BEARING FRUIT - PART 5 "BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING" (GENEROSITY/GOODNESS)

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/18/12 and is the 5th in a ten-part series on the fruit of the Spirit.)

“…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

In his outline of the fruit of the Spirit, the apostle Paul says that one of the fruit of the Spirit is generosity. Paul here in Galatians uses the terms generosity and goodness interchangeably (virtually synonymously). We know that the generous person is one who gives of oneself, the one who seeks to do good with one’s life and to share one’s possessions. And so Paul says that “the fruit of the Spirit is generosity.”

The context of Paul’s word to the Galatian church about generosity is not unlike the world in which we live. If you know like I know, all of us are searching for some goodness in our lives. You see, there is a struggle within us to discover and understand goodness in our present day and time. Just as in the days of Adam and Eve – goodness is often overshadowed by evil. It is hard to see goodness in our world. Just as at the tower of Babel, and at Sodom and Gomorrah, goodness seems for us too often to have been swallowed up in evil in this present day.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of the good Dr. Jekyll and the bad Mr. Hyde brilliantly shows the potential for both good and evil in all of us. It seems that just when we have risen to great heights, that is when evil bears its ugly teeth in our souls, and we seem to fall back into our old evil ways. Paul put it this way in writing to the Roman Christians: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For, I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing.”

Have you ever been where Paul was? “I want to do right…but as hard as I try, I keep messing up. I want to be a Christian in my heart…but as hard as I try, I keep slipping and falling down.”

Indeed, at the core of our being, we want to be good... we want to do good… we want to feel good about ourselves. We all desire and seek after goodness.

And yet, ours is a world wrought with self-interest and self-centeredness. We seem to seek more and more after those things in life, and do those things that will meet our personal needs. Thus, the mantra for us too often becomes, not “what’s in it for others,” but “what’s in it for me.” How will my actions and behaviors serve my needs? If I decide to give this, or participate in that, how will it help my life, my career, my reputation?

And so Paul says that the fruit of the Spirit is generosity. The simple fact is that living a life of generosity and pure goodness is not easy. True goodness requires spiritual stamina – a spiritual maturity and persistence that exceeds just a determination to be good and do good. It requires that the Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit - be at work in our lives.

The fruit of the Spirit is generosity/goodness. There are three things about generosity that I want to remind us of today that I believe can help us on our journey.

First, generosity and goodness derive from our relationship with the Lord. Paul said in another place, that “It’s not I, but the Christ that lives in me.” We need to be reminded today that a relationship with the Lord helps us to do good, even when we want to do bad. Jesus can help you do right, even when you want to do wrong.

Paul’s point to the Galatian church is that we are to walk in the Spirit, and when we walk in the Spirit, we don’t walk alone. When we walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh, the Good News is that God walks with us, and Good helps us to do good and begin to live a life of generosity.

Second, goodness and generosity first manifests itself in our personal character, and not in our outward walk. Philosophers would suggest to us today, that there is virtue imbedded in each of us. There is some good imbedded in each of us. Paul wanted us to know that what a relationship with Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit does for us is that the good that’s already in us begins to be touched by the presence of God.

God’s character is good – God is omnibenevolent (God is good all the time). And so God – whose character is good, begins to work on us from the inside out, and as the saints of old would often say, “something on the inside, shows up on the outside.”

Good is already within us, and what a relationship with the Lord does – what walking in the Spirit does – is it begins to bring out the good (the God) that is already present within us.

That’s what the song-writer meant when it was written:

"What a change in my life has been wrought,
Since Jesus came into my heart,
I have light in my soul for which long I have sought,
Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart.
Floods of joy over my soul, like sea billows roll,
Since Jesus came into my heart."

God’s goodness can change your life and change your personal character.

Third and finally, the goodness in us ultimately manifests itself through our outward generosity. And we are reminded more than anything that we are blessed to be a blessing.

What does generosity really look like? Generosity responds to others with compassion and gracious behavior. Generosity beckons us to reach beyond ourselves in responding to the needs of our neighbors. Generosity is closely connected to another of the fruit of the Spirit – kindness – and is really rooted in our knowing that we’ve been blessed by God, and as a response to God blessing us– we seek to be a blessing to others. We’re blessed to be a blessing.

And so when we are generous – we are responding with thanksgiving and praising to how good God had been to us. And our lives become a doxology. And our heart’s song becomes –
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all creatures here below
Praise him above the heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"

BEARING FRUIT (PART 4)- THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS PEACE

(This sermon was preached a Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/4/12, and is the fourth in a ten-part sermon series on the fruit of the Spirit)

"… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5;22-23)

As we consider the world in which we live, and reflect upon our lives, we realize that we all live in the midst of trouble. Some of us may choose to deny that trouble exists, or we may even feel unaffected by its presence, but trouble is all around us.

