This sermon was preached on Sunday 23rd March 2025.
Bible Readings: Isaiah 55:1-9; 1 Corintians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
Before starting here, I had a couple of weeks off. So, I did what any person would do with two weeks at home with no plans: I cracked on with the gardening. I was cutting down dead bushes; I was cutting the grass; we were jet-washing the patio, re-setting up the greenhouse, planting bulbs, and I filled in a big hole in the garden. Classic tidying up the garden after winter, getting ready for the Spring. I’m sure it is something many of us have had to deal with at some point.
Often, in these scenarios, we face a dilemma similar to the parable Jesus tells in our gospel reading. We come across a tree or a plant in the garden that isn’t bearing any fruit or isn’t flowering. Growing up, we had a pear tree in the garden, and that was great. It was wonderful to get juicy, vibrant pears fresh from the tree each year. However, there came a point when the pear tree stopped bearing pears, and this was happening year after year. When this happens, you have to start wondering, is this tree any use if it isn’t bearing fruit? Is it better to cut it down and use the soil and water, and fertiliser on something else that will bear fruit? What would you do?
At this point, you would think the logical thing would be to cut down the tree and try again with a different tree. But the gardener in the parable offers a plea to the owner. ‘Give me one more year. I will turn the soil, put down fertiliser and make every effort to help the fig tree grow fruit the next year. If it grows fruit, then everything has worked out for the better.’
I love this mentality from the gardener. When everything says that he should give up on the fig tree, he insists on giving it another chance. If it does bear fruit in the end, you get the best outcome, and everyone wins. This is who the gardener is. He wants to see his trees bear fruit.
At my licensing service a week and a half ago, the Bible reading I chose was from John 15, where the gardener also appears. Jesus says, ‘I am the real vine, and my father is the gardener.’[1] God is the gardener. He is the one who plants, tends and nurtures to see growth and fruit in his garden. Then Jesus continues, saying, ‘I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.’[2]
God, the gardener, has made us to be trees that bear fruit. Obviously, we will not be sprouting grapes out of our fingertips or pulling bananas out of our ears. But God has made us to be trees in his garden that bear his fruit of the Spirit, his fruit of the kingdom. The Apostle Paul gave us a helpful list of the fruit that comes from God’s Spirit at work in us. He says, ‘The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’[3] This is the fruitfulness God has created us to bear in our lives.
However, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we are not always bearing this fruit in our lives. There are many times when we are like the fig tree. It stands there in the garden year after year, bearing no fruit. It is fed, watered and nurtured, but still, it bears no fruit. How many Christians do you know who have been Christians for years yet don’t see the fruit of God’s Spirit at work in their lives? Christians can come to church each week to be spiritually fed through prayer, worship, hearing God’s word, sharing in fellowship with other believers, but still see no fruit.
If you find that when you look at your own Christian life, you don’t see as much fruit as you would like to see, I implore you: do not beat yourself up or give up yourself. Why? Because God has not given up on you. Like with the fig tree, God wants to give us as much chance for us to grow and bear fruit. God is turning over our soil, giving us the extra nutrients and fertilisers. The question is, are we going to be a fig tree that absorbs these nutrients in order to grow and bear fruit, or will we let them sit in the soil unused?
We come to church each week to be spiritually fed as we gather in worship and prayer with God and our church family. But when you go home from church, do you feel that you have grown in your faith as a result? Did you feel more of the love and presence of Jesus as we share in his gifts of communion? Did the words of the Bible show you something new about God and how to follow him? Did the prayers shape and mould your heart to be more like Jesus’ heart? Do you experience something of God’s love and voice through the person sitting next to you in the pew or chatting over coffee? If you did, that’s fantastic.
These are the holy nutrients that will help you grow in your faith and bear fruit in your life. This is how we are fed on a Sunday when we gather together. But we are not only fed on a Sunday. It’s not one day of stuffing your face and then starving for the rest of the week. We are fed daily in our Christian walk through prayer, Bible reading, encountering God in our work and family, and his continual presence in our hearts.
However, if you feel that you are not growing in your faith, that your daily Christian walk or our Sunday gatherings are not leading to change, then I want to invite you to discover the spiritual food that God is waiting to give you.
Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah echoes this invitation beautifully:
The Lord says, “Come, everyone who is thirsty— here is water! Come, you that have no money— buy grain and eat! Come! Buy wine and milk— it will cost you nothing! Why spend money on what does not satisfy? Why spend your wages and still be hungry? Listen to me and do what I say, and you will enjoy the best food of all. “Listen now, my people, and come to me; come to me, and you will have life![4]
God’s invitation is a free invitation. There are no catches or terms and conditions in the small print. Come to God and be fed with food that costs nothing and will give you everything. You will never be thirsty, you will never be hungry, you will enjoy the best food of all, and you will have true life. This true life, life to the full, will bear the fullness of fruit found when we come to God. Jesus says to his disciples, ‘If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit.’[5] So what are you waiting for? Will you accept Jesus’ invitation to be with him and for Jesus to be in you?
Sometimes, we get caught up by other things in life that seem more interesting. As our reading from 1 Corinthians warns us, do not get caught up in desiring evil things. But also, we recognise that it is not always evil things that keep us away from God, but it can be the everyday things. It can be work that keeps us too busy to take time to pray. It can be a hectic family life that stops us from reading our Bibles. It can be the football game we go to on Sunday rather than go to church.
None of these things are bad, but we need to ask ourselves, are we letting these things feed us rather than God? ‘Why spend money on what does not satisfy? Why spend your wages and still be hungry?’[6] None of these other things will give us the spiritual growth, nourishment and sustainment that will satisfy. None of these bear the fruit of God’s Spirit. Only in Jesus will we find everything we need to grow in our faith and discipleship.
God, the gardener, has not given up on us. He is inviting us to abide in Him and to grow and bear fruit. Will you accept his invitation? There is spiritual food here as we gather in church and throughout our weeks. Let us feed on it so we may grow closer to God, experience more of him, and bear his fruit in our lives.
Amen.
[1] John 15:1 [GNB]
[2] John 15:5-6 [GNB]
[3] Gal 5:22-23a.
[4] Isaiah 55:1-3a [GNB].
[5] C.f. John 15:5.
[6] Isaiah 55:2 [GNB].
Shakeel Nurmahi 