"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." (1 Cor. 1:25)
By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: July 31st, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I’ve been having a good, hard think lately about a lot of things. This is typical of summer for me, where I permit myself the luxury of not being bound to the tyranny of clocks and calendars and allow myself a healthy dose of daydreaming. I’ve been thinking about fruit lately, not only the peaches, plums, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, and pluots (one of my favorites!) of summer, but also the delectable fruit of the Spirit that St. Paul describes in his letter to the Galatian churches: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-discipline. “By their fruit you will know them,” Jesus said of religious teachers, and this got me thinking.
I’m not thinking in terms of those static dogmatic categories of justification and sanctification, though these certainly are lurking in the background. Rather, I’m thinking about how things look. How we as Lutherans look. I’ve been surfing around the internet looking at what Lutherans are up to, what they are saying about each other, about their church bodies, about other Christians. I like to Google my name to see what others are saying about me. Others send me emails with links to what people are saying about Higher Things.
St. Paul sets the fruit of the Spirit in contrast with the works of the adamic flesh: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I wonder sometimes. I wonder if the way we act, especially under the “anonymity” of the internet, doesn’t reflect more of the sinner that we are in ourselves than the saint that we are in Christ? I’m not talking so much about the cussing and beer drinking that Lutherans are known for; I’m thinking along the lines of the latter part of Paul’s list - enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy. That list more or less describes the tone of some Lutheran lists.
Now I know well the usual Romans 7 dodge to all this. “The good I want to do, I don’t do, and the evil I don’t want to do, I do….wretched man that I am,” simul justus et peccator, and all that. Those aren’t an excuse but a harsh reality that drives us continually to repentance. The last time I checked, Paul doesn’t encourage us to indulge our sinful selves but to put to death the works of the flesh. Drown that inner brat in Baptism and don’t give him a blog so he can express himself. And God doesn’t describe the fruit of the Spirit as some unattainable goal to drive us to repentance, but as something we can eagerly look forward to, much like fruit in season. You expect it to be there.
The atheist philosopher Nietzsche once commented that he might take the Redeemer more seriously if His followers would look a bit more redeemed. I wonder if there might be people who would take the Lutheran confession of Christianity more seriously if Lutherans would show a bit of summer fruit.
We Lutherans live under a terrible burden of having to be right all the time. We value purity above all things - purity of doctrine, of practice, of hymnody, of programs, of purpose. Yet purity is never held out to the sinner-saint as an attainable goal. It’s a forensic-given in Christ, and utterly impossible in ourselves. If we claim to be “pure” in what we do, we will ever be on the defensive justifying ourselves against those who claim otherwise and constantly measuring ourselves against the next guy. Defensiveness tends to bring out the worst of our sinful selves. Defensiveness and fear open the door to the anger, strife, party spirit, and dissension that war against the fruit of the Spirit.
I believe that much of our Lutheran anxiety has to do with defensiveness and fear. We want to present our denarius back to the Master pure and undefiled. And so we don’t take risks, we play it safe, we hedge our bets, we hide behind the skirts of our institutions, we circle our wagons to ward off the challengers. We wrap our shiny denarius in a sock and tuck it safely in the back of a drawer. But the Master said, “Do business,” not “keep it pure.” We are fearful and defensive, not trusting the Word to do His work, not trusting that God justifies the unjustifiable and ungodly, acting as though Jesus needed us to defend Him. Poor Jesus. And in our fear and unbelief, we stunt the fruit the Spirit wants to produce in us for the benefit of others.
I worry about my fellow Lutheran pilgrims who have become so wrapped up in defending their “being Lutheran” that they have lost the sense of wonder and joy at being justified for Jesus’ sake. I wonder whether we haven’t become the Ephesian church of the Revelation, doctrinally pure yet loveless, able to spot a heretical Nicolaitan from a mile away, yet flagging in the love that once characterized life together. I grieve over young Lutherans who are already so narrow in their thinking, they cannot enjoy the fullness of the gifts God gives to His church, but scowl at a hymn not to their liking or a liturgical practice outside their narrow zone of comfort.
