good fruit, bad fruit

SERMON PREACHED AT St PAUL’S, ARROWTOWN

and St Peter’s, Queenstown

EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

(March 2nd) 2025

 

 Readings

Isaiah 55: 10-13

Psalm 92: 1-4, 12-15

Luke 6: 43-45

 

 One of the first actions of those who would seek to control a populace is to eradicate the arts and humanities from the curriculum of schools and universities. 

Cartoonists are  often amongst the first to be silenced one way or another. The staff of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo became one shocking modern example when they were bombed on three occasions, most tragically in 2015. The suppression of artistic comment is not copyright to anyone oppressive or would be oppressive regime, though in that case the atrocities were perpetrated by Muslim extremists. I should perhaps add that I have never been a fan of the kind of satirical aggression that Charlie Hebdo represented, but execution is never a satisfactory solution to political, racial or religious differences. 

Less recently, and therefore less well known, was the execution of English cartoonist Stephen College – admittedly in the 17th century. He was fighting for the right of a Roman Catholic to succeed to the throne in England, and was hung drawn and quartered by Protestant militia. But look, too, to the patterns of dictatorships throughout history: German, Spanish, Ugandan … the list is endless.

Let me emphasise that my focus here is on the Jesus sayings around good trees and bad fruit, bad trees and good fruit. 

It is sometimes necessary to look at those who would be leaders of society and to make judgements. We are called to do so, based on their behaviour and attitudes. 

I had for example the misfortune yesterday to watch footage of the President and Vice President of the United States using the worst forms of bully tactics in attempts to cow the spirit of the president of Ukraine.

It was ugly, and without any judgement of what sort of a person Zelenskyy is, for I have no way of knowing, Trump and Vance betrayed deep inhumanity. It has of course long been a pattern of Trump’s behaviour, though I had never heard of the man prior to his descent into an ostentatious foyer on an ostentatious escalator back in 2015. I remember only too well his stalking overbearance as he paced the stage attempting to cow Hilary Clinton. 

Because she is a woman, and his attitudes to women are well-known. Because she stood in his way. 

Zelenskyy is not a woman, but he stands in the way of Trumpian schemes, personal or national, to gain mineral wealth and power. Bullying body language is a sad response, though it was probably wasted on the Ukrainian comic and satirist.  

For those of you who believe that politics should never enter the metaphorical pulpit, I largely agree. By and large I believe those who preach should not tell their listeners how to vote. And quite clearly I can’t do that because few who will hear me today if any have the right to vote in the USA, and if any happened to be USA citizens it is some considerable time before you get the chance to vote again.

Jesus takes us deeply into territory in which we assess the virtue of a person at least in part through their external demeanour and behaviour. There are of course some exceptions; a person suffering from virulent forms of mental illness can hardly be blamed for their behaviour. Tourette’s Syndrome is perhaps the most obvious example of this.

When I worked in inner city Melbourne I from time to time preached in a small chapel catering specifically to the needs of those who are living on or around the streets, and who often lived with the outcomes of mental illness. One in particular remains in my mind. He would, in a loud voice, pronounce a word that rhymes with duck to demonstrate his agreement or otherwise with statements I was making.

The word was of course unfamiliar to me, but one or two people indicated that some could find it faintly offensive. Can it be such when it is an illness, not an attitude of heart or spirit that is speaking? We adapted to the gentleman’s expostulations.

But in world politics today we are not in any sense dealing with mental illness from the leaders of the free world. In the lead up to elections I am often met with variations on a theme of “it’s the economy, stupid!” This phrase or something like it tends to be spoken when I am exploring suggestions that compassion and a bias to the most vulnerable and broken of God’s earth are the key navigational beacon as we ascertain who it is to whom our votes should go.

I am no economist, so my response is generally to smile vacuously, and to believe something quite different.

So we come at last to good trees and bad fruit and bad trees and good fruit.

We as a people of God are called, as the Bible puts it, to test the spirits. Politicians of course are becoming increasingly rancorous, perhaps because that is increasingly the form of entertainment we expect from them. That is a judgement on us.

I thank God for church leaders such as Bishop Budde, Bishop of Washington, who speak out of a deeply biblical sense of the priorities of justice and compassion. As I watched the performance of the president and vice president of the USA badgering the president of Ukraine I could not but think of the firm but compassionate words delivered by the Mariann Budde in her cathedral at the inauguration of the 47th Presidency.

“The good person” says Jesus “out of the good treasure of the heart produces good and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil.”

I do not think God is right wing or left wing. God does not always agree with me and in any case I’ve seen inspirational leadership and the betterment of society come from both wings of politics at different times. I do not believe that we can change politics in a far-off country. I do think we are challenged to speak out where we see injustice and to act out where we see a lack of compassion, wherever we are

Sometimes to do that is to be called woke or politically correct.

I’m not sure of the meaning of those words. I do know that Jesus hangs out with those who are broken and on the fringes of society. He sternly addresses those who are in positions of privilege and power when they abuse or oppress the vulnerable.

I began with cartoonists but I used the word as what scholars call metonym. I have mentioned Washington already. I referred to it as a geographical location, or a diocese in that particular case.

Such a word becomes “metonym” when we use it to represent all that is associated with the word and the place or activity the word describes.

“Washington” can also mean the US government. “Canberra” can mean the Australian government. “Cartoonist” can mean all who use the arts to express deep social truths, faith-based or otherwise.

“Cartoonists” in this sense are often amongst the first to find themselves up against the wall when a government becomes authoritarian, dictatorial, shuffling its way towards evil. Muslim extremists took lives at Charlie Hebdo because they objected to the rights to freedom of speech. Dictators kill those who threaten them. Ask Vladimir Putin.

Dictatorial leaders do their best to silence historians, novelists, cartoonists, even in the specific sense of those words. Some of you may remember the persecution of punk rock band Pussy Riot in Mr. Putin’s Russia or that of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in the United States. Rock bands and folk singers can easily find themselves up against the wall, metaphorically or literally.

So too can church leaders, and one thinks immediately of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King jr., Desmond Tutu. One fears for the future, and God forbid it may be this dark, of Bishop Mariann Budde.

God forbid, indeed, and let us be thankful that we live in a tiny and unimportant nation. But that should never lead us to complacency. We must speak out where we see indecency, close by or far away. We must speak out where we see bad fruit revealing the dark secret that the tree that bears it is rotten to the core. Sometimes we will disagree with one another, and we must do so in love, but Jesus throughout especially Luke’s account of the gospel, challenges us, dares us to speak out for justice and compassion.