And because of tumult and turmoil, we are a world – a people - in constant need of, and constantly searching for peace. The problem, when it comes to seeking peace, is that if the truth is really told, we do not really know what we are looking for.

Many of us think of peace like the schoolboy who was given an assignment to write a paper on the Quakers. The little boy handed in his report, which was very short. He wrote, “Quakers are very peaceful people. They never argue. My father is a Quaker, and my mother is not.”

Many of us, like the boy who wrote this essay have a very narrow view of what peace is.

I recently had a discussion with a man (of some faith) who shared with me that he had carried a gun for more than fifty years. Just about everywhere he went, he carried a gun with him. He said that he had even carried a gun into church on several occasions. Now in his seventies, the man shared with me, that one day he was convicted as though the Lord had personally spoken directly to him and said, “You don’t need the gun anymore… I will take care of you.”

So the man shared that he took the gun that he had been carrying around, unloaded it and put it away. He shared that a peace had come over him, that he realized God had really protected him all these years anyway, and that God would watch over him and take care of him in the days ahead.

Many of us have different views of what peace is. When we think of peace, all kinds of thoughts come to mind. We see bumper-stickers that say “Visualize World Peace,” of “Teach Peace,” of “Think Peace.”

And so the question for us today is how do we go about attaining peace in our lives? In the context of the rat-race and back-biting world in which we live, how can you and I find peace today? What is it about our faith – our Christian life – that helps us find peace today?

This is one of the matters that he apostle Paul was addressing here in his letter to the church at Galatia. Paul encouraged those in Galatia to walk in the Spirit. And when you walk in the Spirit, you are going to be walking in peace. He said that the fruit of the spirit is …peace….

What was Paul saying to the church? When you walk in the Spirit – the turmoil that once existed in your life won’t manifest itself in the same ways. You’ll have some peace. People will recognize that there has been a change that has come over your life. You’ll have peace. You won’t walk the same… or talk the same… or act the same. You’ll have some peace.

You’ll have a different disposition and attitude about the problems that confront you. When there is trouble all around, you’ll be able to look at your situation, and look up to God, with the assurance that God will grant you some peace – some serenity – to deal with your predicament. You see, when you walk in the Spirit, you walk with God, and whenever you walk with God, you walk in peace. The fruit of the Spirit is peace.

Let us look a bit closer at this matter of peace, and what it means. A biblical understanding of peace is rooted in the Hebrew concept “shalom.” Shalom is an amazingly comprehensive term, and includes salvation, wholeness, integrity, healing and harmony. Healthy relationships – interpersonal, cultural, economic, social, and environmental – are implied in shalom.

This is what Isaiah meant when he wrote in the midst of the trouble and turmoil that Israel was going through that “God will keep you in perfect peace, those whose eyes are stayed on him.”(Isaiah 26:3) Isaiah was talking about shalom. And Paul encouraged and exhorted the Philippian church to “rejoice in the Lord always. For the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4-7)

The kind of peace that Isaiah and Paul were talking about is the kind of peace that the world needs today. It is a peace that is married with justice. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “true peace is not merely the absence of tension; true peace is the presence of justice.”

Paul said that the fruit of the Spirit is peace. There is the story in Mark chapter 4 of Jesus one day finding himself on a boat with his disciples. He was tired and worn out from ministering to the multitudes. As the Lord found a place to lie down and rest – the winds began to blow and the seas began to rage, and the boat that they were on began to rock.

During this time of tumult and trial, the disciples went looking for Jesus. As Jesus got up from his rest, he spoke to the raging seas and said ‘peace be still.”

And the winds stopped, and there was peace in the midst of their storm. The Good News is that Jesus will do the same thing for you and me. In the midst of the storms that will rage – from time to time – in our lives, Jesus will step in and calm the raging seas. He is our peace in the midst of the storms of life.

The song-writer said it best:

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
Come unto me and rest,
Lie down, thy weary one lie down,
Thy head upon my breast.
I came to Jesus as I was,
I was weary, worn and sad,
And I found in him a resting place,
And he has made me glad!

BEARING FRUIT (Part 3) - "...GOT JOY" (THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS JOY)

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 11/14, and is the third in a 10-part sermon series on Bearing Fruit)


“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

As we seek to mature in Christ, and become fruit-bearing Christians, it is important that we develop some sense of perspective on what it is that brings us true joy. This is critical because it is true that all of us will go through seasons of disappointment in life. Things will not always go as planned. Even when we have tried our best – given the very best that we have – things will not always work out for us.