Look at that list again. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-discipline. Yes, I know, we can’t produce these things in ourselves; they are the fruit of the Spirit. I know that we don't produce this fruit by trying harder, but I also know that we can get in the way of its production. If our doctrine of Baptism is correct and means anything, we have the Spirit, and therefore, can expect the Spirit’s fruit in due season, justified sinners though we are. This wonderful fruit of the Spirit is not for ourselves to admire but for others to pluck from our branches and enjoy and be refreshed and give glory to God.
And maybe, having been refreshed, they will want to hang out with us under Lutheran shade.
Edited on: July 31st, 2008 6:03 pm
Comments:
Re: By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: July 31st, 2008 at 4:14 pm by William Weedon
That was one of the most refreshingly bang on articles I've read in a while. Thanks for taking the time to veg and then sharing the fruits of it!
Re: By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: July 31st, 2008 at 5:39 pm by a
nix Nitsche aber Nietzsche
Re: Nietzsche
Posted On: July 31st, 2008 at 6:02 pm by Rev. William M. Cwirla
Danke sehr!
Re: By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: August 02nd, 2008 at 2:32 am by Tracey
This is really nice.
You and Weedon are on a roll. (His is low-carb).
Thank you.
Re: By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: August 05th, 2008 at 1:40 pm by Matt Jamison
The problem in my case is that I can sometimes come to enjoy the fighting and write words that should not be written. As a prolific confessional blogger, I confess that I have sometimes crossed the line. I've seen others do the same.
But to complain about the phenomenon in a vague and non-specific way doesn't do a lot of good, other than to give ammunition to those who want to think we're a bunch of haters. Your "fellow Lutheran Pilgrims" need specific, firm and loving correction when we post something in the wrong spirit.
Every entry on Wittenberg Trail has a place for comments, and so do most blogs. If I cross the line in a blog post, please gently correct me. I will be happy to modify or delete the post and apologize personally to anyone offended. I've done it before. I've also corrected others before and have never had a bad reaction.
The vague approach reminds me of our Synod President vaguely accusing non-specific people of violating the Fourth and Eighth commandments. If he means me, I wish he would tell me personally.
Re: By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: August 05th, 2008 at 9:03 pm by Rev. David M. Juhl
It's as if you were eavesdropping on comments John Kleinig made in a DVD shown to the brethren gathered for Doxology training in Wisconsin three weeks ago. Dr. Kleinig was discussing having a good conscience as well as having joy in Ministry.
One wonders if some of our brethren within and without the pale of the Missouri Synod have no joy in Ministry because they haven't a good conscience.
Hence why I make every good effort to visit my confessor frequently (though not as frequently as I ought). When joy weakens, it's time to have my conscience made good by Holy Absolution.
IIRC, this sort of came up when you spoke to NID pastors in January. I am still basking in the glow of your words to us. Thanks also for the Capon book recommendation. He is refreshing and gave me much food for thought.
Serving joyfully along with you, dear brother!
DMJ+
Re: By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: August 22nd, 2008 at 10:53 am by Rodzenjr
"I wonder whether we haven't become the Ephesian church of the Revelation, doctrinally pure yet loveless, able to spot a heretical Nicolaitan from a mile away, yet flagging in the love that once characterized life together. "
This is totally what I am going through right now. I am having to think my attitude all over again. I'm a new convert to the LC-MS and you know how converts are, they are really on fire. I am defending the Lutheran faith everywhere I go, and I start fights. I didn't realize that is a problem. But now I do. You are right. We have the pure doctrine of the Gospel, but when we come across others, we tend to get defensive, and as you pointed out Pastor, that brings out the worst in our sinful selves. It has with me. I believe there is a way to defend sound doctrine but yet, as the same time, being loving and kind to one another in our defense. Debate is not a bad thing, but when you get defensive and mean, you become really ugly.
I'm having to think about my attitude all over again. I have to slow down. If there comes a time when I do talk about my Lutheran faith, or if someone were to bring up a topic such as Baptism or Holy Communion, Original Sin and so forth, I know I have to be gentle in my approach with other people, I have to stop being so hard and mean. And when we are show the fruit of th Spirit with others (such as being gentle in our approach), we wll see the result of the Spirit's fruit in due time.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Re: By Their Fruit You Will Know Them
Posted On: August 24th, 2008 at 7:14 pm by Monte Meyer
Thank you for writing this article. Both sides of our aisle needs to hear this. Sometimes, I think we are so used to hearing the pundits argue on FOX and CNN, that we drag it into our discussion of religion.