United Methodeviations

I am going to play loose and fast with the rules here.  The fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians number nine.  I want to draw from Micah 6 to round out the number to 12 (for a sweet fruit of the month selection), counting justice, mercy, and humility as equally important fruits of the Spirit in our day.

“God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Micah 6:8

December

Justice — what do I want for Christmas this year?  What would make my life complete?  Where would I find the greatest joy?  Well, without meaning to sound maudlin or trite, I think what I would like this year is justice.  Oh, not justice for me.  I want justice in general.  I want teachers to be paid more than pro athletes or spoiled starlets.  I want AIG criminals to stop receiving bonuses and people who’ve lost their livelihood because of their illegal and immoral behaviors to receive just compensation.  I want the poor civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq and anywhere else torn by violence to know peace and some level of comfort from all the pain they’ve suffered.  I want the children who suffer hunger and malnutrition around the world to receive enough — not too much, but just a small fraction of what most Americans throw away every day.  I wish the victims of racism and sexism and homophobia and classism could know fairness and acceptance.  I wish we could learn to simply say I’m sorry to those whom we wrong.

But this is unrealistic.  Justice isn’t some disembodied force that floats around looking for a place to land.  It is an action and an intention.  Justice is done, and it begins with each individual.  If I want to see justice in the world, there is only one place where I have much control — and that is in my own life.  I have the responsibility to be just, fair, kind, and considerate in what I say and do.  I need to start with myself — make sure I don’t contribute to the problems I want to see eliminated.  And more than just “doing no harm,” I need to seek ways to “do good” — to get involved and make a positive difference in the lives of others.  And I need to pray more than I do.  Pray for peace.  Pray for justice.  Pray for love.  Pray that I might be a little more Christlike.  Yeah, justice doesn’t just happen.  Justice is created — one thought, one word, one action, one kind gesture at a time.

November

Humility – when I conducted the Vital Signs research project, one absolutely astonishing distinction between truly healthy congregations and those that were less so was the humility of the appointed pastor-in-charge.  It has long been noted that fast growing and “successful” churches require lead pastors with more-than-a little healthy ego.  Look around.  Big church, big ego.  These two things go hand in hand.  You do not build a mega-church on the back of a shy, reserved, humble pastor.  It is amazing the number of “success stories” that depend on the gall of the pastor saying, “Yeah, without me, this church wouldn’t survive.”  We discovered in the Vital Signs research that any church depending on the appointed pastor for its continued success is actually a weak, unhealthy church, not a strong, healthy one.  No, in United Methodism, (apart from what the conventional wisdom might erroneously promote) our strongest churches are “pastor-proofed.”  What this means is that the ministry of the church is strong and vital no matter who the pastor is, impervious to pastoral change in an itinerant system.  Certainly, the role of the pastor is crucial — any pastor whose ego stands in the way of equipping, empowering, delegating, and supporting the work of the whole people of God will no succeed.  But this is the point.  The work of a good pastor is to make him or herself unnecessary!  It takes a very healthy, humble spirit to step out of the spotlight to allow others to shine.

The word “humble” comes from a seemingly disempowering concept of seeing oneself as lowly or unworthy.  From the root, humus, or earth, to humble oneself is to see oneself as dirt.  This concept is repulsive and unacceptable to modern Western thinking where we believe ourselves to be the most important things in the whole wide world.  We love to be loved, and to be loved we must be lovable and worthy.  But Paul reminds us not think more highly of ourselves than we ought, and to consider others as more important than we.  No wonder people aren’t enamored of Paul — he calls us to lower ourselves, not elevate and celebrate our greatness.  Those who produce the fruit of humility are not victims or doormats.  Instead, they are amongst the most healthy and fulfilled people in our Christian fellowship.  They love God and neighbor more than they love themselves.  They don’t care who gets the credit, as long as the work of God is accomplished wisely and well.  They have no need for ego-fulfillment or personal recognition – their satisfaction ad joy comes from faithful service.  They don’t write books, they don’t promote themselves, they don’t presume to teach other leaders how to do it — they merely journey together with the community of faith to honor and glorify God and to equip the saints for ministry that together we might be stronger than we can be on our own.  They do not seek or embrace celebrity — the humbly serve, and most people are not even aware of their existence.

