The gospel that was read this morning describes one of the first meetings of Jesus with his disciples, after his resurrection.
 
The disciples were gathered in a locked room on Sunday morning, following Jesus’ crucifixion, shivering with fear of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in their midst and identified himself in his resurrected state.
 
Then, according to St John’s gospel, he said, with remarkable brevity, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And, with those fifteen words, Jesus set everything in motion that is described in the book of Acts, the spreading of the Good News of salvation around the world. It was a monumental task, but they had help.

A few days prior, Jesus had promised his disciples that when the time came, he would leave them with an “Advocate” to comfort, encourage, guide, and intercede for them. Of course he was speaking of the actual Spirit of God.

So, in that locked room, the resurrected Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Through the breath of Jesus, God imparted eternal, spiritual life. With this action came the power for the apostles to go and do God’s will on earth.

Now, as the Father sent Jesus, Jesus sent his followers, and that includes us today as well.

To do God’s work, we need the intimacy, love, direction, and enabling power of the Holy Spirit. He helps us in the same way he helped the disciples. As we study the Bible, we can trust Him to plant Truth in our minds and convince us of God’s will.

That Spirit is the very presence of God within us, helping us live as God wants, and building Christ’s church on earth. By faith we can have access to the Spirit’s power every day.

And He will never leave us; he lives with us and in us; he teaches us, he guides us and reminds us of Jesus’ words. And, he convicts us of sin when we screw up; and he shows us God’s righteousness.

So, the Holy Spirit gives us a whole – new – way to think about life!

When we believe and acknowledge the Holy Spirit in us, we begin to change our thoughts, then, it naturally follows that we change our behavior. Eventually, we make these changes permanent, and they become our renewed and better character. That is, we become more like Jesus.
 
These changes are attributes which we produce within ourselves by the application of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to our lives.

And these attributes are called the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
 

St. Paul gave a list of these fruits in his epistle to the Galatians, chapter five, verses 22 and 23. And I would like to review them with you.

The first fruit that becomes part of our Christian character is LOVE. This is the very nature of God. Remember Jesus’ two great commandments that we hear every Sunday in Holy Communion.

So, Love is more than lovely words; it is commitment (here) and conduct (out there). If we love Jesus, we must live it.

If we lose the motivation to love, we become critical of others. Then we stop looking for good and see only faults. And, soon we lose our unity with God, and ourselves, and with all those around us.

The second fruit is JOY. This is not just represented by a smile on one’s face. True joy is not determined by the circumstances of life. It is the joy of God, given through Christ; it is a source of power.

The next fruit is PEACE. This is in two parts: First, to generate internal peace in self, and second, to have peace with all other beings.

So, this Peace is more than the absence of conflict; it comes with the presence of God. It’s joy and a sense of contentment which radiates to all those around you because you are in harmony with yourself and with everyone else.

The fourth fruit is PATIENCE. Forbearance; endurance; It’s not just waiting for something, but to be flexible enough to handle whatever happens to you, without an adverse change of character.
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The fifth fruit is KINDNESS. It requires bold adjustments to our character. First, we must forgive ourselves for our perceived shortcomings; then, we must forgive others as Jesus forgave us – – unconditionally; It means praying for one another and showing love to everyone; when love is in our hearts it makes it possible for us to be kind.
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It should be obvious now that these fruits, or attributes, are all connected. I’ll talk about that later.
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The sixth fruit is GOODNESS. This fruit of the Holy Spirit gives us the desire to do what is right; it’s more than just helping people; it’s the love of justice and the desire to obey the laws of God; to love mercy and have humility.

Let us remember that God created us in his image and likeness, ALL GOOD, so goodness must be a part of our character.
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Next comes FAITH. From Hebrews, chapter 11 we read: Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it’s the evidence of things we cannot see; faith gives us power; without it, we could not be effective followers of Jesus.

To believe in Jesus’ sacrifice for us is the result of faith. Every – day – of – our – lives must be filled with the faith that moves mountains. That is, we must believe in the almighty power of God. And have faith that he is always with us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the essence of that relationship with God that Father Dave mentions periodically from this pulpit.
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The eighth fruit is GENTLENESS. Those of us who are gentle by habit, as a part of their character, will not be burdened with conflict, or anger, or fear, or anxiety, because they have faith that God is behind them with all his power.
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And the last fruit is TEMPERANCE. The self-control to resist temptation; the habit of being holy by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our flesh cannot exercise self-control; it is our individual mentalities, powered by the Holy Spirit, that exercises temperance. Think about that the next time a spark of anger or any negative thought pops up in your mind.

Now, to finish this, please note that the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we generate within ourselves are interdependent; they are designed to work together as a single mindset, a single, habitual mood. In other words, they constitute our Christian character.
 
So, it would be prudent for each of us periodically to take an inventory of —- no, I used the wrong word. We more properly should take an invoice of our fruit of the Holy Spirit. An inventory is just a list, while an invoice is a list with a price attached to each item.
 
So, let us give the highest value to every part of our fruit of the Holy Spirit.

God’s house is not a building, it’s us. He lives in us and shows himself to the world through us. People can see God’s love in us through our Christian character.

We are citizens of God’s Kingdom and members of his household. And, as St Paul said, we are beings of light that radiate for the glory of God.