Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE

Galatians 5: 1,13-25

When I was a kid I loved it when we would stay at a state or national park and get guided hikes by the Park Rangers. They were great at sharing information about various trees, birds, and animals. As a kid the funniest part of these adventures was always the part where we got to look at scat— or, as we kids knew it was called, just plain poop. The Park Rangers were fascinated by poop! At first I didn’t understand what the big deal was— it was pretty gross to look at. But then I began to see the differences too. Years later my sister-in-law did a field education out west that was literally a field education. She spent all summer looking for evidence of coyotes. I thought this would be very exciting, and but after a few weeks she admitted that most of what they did was— you guessed it— looked for coyote poop. And then they got to bring back samples when they found some!

Scientists, of course, have also begun using more recent technology, like gps trackers that they put on animals to see what their patterns are and where they go all day long. Recently in Australia, they found out something interesting, even though they lost all of their trackers. They had put five units on five magpie birds. But what they found, is within minutes, another magpie that didn’t have a tracker was helping the other birds get their trackers off. At first the scientists weren’t worried because it was just one bird, but then others came, and rather quickly all five birds had been helped to get off their trackers— the birds had outsmarted the scientists!

This morning I want to talk to you about something that is often described as a bird— the Holy Spirit. In the United States, the Holy Spirit gets depicted as a dove most often; while in Scotland it’s depicted as a wild goose. But I would imagine that a magpie might be an apt description as well— something wild, intelligent, and always up to something!

Have you ever wondered how to find God? Where to look for God’s Spirit? How to know if God is here? Well, like looking for clues in nature, watching for scat or fur or footprints or broken grass where an animal has been laying down, we can look for the Holy Spirit in the world. The signs we are to look for, are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And it’s by no accident that Paul lists love first — because all of the others come out of love.

Love can be a surprisingly difficult thing to talk about though, mainly because in our culture we throw the word around as if it really means nothing at all. Watch commercials for awhile, and love pops up a lot. Some of the most famous slogans with love are “I’m lovin’ it” from McDonalds; Love: it’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru; and a commercial for Zillow in which the theme song is a song called, “Love you.” So in our culture, we use the same word to talk about our happy meals, cars, and buying a house as we do for the relationship between a parent and a child; the life force that we receive from God; the commitment we make in marriage. It’s a bit confusing, don’t you think? What do we mean when we talk about love as the fruit of the Spirit?

Thomas Merton said, “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence: for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name. If therefore, I do anything or think anything or say anything or know anything or desire anything that is not purely for the love of God, it cannot give me peace, or rest, or fulfillment, or joy.” (Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton)

Love is my identity.

John Wesley said that all of us who are following Jesus are going on to perfection. And how did he describe perfection? Not the way we might describe it— Wesley said we are being made perfect in love.

Love is our goal. Love is our beginning. Love is the reason for our existence.

J Philip Newell, in his book “The Rebirthing of God,” talks about what it looks like to be open to love changing us. He describes a time when he found out a friend of his was going to be in town. He had known this friend when he was much younger, and since then had found out that his friend had come out of the closet and was gay. J Philip Newell describes how it is that he had come to a different intellectual understanding of what it meant to be gay than the one he had grown up with, and in his mind he was quite open. But in his heart and gut, he still felt burdened by the idea. Wanting to show hospitality and love, he invited his friend and his friend’s partner to dinner at his home. A couple of days before J Philip and his wife were to host his friend, his friend called and let them know that he and his partner were vegetarian and that he hoped it wouldn’t be too much of a burden for their hosts. So immediately J Philip and his wife went shopping to create a meal their guests could eat. On the night of the meal, they welcomed their guests wholeheartedly, but things were a bit awkward as they all sat down for the meal. J Philip’s wife came in, carrying the main dish and said, “I hope it’s alright. It’s been awhile since I’ve made a homosexual meal.” There was a moment of silence and then they all burst out laughing. Her gaf allowed them all to laugh at the situation, to recognize their friendship again, and to extend love to each other.

Love allows us to change our minds when we realize that the beliefs we held don’t lead to the Spirit’s fruits. Love gives us permission to change our behavior and patterns of living in the world when we realize that we don’t see the Holy Spirit’s fruit. Love grows within us the ability to let go of barriers that are keeping us from one another, and instead to approach each other with curiosity and with openness, knowing that when we see the Spirit’s fruit, than we know that God is with us.



Paul says in Galatians that we are freed up to receive the Spirit, and that with our newfound freedom we can then become slaves to one another. This can seem odd to our American ears. We often describe freedom as something individualistic— I now get to do what I want and that is my right, no matter how much it affects you. But Paul says that the freedom we receive in Christ is a freedom to love one another unconditionally— to not be caught by expecting others to return love in kind; to not be deceived by thinking that our contribution in loving is to be rewarded; we are freed from worrying about the prize given out for those who love the most or thinking that we are earning God’s love. It’s freely given! Our response to the freedom we receive in love, is to love one another.

Of course Paul is not coming to this on his own— this is the same message we hear from Jesus. He shares with the disciples that the Holy Spirit will be coming to be with them; that the need not fear; that they will not be alone; and that their mandate is to love one another. God’s Spirit is here to lead us and guide us and give us the courage to love one another.

The scientists studying magpies weren’t sure what to make of the data they received from losing their gps devices, but one of their theories is that the magpies are intelligent enough to behave altruistically. In other words they actually helped one another with no expectation of being helped in return. They just wanted what was best for their friends.

Surely if the Holy Spirit is helping the magpies live out love, we can learn to as well! Love is all around us. Church, let us love one another for God is love. And the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love!