Goodness: We Were Made for This! | 7/20/25
-
When have you felt like you “missed the mark”?
How might viewing sin as “missing the mark” rather than as total failure open the door to grace and growth?
What does “doing all the good you can” look like in your daily life?
Are there small, intentional ways you can add “tick marks of goodness” to the world this week?
What does it mean to you that Jesus didn’t say, “Admire me,” but “Follow me”?
How does that challenge or inspire your discipleship?
Is there a place in your life where you’ve been tempted to “overcome evil with evil”?
How might you respond with goodness instead?
Where might God be inviting you to partner in the work of restoration at this time?
Is there a person, cause, or situation that stirs your heart toward action?
Transcript:
We’re talking this summer about the Fruit of the Spirit—nine ways that we can show up in the world that are evidence that we are following Jesus in our actions and in our choices. And we are up to the sixth one this week. Over these last few weeks, we’ve been encouraging you all to memorize these nine characteristics as a way to just remind yourself on a daily basis, “Hey, this is the way I’m meant to be. This is who I’m supposed to be when I start my day and when I go out into the world.”
In the first week, Marisa gave you a song to help you with the fruit of the Spirit, and I’m going to give you another song. I have confidence that you all are going to pick this one up quickly. You have to loosen up a little bit to do this one, okay? Because this is like an old camp song with children and youth, but the song goes like this:
🎶 Oh, the Fruit of the Spirit’s not bananas,
The Fruit of the Spirit’s not bananas.
If you want to be a banana,
Then you might as well hear it—
You can’t be a Fruit of the Spirit,
‘Cause the Fruit is love, joy, peace,
Patience, kindness, goodness,
Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Love, joy, peace, patience,
Kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gentleness, and self-control. 🎶
All right, you can catch on to that quick, right? So we’re going to do it one more time. But here’s the thing about this song: you can do a lot of verses and just put a bunch of different fruit in there.
So, somebody give me a fruit. Apple? I heard apple. That’s an easy one—much easier than a multisyllabic one. So let’s do apple. Ready? You all join me now. I’m listening.
🎶 Oh, the Fruit of the Spirit’s not an apple,
The Fruit of the Spirit’s not an apple.
If you want to be an apple,
Then you might as well hear it—
You can’t be a Fruit of the Spirit,
‘Cause the Fruit is love, joy, peace,
Patience, kindness, goodness,
Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Love, joy, peace, patience,
Kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gentleness, and self-control. 🎶
Solid. I’m so proud of you all.
Today we are looking at goodness. And to talk about goodness, we need to start at the beginning. We need to go back to the beginning of the story, where we hear the first language of goodness occur.
Follow along as I read for us this morning from the very first chapter of the very first book in the Bible—Genesis 1:
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humankind in his image.
In the image of God he created them;
Male and female he created them.
God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.
And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. And God’s people say: Thanks be to God.
Would you pray with me?
Come, Holy Spirit, and breathe life into the words that I speak, that they might carry a word from you into our hearts and lives this morning. Amen.
It all started in a garden—a place of tremendous beauty, tranquility, and harmony. It was the centerpiece of a master-planned community called Earth, and human beings were given significant responsibility by the master of the plan to take care of it all.
If we are going to understand goodness as a Fruit of the Spirit, we need to start here—at the very beginning of the story.
Unfortunately, a lot of times when I hear people describe the story of the Bible and how it makes sense for our lives, or its purpose for our lives, I hear a truncated version of the story.
I hear one that is told in just two chapters. In this truncated version, the opening scene—the one that I just read for us from Genesis 1—is skipped. Instead, the story gets started in Genesis 3. And this two-chapter story, this truncated version, goes like this: Fall and Redemption.
The Fall—a story that we read about in the third chapter of Genesis. And Redemption—the unfolding story across many of the pages of Scripture that comes to fruition in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In its very simplest CliffNotes version, this two-chapter story goes like this:
Fall: We are bad, bad, bad, and there is nothing we can do about it.
Redemption: We need saving, and there is nothing we can do about it.
Do you see the common thread in that two-chapter story? There is nothing for us to do.
But not only that—often when the story gets told in this two-chapter version, it isn’t even about us. The story gets personalized. Rather than recognizing the “we,” or the “us,” or the “all of God’s children” aspect of the story, the story gets told in a way that the Fall is about my sin, and Redemption is about my salvation, and there is nothing for me to do other than just acknowledge and accept.
And when the story gets told this way, it’s a very quick path to thinking: if there’s nothing for me to do, and if all it is, is acknowledge and accept, then there are no expected actions. There is no accountability. There is no sense of calling on our lives. There is no “Follow me.”
But remember—Jesus didn’t say, “Admire me.” Jesus said, “Follow me.” Friends, this is not the story that the Bible tells.
To be sure, there are elements of truth here in these two chapters. But the two chapters of Fall and Redemption are part of a larger, more beautiful and wonderful story—a story that begins not in chapter three, but in chapter one. Where we begin the story matters.
And our story begins with Creation. Creation is before Fall and Redemption. In the Creation story, we don’t just read about the story of human beings—that’s the part I read this morning—but of all things: God, the master planner, the wonderful Creator of everything that exists.
And when we read the full story of Creation, it’s a good reminder for us that we are not the center of the story. We are important actors in the story. When we read that story—when we read Genesis 1—that story tells us, if you remember, that all things that were created are… bad, bad, bad, right? Right?
I know that is not the story that Genesis 1 tells. The story that Genesis 1 tells is that when God made all things—culminating with the creation of humanity—God looked at it all and said: “So good. So good. So good.” Right?