This past week, we experienced a storm that came through our region and affected almost all of us in no small way. What is being referred to as Super-storm Sandy wreaked havoc and changed lives all along the east coast – and was particularly devastating to our sisters and brothers in New Jersey and New York. If the truth is told, super-storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and tsunamis are an inevitable part of life, and not just from a meteorological perspective. Storms appear in our lives and wreak havoc on us in any number of ways.

Dr. Leonard Sweet wrote about the existential storms of life in his book entitled Soul Tsunami. Indeed soul tsunamis enter into all of our lives from time to time wreaking havoc on our health, on our finances, on our relationships, on our peace of mind, and on our very souls.

Indeed, in the midst of all of our good intentions in life, we live in a world that is dark with despair, awash with angst, deluged with disappointment, and gauged with grief. Daily we hear of, and even experience bad news all around us. Death and pain, evil and distress are a part of our reality. The soul tsunamis of life are very real.

With all that is going on and swirling around us, it is also the case that every human heart hungers for joy. Humankind constantly seeks after that which will bring delight to our lives. We yearn for that which will lead to our joy.

But in our quest, it seems that many people tend to look for contentment n all the wrong places. Many people seek happiness through acquiring more money, by buying expensive things, and by seeking fun and pleasure in people, places or positions.

This coming Tuesday, our nation will vote to elect our next president. Depending on which candidate you supported, when the election is over, you will either be cheering and celebrating on Tuesday night, or you will be jeering and mourning, and calling for a recount. About half of the nation will be happy and the other half unhappy.

In the midst of our roller-coaster of emotions, what we all are really in search of is not simply happiness, but real, authentic joy. It is against this backdrop that the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatian church said that the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Notice that Paul does not speak here about happiness, but he talks about joy. He says that the second fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is important for us as Christians to understand the difference between being happy and having true joy in Jesus. There is a difference. Happiness comes and goes. Happiness may disappear with the next telephone call or text message. Happiness might dissipate when your loved one dies… your x-ray shows bad news… your car needs serious repair… your relationship does not work out. There goes your happiness.

But what we as Christians can experience in life is not only happiness as the world understands it, but we can experience true joy in a spiritual and biblical sense. This is the same joy that Nehemiah – discouraged about the challenges of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem… frustrated by the waywardness of the people of Israel.. fed up with the doubting and complaining and bickering of he people of God – was led to talk about in the Old Testament when he declared that “the joy of the Lord is our strength.” (Neh. 8:10)

What Nehemiah was saying to the people of Israel and to us today is that we should stop looking for joy in anything but the Lord. Stop looking for joy in how well things may or may not be going for you. Stop looking for joy in what you achieve. Stop looking for joy in what people may or may not think or say about you. Let the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Paul reminds us that the fruit of the Spirit is joy. This is the same joy that Jesus talked about with his disciples when he said to them, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” The apostle James came along a few years later and talked about this very same joy, when he encouraged the church at Jerusalem, to “Count it all joy.” James says consider it joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Consider it joy.

And so as people of faith, it is incumbent on you and me to consider it joy all joy, whatever comes our way. And I’m here to share that I’ve got joy.

If you know like I know, you know that the good news is that when we have true joy, we cannot be deterred or knocked off course by the various vicissitudes of life. When we’ve got true joy, we can’t be turned back or turned around because of disappointment.

When we’ve got joy, we can confront the times of need and want, and know that Jesus might always come when we want him to come, but he’s an on-time God!

When we’ve got joy, we can declare as an act of faith as David declared that, God is well able to turn our mourning, our sadness and our pain – into dancing. And further, that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy come in the morning!”

BEARING FRUIT (PART 2) - "THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE - IT'S A LOVE THING"

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore on 10/14/12 and is the second of a ten-part series on "Bearing Fruit.")

“… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness faithfulness, generosity and self-control.” (galatians 5:22-23)

Perhaps the most persistent, perennial question among Christians in this present day centers on how we grow in Christ. How do we know that we are growing in Christ? How do we know that our relationship with the Lord is making a difference in our life? What are the signs – what’s the evidence, the proof – that our lives are is being changed though our relationship with God?

The apostle Paul addresses these matters in his letter to the Galatian church, where in the 5th chapter Paul outlines for them and for us today, the fruit the Spirit. “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity and self-control.”

