Date: June 23rd & 26th
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21
Psalmody: Psalm 16
Second Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62
When I was in college, I participated in a partner program where I lived in Denver, Colorado for the summer and had two internship sites. One of the sites was a congregation, and part of their summer programming was a Vacation Bible School Day Camp that was run by staff from one of the local camps. The theme of the week was the fruit of the Spirit, which is part of our Galatians passage today and why I was reminded of that summer. This was one of my first experiences with Lutheran Camp songs, and one of them that we sang went like this: “The fruit of the Spirit’s not a coconut (x2), if you want to be a coconut, you might as well hear it, cause you can’t be the fruit of the Spirit, because the fruit is love, joy, peace, and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…” and repeat. The chorus part with the hand motions would get faster and faster, eventually way too fast for anyone to possibly be able to actually do them. It was also during this week of VBS that I first learned that the fruit of the Spirit is singular, and that changed how I understood this part of scripture.
Before that week I thought that it was fruits of the Spirit, and that these nine attributes were different fruits, some given to each of us in turn. It felt like one of those word problems in math where Susie has five apples and Johnny has three oranges, so how many fruits do they have. In this case, Susie might have the fruits of kindness, love, and patience and Johnny may have the fruits of gentleness and peace. Finding out that in reality it is one fruit of the one Holy Spirit meant that I was not competing with others for which fruit of the Spirit I would have, instead I just had to figure out which parts of my fruit were more prevalent than others. Much like a fruit can be sweet or sour, soft or crisp, or any number of things, so we too can find that the fruit of the Spirit working in our lives is different than in the life of our neighbor. Let’s break these down quickly to really think about each part of the fruit of the Spirit when we consider them in the lens of faith.
Love, the action of caring for another as Jesus has commanded. Joy, the energy within a person that exudes hope for the future of the Gospel. Peace, a calming recognition of God’s words telling us to be still and remember who God is and how God is with us always. Patience, the ability to discuss or teach God’s Word in repetition, even when it takes many, many tries to do so. Kindness, the outward things we do to care for our neighbors. Goodness, the inward drive that maintains a just, compassionate, and empathetic outlook on the world. Faithfulness, the capacity to trust in God through everything, even in the midst of doubts, and share that trust with others. Gentleness, a presence that eases the tensions lingering in the air, treating people as the face of Jesus among us. Finally, self-control, the power to acknowledge the trials and temptations around us and resist them.
Perhaps as I went through that list you heard different parts of the fruit of the Spirit that resonated with you, and others that you thought, that does not sound like me at all. Or maybe you understood one of the words a different way and see that in yourself. When we talk about the fruit of the Spirit, I find that the important thing is that we acknowledge that each of us has the capacity for all of these parts, even if one may seem stronger than another. Finding how the fruit of the Spirit, in its many capacities, is working in us can allow us to do as our passage from Galatians today says and live by the Spirit while we are also guided by the Spirit. When we recognize these promised attributes of the Spirit in one another, we can encourage each other and join together as community to follow where the Spirit is leading, using all parts of the fruit that has been gifted to us.
I find these differences in our own strengths and callings to be important as we consider our Gospel reading this week as well. If read only at face value, Jesus’s words in this passage can seem harsh, or even condemning. However, denying requests of people to say goodbye to their homes or bury their dead parents is not the main message of this passage today, instead I think the way our Gospel relates to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians is that Jesus does not have the same answer for all who are following him. For some he says follow me, for others rebukes their call for fire to consume the Samaritans and keeps walking, for another he warns that following him comes with trials, like not having a place to rest one’s head. All of these people who Jesus responds to WANT to follow Jesus, and though their responses are slightly different, they all condense down to the message that if you WANT to follow Jesus, then do it.
Rather than saying with your words, show in your actions that you are ready to follow Jesus, and accept the real disadvantages that may come with it. And yet, if there are those along your journey of following that are not ready and let Jesus just go on, do not seek to condemn them as the disciples asked Jesus to do and were condemned for, but rather keep your eyes and feet in the path that Jesus is leading. A path filled with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We follow Jesus, coming from many experiences and contexts, and listen to how Jesus calls us forth on the journey. May all parts of the fruit of the Spirit grow in us in abundance, providing for each of us the guidance we need to follow the Holy Spirit and the way of Jesus. Thanks be to God!