Fruit in a World of Doubt

"So today I ate a mango like a savage. I bet if anyone saw me they would have thought there was a zombie in disguise living across the street"  - from the web

 “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.”  (Galatians 5: 22-23).

In a few weeks, I’ll return to serve in parish ministry. There are amazing wondrous things about parish ministry and serving God’s people.  It is sweet and ripe with compassion and love. It often flourishes with people sharing tender care for each other, and seeking service first. Genuine generosity blossoms from many hearts with unmatched fragrant grace.

And occasionally there is that pit. People are people and ministry can be tough and hard-hearted. Ministers pray for their people to be tender-hearted, but sometimes the pastor herself has a heart of stone. Human frailty deceives wearing the skin of beauty. It is peeled back to reveal a less than appealing core. No fruit bearing there.

“Don’t be [hardhearted] as your ancestors were. Clasp God’s outstretched hand. Come to his Temple of holy worship, consecrated for all time. Serve God, your God.” 2 Chronicles 30:8

Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ V3

                           Jesus calls us in, sends us out             

                         bearing fruit in a world of doubt,                      

                           gives us love to tell, bread to share:                

                        God (Immanuel) ev'rywhere!         

                                                                  Jesus lives again, earth can breathe again

                                                                  pass the word around; loaves abound.

                                                                  Jesus lives again, earth can breathe again

                                                                  pass the Word around; loaves abound!

                  

   One of the most perfect fruit is a mango. Over 1000 varieties worldwide, it is a sensuous and tempting fruit, with a dizzying fruity, piney perfume . And a taste that is a temptation hard to resist.  It has even been pondered, that given its semi-tropical location, the Garden of Eden’s tempting fruit was really a mango.

 

Incidentally, in Eastern religions, the mango is a symbol of love. The mango leaves and blossoms are used in the worship of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, arts (music of love), creativity, eloquence and power. The symbol of the mango is in many eastern arts – a paisley shape. Mangos are mostly self-perpetuating. Only 15% are male and the rest both.

 

For our wedding shower, my husband and I got a mango slicer. One of the best inventions since blogs. I love the sweet fruity taste and the piney smell of a ripe mango. They are amazing and heavenly. Prior to this great gift, I would drool over mango from afar. They were too tough to figure out how to slice on my own to remove that huge stone pit, and too costly to buy the sliced up ones with any regularity from the store.

 

 Now it is regularly Mango Mondays at our house, and other days to boot. On those days, I actually sing a little song as I am preparing the mango for our enjoyment. First, I use the fantastic slicer to remove the big pit, then I lovingly cultivate the fruit.  (Oh, actually something to thank George Bush for -  The nuclear deal Bush signed with India allowed for the US to import mangoes and develop a love for them that showed imports triple in ten years! Mangos were imported more scarcely prior.)

 

The dark side of this fruit. Incredibly, mangos are related to poison ivy and you can get a rash from their skin and sap resin. The mango pits{Endocarp – a gross word in itself] are large, and sometimes the fruit does not yield that much.

Contemplating mangos, that is how I sometimes feel.  A hopeful depiction of beauty and goodness with this large pit of anger and madness inside. The love and compassion one needs for God’s service gives way to reveal a hardhearted core. Maybe there is only a zombie in disguise.

The hardness I fear  that can be in my heart feels like it leaves little room for the extraordinary love and kindness required in ministry.  God, send me a mango-type slicer to prune away the hardness in my heart so as to get to the tender, juicy loving-kindness of servant mango magic ministry.

One way can be learned by starting to see the magic in everything. Sometimes it seems to be hiding but it is always there. The more we can see the magic in one thing, a tiny flower, a mango, someone we love, then the more we are able to see the magic in everything and in everyone. Where does the mango stop and the sky begin? 

 Joshua Kadison, musician and author of “17 Ways To Eat A Mango: A Discovered Journal of Life on an Island of Miracles”, Hyperion, 1999

Thank you God for answered prayer and helping me to see more magic and the Spirit of a Mango Ministry.