11/23/2004

Community and the Fruit of the Spirit

This probing piece by Aaron Klinefelter took my breath away. Which is to say, I got all exercised and had to sit down to comment.

My comments:
The possibility of and desire for Community, as I see it, even among "pre-Christians" (Sjorgren) is animated by the Trinitarian nature of all creation. It's not just the desparately needed response to our current "American funk." It is the cry deep within all creation, that only God can satisfy, and embodies His mysterious plan (Col. 1., Eph. 1-3, etc.). The Psalmist, ever the truth teller, proclaims, "How good it is, how pleasant, where the people dwell as one!" (Psalm 133:1 NAB). The western evangelical call for personal salvation mitigates, in some troubling ways, against the formation of Trinitarian relationships (See Steve Bush's essay at What is Salvation). In our brokenness, as Aaron points out, we fall short of allowing God, in His Mercy, to bear the Fruits of of Spirit (Gal. 5:22) in us.

The Fruits of the Spirit transcend culture; they are not Eastern or Western or Occidental or African, or Aboriginal, or even "American", etc. They are universal, and God will grow them anywhere His creation recognizes its utter dependence on God's Grace for its being and purpose, and willfully surrenders to His Love. He grows them in us that we might be fully our true selves, full of Christ, each and all. To the extent a culture convinces itself that the Fruits are its alone, or that the Fruit of the Spirit are primarily for individual growth in the Spirit, it is, again, broken. Why would God grow this Fruit in us if not to nourish us, each and all together, as we grow in likeness to Jesus?



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