‘seeking justice, loving with
kindness,
walking humbly with God’
You can LISTEN to this week's readings and reflections here.
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love
kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Galatians
5:22-26
22 By
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against such things. 24 And those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also
be guided by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become
conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Matthew
6:28-33
28 And why
do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But
if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is
thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little
faith? 31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What
will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For
it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly
Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But
strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.
A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom (Genny Tunbridge)
So much of what we enjoy
eating and drinking daily has come from trees – from apples and plums locally
to imported bananas and mangoes. A character in The Overstory by Richard
Powers, who has just bought an orange, a chocolate bar, and a cup of coffee,
reflects that these are “three priceless tree treasures”. Not just for humans
but for many birds, mammals and insects, fruit and nuts provide food necessary
for survival. In turn, the creatures that benefit from fruit are also helping
trees to reproduce. Trees rely on outside help to move their seed to where it
can grow – and different species have evolved a huge variety of ways to package
their seeds to take advantage of different kinds of help. Some use the wind to
scatter seed widely (very light seeds, without tasty sweet packaging), some
work with birds and mammals to move larger seeds a shorter distance from the
mother tree. Jays love acorns – they eat masses and bury more for later; the
ones they forget sprout into new oaks. Birds gorge on cherries and excrete the
pip – so the seed is distributed complete with fertilizer! Apple pips remain dormant until stomach acid
strips away their outer coating so they can grow. If all trees had the same
type of seed, all would be in competition and few would survive. The variety which we so enjoy is a result of
trees diversifying to use every possible niche, and exchanging gifts with other
creatures for mutual flourishing.
Introduction to the theme (Al Barrett)
This week, we come to the last of five aspects of ‘growing’ –
for the tree(s) that we’ve been thinking about, and for us as individuals, and
as a church community together – the ‘fruit’. It’s no coincidence we started
with the roots, and finish with the fruit. The roots are where any plant or
tree begins, deep in the soil. The fruit are, for many plants and trees, the
‘end product’ – at least as far as we humans are often concerned – fruit to
pick, and eat, and enjoy. But for a plant or tree, the fruit also take us back
to the beginning of the life cycle: they contain the seeds that, when they fall
to the ground, grow into new plants or trees themselves.
In the Bible, the image of ‘fruit’ comes up a lot. The three
passages we’ve chosen for this week are among many others that we could have
explored. In Matthew chapter 7, for example, Jesus warns us against so-called
‘prophets’ who come as ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’, and then tells us (in
verses 16 to 20) that we can judge the goodness of a tree by its fruit:
not by its size, or how fast it’s growing – but by the quality of its fruit. In
Luke chapter 13 (verses 6 to 9), we hear Jesus, through the voice of a careful
gardener, urging patience with apparently ‘fruitless’ trees: sometimes
they (we?) just need a bit more digging, a bit more manure, and a bit more
time, to bear fruit. And among many places Psalm 1, verse 3, reminds us that no
tree gives fruit all of the time – it comes in the right season – and
other times of the year are times for rest and renewal.
But what might ‘good fruit’ look like or taste
like? The passage from the Letter to the Ephesians that we’ve used here gives
us one vivid picture: the good fruit include ‘love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithful-ness, gentleness, and self-control’.
At first glance, these might sound like qualities of individuals, in our
interpersonal relationships – and obviously these are important. But they could
describe communities too – we want to be a church community that
embodies these values (e.g. our church mission statement here: ‘growing loving
community’ – which includes, we’ve said, the ‘good fruit’ of compassion,
generosity, trust, friendship and hope). And then, to stretch our horizons even
wider, the prophet Micah reminds us that good fruit must include ‘seeking justice’:
good fruit must be good not just for ‘us’ (whoever we include in that ‘us’),
they must be good for everybody.
If it’s beginning
to feel like the many different words to describe good fruit are raining down
on us (a bit like sitting under a tree full of ripe apples, that’s being shaken
by the wind!), then the bible focuses in on two words which sum up so much of
what we’re thinking about. One is the Hebrew word (used often in what we
sometimes call the ‘Old Testament’, or better, the ‘Hebrew Bible’) is the word shalom,
which (as we’ve encountered a few times already in these last weeks), means
peace and justice, healing and wellbeing, wholeness and integrity. The other is
a word that runs right through the whole of Scripture, and in at least 2 of our
readings today: the word love. Love God, love your neighbour – that’s
the heart of it, as Jesus reminds us often. And love is not only about our
personal and interpersonal relationships – it’s also about our political and
global relationships too. ‘Justice’, said French philosopher Simone Weil, is as
simple (and as hard) as treating every other created being as if they were our
beloved.
