The talk at our church meeting yesterday was about being filled with the Holy Spirit, covering both the Toronto Blessing charismatic experiences (things like shaking and falling over – read the article I've just linked to if this all means nothing to you!) and the fruit of the Spirit that Paul spoke about in Galatians 5. It's the latter that I want to focus on in this post.
The guy doing the talk drew the
standard but, I think, helpful parallel with trees that produce
fruit, like apple trees and plum trees. They don't strain to produce
apples, plums or whatever; they simply do it. But, here's the kicker
for me; the conditions have to be right. A tree must have fertile
soil, enough sun, shelter from the wind, and the right amount of
rain, or else it won't produce much fruit.
So what about us? In this analogy,
what conditions do we need in order to produce the fruit of the
Spirit; what does it mean for us to have the right soil, plenty of
sun, enough rain and so on? I think the analogy breaks down a bit
here. One could take the analogy and say there's nothing we can do
to produce the Spirit's fruit, like patience, goodness, love, and
peace. That's not right though, is it? God doesn't just zap us and
make us patient, good, loving, peaceful etc.
Coincidentally (or not...) I'm reading
a book which touches on this issue a bit. It's one by Brian McLaren, whom I've raved about before,
called 'The Secret Message of Jesus'. McLaren is working through
Matthew 5-6,
part of the so-called Sermon on the Mount, and he's looking at the
three passages where Jesus talks about three spiritual practices or
disciplines; firstly giving to those in need, then praying and
finally fasting. With each of these practices, Jesus corrects the
religious leaders and their way of performing (word choice
deliberate!) the practice, replacing it with the correct, healthy
usage.
The point is two-fold; we need to
practice and 'train for godliness'
in order to become mature Jesus-followers, but we also need to do the
exercises in the right way. So, just looking at what Jesus says
about giving, we mustn't do it in order to be seen. It won't have
any effect with God and we'll just end up craving the attention and
praise of people. On the contrary, we should avoid drawing attention
to ourselves. For the person who manages to do this, 'Your Father,
who sees everything, will reward you'. I've always understood this
to mean some kind of next-life benefit, but maybe it means God will
transform us more into his likeness, enabling us to do good works
that we previously were incapable of. That's certainly what Brian
McLaren thinks (I've added the italics):
Unwise or habitual practice can make the practitioner miserably habituated in unrewarding routines. In contrast, wise practice rewards the practitioner by making possible what was previously impossible.
So it seems I'm saying I don't think
all that much of the fruit tree analogy, after all. We don't just
stand there and produce the fruit of the Spirit; there is work to be
done in order to bring ourselves under God's transforming power. But
we've got to be careful about the work as bad practices will cause
great harm. As McLaren puts it, ' 'Practice makes perfect' isn't
quite accurate. Practice makes habitual'.
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