Walking humbly with our God.  What a blessing.  What a wonder.  What a goal.

 ”…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”      Galatians 5:22-23a

October

Love — This one should be easy, right?  Who is against love?  God is love.  Love is lovely.  Love, love, love, love, love.  All you need is love.  But it is so much more than a mushy feeling, a sappy sentiment, or a hot and heavy fling.  Even talking agape, philia, eros, storge still leaves it in the realm of the conceptual.  To bear the fruit of love — to share it in a life-giving, life-saving, sustaining way — is to take great risks and to have to make great sacrifices.  To truly bear the fruit of love is to allow the sickness of hate to be completely excised from one’s soul.  Why?  Because love serves not only the friend, but the enemy.  Love serves not only those from your own political party, but those of the opposition.  Love serves not only those you agree with, but those whom you most want to condemn.  But you can’t condemn them anymore, or you fail to produce the sacred spiritual fruit of God’s redeeming love.  Bummer.

I used to get criticized a lot for working in prison ministry. Generally kind, caring people from my church told me they thought it was terrible that I would take time away from them to go pray with thieves, and rapists, and murderers, and sociopaths.  There was always an underlying sense that somehow these people had forfeited the right to be loved or even addressed as human beings.  For me this was the challenge of love.  I didn’t like these people.  I was honestly afraid of many of these people.  I was not like these people in very many respects.  Yet, one thing has always been crystal clear to me: God wants me to go to these people.  In each and every jail cell sits the image of God and the brother or sister of Jesus the Christ.  What we do for any of them, we do for Jesus himself.  It is both that simple and that hard.

Unconditional love sounds great, but it is a truly rare and seldom seen commodity.  To love the unlovable, to accept the unacceptable, to seek to redeem the irredeemable — these things seem insane.  Yet, they are the test of our fruitfulness.  Real love isn’t just about being nice or friendly, it is about expanding our circle of “us” to include each and every child of God until the glorious day when there simply is no longer any “them.”  Love unites.  Love heals.  Love transcends.  And in the end, love makes us one with God, one with each other, and one in service to all creation.  Love is hard.

September

Gentleness — I showed up for Bible Study at the Mountainview Correctional Facility one Sunday night to find our “classroom” in a shambles.  Two inmates got into a knock-down-drag-out fight.  When pulled apart, they refused to say who started it, what it was about, or to point the finger of blame.  One of them said, “You don’t rat out yo’ brother.”  To the surprise of many, this is the biblical definition of “gentleness.”  We often reduce gentleness to a soft, cuddly, gentle act, but in old and middle English the term “fierce gentility,” was not uncommon.  The root for the word “gentle” means “belonging to the same family.”  The spiritual fruit of gentleness is a fierce commitment and connection to “the family.”

But who is this family to which we belong?  According to Paul, it is both the body of believers and the family of humankind.  Think how you would feel if your spouse or child was physically threatened or verbally abused?  How might you respond?  This would be the very definition of “fierce gentility” — say anything you want to about me, but don’t you dare say anything bad about my wife or sons (or daughter-in-law).  Now, extend that.  First to the extended family.  We are called to extend the same “gentleness” to them.  Now to the neighbors.  Now to the community.  The state.  The country.  The world.  The planet.  The stranger.  The homeless woman.  The hungry man.  The mentally and emotionally damaged.  The prisoner.  The widow.  The orphan.  Gentleness is not for the faint of heart.  True gentleness means “taking care of the family!”

