Meditation on This Sunday's Readings in "A Women's Lectionary for the Whole Church"

The readings for Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021:

2 Samuel 21:  1-14

Psalm 58

Revelation 6:  9-11

Luke 6:  43-45

This Sunday, we hear Jesus talk about fruit, about how we'll be known by our fruit.  Good trees bear good fruit, while thorns will never be mistaken for good fruit.  This Gospel may make us feel resignation and/or despair.

Those of us who are perfectionists and/or judgmental may never feel that we're seeing good fruit in ourselves or anyone else.  Happily, God is not as harsh as our harshest critics.  Those of us who have made bad choices may feel like this passage dooms us to the world of thornbushes forever so why bother?  But if we've been in church any amount of time at all, we know that's not God's larger message either.

This week I'm thinking of a lecture in one of my seminary classes.  My professor  Dr. Emily Peck-McClain got my attention by declaring her love for Paul and calling Paul a gift to us with a liberative message that is not often proclaimed.  She called our attention to Galatians 5, which also has a fruit metaphor; it's the passage that talks about the fruits of the spirit, and it makes a good counterpoint to this Gospel.

Paul gives us the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. My professor reminds us that Paul is writing to communities, not to individuals. The fruit of the Spirit is born and comes to fruition in community.

The good news is that we don't have to produce all of these fruits all by ourselves. When the whole community is together, these are the fruits that we see. We are intended to have all of these fruits together communally. And then we are equipped to carry on the redemptive work of Christ in the world.

What a beautiful vision:  all of us as individual fruit trees, making a beautiful orchard together. It's that time of year when I'm yearning for apple orchards and pumpkin patches. As many of us enjoy the fruits of the season, let us think about the fruits of the spirit and how we make more of them manifest, both in ourselves and in each other.