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March 01, 2010

Rector's Reflections

For the Tree is Known by its Fruit

In Matthew 12:33b, Jesus says, “For the tree is known by its fruit”. His meaning is rather clear: that we learn something important about a person or a community by looking at what comes from that person or community. It is a lesson about discernment, and it also sounds a note of caution: we cannot enter someone else’s heart, we cannot know what goes on inside someone else, but we can see what another brings forth and offers to the world, and that will have a connection to what lies within.

I think that this teaching of Jesus makes sense not only when applied to people or communities; it also makes sense when applied to the experiences of God that other people claim to have. Ultimately, we can never know another person’s experience from within—but we can know the fruits of that experience, and that will tell us something about the experience itself.

I raise this for your consideration as we find ourselves in the midst of Lent, moving toward Easter and our annual celebration of the Resurrection. Inevitably, as Easter draws near, various media outlets will feature articles about the Resurrection of Jesus, and whether or not it is all true. And, some of these questions will arise within ourselves, as we seek here in the early 21st century to understand how it is that we can proclaim the Resurrection with integrity in an age that is perhaps increasingly skeptical about such things.

The Resurrection is not an experience we can know from within. None of us has ever been raised from the dead, none of us has ever met someone who has been. We were not among the first followers of Jesus who first made this proclamation that Christ had been risen. No, we cannot know that experience from within. But we can and do know the fruits of that experience. We know that most of the prominent followers of Jesus dedicated their life to proclaiming the risen Christ, and most of them died for it. We know that a new energy was released into the world, that drove the growth of the Christian community in an unprecedented way. Whatever the Resurrection is or was, it transformed the lives of those early followers of Jesus, who were convinced that Jesus, though crucified, was nevertheless alive and an active part of their experience.

In my experience, this kind of transformation does not happen by accident, nor is it inspired by a made-up story. It comes from a deep conviction of the truth and authenticity of that which provides the catalyst for that transformation.

So I have given up trying to figure out the mechanics of the Resurrection or understand the experience from within. I cannot figure it out, nor can I understand it. I can know something about it from the fruits that experience produced, however. As I see those fruits in the writings left by the first followers of Jesus, and as I see them in the Christian community down through the centuries to our own day, then I can begin to see them in myself, as I understand at an ever deeper level the way in which Christ is alive to me and in me, ever creating in me the new life that those first disciples experienced so profoundly.

Peace, Matthew+