But with words
like these, we are reminded that these ‘good fruit’ aren’t just to be found
among Christians, and not just in our church community. We don’t have any kind
of monopoly on them! We discover such ‘good fruit’ all the time among our
neighbours, Christian, Muslim, and people of other faiths and no explicit
faith. That’s one of the most important things that our ‘Hodge Hill Unsung
Heroes’ events have celebrated, repeatedly, over the years. When we think this
week about ‘growing the Kingdom’, then, we should remember that it’s not the church
that makes the Kingdom grow – it’s God that makes the Kingdom grow, out
of control and all over the place (like the growth of the wild mustard seed
that we explored in Week 4).
So if we
can’t do the growing of the good fruit, what can we get stuck into
doing? Firstly, we can look around for where fruit is growing, and seek them
out – within our church community, in our neighbourhoods, and in the wider
world. Secondly, when we discover good fruit, we can enjoy them: taste them,
be nourished by them, celebrate them, share them, and point others to where they
can be found. Thirdly, we can do what we can to nurture good fruit and
encourage them to continue to grow and flourish – in all our neighbours. And
fourthly, we can root ourselves as deeply as we can in those particular
patches of earth where we’ve found good fruit growing, and call those places
‘home’.
Paying attention to the fruit of the Kingdom, then, brings us
full circle. We are ‘rooted and grounded in love’ (as we read in the letter to
the Ephesians in Week 2) precisely by seeking out love in the world, enjoy it
where we find it, and nurturing it in ourselves and others. The tree’s fruit
itself makes new life take root. As the prophet Micah puts it, growing the
fruit of the Kingdom is about ‘seeking justice, loving with kindness, and
walking humbly with God’. The fruit of justice, loving-kindness and
humility are both our ‘destination’ (what we’re seeking out, working
towards, in our world) and also the ‘way’ (how we’re called to walk, and
live).
Reflection (Penny Hall)
Here is a story about a
little plum tree… A man had an idea that if lots of people planted fruit trees
in their front gardens or on common land then people who didn’t have fruit
trees or even gardens would be able to enjoy free fruit. He spoke to other
people in the community who also thought it was a good idea and they advised
him to speak to a local grant awarding body. He was awarded a small grant which
he used to buy lots of compost and small fruit trees and he set about planting
them all over the community. This is a true story and I am one of many people
who now have a little fruit tree growing in their front garden. Mine is a dwarf
Victoria plum tree.
Some people said it was
not a good idea to plant fruit trees in front gardens as they might be damaged
by passers-by and the fruits would be taken, leaving nothing for the
owners. However, the point is that we
actively want others to share the fruit. My hope is that my little plum tree
will bear fruit next year and lots of children on their way to and from school
will enjoy its fruits.
The fruits of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control, can be experienced in three ways. Firstly, by ourselves as
individuals; we can love ourselves, be at peace with ourselves and so on. We
can receive fruits from others by their acts of kindness, generosity etc.
Lastly, we can share the fruits with others by our own acts.
While street connecting
in Hodge Hill, I have noticed that, where there is one person sharing the
fruits of the Spirit, being kind, generous and friendly, there are several
others doing the same. For instance where someone has started to pick up litter
around their road, other neighbours will join them until there is a regular
team of litter pickers. Other neighbours have started to look after the
communal garden, planting new plants, adding garden decorations, weeding, and
others have joined in. It is as though there is something about caring that is
catching. When I moved in to my new road last year, there was already a group
of friendly, generous neighbours who frequently leave gifts of food, chocolate,
books for my grandchildren and other delights on my doorstep and generally make
me feel welcomed into the neighbourhood.
I sometimes ask myself
‘who do we share these good fruits with?’. It is very easy to share fruits with
family, friends and kind neighbours, perhaps because it tends to be a two-way
process; you do a kindness for a friend and when able, they will return with a
kindness for you. But sometimes I wonder if we can be at risk of becoming a bit
restricted in who we share our fruits with. We might hand out our fruits to
special friends but not notice those on the edges. Perhaps not all neighbours
are as blessed as I have been. Perhaps those who do not appear so outgoing,
friendly or generous themselves are not used to receiving good fruits from
others.
