Fruit

When we moved in here over thirty years ago, there was a damson tree in the garden which dripped with a profusion of fruit in the autumn. We paid the Cub Scout son of a friend, working on a ‘bob a job’ badge, to climb the tree and bring in the crop. I then discovered how labour-intensive it is to deal with damsons and in future years, as the tree’s fecundity lessened, I was relieved.

Well, the birds graciously planted a new damson for me and this year, we returned to find a carpet of the richly-coloured plums spread on the ground. I’ve now gathered them in, and am about to figure out how to deal with them. Damson gin isn’t the answer as we don’t particularly drink it and am not sure if anybody else does.

I always seem to be going on about harvesting fruit, but that is because this is such an unusual year. We’ve not really had many, if any, damsons since that early year, nor have we had the cherries or plums like we do this year. Conditions have been perfect for the crops here at the ‘hillock, though others we know have not enjoyed such bounty.

The Bible talks of Christians as people who bear the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, and so on. We are to nourish others with the goodness that comes from Jesus through us. But as they say, life happens, and sometimes the storms disturb the blossom before it can set the fruit. Or drought shrivels what is there. Not every year is a good year. When we are going through drought or storm, we may not have it in us to bear much fruit. We’re not always aware of the droughts or storms others are going through, so can find it hard when we are let down, left un-nourished by others.

My dear friend often says, ‘Put your expectations in nobody but God. Everyone else will let you down sometimes.’ It’s unintentional, often, but it may be that someone else just has no fruit to share.

If you’re in a place of plenty, may you find many ways to can, bottle, bake and infuse your fruit so others can enjoy it. And if you’re in a drought, may you draw nourishment from Jesus himself, so that his fragrance and love can once again bless others.

As Psalm 1 says, blessed are those who delight in the Lord and meditate on his word, because ‘they are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.’

So as I tackle my crop in the kitchen, I will put on praise music and delight in the Lord, meditating on him and his wonderful love for us. And hope the fruit is not just in the jars and puddings and pies, but also in me.

Sea-Salt

As I shifted the sea-salt grinder in order to make room for this laptop, something about it arrested my attention. ‘What, Lord?’ I wondered. ‘Just a cheap acrylic grinder for sea-salt...’

Jesus said that Christians are the salt of the earth, and that if we don’t keep our saltiness we are worth nothing. I don’t know how salt loses its saltiness, but looking at that grinder, I realised that salt, to be useful, has to be broken up.

We are going through a time of breaking up; praise the Lord that there is something to be redeemed from this time. We will all be more useful in this world after these days.

Let your Light Shine

Don’t hide your light under a bushel.

Now is the time for those who have the hope of eternity planted inside them to let it shine. We Christians are people of hope. We are people who believe in a Father God who loves the whole world. The whole world. Atrocities rip into our hearts and lives but they also rip into God’s heart. 

Now is the time to allow God to transform our thinking to that of Christ. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17 We are his hands and his feet, his heart and his head, as we move through this day today. For too long the church has sat in judgment on the world, criticising, condemning, creating barriers when in fact, Jesus came to break down all the barriers, to welcome in the hurting and the lost, and to usher in the Kingdom of heaven. 

Now is the time. This is the day that the Lord has made. The darkness has not overcome the light. Jesus and his love and his mercy have the last word. 

After the weekend atrocities and the heightened fears, how should we Christians live? With courage and conviction, trusting in our Father who is love. 

Let your light so shine before others that they see, and give glory to God. Let’s transform this season which could sink into despair into a season of hope and high expectation. Keeping our eyes focused on the Lord, we can do all that he asks, which is more than we ask or imagine.

Lonely walk, bearing a heavy load

Grey skies wept softly, gently, on the procession winding through our little town. We walked in silence behind the cross, borne by two people. Cars zoomed past as a busy world awoke to Friday, Easter weekend, last day at work, children off school, need to buy chocolate eggs, flowers, roasts, drinks. Drivers glanced in surprise, perhaps not even sure who we were, why we were doing this.

Birds chirped. Not a lot of them, but enough to remind us spring is here. Bare branches budded with green shoots in the hedges we passed. We paused at several junctures and heard sections of the Easter story – well, the Good Friday story. Jesus’ betrayal. Jesus’ trial. Jesus’ condemnation. Jesus’ torment and torture. Jesus’ own lonely walk, staggering beneath the weight of the cross, beneath the weight of the world’s sins. We walked in silence and we thought. We walked shoulder to shoulder with believers from all the Christian denominations in the town. United in our grief. United in our sorrow for the sin which condemned Jesus – not his sin, but ours.