And what a family.  Families are wonderful.  Families are annoying.  Families are energizing.  Families are exhausting.  We love to see family visit.  We love to see family go home.  We are proud of our families.  We are mortified by our families.  They are the people we love to hate, hate to love, and wouldn’t trade for the world… except when we wish we could.  Families are where we all come from.  They are complex.  They are challenging.  They are dysfunctional.  And they are all we’ve got.  The stronger the family, the stronger the society, and the healthier we all can be.

We need each other.  We may debate health care and welfare and immigration law and economic recession, but ultimately we will find a way to get through all of it together or none of us will long survive.  Our world needs reform.  We need a revolution.  We require sweeping change.  In a word, we need to be gentle.

August

Faithfulness — before I get to faith, I want to focus on fullness.  We tend to be a culture of always wanting more.  We love to be filled.  We love to have enough, and to have more than enough.  But we don’t like emptying — giving away, doing with less.  We prefer getting to losing, having to needing, and owning to wanting.  As long as the flow is “in,” we do well.  But if the flow is “out?”  Not so much. 

This becomes a problem with faithfulness.  Faithfulness as a fruit isn’t a fullness for the person of faith.  The person of faith is a conduit through which faith flows.  We don’t hold faith — we share it, we give it away.  The only motivation for holding onto faith is fear — the antithesis of faith.  Faith-filled people have the most faith because they give the most faith away.  Stop giving faith away, it dries up. 

But what exactly is faith?  Many people define faith as “belief.”  Faith is more than belief.  Some define faith as “assurance.”  Faith is more than assurance, blessed or otherwise.  A few define faith as a core set of “rules,” that help make them “right.”  This isn’t faith.  The biblical gift of faith resulting in the spiritual fruit of faith is a fundamental connection to the source of all life and the creator of the universe.  It is “fidelity” — a unity of Spirit — what Paul referred to as being “in Christ.”  It is an affective union with God’s Holy Spirit that channels God’s grace, love, mercy, and justice into the world.  The fruit of faith nourishes people with outward and visible evidence of the goodness, sweetness, kindness, and fairness of God.  Faith witnesses to God.  Real faith is so unusual and powerful that it makes others sit up and take notice.  A real person of faith — bearing and sharing fruit — doesn’t question God, doesn’t doubt God, doesn’t worry about God because they are so deeply “tuned in.”  God isn’t someone they believe in — they are one with God in Christ.  Christianity isn’t about obeying rules and following a narrow set of pious practices.  Faith isn’t limited to a self-satisfied, warm-fuzzy confidence that God will take care of everything.  Transformative faith fills to overflowing the woman or man who is so tightly connected to God that God’s own Spirit gushes and cascades– touching, healing, and changing everyone it touches.

Kindness – what does it cost to be kind? Now, notice I didn’t say “nice,” or “friendly,” or “pleasant,” or even “loving.”  I am talking about simple kindness.  In the far off past, kindness wasn’t a passive warm feeling, but radical action — a fundamental orientation toward all the world.  From the ground of deep respect and benevolence emerged a caregiving spirit.  Kind people don’t “choose” to be kind, they simply can’t help it.  Kindness is the gentle, compassionate desire to serve and give and share.  It moves us to make personal sacrifice so that others might know comfort.  It is an outward and visible expression of the extent to which we care about others.  What does it cost to be kind?

I am sometimes appalled by the way church people talk to one another.  At the very least, we in the church should be able to muster a bare modicum of kindess, respect, decency, tolderance, and civility.  We don’t have to agree on everything, but certainly we should be able to disagree in healthy, affirming, and unselfish ways.  There is the old camp song, “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love.”  I wonder what we are really known for?  We have an incredible opportunity to provide a counter-cultural witness to the grace, kindness, compassion, generosity, and justice of God in the way we speak to each other.  What does it cost to be kind?

