This is a message on our expectations for one another. The other messages in this series are available here

Scripture Reading:
Matthew 7:15-20

A Tree and it Fruit

Message Files / Archive / WHF

Actually, it’s a little weird for us to be talking about spirits at all. In our culture, we don’t talk about this stuff. We’re not inclined to talk about the evil eye or throwing a pinch of salt over your shoulder. It all sounds so medieval to our ears.

Maybe that’s not fair. In the old days of Saturday Night Live, Steve Martin played a character called, “Theodoric of York, medieval barber.” For the most part, Theodoric prescribed “blood letting” for every malady. It was hysterical. In one episode, he tells a worried mother, “Not that long ago, we would have blamed your daughter’s illness on the work of evil spirits. Now we know it is the result of a toad or small dwarf living in her stomach.” Apparently, even Theodoric of York had his doubts about spirits.

Between Theodoric and the people in this room, there are about 800 years of rational, scientific thought. We know that spirits cannot produce a fever. They do not spoil milk. They do not ruin our television reception right before the big game, nor do they cause our tires to go flat. The world just doesn’t work that way, and we know it.

Can this admonishment to “test the spirits” mean anything to people like us?

* * *

Recently, I heard an interview with a director named, Guillermo del Toro. He talked about growing up in Mexico. Even as a boy, Guillermo loved to draw monsters. He kept drawing all this wild stuff. Finally, his grandmother decided he must need an exorcism. The way she saw it, only the malevolent work of an evil spirit could draw so many monsters from the mind of one small boy. So the grandmother threw some holy water on Guillermo and she started to pray.

Well, Guillermo started to laugh. He thought it was funny that his own grandmother was performing an exorcism on him. But the grandmother started shouting, “Don’t you laugh at the holy water! Don’t laugh!” To her, the laughter sounded like disrespect. To her, it was further evidence of an evil spirit at work.

When Guillermo was even younger, this same grandmother put bottle caps inside his shoes. She made sure the smooth part of the bottle cap rested on the sole of his shoe, and all the sharp edges were waiting for his foot, like a crown of thorns. His grandmother told Guillermo to walk to school like this. She told him that hurting the flesh would make his spirit stronger.

When I hear a story like this, I start to understand what it means to test the spirits. Without meaning any disrespect, I want to remind Guillermo’s grandmother of this Scripture, “Do not believe every spirit.” Not everything that claims the authority of God is worthy of our trust. You have to discern what is truly of God.

Although John suggests we test each spirit for theological pedigree, I think Jesus offers a better test. Jesus told us we could recognize a spirit by the fruit it produces. You might not be able to see the spirit, but you can see the fruit it produces. And so this is how we can test the spirits. We can know them by the sort of fruit that they produce.

* * *

It doesn’t matter what you call it. If you are following a spirit that leads you to harm someone, then judge this spirit by the fruit it produces. Simply look at what you are doing. If you are putting bottle caps into the shoes of children, then it is time to uproot the spirit that leads you. If our lives bear the fruit of a judgement or cruelty, then it is time to uproot the spirit that guides us. If our lives bear the fruit of anger or selfishness or apathy, then we are led by a false spirit. Even if our life bears no fruit at all, we have good reason to believe that something better is possible.

To understand what Jesus is saying, we have to get past the cosmology of it all. If we imagine that a spirit is something that appears at seances or gets unmasked on Scooby Do, then spirits are easy to dismiss.

But what if “spirit” is simply another name for those currents beneath the surface of our lives that bear one sort of fruit or another. Rather than ectoplasm, think of spirit as something connected to our habits of perception, to our fears and desires. Think about the way each life has its own inertia. There are patterns at work inside each of us, and those patterns unfold in one direction or another. Even if we never hear a voice, these patterns “tell us” which way we should go. This dynamic is something spiritual. And we can identify the spirit by whatever fruit it produces in our lives.

Once, I heard a woman say, “Every man I find attractive turns out to be an alcoholic.” She went on to say, “Finally, I made it rule never to date anyone I met in a bar. But it didn’t matter. I could meet a guy at church or at the grocery store. Every time, I would pick the one guy who’s an alcoholic.” This woman had enough experience to recognize a pattern in her life. Something kept telling her to go in the same direction. Eventually, she came to understand that this particular voice was not a reliable guide.

In my own life, there are currents that tend to pull me in one direction or another. Although I love community, I often feel tugged toward solitude. I often feel pulled in the direction of melancholy. In this sense, I have come to know the spirits that haunt me in the lonely places and times of frustration. I have learned that not every voice is worthy of my trust.

Perhaps it would be a useful exercise to reflect on the spirits you have come to know in your own life. What are the voices you hear that pull you in one direction or another? Do you ever hear a voice telling you that you can’t make a difference? Do you ever hear a voice telling you that everything depends on you? What do you hear? And what sort of fruit do these voices bear?

* * *

As individuals, we need to test the spirits. I also want us to think about our life together. I want us to think about the sort of fruit we bear collectively.

Together, we bear good fruit. Sometimes, I think about all the amazing people that are here and I am overwhelmed with gratitude. It is such a blessing to have you with me on my spiritual journey. You are some of the very best people I know.

Routinely, I hear visitors use the same words to describe us. They can feel a sense of community here. Even those who visit us for the first time can sense the love we have for one another.

There is a sense freedom in this community. There is a joyous sense of expectation. We expect grace and transformation and joy. Collectively, I think of us as generous and active. We are eager to work for peace and justice.

West Hills Friends is a very fruitful place. We have so many reasons to celebrate!

* * *

We also have room to grow.

In our life together, what are the patterns that produce unwanted fruit?

I will suggest one. In this community, those who take on the responsibilities of leadership routinely feel frustrated. I am pointing to a type of fruit we bear. This has become something routine in our life together. Leaders who coordinate our childcare have said this. So have those who coordinate work projects. These are not isolated complaints. The people who work to get us organized routinely feel frustrated or isolated or overburdened. I know this is not what we want for ourselves.

Lets work together to name the spirit that produces this bitter fruit. How can we uproot this false spirit and replace it with something true?

What pattern brought us to this place? How do we get someplace better?