As we gathered for a final reflection inside one of the churches, I thought of all those who, this day, are walking a lonely walk, carrying their own heavy cross. Friends we know who are terminally ill. Friends we know who have ruptured relationships with spouse or children or even parents. The families of those Christian students in Kenya, selected to die by the marauding Al Shabab extremists simply because of their faith. Families grieving the loss of loved ones in the German air disaster. The parents of the suicidal, murderous pilot of that aircraft. Those sitting alone at their kitchen tables, wondering what to do over a holiday weekend, how to fill the lonely hours, remembering happier times. Those made redundant, wondering how they will feed families, anxious to get back into work. Those feeling rejected. Those in pain. Those struggling with the onset of dementia. Those with big decisions to make.

Long, lonely walks, bearing heavy burdens, burdens meant not to be carried alone but meant to be shared. Shared with others; shared with Jesus.

‘Come to me...my yoke is easy...’

Those walking their own ways of the cross, encouraged by friends, loved ones, walking alongside them in silence. Sometimes there is nothing to say. Nothing that can really help. Nothing except an expression of love, measured by companionship along the way.

Don’t leave others to walk alone. Walk with them. Walk with them, aware that Jesus walks with them, and you, too. Listen for his words. Watch for signs of his presence. Allow his peace to flow through you into a hurting, lonely world.

Allow his peace to permeate your heart, your mind, your being. Nothing you can do or say: he has done it all and it is finished.

Gale Force Winds

The sun is warm and smiling in a mottled sky, while grey and white clouds stream past it carried along on the high winds. In like a lion (March 1st) and out like a lion (March 31st) it seems this year. Not a lamb in sight.

High in the sky but also down here on earth, the winds are fierce and icy. Too wild to take the fireside ash out to deposit in the bin – I would have been covered in grey grit myself. Too unpredictable to venture out in. 

Or am I missing something by hunkering down inside? Is there exhilaration and drama to be found out there in the wild winds? Perhaps, though in my imagination the only drama is in dodging a flying tree branch!

Some churches, some Christians, avoid exposing themselves to the unpredictable and wild winds of the Holy Spirit. They shut their hearts and their doors, metaphorically speaking, to his presence and prefer the safe version they choose to believe. A Holy Spirit who comforts and teaches, who inspires and guides. Which is true but isn’t all he does.

The Spirit blows where he wills, Scripture says. Nobody knows why, or where he came from, or where he is going. But the disciples on that first Pentecost couldn’t exclude him from the upper room, and when he blew in he blew out any resistance and fear and filled them with faith and power. 

I may choose to stay inside today while the wild wind whips round the building, but I am open and willing for the Holy Spirit to blow wild and untamed in my life, inspiring my thoughts and energising my faith and giving me power to live life to the full and see Jesus’ kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.              

Fat Adolescent Pheasants

Something caught my eye as I stood in the prayer alcove this morning. It was a fat little cock pheasant scurrying up the drive furtively glancing this way and that. Could his desire for the seeds and nuts spilled onto the ground from the bird feeders over-ride his fear of a predatory cat crouching in the bushes? 

Yes, it could, and close behind came the next wave of fat young pheasants ready for easy pickings at the bird feeders. They brought a big smile to my face. I daren’t go beyond that to thinking that we are just fattening these guys up for the pots of the shooters who raise them for that purpose.

Actually, this is a bit of hypocrisy, because I have a frozen pheasant sitting in my freezer waiting for the oven or pot. Not, I hasten to add, one that I fed from the bird feeder! This one was given to us, shot and cleaned and all the rest by someone else.

The bounty below the bird feeders tempts these adolescent pheasant chicks into a place of danger – from the cats who are generally inside during the day but occasionally have daytime excursions. I am thinking of those three young adolescent women who have somehow been tempted to join the Islamic forces in Syria and who have now disappeared into a black hole of circumstance beyond my desire to consider.

The predators will most certainly have pounced on them by now. 

Jesus told his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. That is a tricky balance to strike. How do we maintain innocence while being shrewd to the ways of the world? 

Only through Jesus. Jesus’ challenges and advice to us are almost always beyond our own ability to achieve. The only way to ‘win’ through and live out the life he calls us to is in him. ‘Abide in me’ he advises. 

Abide. Listen. Read. Draw near. Don’t make quick decisions without praying, reading Scripture, talking with other Christians. Teach this to your children and your children’s children. This world is fraught with danger.

It is easy to slip into the fat teenage pheasant mode, and walk right into danger which is beyond our ability to escape.