Ours is a competitive world.  People frame their lives in “win-lose” terms, where they often validate their own positions and worldview by denouncing, devaluing, and demeaning others.  It may be the way the world works, but it is completely unacceptable in church.  It really doesn’t matter whether or not we’re right.  What matters is that we are Christ-like.  It is more important to be kind than to be right.  It is more important to be compassionate than it is to win.  It is more important to be civil and decent than it is to get your own way.  And it is more important to live the fruits of the Spirit than to show people how smart we are.

What does it cost to be kind?  It costs everything because it requires that we set our own needs, wants, and pride aside to care for others.  It means we keep our eyes open to the needs of others, and we respond whenever and wherever we can.  It is costly because it means we take our faith seriously and we endeavor to be Christ for others.  It is costly because it is the clearest indicator of whether our faith is true or if we’re simply hypocrites going through the motions, pretending to be something we really aren’t.  If we can’t treat each other well within the fellowship, what chance do we have to love those beyond the fellowship?  We should practice being kind — kind to each other and kind to ourselves, for it is in radical and natural kindness that we come to be Christ for the world.

Peace –Every morning I fire up the old computer and spend time looking at the news sites – BBC, Africa Today, CNN, and MSNBC — and I shake my head.  Comparing the international news sites to the U.S. versions, I often wonder if they report on the same planet.  More often than not, the U.S. sites report on the latest American Idol contest, what Britney Spears is doing, how Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are doing, and what American business mogul has broken what laws thus further compromising Wall Street.  On the same day, the international sites tell of natural disasters, acts of violence, tribal atrocities, famine, and disease.  My heart breaks when I read the news, but it breaks in two distinctly different ways.  When I read the international news my heart breaks for the pain and suffering the children of God are suffering around the world — often at each others hands.  My heart breaks when I read the U.S. news because we are so insulated and isolated, and seem indifferent to the plight of hundreds of millions of people we may never see.  The most powerful and influential country in the world, and we turn a blind eye to so much brokenness and pain.

The blessing goes to the peacemakers, wherever they may be found.  Peace, like a seed, sprouts in fertile soil.  It begins in our homes, our churches, and our communities, but that’s not enough.  It isn’t enough that we “grow” peace for our own benefit, that we find peace and security for ourselves and our loved ones.  The true fruit of peace must grow, and spread, and drop seeds across the globe.  We need to pray for peace, preach peace, love peace, and live peace.  And as we know peace, we need to seek to share peace, make peace, and promote peace with others.  When a heart is committed to peace, and when the fruit of peace feeds the soul, it cannot be withheld or hoarded.  Peace transforms.  It is more than a “random act of kindness.”  It is a vocation and a lifestyle.  We pass the peace of Christ in our sanctuaries on Sunday, but where do we take it from there?  How is the peace of Christ we receive used as a tool “for the transformation of the world?”  We can pray, we can teach, we can write, we can petition, we can volunteer, and we can give.  Every person can “make” peace in some small way — and as the small ways accumulate, they become big ways to change the world.  The world needs peace, and it needs it now.  Let us grow this glorious fruit, and share it wherever, whenever we can.

Generosity — what’s the difference between generosity and giving?  We talk so much about giving in the church, but we often neglect generosity (unless we want to confuse it with giving…).  Generosity is a value, giving is a behavior.  Many give who are in no way generous, but truly generous people are among the most giving people in the world.  Our Christian communities need people who bear the fruit of true generosity.

I served a church in New Jersey that decided to help a young woman with two small children who had been abandoned by her husband.  She was poor, struggling, needy, and generous.  She constantly confounded our church members because everything we gave her she shared with others.  One church member was absolutely incensed because she gave this woman a coat that the woman, in turn, gave to a homeless person.  We provided her with food for the family, and she turned around and  held suppers for poor people in the community.  The people in my church were upset — how dare she disrespect the kindness of the congregation.  My congregation — as kind and nice as they were — did not understand the fruit of generosity.