As God’s kingdom is for
everyone, let’s share those fruits with everyone. Let’s notice and rejoice in
the sharing of the fruits in our neighbourhood and learn from those
examples. But also, let’s notice the
newcomer, the stranger, the reserved person, the side-lined, and make sure they
have the best of God’s fruits as well. Let’s be kind and generous with the
stranger, patient with the slow person in front of us in the queue and gentle
with those we disagree with. Let’s have courage like the man who planted the
fruit trees. Let’s be the ones to take a risk and be first to reach out. Let’s
walk the way God intends for us and the seeds of new trees will be planted as
we go. Then there will be plenty of good fruit for everyone.
Reflection (Mike Lynch)
Today, we are looking at the fruit as part of
our Trees of Life series. It struck me that when Paul writes to the Galatians
he says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace etc and not
the fruits (plural) of the Spirit are. So Paul’s
understanding is that the Spirit develops all nine fruits in the lives of every
Christian. I don’t know about you, and it might be my age, but I find
remembering long lists of things more difficult. We have been holding a family
quiz each week during lock down and one of the questions was, what are the
names of Snow White’s seven dwarves. Can you remember them all? (Answers at the bottom of this post.)
With the fruit of the Spirit there are nine to
remember - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. But thankfully the Spirit isn’t our quiz master
nor our manager who checks up on our progress at our quarterly evaluation
meetings. The Spirit works in and through us to develop all the fruit and
sometimes it is only by looking back and reflecting that we aware of growth and
the quiet actions of the Spirit in our lives.
But, thinking about the analogy of fruit, in
nature, all the fruits have a season just by example there are the
predominantly summer fruits like strawberries and raspberries and as the year
moves towards autumn we have more blackberries and apples. It made me ask the
question is there a seasonality associated with the fruit of the Spirit and at
different times and stages of our lives are some fruit of the Spirit ‘in
season’?
This thought of seasonality is picked up in
chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes:
For everything
there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather
stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Who would have
thought that the book of Ecclesiastes would pick up on social distancing? – a
time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. I know that for many not
being able to hug has caused heart-ache but it will just be for a season.
I thought of this
seasonality again when I read the Gospel reading from Matthew and the message
of do not worry. We are ordinary people living in extraordinary times and it is
really difficult not to worry. We worry for our nearest and dearest, we worry for
members of our families working in hospitals and care homes, we worry for
ourselves and every time we leave the house constantly weighing up the risks,
are we doing everything to keep safe and well? For me it made me reflect that,
perhaps, if there is a seasonality in the fruit of the Spirit then the fruit of
Peace may speak the most to us at this time. The world doesn’t offer us much
peace, because the world doesn’t know the One who is peace. But those of us who
have the fruit of the Spirit of peace growing within us can experience Christ’s
peace no matter what our circumstances or worries may be. Jesus is part of our
past, our present and our future and we can bring all our worries, fears and
concerns to him in prayer knowing that they are safe in his hands.
Jesus offers us two
ways to deal with worry the first is to seek first, to concentrate upon, the
kingdom of God. We know in our own lives how a great love can drive out every
other concern, inspire our work, intensify our studies and potentially dominate
our whole being, Jesus’ conviction is that worry is diminished when God becomes
the dominating power of our lives. If we start to worry actively seek his peace
and seek his kingdom. For those familiar with the hymn Seek ye First the
Kingdom of God, it might help you to sing aloud or hum along silently to
the words.
|
Seek ye first the kingdom of God / And His
righteousness; |
|
|
Ask, and it shall be given unto you; Seek,
and you shall find. |
|
|
We shall not live by bread alone, But by
every word The second way to seek the fruit of
peace is to follow the Jewish saying, ‘Do not worry about tomorrow’s evils,
for you do not know what today will bring forth’. The advice is to handle the
demands of each day as it comes, without worrying about the unknown future
and the things that may never happen. But although the fruit of peace may be
in season the Holy Spirit continues to grow and develop the other 8 gifts
within us and we like any good gardener try to provide the right conditions
for that growth and the reading from Micah tells us what those conditions
are. He has told you, O mortal, what is
good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. |
5th
Gospel (Joy
Curtis)
As I prepare for this 5th
Gospel, I recall when my son Matthew was at primary school, almost everything
he wrote had the title ‘My Story’. This
is my story and my testimony based on growing the fruits of God’s Kingdom.
I wonder which fruits
spring to mind in God’s Kingdom, considering we are in the middle of Summer.
Would you think of seasonal fruits such as strawberries or pears? You would not be wrong if you thought about
these, but these are material fruits.
The fruits mentioned in the Church’s Tree of Life and those in God’s
Kingdom will not have a best before or sell-by date and will not rot. These fruits are everlasting and
eternal. Growing the fruits of the
Kingdom is a metaphor for the conditions that must be fulfilled as a follower
of God.