Jesus said in Matthew 7:16 that “you will know a true believer by their fruit. Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.” We can know the effect that faith is having upon our lives and the lives of others by the fruit we are bearing.

What we must know first and foremost is that God desires and requires that we grow and change in our faith. God desires that we demonstrate signs of maturity in Christ. And God had given us signs and symbols of such growth and change. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, generosity and self-control.

Perhaps it is not coincidental that Paul places at the top of his spiritual fruit list - the fruit of love. Paul knew that if we could get love right – if Christians could really learn to love one another – then some other things would fall into place in our walk with God and with each other.

In other words, love is the first-fruit of the Spirit. Love is primary – it has primacy and is basic to the Christian and our walk with the Lord. If we are to walk in the spirit, we will be walking in love. Paul says first that the fruit of the Spirit is love.

We remember that Paul spoke of the importance of love in his comments to the church at Corinth, where he said in First Corinthians 13 (what has come to be known as the Love Chapter) that:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, if I don’t have love, I have really said nothing… If I give away all that I have, and don’t have love, I have nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude… It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And now as for faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love.”

In other words, as the popular soul group of the 70’s and 80’s said in a song, ‘It’s a Love Thing.” Our journey as Christians really is rooted and grounded in love. For you and me, it’s a love thing.

At the Vice Presidential Debate this past Thursday night – both candidates who are professing Roman Catholics, we asked by the moderator at one point in the debate to share with the audience and the nation what difference their faith as a Catholic(as a Christian) would make in how they might help to lead the nation. Neither candidate seemed to have an adequate answer to the question. It left me to wonder, what if one or both had said something like “my faith – my relationship with the Lord – will help me love people more as I serve the nation.

What if all of us practiced love more at home… with our neighbors… on our jobs… at church? What if republicans and democrats could learn to really love each other, and model love for the rest of the nation and the world? What if we really learned to love each other – even when our thoughts and beliefs differ from those around us?

It’s a love thing.
Paul lets us know that the first fruit of the Spirit is love. In the writings of the Prophet Micah, we find that the people were dealing with some of he same issues we’re dealing with today. And the question was, “How were they to live out their faith, what did the Lord require of them?” Micah shared with the people the great requirement of the Lord- ‘you know that the Lord requires of you- to love kindness, do justice, and walk humbly with God.

Love kindness… It’s a love thing… Love is the first fruit of the Spirit.

And why do we really love? What is the impetus for the love that we are to share? We really love, because God first loved and we know that the love of God that God offers us, and that we share with each other does in fact cover a multitude of fault. The Good News is that God demonstrated God’s love for you and me, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us.

It’s a love thing. The song-writer put it this way.

"I was sinking deep in sin – far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stained within – sinking to rise no more
But the master of the sea – heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me – now safe am I
Love lifted me – love lifted me
When nothing else would help – love lifted me!"

BEARING FRUIT (PART 1)

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel UMC, Baltimore on Sunday, 10/7, and is the first in a ten-part series on the Bearing Fruit/The Fruit of the Spirit)

Matthew 21:33-46; Galatians 5:22-23

"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, genetleness, and self-control."

It was a beautiful tree. It was an evergreen, and Lisa had bought it for a special occasion in my life. We planted the tree in the backyard and anticipated observing it year after year as it grew and matured.

The tree seemed to be doing fine for about a year, and then the signs of trouble became evident. The tree was no longer as green as it was when we planted it. It was beginning to brown. Our evergreen became browner and browner over the months, until we became more and more convinced that there was something seriously wrong with our beloved evergreen tree.

Still we held out hope that the tree would somehow regain its vitality and come back to life… that it would once again be its beautiful green self. We even called in a tree specialist to examine the tree and the soil in which it had been planted. But the writing was on the wall, the tree was dying a slow death, and it was just a matter of time.

And finally, we became convinced that there was no real hope that the tree would survive. Rain and sun – and even more time - would not help our tree. Our concerns and even our prayers for the tree – God’s creation – would not even help this tree live with the vitality and vibrancy that it once had.

Fall is the time of year when we can all take a moment to reflect on the fruit that has been born in the summer-time of our lives. As the leaves are beginning to fall from trees once fruitful, we must ask ourselves the question, how have we been fruitful in our lives? What fruit have be born? What harvest is ready to be brought forth out of our witness?

It is obvious that this matter of fruitfulness was an issue in the days Jesus. Jesus was so concerned about this that he would be led to remind the people that “the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Indeed, he was concerned about the fruitfulness of the people of his day. For it seems that many were devout in their temple worship, but often there was no evidence of bruit being born outside of their religious experience.

