The Basket Revisited (Gal. 5: 22-25) 10/14/12

On a really good day, I wake up almost in prayer as my eyes open. On those days, I feel the presence of God with me from the razor on my face in the early morning to walking the dog right before bedtime. On those days, I have self control. I can field the calls of impatient clients, deal with the irritating emails of vendors and put up with the lack of time to finish even half the chores of the day. On those days, I have patience to deal with the world. When I have self-control, I have patience, I can be gentle; I can be good. I am able to be kind. All of this because I wake up with the Spirit of God and don’t push him away. Being obedient to that call makes me faithful. Those are the best days. Those are the days and the ways that bring my life fully into the experience that God planned for me long before I was born. Those are the days that I find love…and joy…and peace in the life that God designed for me long before there was even a word for church. Love, joy, peace—they are the produce of the garden of the Fruit of the Spirit.

I was walking through the cemetery here at Rocky Creek last week. I do that from time to time, trying to become familiar with the names of some of the saints who have passed this way. I came upon a stone marked Angus Johnson. Many of you know that name. Many of you can trace your ancestry back to Angus Johnson. Or to the Johnson girls, Kat and Crit, John’s daughters. They donated part of the land the church sits on today. That’s another fruit to go in Paul’s basket—the fruit of generosity. But Johnson is only one. There are many other names listed on those markers next door to the church. The heritage of service to God from this area goes back well over a hundred years.

The seeds of this church trace back to 1848 in our recorded history. That’s about the same time they discovered gold in California and the Gold Rush started in the West. As some journeyed in Conestoga Wagons to make their fortune in California, others were laboring in Chesterfield County here in South Carolina to make their community a place where God could be worshipped. Yoked with the churches of Jefferson and/or MeBee for over ninety years, this church struck out on its own only a few years ago. The little church planted so many years ago in a field of three now stands on its own, awaiting and pursuing God’s call to make new fruit for this community.

Fruit makes a great analogy for lots of things. It has variety. It has many flavors. It is healthy and good for us. It is colorful. Fruit comes in all shapes and sizes, from a grape or cherry to a watermelon. God’s church is like that. There are Presbyterians and Lutherans and Methodists and Episcopals and Baptists. There are Roman Catholics and Orthodox Catholics and Coptics. There are conservatives and liberals and Evangelicals and Pentecostals. We worship in cathedrals and temples and chapels and gymnasiums… and even under shade trees. It takes a basket to hold all the different churches and denominations that have sprung up to worship God.

What’s your favorite fruit taste? Is it the sweetness of a cherry? The wetness of a watermelon? The crisp, sweet bite into an apple? The tanginess of an orange or a grapefruit?  The meatiness of a banana? The fruitiness of a pineapple? And then, there are peaches! You can’t talk about fruit in this area and not mention peaches! Fruit comes in shades and variations of sweet and sour and salty. It comes in green and pink and red and yellow and orange and blue. It is long or round or smooth or fuzzy or ribbed. It is like people, isn’t it? They too come in all shapes and sizes and colors. And just as God made all those different fruits, he also made all those different people. It takes a basket to cover Americans and Europeans and Africans and Eskimos and Aussies and Asians. Like the song says: “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” Every one of us made by God.

The Fruit of the Spirit is a wonderful concept. Nine virtues are mentioned by Paul, but I don’t think they are an exclusive club. This message has added generosity to the list. Can you add one of your own? Paul’s point is not that these nine virtues are the magic beans that will make everything work. Paul’s point is, rather, that living the Christian life means living out a menu of character traits that come together to make us complete as witnesses to our risen Lord. These are virtues that work together to hammer out a complete package of humanity. Take out any one and you suffer. They go together.

Most of you know that my son is a helicopter pilot.  His job is a pretty good example of what I mean about our lives needing the whole basket of virtues to find the peace and joy and love that God promises us. My son Ethan uses his hand and both feet to guide, maneuver and fly that bird. He uses his eyes to see not only where he is going but also to take in the information flashing on dozens of instruments in the cockpit. It takes practically every part of his body to fly, together with lots of concentration. If he tries to fly without benefit of all that integration of body and mind, he won’t fly well or long. So it is with the Fruit of the Spirit. Our love and joy and peace come from applying all those other fruits in a way that honors our Savior.  

Sometimes we hear statements that seem to imply that God wants us all to be the same. And yet, we have all these nations, all these forms of government? Why can’t we all be one color? My youngest daughter asked me just the other night why we had to have so many different denominations.  Perhaps the answers to these questions have more than one layer. First, I don’t think that God wants us all to be the same, at least in those sorts of ways.  I think God likes diversity. Look at what he did to fruit. Fruit comes, as we have noted, in all shapes, sizes, colors and tastes. So does geography and weather and yes, people too. God made sure of that diversity in his treatment of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 1:28, God says to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. In Genesis 10, the writer tells us that the whole earth had one language and the same words. The people began to build a tower. They began a work to keep them in one place where they could obtain great power. God saw it and changed it. He confused their language and dispersed them “from there over the face of all the earth” (10:7). God made sure that his mandate to fill the earth would come to pass.  God likes variety. We can all be very different and still be loved by God.

On another level, the very first chapter of the Bible also reminds us that each of us is made in God’s image (1:27). God’s image. We are made like him. God has made us all. He has made us short and he has made us tall. He has made us Greek and he has made us Cherokee. He has made farmers and machinists and paupers and kings. So from that I think we should conclude that God is not concerned about gender or color or height or weight or geography or language or nationality or really anything that we members of the human race count as our differences. We are made is his image. We are the people of God. Our God-DNA is not chemistry; it’s our fruit! It’s that basket of character traits we have been talking about. It’s the Spirit of God himself manifested in our thoughts, in our actions, in our lives. God did make us the same, but not in our color or language or tastes. He made us the same in the way our Spirits are like his.

In a few minutes we will all be blessed by the benediction and end this service, only to reconvene in our fellowship hall to celebrate Homecoming for this church. Similar activities are going on all around the Presbytery this month. This reminds me of yet another fruit to go into our basket, the fruit of hospitality. In fact, Paul mentions hospitality elsewhere in his letters.

Ever played the game “Hot and Cold?” As you get closer to the target, you get warmer. You get colder as you move further away. The Fruit of the Spirit is to me the hot side of Christianity. It’s where all the warmth comes from. Only a few verses earlier, Paul talks to the Galatian churches about all the bad things to stay away from. These are the cold parts that keep us from God. Partaking of and growing the Fruit of the Spirit keeps us from ever having to even deal with all those cold, negative things. When we call on the Holy Spirit to guide us, we stay in his warmth. The bad seed has no place to grow. We choke it out with a garden full of God’s fruit.

Fill your basket of life with this fruit, from patience to self-control. Fill yourself with the Spirit of the living God and you can trust that you will experience love and joy and peace. It is part of that great mystery that our Savior has brought us. He came to earth and in his coming he ushered in the kingdom of God there and then and here and now. That is what we call the “already.”  And yet we know that there is more to come. He will come again. Now we see partly. Then all his glory will be revealed. That is what we call the “not yet.”

Do you have the Fruit of the Spirit? Fill up the basket of your heart with these virtues and you will experience real love, real joy, real peace. That is the promise. Will you claim it?       

          “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” It takes the whole basket. Want to live in the Spirit? Walk in it! And bring your basket!