There is an abundance of parables in today's passage from Luke, the Doctor and a Gentile. Not the typical person you'd expect to hear in one of the Four approved Gospels. And yet, Luke's Gospel has much to say.
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit". What are we to take from a line like this? Certainly God is capable of whatever She wants to do. But that is not what we are hearing today. We are hearing the way that we can expect God's world to act. These are lessons for us all. It is human arrogance to think that we can behave in two ways. There is a singularity of goodness required in us to produce the good works of the Lord. God can produce goodness out of malice but that goodness would not be our doing. We cannot do evil and have the illusion in ourselves that God will make it ok so what we did, however bad, is ok too. Evil perpetrated by us is evil. But it isn't real evil I am speaking of specifically. Our actions on a daily basis are born of our good heart and good intentions. This is how people can see the kind of person you are, the actions you live out on a day to day basis. Your actions betray your beliefs. Are you a Christian or not?
What are we to think when we see others' actions that do not jive with what they are proclaiming? On a personal level? On a national level? As a nation? In our President and elected officials? Of course we are responsible for our own actions. We must make sure we live our love and not transgress. But as a citizen we also bear responsibility and the ability to judge for ourselves. It is a gift God has handed us that we must fight for and and a responsibility we must live up to. Vote, especially when you see actions not following beliefs.
Right now I see no good fruit coming our way from Washington. What say you?
Luke 6:39-49
He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.
‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit;for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.’
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