You will know them by their fruits

Here's the reflection I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

The imagery of tree and fruit was regularly used by Jesus in his teaching. His followers were chosen and appointed to bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the overall aim and lack of fruitfulness is to be challenged and is ultimately destructive. So, Jesus speaks of the difference between trees which bear good fruit and those which bear bad fruit:

"every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7.17-20)

The question, then, is how do we recognise fruitfulness and how do we become fruitful?

Fruitfulness is a consequence of being ‘in’ Christ, as Jesus makes clear in John 15.5, where he says: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Branches can only bud and grow because they are part of the vine as a whole receiving the sustenance that flows up into the vine from the roots. A vine roots in the soil but has most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, getting the best of both worlds. So, being rooted in Jesus is the way in which Christians can open to the light and bear fruit.

Rootedness could mean commitment to Christ or being embedded in Christ’s life and ministry or both. Psalm 1 uses the image of good fruit growing on a tree in order to say that good fruit grows in our lives when we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate of that law, day and night. Regular meditation on scripture feeds our ability to better integrate our words and actions.

What is fruitfulness? What is it that Jesus is aiming to see in his followers? One way of answering that question for Christians, because Christianity has been a missionary faith, has been to see fruit as souls saved but when Paul writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit he is writing about the character and actions of Christians as fruit, rather than the outcome of our actions: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The originator of these behaviours in us is the Holy Spirit. The fruit are of the Spirit whenever and however they show up in our lives and actions. The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and the fruit which is grown in Christian’s lives is Christlikeness. Being rooted in Jesus enables the Spirit of Jesus to flow in and through a Christian enabling them to begin to become Christlike.

This kind of fruit is about behaviours leading to actions. Actions speak louder than words. That proverb can be traced at least as far back as a speech made by J. Pym in Parliament in 1628 in which he said: ‘A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Pictures of Silver,’ and actions are more precious than words.’

The proverb is, however, ultimately based on Biblical ideas and phrases such as 1 John 3. 18 where we read: ‘let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.’ This teaching probably then derives from Jesus’ words in Matthew 7. 15 – 21, where he argues that we are known by our fruits, meaning our actions, and that simply saying ‘Lord, Lord’ without then acting on that confession is not enough to guarantee our salvation.

In the Parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25.31-46) Jesus emphasises that it is actions, not words, that will count in the final judgement, when he says: ‘‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ St Francis of Assisi summed up this aspect of Jesus’ teaching well, when he said: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.’ So, what kind of fruit is evident is our lives?

Finally, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that such actions as faith, hope and love remain. The word he used for remain hints that such actions continue beyond the grave into eternity i.e. that we can take something with us when we die, that the fruit or acts of faith, hope and love grown in this life continue into, and continue to bear fruit in, the next.

Jesus said we will know disciples and false prophets by their fruits. He said to his disciples, "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last" (John 15.16).

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Dave Gahan, Soulsavers - Shine.

The life of Jesus reproduced in our lives

Here's the sermon I preached at St Catherine’s Wickford this morning:

Stephen Verney begins his commentary on this passage with a great evocation of the way in which vines are grown:

“On a stony hillside above his house, where the thyme grows and the prickly pear, and a wild fig tree fights for its existence in a pocket of shallow soil, a farmer decides to plant a vine. In the autumn he clears a terrace, and brings top soil. He sets a post for the vine to climb, and fixes horizontal supports for its branches. Then in the spring he plants it and fences it against the goats; as it grows he trains it, and in the following autumn he prunes it back.

The vine depends for its life on the farmer, but equally the farmer depends on the vine. For the vine can do what the farmer cannot; it can take the rain that falls on the hillside and convert it into grapes, which the farmer can harvest and tread out in his wine-press, and pour the juice into his vat to ferment and bubble. The farmer and the vine are dependent on each other, and the purpose for which they work together is that water should be turned into wine.”

