Issue 203
The two-hour lunch break may be a thing of the past, but doing business over a meal is not. All over the world people meet, eat and deal. They are called business meals, working lunches or power breakfasts but the purpose is the same. For some of these appointments the agenda is very perfunctory and specific, no one is there to bare their souls; everyone is there to get something done. For others the experience is a shared table in a canteen or a sandwich in a common room.
It is a different matter altogether, however, to dine out with others and savour the moment in order to enjoy their company. At such meals a different kind of business is conducted. Here people influence each other, shaping opinions and growing ideas. On these occasions characters are formed.
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus uses an eating metaphor. It is easy to miss , but it has to do with fruit. There are those whose lives bear good fruit and those who bear bad. There is a particular group of people who want to teach, instruct, advise and guide; they want followers and they want influence. Jesus refers to them as prophets. He introduces them with a warning: some are false and we are to be alert to them; they are deceptive – the classic wolf in sheep’s clothing. They appear to be gentle, sympathetic or plausible – attractive even, but they are dangerous.
You would think that these prophets would only be concerned with churchy stuff, but where do people want to teach, influence, instruct, advise and guide? – it is in the marketplace of finance, ideas or products.
Today there are business gurus, management philosophers, consultants and trainers. There are schools of thought and leading protagonists in every field of work. Increasingly there are those who include spirituality on their agenda and would be willing to include Christianity in their post-modernism.
Jesus warns that there are good and bad, false and true; it is the fruit that distinguishes them; it is the taste that proves the substance.
Here again he is inviting you to choose. You may meet with some and do business over a meal, but watch out with whom you really dine . Watch out who you allow to deeply influence your life; plausibility is not necessarily validity.
Jesus wants you to dine with him; to let him shape your values, your ideas, your philosophies. Watch out for the false and the bad. Spend time with the true and the good. It’s a recipe worth following and the ingredients will be spelt out as the sermon unfolds.
Matthew 7:15-23
15″Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
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Geoff Shattock
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