It Takes A Basket (Galatians 5: 16-25) 8/19/12

          A child grows up in a Christian home. She attends church regularly. She graduates high school, goes off to more schooling, meets the guy of her dreams. He, too, is a Christian. They date and eventually marry. After a while they start a family. Along comes a new life and they bring the child to church for baptism. Promises are made by the parents and the congregation. Bring up the child in the nurture and admonition of God. Live the Christian faith. Teach it to your child. Turn to Jesus. Accept Christ. Be a disciple. Bring up the child in love.

          Bringing up baby. It’s a tall order. Scores of books have been written about how to do it right. I only wish the books could give us all the right information at the right time. I went to college with a fellow who became an expert on child psychology and chaired that department at a major university at a very young age. He wrote a book about parenting. Some time later, he fell in love, got married and started a family himself. After the parenting expert became a parent, he wouldn’t take his own advice. His book was an academic success and a common sense dud. Having a child changed his whole approach to child psychology.

We all want to get it right, don’t we?  It’s not easy to set the right example, the job never ends and there is no textbook.  Baby turns into toddler, then pre-schooler. Before we know it, baby is asking for the car keys. It happens fast and there is no way to rewind and start over.

          Even though there is no textbook on parenting, there is some very good advice given by the apostle Paul in the 5^th chapter of Galatians. He exhorts his converts to live and walk by the Spirit and he refers to nine traits that he calls the Fruit of the Spirit. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The adult who can bring these fruits to his or her parenting style on a consistent basis will do just fine without any books. In fact, these traits are useful to everyone, not just parents.

If you love someone, will you always be patient with him? Kind to him? Good to him? If you love someone, will you always be gentle with her, exercise self-control around her? If you love someone, will that bring you joy and peace? Of course, the answer is “no” to all of the above.  Love is a big help. I don’t think we can get there without it. But even love is not enough. It takes a basket.

Many of you are familiar with the movie Love Story. It came out in the 70’s and launched the careers of Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw. Remember that famous line: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” That sounded good on screen, but it doesn’t play well in real life. I think it’s more like “Love means being constantly prepared to say you’re sorry.” Love is the motor that drives the Spirit to incredible sacrifice, unimaginable commitment and amazing loyalty. But motors need gas and water and oil. Motors need attention and lubrication. So do the motors of our lives. It takes a basket.  

If you look at Paul’s list, you might notice that the first three traits listed are love, joy and peace. They are all inner, spiritual qualities. 1  They are also qualities that can be shared with others. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is the greatest virtue. He starts his list here with love. The other six traits are not so much inside us as they are a course of conduct, a way of dealing with others.  So you might say that we do love, find joy and experience peace by exhibiting patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It takes a basket.

We all gather here every Sunday and at other times and we worship God and we try to feel the Spirit of God moving inside us, enabling us to respond in ways we find difficult to muster the rest of the week. It’s hard to live by the spirit. Paul recognizes that. He recites a whole menu of works of the flesh earlier in the same chapter from jealousy to envy, reminding us that if we continue to do such things, we are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. He contrasts these works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit, our nine watchwords for life. Notice that Paul says fruit. He doesn’t say fruits. An apple is not an orange and an orange is not a grapefruit. They are each fruits. But put them in a basket and what do you have? Would you say that you have a basket of fruits? No. You would say you have a basket of fruit. In other words, a basket of fruit is a collection of assorted plants that together make up something we collectively call fruit. It’s different from meat and vegetables, but it all comes from a common family. So it is with the Fruit of the Spirit. It takes it all to make it work. Ever tried to love someone without patience, without faithfulness? It takes a basket.

So how do we live by the Spirit? Paul tells us. He says that “if we live by the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit.” We turn away from all those works of the flesh. They come in many colors and styles but you can put the label of self or selfishness on every single one. It’s not nearly as hard to turn away as you might think. Just take a bite of fruit. Sink your teeth into some juicy goodness. Slice off a little bit of kindness. You know how naturally sweet fruit can taste. Try making a diet of the fruit of unselfishness and you will be filled in a way that both satisfies and makes you hungry for more. This is walking by the Spirit.  Just don’t forget. It takes the whole basket to make that motor run the way God designed it.