Sermon 9/20/15
Luke 13:6-9
Fruitful: Have We Fruit?
For
centuries now, candidates for ordination in The United Methodist Church have
been asked questions, with only the smallest variation, that John Wesley asked
of those who said they were called to preachers in the Methodist movement at
its beginnings: “1) Do they know God as a pardoning God? Have they the love of
God abiding in them? Do they desire nothing but God? Are they holy in all
manner of conversation? 2) Have they gifts, as well as evidence of God’s grace,
for the work? Have they a clear, sound understanding; a right judgment in the
things of God; a just conception of salvation by faith? Do you speak justly,
readily, and clearly? 3) Have they fruit? Have they been truly convinced of sin
and converted to God, and are believers edified by their service?” Wesley said
that “As long as these three marks concur in anyone, we believe [that one] is
called of God to preach.” These questions are asked now near the beginning of a
candidate’s ministry process, and I’ve had that phrase on my mind this week.
“Have they fruit?” Have we fruit?
We
started our book study this week on Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results
by Tom Berlin and Lovett Weems. (It’s not too late to join in, by the way.) In
the book, Weems and Berlin urge congregations and church leaders to think about
the fruit that their ministry bears. What’s the fruit of our work as the
church? Our fruit, what comes of all that we do, is, should be, our purpose, the reason we exist. Your purpose, they
argue, should answer the “so that” question. Anything you do in the life of the
church, or in your own individual life even, should have a corresponding so that purpose that is the fruit of
what you do. Here’s what they mean: think of a hobby you enjoy, and then think
about why you enjoy it. You might
say, “I like to go running so that I
keep my heart healthy and strong.” Everything after the words so that is your purpose. Although other
things might happen when you run, the so
that is the real fruit you are seeking after. So, you might have fun
running, but that’s not why you run.
Likewise, if the fruit you are seeking is a healthy and strong heart, you can
get there other ways than running. Focus on the fruit that you want – a
healthy, strong heart, and then you can decide which way to get there – which
process of planting and growing and cultivating your fruit makes the most
sense. And, you may find out from your doctor that running isn’t helping you achieve your purpose. You aren’t strengthening
your heart with the work that you’re doing. If what you really want is the
fruit of a healthy heart, you’ll need to do something else than you’ve been
doing. Does that make sense? The fruit that
we seek is the so that – the purpose,
the aim of our ministry. Think of these so
that statements of Jesus: “I have come so that they might have life, and
have it abundantly.” “For God so loved that world that he gave his only
begotten son so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal
life.” The gospels show us a Jesus who was remarkably focused on his purpose.
He had joy and laughter and relationships and all sorts of experiences, but
everything we know of Jesus in the gospels points to the fruit he’s cultivating,
to his so thats.
All too
often, church and church leaders do wonderful things – but with no clear sense
of why they are doing them. Churches don’t really know what fruit they are
trying to grow, and so their mission and ministries are sort of a collection of
things that seem interesting or usual for churches to do. Maybe they produce a
little bit of fruit here and there. But there’s no real intention, and so the
harvest isn’t exactly spectacular.
What is
the fruit that we’re seeking after at Apple Valley? Apple Valley is in ministry
in the world so that what? Weems and
Berlin suggest that churches can ask this question of every part of the life of
the church. We have a choir so that what?
It’s important to us to have a children’s ministry so that what? Asking these questions are especially important for
smaller congregations like us. We dream big, and we should. But we also have to
use our resources in the best ways. We can’t do everything. What can we do
well? What fruit will grow best here? What fruit is God envisioning as just the
right crop for Apple Valley? Being clear about the fruit that we’re hoping for
can change and focus our ministry together. What kind of fruit are we growing
here, and how intentional are we about it? Gardeners don’t just plant unknown
seeds and wait to see what pops up, because you can’t plan very well that way
how to give things the right amount of room and sun and water. We plant tomato
seeds expecting to harvest tomatoes!
Today we
hear a brief text – a parable known as the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.
Jesus talks about a man who planted a fig tree in a vineyard – an unusual
action right there, as fig trees aren’t usually part of vineyards – and he
comes looking for fruit on the fig tree and finds none. So he says to the
gardener – the one who would care for the tree on a regular basis, “Cut it
down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” But the gardener pleads the case of
the tree, asking for one more year, so he can dig around the tree and fertilize
it. And then, if it bears fruit next year – all is well. And if not, then,
after much effort, the gardener will acquiesce, and the tree can be cut down.