In Matthew 7, Jesus says,
“By their fruits you shall know God’s followers” – with these conditions or
fruits, I am drawn closer to the Almighty.
These fruits, therefore, map out my life as a Christian and a servant of
God.
During the height of the
Coronavirus pandemic, my neighbour was taken to hospital. Just before the
ambulance pulled out, I felt all sorts of emotions including grief, pain and
loss. I thought I would never again see my neighbour alive. The reason being,
she had Covid-19 symptoms, underlying health problems and was aged over
65. The criteria for basically being a
‘goner’. This means that if she had
deteriorated, she would not be resuscitated.
Her earthly life would have come to an end. She has never believed in God and thought
everything to do with faith or religion was very much ‘clap-trap’ – her words
not mine.
I did not even bother to
think this was a person who did not believe in God. I just did what every good
Christian would have done, I found myself praying that she would make a speedy
recovery. Prayers were answered and my neighbour was discharged from hospital 3
weeks later but remains under lockdown. My continuing to pray for her, showing
her love, kindness and compassion without expecting anything back in return was
the order of the day. This lady has now
changed in thought, word and deed. She
is now at peace within herself, patiently reflecting and changing her thought
processes. I approached the situation in a non-judgemental manner with a
certain amount of fairness, gentleness, self-control and perseverance allowing
my neighbour to be herself. It is very
humbling to see the change in her to the point where I am being asked to pray.
1 Corinthians 12 tells us
that the body is made up of different parts and we all have gifts to perpetuate
God’s Kingdom. There is a similar
message regarding the fruits of the Kingdom. There are so many kinds of fruits,
but they are all equally capable of doing great things.
It has given me so much
joy to see a relationship blossom through kindness, generosity, patience and
faithfulness. I can honestly say that I am trying to be one of these fruits to
continue growing God’s Kingdom. It may
be difficult to tell which fruit I identify with, but God treats us all
equally. Every fruit is capable of
growing God’s Kingdom; every fruit has its purpose.
Questions for reflection / discussion
As I read / listened to the
readings and reflections for this week…
·
what
did I notice, or what particularly stood out for me?
·
what
did they make me wonder, or what questions am I pondering?
·
what
have they helped me realise?
·
is there anything I want to do or
change in the light of this week's topic?
On this week’s theme – growing the
Kingdom (‘fruit’):
· In what ways am I noticing God’s Kingdom growing during this time? In what ways am I (or us as a church) involved in that?
·
What
are the things that are helping me [or us] get involved with enjoying
and nurturing the Kingdom at the moment?
·
What
am I noticing at the moment that it would be good for us, as a church
community, to nurture and develop, in the coming months, to help us
continue to nurture God’s Kingdom?
·
What
is not happening at the moment, that am I missing, that would usually
help me [or us] get involved with seeking, enjoying, nurturing and rooting
ourselves in God’s Kingdom?
·
Is
there anything that is not happening at the moment, that we have an opportunity
to let go of?
Any other reflections…
A prayer for this journey:
God our
Maker, Jesus our Grounding, Holy Spirit our Living Water,
in you is our hope, in you is our life, in you we grow and flourish:
in the changes, challenges and uncertainties of our world,
help us to reach down deep, as we root our trust in you;
help us to reach out wide,
in loving connection with our neighbours near and far;
and may we see and share your goodness
as the life of your kingdom springs up in us, around us and beyond us.
Amen.
Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people
- If you are able to go out for a walk, look for fruit and berries on the plants and trees. How many types can you find? REMEMBER: not all fruits are edible! But if you do find some that you are confident it’s ok to eat – blackberries are probably the most likely type at this time of year – pick some and eat them, noticing the colour, taste and texture.
- At home, use
some fruit to make something to eat or drink. You could try making a
smoothie, or look up a recipe which includes a type of fruit you have got.
- Today, we are
thinking about God’s kingdom. When you picture God’s kingdom, what is it
like? Try to come up with a list of adjectives (describing words) which
you think describe God’s kingdom. Now look at your adjectives – can you
think of things, people, events or places which could also be described
using some of those words? Maybe these are some of the signs of God’s
kingdom…
- You could try using some of your adjectives to write a poem about God’s kingdom, or as inspiration for a picture or another type of art showing what God’s kingdom is like.
- Pray for the
world to become more like God’s kingdom. You might like to try matching
your adjectives to situations which need to become more like that – e.g.
matching ‘peaceful’ to somewhere there is war or fighting, to pray for
that place to become more peaceful.
(* the 7 Dwarves are Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, Happy, Dopey, Sleepy and Doc!)
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