Jesus was concerned – for he had been sent by God to usher in a harvest, but the requisite for experiencing this harvest was that persons would work and bear fruit in their lives. Jesus was concerned about the spiritual growth, the fruit-bearing of those who witnessed to the saving power of the God of Israel.

It is against this backdrop that Jesus offers a parable in Matthew chapter 21. In this text, Jesus quotes the chief priests and the elders from Psalm 118, describing how a stone that the builders rejected becomes the Lord’s cornerstone. Jesus uses this verse to signify his own tragic rejection, and to foretell the coming of God’s kingdom (kin-dom).

This is a warning for them and for us – for the kingdom of God will be taken away and given to a people who bear fruit. But not just any fruit. We must be careful about the kind of fruit that we bear.

Some of those in the parable that Jesus tells here were bearing bad fruit because of their mistreatment of the Lord – the very one who had come to offer them salvation and new life The word for you and me today is that we must be careful to become bearers of good fruit in our Christian living. We must be careful that each day is lived in a way that we can stand before God and declare that our lives have born some good fruit. We need to be fruitful.

What does it mean to be fruitful? What does it look like for you and me to be fruitful? We find that in the apostle Paul's letter to the church at Galatia it was his concern to answer this question by decribing exactly what it looks like for Christians to bear fruit. Paul said that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

As God works in our lives, we need to be reminded that there are some things that we can do to bear such fruit and increase the harvest in our lives and in the world. We are reminded that good fruit is a by-product of a healthy plant. Likewise, good fruit for the Christina is a by-product of right living through God’s grace. As we are in relationship with God, God will work in us so that we will produce good fruit in our lives. Our souls – our very lives - are like a garden that God desires to work in in order that good fruit will be born.

The things that we can do to help God bear fruit in our lives are these. We need to seed the garden; we need to weed the garden; and we need to feed the garden.

1. Seeding the garden. Before a plan can grow and produce fruit a seed must be planted. This planting of seed refers not only to the beginning one’s faith journey with Christ, but it refers to the fact that God desires that the seeds of faith be planted in our lives continually, and that we seed to continue to grow that seed of faith that we have planted. Seeds will only grow as they have been planted. Our lives can only grow in the areas where seeds of faith have been planted.

2. Weeding the garden. A garden needs to be weeded if seeds are to grow and bear fruit. Every good and effective gardener spends some time weeding his or her garden. In our lives we need to mindful that the weeds of bad habits, destructive behaviors, dissention and discord can sprout and quickly creep up the proverbial walls of our lives. Weeds, although they may often look like the actual plant, in fact have a tendency to cut off the possibility of good and fruitful growth. And so in order that we can become fruitful and reach our full potential in Christ, we must be mindful of the need – like a good gardener – to weed out some things from our lives from time to time.

3. Feeding the garden. Finally, it is important that we feed the garden. We all need to spend time with God in devotion, prayer, worship, study, fellowship with God’s people, and service to the community and the world, so that our lives will continue to grow, and so that fruit will be born and seen in and through our lives.

This is God’s desire for you and me. God desires that each of us bears good fruit. And the good news is that we don’t have to worry about trying to grow and bear fruit on our own. God in Christ is well able to work in our lives. And as God works, God can and God will do great things in our lives. He that has begun a good work in you will bring it to pass. Thanks be to God, for the possibilities and power that we share to bear good fruit!

The Presidential Election: The Day After and Holding onto Hope

On the day before the election, I saw a photo of President Barack Obama hanging in effigy outside a voting site and gas station in Raleigh, N.C. With that image in my mind and the nation's conscience, I wrote that with whomever would win this year's presidential election, it has become very clear over the past several months that we are a nation that remains significantly divided along racial lines. We are far from being a post-racial/post-racist society. And my prayer was (and continues to be) that God would grant us all the courage to speak out and act out to address such division.

And last night at the re-election of President Obama as the 44th president of the United States, if anything the president's re-election says to the world that the invisible, poor, 47% do indeed have a voice. Now, it is also my prayer that God will anoint the president's leadership, and that the healing of the land will begin. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Now the real work for all of us begins. On the president's agenda for the next for years must be jobs, health care for everybody, helping the poor, children and the elderly, gender justice in the workplace, and bringing our men and women home from the war in Afghanistan (and bringing true honor and meaning to his Nobel Peace Prize). And for those of us who voted for him (and for all Americans) on our agenda must be supporting our president and all of our leaders, doing our part to move our communities forward, and praying for our president and not preying on him.