Papaya People This morning, Pastor Gabe Orea, of the Xiamen International Christian Fellowship, talked about being known by our fruits. Of course, we so often hear, "By their fruits you shall know them," that it has become a meaningless cliche and goes in one ear and out the other--especially my ears, since there is not much between my ears to impede the messages' rapid entry and even more fleeting exit.
But Gabe drove his point home by showing a papaya tree with papaya fruit, and asking how we knew it was a papaya tree. Everyone said "by the fruit, of course" (though Sue and I grow our own papayas, so we recognize the trunk and leaves too).
Papaya Pine Tree? Gabe then asked, "If it is so obvious this is a papaya tree because of its fruit, then why do people "not get it?"--that we, people, are also truly known by our fruit, and our fruit shows exactly what we are. Gabe then showed an evergreen tree on which he had pasted papayas, which got a big laugh--but it was sobering too, at least to those of us who took the humor seriously. He also talked about the fruits of the Spirit--and how futile it is to try and force the fruits if that Spirit is not really within us...
That just came out! Gabe shared a common Spanish phrase (wish I could remember it!) that means, "Oops, that just came out!" He said someone said something to a pastor back home in Mexico and then quickly said, "Oops, that just came out!" And the pastor smiled and said, "Yes, I understand. But if it came out, that means it was inside--and probably still is inside!"
Gabe's messages are more on target, and vivid, than the messages of most pastors I know who have English as their first language--though he does stop here and there to ask how to pronounce a word. Knowing Gabe Orea, he does it on purpose, just to see if we are really listening! Well, I certainly do listen. In fact--I found something in Gabe's sermon today that even Gabe did not know about!
XIV. Today was Gabe's 14th talk on the "Red Words of Jesus." He is preaching on all of the "Red Words" of Jesus (because we are in Red China? hmmm... ). He is not skipping even the thorniest verses (love your enemies, give to all who ask you, etc... ), and he has given some fascinating insights.
But I asked him if he had made his own version of the Bible--if XIV (which he meant as Roman numeral "14") meant Xiamen International Version. And why not? Xiamen (ancient Amoy) had China's First Protestant Church; maybe we can start our own version of the Bible as well!
Gabe said he was impressed at how closely I pay attention to his messages, even spotting XIV, which he had not noticed. Of course, I always like to see the humorous side of things. After all, life is too short too take too seriously (it is so hard to believe 24 years in Xiamen have flown so quickly). And it is easy to have fun with Gabe's sermons; he is one of the best pastors I have known, but also one of the funniest. So I really appreciate his humor, even when he is being serious.
Sense of Humor--but nothing else? Of course, someone once said that I too have a good sense of humor, and I said, "That's true. I do have a good sense of humor, and I use it every chance I have because it is the only sense I have."
But in speaking of Gabe--he has found that the terrible cancer that he had, and which completely disappeared, has now reappeared. Thanks for praying for Pastor Gabe, his wife Victoria, and their daughter and son Jaisis and Paulo.
Bill Brown
Xiamen University
www.amoymagic.com
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