If it Bears Fruit

When I was a kid my family had a fig tree out back. I looked forward to every summer when the fruit would ripen and I could eat the figs straight off the tree. We moved out of that house shortly after my 5th grade year, but the fig tree is one of the many fond memories I have of that house. I wonder if the family that moved in after us enjoyed the tree like we did. I wonder if that tree is still there. I doubt it still produces fruit, because fig trees remain productive up to 12 or 15 years of age and thereafter the crop declines though the trees may live to a very advanced age. Once a fig tree no longer bears fruit it is often cut down to allow another one to take its place. Kind of sad if you think about it.

Luckily, we don't share the same fate. Unlike the fig tree we are not given a small increment of time in our lives where we are able to bear fruit. Although we may not be able to do things that same as we did when we are younger, I believe God gives us a different seasons in life where we are able to do different things. Just because we get older doesn’t mean God is done with us.

This Sunday, we will be discussing a segment of scripture, Luke 13:1-9, where Jesus points out the frailty of life and how tomorrow is not guaranteed. Therefore, we are to take the day that is given to us to and live it will purpose, bearing fruit for whatever season of life we are in. The segment of scripture ends with Jesus telling a parable of a fig tree and how the owner of the tree wants to cut it down because it is not bearing any fruit. Another man tells the owner to wait another year and allow him to nourish the tree. We don’t know from this segment of scripture if the fig tree eventually bears fruit, but what we do get from it is the idea that we, like the fig tree, are expected to bear fruit and we need to nourish our lives with good things so that we too can bear fruit. No matter how old (or young) we are we need spiritual nourishment so that we too may bear fruit in our lives. As long as we have today we must remember that God is not do with us yet!

Join us this Sunday for worship at 8:30 or 10:45 AM as we continue this discussion. Also, if you would like to have real peer-to-peer discussion about this you can join a group of Misfits at 9:30 AM on Sunday or another group led by our Lay Minister, Virgil Aldag, at 6:00 PM on Wednesday.

In God’s grip,

Pastor Chuck Church