Jesus is the vine, his Father is the farmer (John 15. 1-8). They are dependent one on the other although their roles are different. Their shared purpose is that water is turned into wine; that the vine is fruitful and that its fruit becomes wine shared with others as the sign and symbol of Jesus’ blood. The process for achieving this can itself be painful; involving pruning and crushing.

We are part of this picture because there is one vine but many branches. Each one of us as we become Christians is grafted into the vine to become part of the vine itself. Verney writes:

“I AM the vine, and you are the branches. Dwell in me, and I in you. Here is teaching both simple and profound, to move the human heart. If the branch dwells in the vine, then the life of the vine dwells in the branch. If the branch grows out of the stem, and out of the roots which are drawing up the goodness of the soil and the rain, then the sap of the vine flows into the branch, and the pattern of the vine’s life unfolds itself through each branch to produce bunches of grapes. So it will be, says Jesus, between you and me. If you do not dwell in me you cannot bear fruit …”

How do we dwell in Jesus? To keep our life dwelling in Christ’s, we must continually renew our decision that “what has been done once for all on the cross by Jesus shall the basis, the starting point, the context of all my thinking and deciding and doing,” writes Lesslie Newbigin. We feed this decision by protecting time for prayer, bible study and worship in our busy lives and schedules.

As we do so, the sap of the vine, the life of Christ, flows into us and we produce fruit. The fruit of the vine is, as Newbigin again writes, “the life of Jesus reproduced in the midst of the life of the world, the pure love and obedience by which people will recognise the disciples of Jesus, the branches of the real vine.”

This fruit, the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives, is the real test of whether or not we are actually dwelling in the vine, in Jesus. In recent years, we have come to know much more about the spiritual life of Mother Teresa, someone whose face shone with the all-encompassing joy of one for whom “to live is Christ.” Everyone who knew her assumed that she was supported in her ministry through a deep and abiding sense of Christ’s presence with her.

Yet the opposite was true. Mother Teresa lived feeling as if she did not believe: “I have no faith” – “They say people in hell suffer eternal pain because of the loss of God … in my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss – of God not being God – of God not really existing.”

Her sense of feeling that there was no God has been revealed in letters that she wrote to her spiritual confidantes. Yet, as Sister Wendy Beckett has written, “this woman who felt that there was no God and lived in emotional anguish was also profoundly aware, intellectually, that God was her total life and that she lived only to love him.” This was what was apparent in her life and ministry and this fruit showed that whatever she felt about the absence of God in her life, she was still a live branch in the vine.

Ultimately, the fruit of our lives - the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives – is the sign of whether we are healthy branches dwelling in the vine. Prayer, bible study and worship are channels for the life of Christ to flow into our lives rather than the sign than his life is flowing into our own.

As we are grafted into the vine, into Jesus, we receive his life flowing through us and take on his characteristics – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. These characteristics result in acts of love because love must act, as we saw in the life of Mother Teresa. While hate could be indifference or inaction, love is always active and must respond practically to the needs we see around us.

We can choose active love over inactive indifference and create a powerful force for change which derives from the life of Christ flowing into us as we dwell in him and where our active love is the fruit of the vine - the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Strawbs - Benedictus.

Fruitfulness, and how to gain it

Here's the reflection I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning: 

The imagery of tree and fruit was regularly used by Jesus in his teaching. His followers were chosen and appointed to bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the overall aim and lack of fruitfulness, as here (Matthew 7.15-20), is to be challenged and is ultimately destructive.

The question, then, is how do we recognise fruitfulness and how do we become fruitful?

Fruitfulness is a consequence of being ‘in’ Christ, as Jesus makes clear in John 15.5, where he says: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Branches can only bud and grow because they are part of the vine as a whole receiving the sustenance that flows up into the vine from the roots. A vine roots in the soil but has most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, getting the best of both worlds. So, being rooted in Jesus is the way in which Christians can open to the light and bear fruit.

Rootedness could mean commitment to Christ or being embedded in Christ’s life and ministry or both. Psalm 1 uses the image of good fruit growing on a tree in order to say that good fruit grows in our lives when we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate of that law, day and night. Regular meditation on scripture feeds our ability to better integrate our words and actions.

