Galatians 5: 22-23
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness , and self control. There is no law against such things.
Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Isaiah 55:12-13
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hangs. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Last week’s scripture was from Galatians and a couple of verses talked about the fruit of the Spirit. Do you remember? Esther just read it for us - The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness , and self control. There is no law against such things.
There was not enough time to talk about this last week - we were focusing on freedom to be God’s child and the kind of responsibility that entails.
But this week - we can take a closer look at these verses at the fruit of the Spirit. First of all, did you notice that it is FRUIT – SINGULAR - of the Spirit - even though nine distinct manifestations are listed: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. MMMM - one fruit, nine manifestations - in every version of the Bible, it’s ONE fruit, singular. So, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that maybe all nine are intertwined, interwoven and interrelated to produce one fruit....
And if we step back and take another look - with our analytical selves, this fruit can be viewed as all about relationships - our relationship with God with people and with ourselves.
And yes, all of those manifestations are interrelated and maybe hard to pull apart, but a case can be made for seeing the first three, love, joy & peace as having to do with our relationship with God, the next three, patience, kindness, generosity, having to do with our relationship with each other - with people and the last three, faithfulness, gentleness , and self control, having to do with our relationship with ourselves.
That’s a lot to bite off in one week, so today, we’ll concentrate on the first three: love, joy and peace - fruit of the Spirit, part one - our relationship with God.
And in saying that, notice the one big assumption - that there is God and we have a relationship with God...whatever that relationship is - a close one? with conversations and prayers regularly? a tenuous one? an estranged one? a passing acquaintace kind of relationship? What is your relationship with God?
I’d like to share a story about a boy and his relationship with God...you may be familiar with it - the boy was totally enamored with God - “God is great! Hallelujah!” he would shout all the time.
One day he was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible and He was shouting his praise to God. "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God is great!" He didn’t care if anyone heard him or not.
Along came a man who had recently completed some studies at a local university. Feeling very enlightened in the ways of truth and very anxious to show this enlightenment, he asked the boy - “What makes you so joyful?”
"Hey" asked the boy "Don't you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle."
The enlightened man chuckled, sat down next to the boy and began to try to open his eyes to the "realities" of the miracles of the Bible. "That can all be very easily explained. Modern scholars have shown that the Red Sea in that area was only 10 inches deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to wade across."
The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible laying open in his lap and the story he had just read. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive young person to the finer points of scientific insight, turned to go.
Just then the boy began to rejoice and praise louder than before. The man turned back to the boy and asked - “Now why are you so happy?”
"Wow!" exclaimed the boy happily, "God is greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in 10 inches of water!"
This boy was definitely grounded in his relationship with God. To him, God was a superhero capable of doing miraculous things. And you know what - maybe it doesn’t matter what the “truth” is...it does matter what HIS truth is and what it does ........
A perfect stranger noticed the boy’s joy. He must have felt the boy’s love and sensed his peace.
When the stranger tried to turn his world upside down and teach him the “harsh realities of life” - there was no anger, there was no “you’re wrong” no “how can you say such a thing.”
The boy listened, honored the stranger’s point of view and interpreted the new “facts” with eyes, heart and mind focused on the God that HE knew...he loved the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might.
And fully focused on our love for God, maybe it’s easier for us to love....not just the kind of love that’s a feeling or an emotion, but rather the kind of love that is a decision to love even when we don't feel like it. It seems that this is key - to develop our own relationship with God - to love the Lord his God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might.
And how would that play out in how we live - to ? Filled with that love (going both ways, I might add), surrounded by love - a love that surpasses human understanding. We allow our hearts to be broken when the world is in pain - we hear on the news about the kidnappings, beheadings, senseless killings in Iraq and we cry and pray.
We look out for others of God’s creation, endangered species and natural resources.
We walk or carpool when we can to conserve oil.
We turn off lights, computers, tv’s not in use to conserve electricity.
We are mindful of the endangered species and overfished sea creatures when we shop for fish and seafood.
We are careful about recycling and reusing what we can reuse.
and we care for one another -
And you know - when we do what we can in God’s love, God is filled with joy and and we can be strong - "For the joy of the Lord is your strength."
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time shifting the focus from me to God - it’s not easy to consider ourselves a part of something beyond understanding and imagination.
I remember growing up in Stockton. Life in a Chinese immigrant family wasn’t exactly in synch with the All American values of rugged individualism and independence. It was a heavy responsibility for a five year old to start kindergarten and go to school carrying the reputation of the entire Lee Family on my shoulders. Whatever I said, or did, or however I appeared, it was a reflection on my family and my ancestors! And the only English words I knew was my name, the alphabet and “where is the bathroom”.
I really wanted to rebel, but I said and did nothing - but I wasn’t exactly dutiful and obedient at home...I had my moments - I hid when I was supposed to be drying the dishes. I watered my mother’s plants, but not exactly the way I was supposed to.
No, it wasn’t easy representing generations of Lee’s.
So, what does this have to do with us, with this Sycamore Family in 2004, 100 years old?
Well, we can start with something fairly easy to imagine - something abstract and somewhat nonthreatenin.
If you look at the cover of your bulletin - you’ll see “Sycamore Congregational Church, United Church of Christ”
We are one small church, a part of the denomination called United Church of Christ. And for better or worse - we represent UCC in El Cerrito California along with our sister church up the hill, Mira Vista, UCC. If you check out the UCC website (ucc.org) or check out the United Church News, you’ll undoubtedly discover that this denomination has a strong thrust toward social justice and commitment to multiracial, multicultural transformation and ecumenism - of having the many strands of Christianity work together. And because we are a church with a strong emphasis on serving the Japanese speaking communities, sometimes it’s a real challenge to know that we are representing the denomination in this time and place. But we have come to know that God is present and God smiles on us and even winks sometimes! So it is good!
And then if we zoom in a little closer – things become a bit more challenging - each of us is a part of Sycamore...and by that definition, we represent Sycamore whenever we are out and about in God’s world or whenever we are with those who are just learning about Sycamore or to the total stranger...
In a short while, we will be gathering for our first general bazaar meeting...to plan this year’s bazaar - I believe it will be our 53rd bazaar! We know that hundreds of people will help and even more will attend from the communities around us. The bazaar community has become bigger and beyond what the first bazaar planners ever imagined.
Whatever we say, whatever we do, however we act - in the bazaar meeting and beyond each of us represents all of Sycamore. One of the things that I looove about Sycamore is how everyone cares about each other - sometimes this is expressed in concerns about what others will think. This is good - it shows we are thinking of each other. But let us remember that even more important is what GOD thinks! And as we meet in small groups or big groups or working the day of the bazaar - Whatever we say, whatever we do, however we act - all that we are reflects on all of Sycamore - all 100 years worth of Sycamore - and will impact the future - the next 100 years of Sycamore. When we consider this important connection with God’s creation, how can we not love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might? We are an important part of God’s story, folks, and part of God’s joy!
And as Isaiah expressed it so beautifully in chapter 55
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
May it be so! Amen.