Tending the Garden for a Good Harvest: Goodness

It was Friday night in Atlanta, Georgia. For two solid days, we had worshiped with 12,000 pastors and church leaders, listening to fantastic speakers and being challenged. And eating stadium food at stadium prices. We decided we wanted to eat somewhere else, somewhere authentically Atlanta. Though I was hoping for some places I saw on Man Vs. Food, they would have required an hour+ drive back into the city, and we didn’t want that. But there was another place that came recommended by the Travel Channel, authentically Atlanta, something you couldn’t get anywhere else. In fact, their website brags that they have been serving customers since 1928 – and people come from all over the world to experience… The Varsity.

Now, despite being a cavernous place with a line of bored cashiers (one of whom was shouting “Whatllyahave” repeatedly, everything looked pretty good. The menu looked really good. We were all really hungry (especially since we had been waiting around all evening for Rudy to get off the phone), so we were excited to get our food.

When we got our food, and when we began eating it, we learned two important lessons. Don’t trust the travel channel, and just because something looks good doesn’t mean it is good.

Today we are looking at the sixth aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit: goodness. Like Rusty said last week about “kindness”, goodness is one of those mushy terms like neato and nice. On the surface, there seems to be a lot of overlap between kindness and goodness, and even the Greek term (Chrestotes), which means kindness, includes in its definition “goodness.”

The word here for goodness is (agathasune), which comes from the root agathos which means “good.” The kind of goodness we’re talking about is moral uprightness of heart and life, an attitude of generous kindness to others, even being happy to do more than required.

After looking at some tough aspects of the Fruit of the Spirit, it’s finally nice to get something easy. I mean, I know we will end up talking about self-control, but it’s nice to not be talking about patience again, isn’t it? We’re a bunch of good people, right? I mean, isn’t that what we’ve been trying for all our lives? To be good? Just look around: you’re surrounded by a bunch of good people, right? Or, if you’re not surrounded by good people, at least you’re good. You look good, at least! But I’m reminded that the Varsity looked like a good place to eat, too.

Last week, however, Rusty read a scripture from Romans 3:10-12. As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

No one does good. Not even one. What does this mean? It means if you’ve come in here to show people how good you are, you can take the mask off now. And it means if you somehow think you’re morally better than someone else, you can give that notion up as well. What is “good enough” anyway? I’ll tell you what good enough is. You know the Ten Commandments? Well, good enough starts with having always kept all Ten. Starts. Good enough is this: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back (Luke 6:27-35).

We’re really good at that, aren’t we? Really, what the world sees of us is we’re a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites who hate anyone who isn’t like us. Self-righteous because we make determinations as to which sins are ‘bad’ and which ones are OK – and those determinations are based on which ones we do. And that makes us hypocrites as well, as we go on sinning while at the same time offering condemnation for others.

We don’t set out to be bad. At least most of us don’t. But who can relate to the words the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome: I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing (Romans 7:18-19).

In Mark 10, when a rich young ruler approaches Jesus, he addresses him as “Good teacher” and asked him how to get eternal life. Jesus responds, “Why do you call me good? No one is good –except God alone” (Mark 10:17-18).

Understand that in the OT and in subsequent Judaism, only God was characteristically called Good. Jesus affirms this, which was also to say that human achievement was insufficient for gaining eternal life. Only by an utter reliance on God could anyone hope for eternal life.

Do you see the problem here?

God is defined by his goodness. Remember when I defined avgaqwsu,nh for you? It is generous kindness to others, even being happy to do more than required. Doesn’t that define God’s grace? Last week Rusty defined God’s grace as getting all of God’s blessings when we deserve none. This is God’s goodness. A God who created us in His image and gave us the ability to make choices, good or bad. And we continually make bad choices. This contrast is why we give God a bad name. People say, “How can your God be so good when His people are so bad?” Obviously we don’t want to be bad. But our culture, even Christian culture, often tells us that it’s by our goodness that we achieve eternal life. Even if not specifically stated this way, that’s the practical theology many of us live by. “As long as we’re good enough…”

So how do we change this? How can we be good? Or, another way to put it: how can we, as self-determining creatures who are prone to fall, to do the evil we do not want to do, how can we come to the maturity of moral character that reflects the goodness of God?

This can occur only by the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s plan for redemption can only be accomplished when God’s own Spirit dwells in the fallen human heart so as to refashion it.

In Psalm 16:1-2, King David prays: Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge. I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."

Apart from God, we have no good thing. And apart from God, we do no good thing. But it is in God’s nature to give us good gifts, and not just OK good gifts, but truly Good Gifts. I remember begging for the Land of the Jawas playset for Christmas one year. I got it, and was quite disappointed to find that the sandcrawler was just cardboard, which quickly ended up in the garbage. That was a gift I’d asked for, but it wasn’t really a good gift. God, on the other hand, gives truly Good gifts.

In Luke 11, Jesus asks “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13).

You see, this gift of God trumps every other possible gift. And goodness can only be present in our lives through God, who gives us Himself, the Holy Spirit, who comes to live within us.

And here is the way the Holy Spirit works: He changes us from the inside out. Matthew 7:17 reminds us that every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

So what does it look like when we begin to bear good fruit?

James, the brother of Jesus, wrote this in James 1:27: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Are you looking after orphans and widows? Last week at the Catalyst Conference, we were given leather key chains with the number 143 on them. Representing the 143 million orphans in the world today. 143 million. http://143million.org

This past month at our Council on Ministries meeting, Karen Reed brought information that she had gotten from a United Methodist Women’s gathering, horrifying information about human trafficking. Did you know that the slave trade is alive and well? http://www.crisisaid.org The average age of a trafficked victim is 11-14 years old. Every 2 minutes a child is being prepared for exploitation. You might think this is a phenomenon that is far from us – maybe Africa or Asia, but the FBI reports that over 300,000 children in the United States are at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses. In fact, Columbus and Toledo, Ohio are two centers for child exploitation. It’s not far away at all.

I would personally rather not even know about this. I wish I didn’t. But now that we do, we have a duty to do something about it, to show God’s goodness into the darkest of circumstances. You see, we don’t just have this information just so we can feel bad about orphans and exploited children. We have this information so we can do something about it. My family has supported a boy in Uganda for quite a long time through Compassion International. http://www.compassion.org. This is a great way to do something about the problem, to show God’s goodness in concrete and tangible ways.

In Isaiah 58, the prophet presents a picture of a people who want to hear from God, and they want God to hear from them, so they’re going through all of the “right” channels; they’re fasting and praying, but God responds this way:

Isaiah 58 ⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

an ⁶"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

I understand this is hard. It’s not the way our culture is wired. We’re wired to look after mine and myself, too look out for #1. But this is exactly the way God is wired. This is God’s heart. God calls us to follow His heart, to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us.

We live in dark days. But if we call on God, crying for help, if we do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, if we spend ourselves in behalf of the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, God gives us a promise.

His light will shine into the darkness. He will guide us and satisfy our needs. He will strengthen us. And we will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. We’ve been talking about tending a garden for a good harvest; isn’t this what we’re asking for?