Life on the Vine:  Goodness and Faithfulness

Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 21, 2004

INTRODUCTION

We’ve been pruning branches on our “spiritual fruit vine” for a month

And it is beginning to look like a veritable orchard

            So far we’ve pruned love, joy, peace, patience and kindness

            Only four more Fruit of the Spirit > then we’ll be ready for our fruit to increase production

Today we’ll inspect branches that produce goodness and faithfulness > any pruning needed?

 

GOODNESS

Goodness

There is old Sufi story about a good man who was granted one wish by God

            Man said he would like to go about doing good without knowing that’s what he was doing

                        He didn’t want to be come prideful

            God granted his wish > man was able to do good without knowing it > didn’t go to his head

            It worked so well that God decided to grant the same wish to all human beings

                        Whether they asked for it or not

            So it happened > and it still happens to this very day

            We probably go about doing good without even knowing what we’re doing > that’s the plan

It would be nice, tho, to know if our “goodness” branch is actually producing “goodness” fruit

            How can we tell what’s ‘good’?  We can tell what’s good by it ‘excellence’ factor

                        “good” watch > keeps excellent time 

                        “good” apple > excellent texture and flavor

What else can be good?  What about a good car?  Ah! 

            Now we get into personal taste > ‘goodness’ gets little more complicated

                        You may want car with  excellent gas mileage > 60 mpg > so hybrid is good car

                        You may want to haul large items > for you van or station wagon good car

                        You may want car that handles easily in traffic > small is good for you

We run into same problems when we try to describe a “good” person

            Is a “good” person simply one who does not do anything malicious or evil?

            Or is a good person one who does what is right?  How are we to know? 

                        What is “par” on the goodness golf course?   “Par” is God

Even Jesus, when called ‘good’ by some well-meaning soul, said

                                    “Why do you call me good?  Only God is good.”

            Of all the true statements ever made > this is certainly one!  Jesus’ statement is most true!

            All through Scripture and throughout the Church > God alone is quintessential goodness

What keeps us from being “good” like God is ‘good’?

There is line from old Greek fable about attainability > “Many the slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip”

            Same is true about attaining goodness >

                        “Hard is the scrimmage between our goodness and God’s image”

                                    [sorry > that’s the best I could do!]

            it is impossible to be good in all the ways that God is good

            from the day we are born > sin gets in the way

Our sinful nature gets a little help from its friends

            1.  We try to legalize goodness > what we call ‘good’ is often merely what is legal

                        If it’s illegal > then it is not good; if we haven’t broken any laws, we must be good

2.      Reason we have to legalize goodness > as a nation don’t know how to “be good”

We do not teach moral formation >

generations can grow up without knowing their moral duty

goodness to us means little more than ‘the opposite of badness’

 

What can we do?

Since our nature and our culture work against us, how can we cultivate goodness?

Phil Kenneson names three possibilities

1.      Learn to name our sin > each one of us  

We need to admit we do not have our act together

So we begin each week with our unison confession of sin

      Good starting place

2.  Listen for God’s voice > find quiet place at home > or walk labyrinth in memorial garden

I half expected noise of traffic to interfere > not so

Even on this busy corner > doesn’t take much to shut out all voices but God’s

Take your Bible with you > when you reach center table > read a bit

3.       Imitate those whom you know are good >

Learning to live a good life is not the same as learning a new computer program!

Learning to live good life is more like learning to swing baseball bat

            Watch a pro > watch a video of your swing > work to get the two together

Cultivating goodness is a lifelong process > and it requires a bit of pruning every Spring

 

NEXT TO GOODNESS IS FAITHFULNESS

Once we begin attending to our goodness branch > we’ll find faithfulness branch next to it

Psalmist wrote

            The Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever

            And his faithfulness to all generations (Psalm 100:5)

                        Faithfulness has many synonyms

                        Reliability, steadfastness, constancy, fidelity, dependability, trustworthiness

Since God is the image, and we are “imagees” >  we are commissioned to be faithful like God is

            Yet Scripture and our own biographies testify to our chronic unfaithfulness

                        It’s so easy to be unfaithful > and I’m not talking about fidelity to spouses

                        I’m taking about our infidelity to all of life

                        Years ago we got tired of taking care of our things > so we made them disposable

We are deeply committed to being uncommitted > we don’t stick with anything very long

Our lack of commitment begins with our orange juice in the morning > carton is empty > toss it out

From our jobs to our friends and our churches and our hobbies > we do not truly commit

            One of our favorite phrases > “You’d better not count on me for __________.”

                        meaning, of course, that we may find something “more rewarding” to do at that time

How can we cultivate ‘faithfulness’ when we live in the midst of so much unfaithfulness?

First > we can celebrate God’s abiding presence

            Simply coming to worship together each week reminds us > God will never leave us

            When we hear stories of Scripture again > we remember > and we are lifted up

Second > practice making and keeping promises

            We Christians have more reason than others to make and keep promises

            We worship a promise-making and promise-keeping God

            We are to be that kind of witness in the world > or, as close as we can be

And finally > to cultivate faithfulness, we need to tell the truth

            I was assigned once task of watching three popular TV shows > “How is truth learned?”

            Amazingly > truth never heard first-hand > always overheard > learned in hiding

            That’s horrible!  How can we be faithful to each other if we can’t even tell the truth?

            We have same problem with faithfulness as goodness > we’re not taught how to tell the truth

                        We don’t have to be brutal in truth-telling > there are gentle ways to be truthful

                        One of my favorite books > Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenthall

                                    Easy model for being truthful without being hurtful

                                    If any of you want to learn about it > let me know > we’ll start a class!

God in Christ has told the truth about each of us > we are not yet what we will be

 

CONCLUSION

I mentioned the old Sufi man who asked God to let him be good without even knowing it

With a little careful work > we can cultivate the fruit of goodness and faithfulness

            Before long > with God’s help > we can be good and kind without even knowing it