Generosity is not a choice, not an option, it is a way of life.  Truly generous people do not just give, but they are present in the lives of needy people to make their lives easier.  Generous people never ask if they have enough to share — they only ask, “what can I share, and how?”  It is fascinating to me, but where the focus is on generosity, congregations tend not to have financial problems.  Where the focus is on giving, they do.  Generosity is grounded in an abundance mentality; giving is all too often founded on scarcity.

Generous people seem not to lack for anything, no matter how little they have.  They share, they give, they sacrifice, but they never seem to suffer.  They don’t buy into the American cultural values of acquistion and accumulation — they live more simply, but they never seem to feel deprived.  They are a witness to the providence of God.

I have visited large congregations with so much to be thankful for who operate from a mindset of scarcity — they never have enough.  But I have also met with small congregations of modest means who live in a beatific sense of abundance and opulence.   They feel undeservedly blessed.

It is almost impossible to spread a gospel of goodness, fullness, and abundance when we feel deprived.  A generous spirit offers the vision of a generous God to a deprived world.  If we truly believe we have what we need to live humbly and well in the world, we offer a powerful witness to a counter-cultural set of values.  We don’t need more.  We don’t need better.  We don’t need what we do not have.  We find satisfaction with what we already have, and we find ways to share our satisfaction with others.

The church cannot survive with a bunch of givers.  It can only thrive when the people of God discover within themselves the well of generosity that reflects the loving, giving, sacrificing Spirit of Jesus Christ.  Don’t just give, but be generous — with every wonderful gift you have received from God.

Self-Control –I never approach holy week without thinking what amazing courage, confidence, and self-control Jesus had… as he dealt with the cluelessness, the fickleness, and the basic thick-headedness of the disciples (his closest friends).  I have long believed that leadership in the church would be a breeze except for one thing: people.  If we could just get rid of all the people, the church would be sweet… Unfortunately, eliminating all the people kind of defeats the purpose, so what we’re left with is a church that will always be less than perfect.  Now, I’m not perfect, but that doesn’t keep me from getting irritated at all the imperfections of other people.  I can’t believe the number of bad drivers that get in my way (when they do something stupid, they’re bad people; when I do something stupid, it’s a mistake).  When I fly, I am astonished at the ineptitude of all the people who hold up the line at the security check-points.  Pleasure travelers should just stay home (especially if they’re flying with small children).  When I blog, everyone has a right to my opinion, but man if bugs me when people have the gall to disagree with me.  I wish I was completely kidding, but I’m not.  I find myself getting irritated by the dumbest stuff, even when I know better.  I know how I should respond.  I know I ought to count ten and take a little time instead of always reacting.  I know there is nothing to be gained by losing my cool — but that guy just cut me off in the parking lot… where was I?

I have found, for myself, that one of the keys to self-control is self-care.  I am a much nicer person when I get adequate rest, when I relax each day with a good book, when I spend time with my wife and talking to my son at college, when I exercise by taking a long walk, and when I take time to pray and meditate on scripture.  The dilemma, though, is that self-control requires (wait for it)… self-control.  Without a measure of discipline and a commitment to engage in health-producing activities, self-control escapes me — I get snippy, irritated, reactive, and often just plain not nice.

Easter gives me the hope that I’m not a hopeless case.  If God’s power overcomes mortality, then I’m sure God can help me get over myself.  Prayer and quiet time, a long walk and a good book — these things keep me centered and give me a fighting chance at self-control.  And when I give myself over to God, God always gives me back — and by the grace of God’s Spirit the fruit that I bear makes everybody happier.

March

Joy — War in Iraq.  Joy.  Economic downturn.  Joy.  Salmonella scare.  Joy.  Hurricane Katrina.  Joy.  Terrorist attacks.  Joy.  Unemployment.  Joy.  Nuclear weapons.  Joy.  Mass starvation.  Joy.  Drug Wars.  Joy.

‘Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the lands…’yeah, right.  What is there in this world of ours to be joy-full about?  Wouldn’t I have to be an idiot to look around at this world in the shape it’s in and feel joy?  I would have to be an absolute brain-dead, insensitive, blind, stupid, irrational, unfeeling, egotistical ignoramus… or a Christian.

