it’s like saying, “He’s the first butterfly” of this new kind of existence.
Trust me.
Follow me.
You can be a butterfly, too.
By the way, He wasn’t talking about PHYSICALLY dying to the WORLD.
He was talking about SPIRITUALLY dying to WORLDLINESS.
We aren’t talking about PHYSICAL fruit either.
No matter what that televangelist is trying to convince you, about how your tithing will multiply rewards back to you and before you know it, you’ll be out of debt and driving a new car and providing for your grandkids?
That’s NOT what it’s all about.
We’re talking about SPIRITUAL fruit.
Jesus compared himself to a vine.
He said “I am the vine, you are the…”
(not fruit)
I always thought it was “I am the vine, you are the fruit”!
But that’s not what He said.
He said, “I am the vine, you are the BRANCHES.”
And branches that stay CONNECTED to the vine will bear fruit.
Spiritual fruit.
Right here. Right now.
And by the way, I used to read that verse and think it was about the day I decided to become a Christian. Now I believe this verse applies even more to my daily relationships.
I catch myself disconnecting from the vine all the time, by being selfish. And if I’m being selfish, the fruits disappear. I have to make a conscious decision to reconnect, sometimes day by day.
Constantly.
(Not that I’m connected all the time, don’t get me wrong.)
Well, that’s enough about vines and seeds and caterpillars and butterflies…
Those are just mental pictures to help you remember.
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In Matthew chapter 17 verse 20 you find this verse:
Mat 7:20 Therefore by their fruits you shall know them.
So let’s get to the real question. WHAT IS SPIRITUAL FRUIT?
How can we get a report card on how we’re doing?
What if we think we are good Christians living fruitful lives, and then we see other people calling themselves Christians, but they seem very different?
The bible says we shouldn’t judge,
but isn’t there some way to differentiate?
YES. There IS!
In Paul’s letter to the Galations, he says:
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is
And there’s a list here.
So let’s go one by one: The first fruit is
love,
All of every good spiritual teaching, all the law, all the advice of all the prophets can be condensed down to one word – LOVE (so when I said before that sometimes I disconnect and “go selfish”, this fruit goes away, too. I’m not being a loving person during that time)
joy,
Joy is a wonderful blessing. But if you think about it, it’s not something you can just decide to have. I don’t know if you can just wake in the morning and say, “I’m going to experience JOY today!” I think joy just happens when you’re on the path, when you’re connected to the vine.
peace,
Not just the absence of war, not just the ability to walk down the street safely, but peace of mind, too. That’s a great check mark to have on your spiritual report card. “Do I have peace of mind?”
patience,
That’s a tough one. I’ve heard people jokingly say you should never pray for patience, because the only way to prove you have it is to be tested. That’s not the kind of test I want to take.
kindness,
Well, the world could certainly use more kindness.
What more can I say about that?
Practice!
goodness,
I would like to be a “good” person.
I might have some more work to do on that one…
faithfulness,
Sometimes. Other times I’m not even sure what that means.
But a few times I have felt like I’m right there. Being Faithful
gentleness,
Well, maybe this shouldn’t be a self-analysis today, “all about Jack”. But I would like to be more gentle. A lot of the time I’m not exactly “a gentleman” in the truest sense of the word. But thinking about these fruits can illuminate something in ourselves. Shed some light..
and the last one is
self-control;
I’m willing to say that a so-called “Christian” who drives his car into a group of demonstrator’s is not exhibiting self-control. Nor am I seeing the other spiritual fruits in that person’s life. I’m sorry if that example is too dramatic, but I have seen a lot of people in the media lately who are labeling themselves as Christians, but I don’t see the fruit.
You will know them by their fruits.
So YES.
The summary statement I would like to make is, “YES”.
There IS a way to know we are on the right spiritual path, by the spiritual fruit being produced through our lives.
I would like to close with one more thought.
We have been looking at specific traits that are the signs of being spiritually connected, but now I want to zoom out to the bigger picture. Let’s zoom WAY OUT, and imagine that God is seeing the whole map laid out in front of Him. But He’s looking at the spiritual map of the world, not the physical map. And each one of you is the tiniest little dot, but it can be colored black or white, or by light and dark. And the times that you are connected properly, producing love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control? During those times your little dot just lights right up. If you could look at a map this way, with areas of lightness and darkness, you might be surprised how different it looks than the physical world.
For example, think about a big natural disaster like a hurricane or a Tsunami.
People are hurting, and dying.
People losing everything and having to start over, lots of damage.
Some people ask “How could a loving God allow this to happen?”
Well, I’m not trying to be flippant about the suffering, but the world just does what it does, and it’s chaotic sometimes.
But I don’t think that’s what God is looking at.
For example, during a time like that, there might be looters. Tragic. Obviously those dots remain dark on the map.
Even a simple thing like ME saying, “I have a loaf of bread, but I’m afraid to share it with you because I might need some tomorrow”. Well, the world has provided for me, and that’s okay, but I think my dot remains dark, at least at that moment.
But on the bigger picture,
around a catastrophe like that,
the edges may be positively GLOWING with light!
People sharing, and caring.
People giving First Aid, relief flooding in from all around,
people making sacrifices to help the needy.
Providing comfort, reconnecting families.
That area might be one of the brightest spots around!!!
On the other side of the coin, on a different part of the map, like some nice neighborhood in Colorado or Connecticut, they might look pretty attractive on the physical map, but they might actually be pretty dark on the other map.
So I just wanted to leave you with that mental picture.
The world might look scary and terrible sometimes, but if you look in the right way, you might be happy to discover glowing light all around the edges.
I want to be one of those lights.
Thank you.
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A READING FROM THE GOSPELS FOR SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 10th, 2017 – OPEN PRAIRIE UCC
John 15:1-5
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
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A READING FROM THE EPISTLES FOR SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 10th, 2017 – OPEN PRAIRIE UCC
Galatians 5:13-23
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
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