Fruit vs Veg.

In case you were wondering, yes, we do like to play this game at home.  The ever-popular fun game of 'fruit or vegetable.'  It's a scream.  Here's how it's played: You look at a plant based thing on your plate, and say whether it's a fruit or a vegetable.  Hilarity ensues.

Now, you may very well claim something important here, which is that this isn't fun, and if you'd claim that, you don't live in my house.  We love this game, even though it only has one rule.  Does

the plant based item in question have seeds?  If it has seeds, it's a fruit.

That seems too simple, really, but it's not.  That's the definition for a fruit, period the end.  There is nothing else to say on the subject.  And I know, you may kick and scream, but it's true, that's what fruit is. Fruit is what the plant gives you that has a seed in it.

I'm aware that this all seems pretty simplistic, but it stands in opposition to how we use the things in question, which is why this game is so hard.  This game is so hard because how we use the botany in question.  We use fruit for tasty snacks, and we use vegetables as things to avoid because of how gross they are.  But that doesn't change the base botany of the situation as much as we might like to.  This is why, when it comes to Subway, when they offer you the chance to top your sandwich with fresh 'veggies,' there are only three veggies in the list.  The rest is fruit.  But you'd find it strange if they offered to top your sandwich with delicious fruit, wouldn't you?  Nobody goes into a steak restaurant and asks for a side of fruit, even though their seasonal veggies are primarily composed of fruit.  And as I say, there's only one rule here;  Does it have seeds?

As bad as you are at determining botany, you're every bit as bad at determining spiritual fruit as well.  You don't think you are, but nobody ever thinks they are.  Nobody ever thinks that they can't tell one from the other.  We assume we've got this figured out.  Now, when Jesus tells us to bear spiritual fruit, that's the question that we have to ask ourselves about what we're doing - is it fruit?  In other words, does it have seeds in it?  This is why the plant produces fruit to begin with, because it wants you to eat that fruit.  The plant wants you to eat the fruit, snacking on the fruit and dropping the seed somewhere else, which, when it is buried, will grow up into a new plant.  This is what is intended by the idea of spiritual fruit that Jesus wants you to bear - that it should feed people, and plant seeds.  That's what we're supposed to do when we do the things we do, when we do charity, when we care for God's people, when we nurture and cherish them, we are supposed to be nourishing them, and planting seeds.

It's that that we are designed for.  We are designed to bear fruit.  As Jesus tells us, he is the vine, we are the branches, and through him we bear fruit.  And the great thing about grapes, figs, tomatoes, other things that grow on vines, is that they can be harvested again and again, and the plant isn't harmed.  It can grow for years, continually bringing forth fruit, and that fruit is eaten, and the seeds are planted.  And this is what we are asked to do in the scriptures.  The charity we do, the good works that we offer up, those are fruit.  We bring them forth, they nourish others, they plant seeds, and we can keep on bringing forth fruit for decades.

But we don't.  We offer up vegetables.  And this is where we run into problems.  Because, as mentioned, if fruit is what the plant offers up voluntarily to get its seeds planted, then what are vegetables?  Vegetables are leaves, roots, stems, all those things that aren't fruits.  So, what happens to the radish when you harvest the radishes?  The radish dies.  You harvest the plant to eat not the fruit, not the part the plant wants you to eat.  You harvest the plant to eat the root, pulling it up.  And the radish dies.

This is what we do all the time, because we can't tell the difference between fruit and vegetables.  We don't stop to check to see if what we're doing actually has seeds in it or not.  Are we planting seeds of the Gospel, or are we not?  When we do the charity that we do, is it to plant seeds, or is it to draw attention to us?  Is it a fruit, or is it a vegetable?

The people that Jesus discusses, albeit unfavorably, in the sermon on the mount, they're not going out of their way to make sure that people aren't being fed, but they're not thinking about whether or not they're planting seeds.  When it comes time to think about how charity is done, about how prayer is done, about any of these things, the people that Jesus was talking about weren't pondering through whether they were planting seeds or not.  They were thinking about themselves.  They were offering themselves up as the centre of attention.  They were offering up the branches instead of the fruit.

So what happens when we present ourselves up as the best and brightest thing for people to consider? It's a vegetable situation.  We get chewed up, and no seeds are planted.  The absolute opposite of what we would want to happen.  Instead of the goodness of the fruit that nourishes and plants seeds, we allow people to devour us and our efforts, and no seeds are planted.  Nobody comes to believe in God because you tell them you're a great person.  They do so partially because of the planting of seeds that you do.  Jesus is no different.

We are told to love each other as Christ has loved us, and in keeping with the fruit vs vegetable theme, how was it that Christ loved us?  It was first and foremost through forgiveness.  As Jesus says in the Gospel reading from Sunday, we did not choose him, but he chose us.  He sought us out while we were still sinners.  He came to find us in our sin and in our shame.  It wasn't as though he waited for us to be good before he would love us.  He came and found us while we were still sinners.  He loves us through forgiveness.

We are called by Christ to love one another as he loves us.  And the only way to do that is to think about how it is that Christ loves us, and to do so accordingly to each other.  It means to love each other not because we are great, not because we are fantastic, not because we do well, but because the people we are called to love aren't that loveable.  And neither are we.  Christ loves us in spite of that.  He loves us in a spirit of forgiveness.  He loves us even in our sin; and this is how we are called to love each other.  Not because the people you're called to love are great.  They aren't.  Nor are you.  Not because the people you've been called to love are easy to love.  They aren't.  They're as disastrous as you are.  But this is how you bear fruit, and this is how you plant seeds.  We feed each other with charity and forgiveness, and we plant the seeds of the Gospel, culminating with the notion that we love becasue he first loved us.