Can’t you just hear God saying that? So good. So good. So good.
Because, before there was the Fall, and sin entered the human experience, there was the divine image. And it was very good. God created humankind in God’s image. God made them male and female. And it was good. This, my friends—what we get in Genesis 1—is the concept of original goodness.
Eknath Easwaran, in his book by that same title, says this:
Original goodness does not deny what traditional religion calls sin.
It simply reminds us that before original sin was original innocence.
The story doesn’t start with Fall—that’s the second chapter. The first chapter is Creation. Goodness is where the story begins.
We were made for this, my friends.
And we falter. We mess up. We do not get it right all the time. Let’s just use the word: we sin—a word which, in translation from the New Testament Greek (if we go with a more literal translation), means “miss the mark.”
Now, we can get on board with that, can’t we? We miss the mark. We do not always say the right thing. Do the right thing. React the right way. Make the right choice. We miss the mark.
The story of the Fall—chapter two—is the truth-telling about the human condition and our capacity for making bad choices. And those choices have consequences—sometimes disastrous consequences. If you’re not sure about that, you need look no further than a Jumbotron at a concert in Boston this past week to realize that we make bad choices. And we falter.
We do sin. We miss the mark. And we need to own that reality. But it is not the beginning of our story. And it is not what we were made for. We were made for goodness. For goodness’ sake.
And so, if we were made for goodness, and if we realize that, in spite of that, we miss the mark, then we move from that to the third chapter.
And it’s the third chapter that tells us about Redemption. The good news of Redemption. And Redemption is what puts us back on the road to God’s intentions for us. Redemption is the point at which we have an aha moment and we say, “Yes. I want better than what I am making of my own life.”
And in the words of Paul, we hear him say: “Who will rescue me and set me free? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
But just as the Fall is not the beginning of the story, Redemption is not the end of the story. Because Fall and Redemption are not just about me—or just about you—or just about any of our personal stories. My Redemption, your Redemption—they are intertwined. And our Redemption is tied to our neighbor’s Redemption.
And so there’s a fourth chapter of the story. And in the rest of the story, we are called to participate in what God wants to do with all of Creation. And this is what we call Restoration.
Creation. Fall. Redemption. Restoration. This is the four-part story that the Bible tells.
And when we choose to respond to the Redemption part of the story, we say yes to joining with God in the work of Restoration. Because it’s not just about me, and it’s not just about you.
If we’re going to say yes, then we have to step in and roll up our sleeves and get involved in the work that God wants to do in the world now. And that means that the goodness that we were intended for in the very beginning is the goodness that we now are called to make our way of life in the world—as followers of Jesus.
In the 12th chapter of Romans, Paul puts it this way:
Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We say yes to being a part of the restorative work that God wants to do. Our actions matter. Our choices matter. And time and time again, the Bible calls us to practice goodness.
In a number of places in the New Testament, we hear the word good—the root from which we get goodness in the Greek, agathos. We hear that word used over and over.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:10:
We are what God has made us. We are what God has made us from the very beginning—created in Jesus Christ for good works.
Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, says:
Let your light shine before others in such a way that they will see your good works and give glory to God who is in heaven.
In Galatians it says, “Let us not grow weary.” Anybody feeling weary lately at all? Good.
Galatians 6:9:
Let us not grow weary of doing good,
For in the right time we will reap a harvest because of it.
Not only is this what we were created for, and what the story tells us is the very beginning of who God made us to be and the intentions for what God has in the end; this is right up our alley as people who gather for worship in a Methodist congregation.
One of the most famous sayings of John Wesley of all is, “Do all the good you can.”
We think that’s such a good idea that we put it on our signs when you leave this property, so that every time you go from this place, it’ll be a reminder to go out into the world and do good works—to practice goodness. To do all the good you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, for all the people you can, for as long as you can.
That’s at least close to the longer version of the quote. But if you can’t remember the whole thing, just remember the first line: Do all the good you can.
Anybody here read the Pearls Before Swine comic strip? Let’s see a few hands. So, in one strip, Pig and Goat are sitting on a park bench, and they are doomscrolling on their phones through all the bad things that are happening. And in one frame, Goat goes, “Ugh, that’s horrible.” To which Pig gets up and walks over to a whiteboard. And on the whiteboard, there’s a heading that says: “Badness in the World.”
And underneath that heading, we see Pig—there’s a bunch of tick marks. Pig is putting up tick mark number 37 for badness in the world. And then we see Pig walking away from that scene. In the next frame, we see Pig standing with someone who looks like they might need some help. And Pig is being kind and generous.
Pig comes back then, to that whiteboard, and in the next frame, we see a new category: goodness. And Pig has put the first tick mark on the goodness side. In the very last frame, we hear Pig say: “I will even this thing yet.”
That is the work of restoration, my friends. That ultimately, evil does not win. We do not overcome evil with evil. But we are called to go out and do good in the world. And to, one by one, add tick marks of goodness. Because in us, and through us, and with us, God is at work restoring things to how they are meant to be.
It all started in a garden. And it was beautiful and tranquil, and there was harmony. And God so desperately wants to see that restoration happen. And ultimately, it is God—and God alone—who will bring that restoration into being in all of its fullness.
We get a snapshot of that near the end of the Bible, in the next-to-last chapter of Revelation—a vision of a time when there is a new heaven and a new earth, and every tear is wiped away, and there is no more sorrow, and no more pain, and no more suffering.
That is the fullness of restoration that we have to look forward to. But right here, right now, there is work for you and I to do. If we’re going to follow Jesus, we need to spread some goodness. So do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Because we were made for this, friends. Thanks be to God.