There’s
a lot to think about in these short verses. First, the question of the man who
planted the fig tree is rightfully wondering why you would keep a plant around
that isn’t growing anything. If the purpose of the tree is to grow figs, and it
isn’t growing figs, maybe you can plant a new tree that will bring you the
fruit that you want. But the gardener also makes a strong case: sometimes, the
potential for the fruit is there – but you need to do the work of tending and
cultivating to have the fruit actually grow, kind of like my cactus. Should my
cactus be thrown out because I’m a bad caretaker? Or should I get my act together
and work on cultivating a plant that will blossom and blossom as it is meant to
do?
This
parable shouldn’t surprise us on either count. First, we shouldn’t be surprised
that God is pretty intent on us bearing good fruit with our lives. God wants us
to discover and fulfill our life’s purpose, so, so much. And I think God
wonders what we’re up to if our lives show no fruit for the endless amount of
busy-ness we seem to achieve. But we also shouldn’t be surprised that God is
advocating even at the same time for second and third and fourth chances. I
think if this parable continued on, we’d find the gardener, if the fig tree
still had no fruit, suggesting yet another solution. Our creative God comes to
us in so many ways, looking for the way that will help us bear the fruit that
God dreams for us.
I read a
fascinating article this week, which is actually a few years old, about a group
called Guerrilla Grafters in San Francisco. Apparently, several neighborhoods
are lined with pear, plum, and apple trees that are ornamental, intentionally
non-fruiting trees. In other words, fruit trees that are meant to never bear fruit. Tara Hui, the founder
of Guerrilla Grafters, thought this made no sense at all. Apparently, the city
was worried about the mess fruit trees might cause, and rodents that might be
attracted to the fruit trees. But Hui thinks the benefits are far greater than
such concerns. So she and a group of Guerrilla Grafters graft fruit-bearing
branches onto the non-fruit-bearing trees. And then the fruit is accessible to
anyone who picks it. It’s easy to do – you just make a slit into a branch on
the host tree, insert a branch from the fruit-bearing tree, and tape them
together. “Once it heals, it connects. Basically the branch becomes part of the
tree,” said Hui.
What’s even more interesting is that the Grafters won’t
do this to just any tree. Instead, they graft only onto trees that have been
nominated by someone who has volunteered to be a steward of the tree, someone
who “promises to maintain it and make sure that fruit is harvested and does not
become a hazard.” Although some of the grafts will take a few years to
completely blossom into new fruit, some results are more immediate. "Two
months after we grafted [one tree], it flowered, and we went back again and saw
little pears on it," Hui said. "Some passersby must have picked it
and had it, which is the idea. There's no ownership of these trees. There's
just stewardship."
Grafting to get fruit where you haven’t been is actually
in the Bible too. In his letters, Paul spends time trying to explain why he
sees his ministry as focused on reaching the Gentiles, those who are not
Jewish, when the Israelites had always understood themselves to be God’s
particular people. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes that the
roots make the branches holy. But, he says, if some branches are broken off,
new branches can be grafted on. A wild olive shoot can be grafted on to share
the rich root of the olive tree, he says. And neither new branches nor old
branches are superior to each other, because it is by God’s grace that branches
can remain part of the whole. Indeed, Paul says, God has such power that even
original branches, broken off, can be grafted back in yet again. In other
words, God is looking for branches that will bear good fruit, and God will go
to any length to make healthy branches part of the tree, and beyond that, God
will never count as totally hopeless even branches that are broken. They might
even yet bear fruit, by the power of God. (Romans 11:16-24)
Asking ourselves, each other, this congregation “have we
fruit” shouldn’t scare or intimidate us, because grace abounds by the power of
God and by the creative Spirit of the one we serve, fruit can grow even when it
turns out we planted ornamental trees. And so trusting in the gift of God’s
grace, we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. We’ve got every reason
to put our whole hearts into bearing good fruit, whether it is what we’ve
planned all along, or whether we have to graft some new branches onto old, or
whether broken branches need to be sewn back onto the tree.
So then, so what Apple
Valley? We continue to be church here in this place so that what? You are living
your life as you are so that what? You’ll find in your bulletin a little
worksheet that I’d like you to take a stab at filling out. It’s about this so that question in some different areas
of our life together. There are no grades, no wrong answers. I’d really like you to try filling it out,
so that we might talk more together about what we’re growing here. Apple
Valley, do we know God as a pardoning God, full of grace? Has God gifted us
beyond measure? Have we fruit?
Amen.
Comments