What happens when we live God’s way? God brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. —Galatians 5.22-23 (the Message)
This week we will review the 10 fruits of the Spirit that we discussed all summer. We’ll be meeting in our new space and spread out with post-its on the walls to discuss the various fruit- and their integration into everyday life. We’ll also use this to segue into our fall discussion on “What is an Abbey?: practices of shared life.”
Come, as usual, from 5-7 for prayer, song, discussion, communion, and a potluck. Parking available in the front gravel lot by the Sullivan Center. We’re neer the corner of Dill and Metropolitan. 639 Dill Ave SW, 30310.
In his famous poem, Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, Wendell Berry writes:
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go.
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Resurrection flips our expectations on their end, and Jesus’ friends are faced with their freedom to live into a new way of life. Paul would write decades latter to second wave Jesus followers that they are free to flip the script, to live outside of the former expectations of life, and lean, instead, into new creation, new life.
What does that new life look like for you? Have you, like Paul, spotted it around you? What does it taste like, this new fruit from the Spirit?
