One more year

 

Haiku of grace

We who are righteous;

God will never punish us.

He has no need to!

When bad stuff happens

we like to blame the victims:

Must be their own fault.

Good people prosper,

bad people are punished. No!

That’s not how it works.

You must all repent

turn from your self-centred ways.

Then you’ll truly live.

Trees that won’t bear fruit:

fig, olive, apple; not worth

space in the garden.

For three years I came

looking for the promised fruit,

but none! Cut it down!

The gardener speaks:

One more year of special care,

let’s see what it does.

One more year. What grace

is shown to those unworthy;

what grace shown to me!

© Ken Rookes 2022

Jesus the Guerrilla Gardener

Guerrilla Gardening started in the seventies, it’s an attempt by activists to counter the ever-present industrialization of our cities. These people live their days with seed in their pockets. They drop the seeds in crevasses between pavements, or plant it in garbage filled ground in the inner-city. Every seed is meant to be a project of hope, a story of potential redemption. Anna Hunter describes the effort,

"In the barren urban landscape of slate-grey concrete, a single blade of grass poking up through the pavement is a symbol of hope that demonstrates the power of nature to overcome all attempts to suffocate her. This restorative ability is inspiring activists to take back space from concrete and cars, to re-establish green surroundings and reconnect to our source of life, the land" 

We are called to be Guerrilla Gardeners, seed sowers in the kingdom of God. A prayer, a smile, a plea for forgiveness, an act of kindness, a generous heart, a sharing of resources, an act of subversion, an email of encouragement, the relieving of debt, sharing a meal – these are all seed in the kingdom gardeners’ arsenal. Seed on!

I think Jesus was a guerrilla gardener planting seed in hopeless places believing in the power

of God to bring beauty and life into dark places.

God the gardener

There is no doubt that “we love because God first loved us.”  [1 John 4:19] To keep on loving we need to receive God’s love continuously otherwise we become dry and withered. It is essential we accept the necessary pruning and feeding, allowing God to nurture us. We who have lived in cities or places where vines don’t grow, do not always remember the place of seasons in the productivity of vines and branches. Probably about half of a congregation in an area that produces table grapes, works in the vineyards year round. They know it is a continuous job caring for the vines to have the best fruit. Pruning the right bits is a skill as is training the branches to grow along the wires. Even when the branches have begun bearing, the fruit needs protection from frosts, insects, birds, hailstorms and moulds. There is continuous input from gardeners for optimum results. We can reasonably expect that God, the Gardener would work with great skill and care.

As we do not expect vines to produce all year round so it is likely that God provides times of fruitfulness and times of regeneration for us. Where they grow the table grapes, there are different varieties planted so that the productivity is spread over many months. There are times when we can leave the work to others and times when it is our turn to produce our best results, guided by the Spirit within.

Perhaps you might like to buy some grapes today and as you eat them, ponder the implications of the fruit of the vine of which you are a branch and dare to be impulsive in your response to the Spirit’s stirring within you.

REv Julianne Parker

for full sermon see sermons page