It is so easy to become distracted and depressed by the day-to-day unpleasantness of life.  There are an incredible amount of horrifying, outrageous, unjust, and painful experiences occurring in our world.  There is much to sadden the heart, attack the psyche, and destroy the spirit.  This is, in fact, why we need God.  The reality we see with our eyes is not the whole story, and being sucked into a cycle of negativity does nothing to counteract the forces of darkness.  We walk through this world, we are reminded, by faith rather than sight.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.  It is not something we necessarily choose or control.  What we do control is our commitment to remain centered in Christ, rooted in God, and grounded in the Holy Spirit.  We turn to God in prayer.  We seeks God’s will and guidance in Scripture.  We are empowered through the Spirit in our communities of faith.  We grow in our understanding of our purpose in the world as we walk hand in hand with other Christian disciples-in-formation.  We discover that we are never alone.  We discern that there is much more to the story than what we read in newspapers and online, and watch on TV.  Together, as we stand in the Spirit, we realize that there is no power on earth or in the heavens that can conquer the truth and glory of our God.  We gain confidence, and in our confidence there is encouragement.  In encouragement there is hope.  And in hope there are the glorious seeds of joy.  Prayer, biblical reflection, faith sharing, worship, and theological reflection are the fertile soil in which these seeds take root and grow.  With loving attention and faithful devotion, these seeds bear fruit — and the point of fruit is to feed starving and withering lives.  When we do not feel “joy,” it is most important to seek God in all ways possible — for in relationship with God and spiritual community, joy may be found.  Joy isn’t about feeling ‘happy,’ or ‘glad,’ or ‘nice.’  Joy is the confidence and assurance that God is in charge, and that our God is a God of love and beauty and hope and promise. 

The joy that we receive is not ours to keep, but real joy truly reaches its zenith when it is shared with others — others who are often beaten down and broken by a hostile and hurtful world.  Seek God, know joy, and share this fruit with everyone you can.

February

Patience  – I find patience much more difficult “to produce” than any of the other fruits.  Yes, I know, the promise is that — if I dwell in God’s Spirit – patience will be in evidence.  Good luck with that.  In the warm and wonderful glow of quiet, reflective, devotional time, I am a pillar of patience.  I am calm, I am centered, I am at peace.  The problem is, I have to leave the quiet, reflective space and engage the real world… and the real world has people in it.  People who try my patience constantly.  Like the jerk who drives too slowly in front of me, or the woman at Starbucks talking on her cell phone at the top of her lungs, or the bratty kid running around the restaurant while mummy and daddy ignore the little beast who is tormenting both patrons and wait staff.  There are all those people who won’t answer email or return phone calls (never mind that I am often one of those people).  Through the day I feel my blood pressure rise, my head throb, my pulse race, and heaven help anyone who helpfully tells me to ‘calm down.’ 

Yes, of all the fruits not quite ripening on my faith vine, patience is the most hard, green, bitter, and small.  I need spend a great deal of prayer in penance for an impatient heart and an all-too-intolerant and unforgiving spirit.  It is one of the reasons I admire the Quaker faith, and the writings of some of their great teachers, particularly Thomas Kelly.  Every year I reread Kelly’s, A Testament of Devotion.  It helps me to step back and put myself in the ‘big picture.’  When I can see myself in a larger perspective, it helps me remember that I am no more important than anyone else, and that this wonderful life is a gift to enjoy, not a burden to endure.  Why waste my time focused on what isn’t going my way, when I have so many glorious opportunities to celebrate what is good and wonderful and fun.  So what if some guy cuts me off on the highway?  What does it really cost me that a cell phone user has no concept of ‘indoor voice?’  These things just don’t matter all that much, and when I keep them in proper perspective, I don’t even need all that much patience.  Maybe what I really need is humility, and the ability to not take myself too seriously.