What is fruitfulness? What is it that Jesus is aiming to see in his followers? One way of answering that question for Christians, because Christianity has been a missionary faith, has been to see fruit as souls saved but when Paul writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit he is writing about the character and actions of Christians as fruit, rather than the outcome of our actions:

22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

The originator of these behaviours in us is the Holy Spirit. The fruit are of the Spirit whenever and however they show up in our lives and actions. The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and the fruit which is grown in Christian’s lives is Christlikeness. Being rooted in Jesus enables the Spirit of Jesus to flow in and through a Christian enabling them to begin to become Christlike.

This kind of fruit is about behaviours leading to actions. Actions speak louder than words. That proverb can be traced at least as far back as a speech made by J. Pym in Parliament in 1628 in which he said: ‘A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Pictures of Silver,’ and actions are more precious than words.’

The proverb is, however, ultimately based on Biblical ideas and phrases such as 1 John 3. 18 where we read: ‘let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.’ This teaching probably then derives from Jesus’ words in Matthew 7. 15 – 21, where he argues that we are known by our fruits, meaning our actions, and that simply saying ‘Lord, Lord’ without then acting on that confession is not enough to guarantee our salvation.

In the Parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25.31-46) Jesus emphasises that it is actions, not words, that will count in the final judgement, when he says: ‘‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ St Francis of Assisi summed up this aspect of Jesus’ teaching well, when he said: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.’ So, what kind of fruit is evident is our lives?

Finally, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that such actions as faith, hope and love remain. The word he used for remain hints that such actions continue beyond the grave into eternity i.e. that we can take something with us when we die, that the fruit or acts of faith, hope and love grown in this life continue into, and continue to bear fruit in, the next. Jesus said we will know disciples and false prophets by their fruits. He said to his disciples, "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last" (John 15.16).

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Delirious? - Everything.

Bear fruit, fruit that will last

Here's the reflection I shared in today's Eucharist at St Andrew's Wickford:

The imagery of tree and fruit was regularly used by Jesus in his teaching and features in our Psalm (Psalm 1) and New Testament reading (Galatians 5.16-26) today. Jesus’ followers are chosen and appointed to bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the overall aim of the Christian life and lack of fruitfulness is to be challenged and is ultimately destructive.

Fruitfulness is a consequence of being ‘in’ Christ, as Jesus makes clear in John 15.5: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Branches can only bud and grow because they are part of the vine as a whole receiving the sustenance that flows up into the vine from the roots. Similarly, the tree by the water in Psalm 1. A vine roots in the soil but has most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, getting the best of both worlds. So, being rooted in Jesus is the way in which Christians can open to the light and bear fruit. Rootedness could mean commitment to Christ or being embedded in Christ’s life and ministry or both.

The Bible gives us at least two sources of help in being rooted. The first can be noted in the very first Psalm which uses the image of good fruit growing on a tree in order to say that good fruit grows in our lives when we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate of that law day and night. Regular meditation on scripture feeds our ability to better integrate our words and actions.

Our second source is found in Galatians 5 where the fruit that we are called to produce is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The originator of these behaviours in us is the Holy Spirit. The fruit are of the Spirit whenever and however they show up in our lives and actions.

Being led by the Spirit and regularly meditating on the scripture are the two keys to rootedness - to being ‘in’ Christ - and to a close meshing of words and actions in our lives. The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and the fruit which is grown in Christian’s lives is Christlikeness. Being rooted in Jesus enables the Spirit of Jesus to flow in and through a Christian enabling them to begin to become Christlike.

So, what is fruitfulness? What is it that Jesus is aiming to see in his followers? One way of answering that question for Christians, because Christianity has been a missionary faith, has been to see fruit as souls saved but when Paul writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit he is writing about the character and actions of Christians as fruit, rather than the outcome of our actions: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

This kind of fruit is about behaviours leading to actions. Actions speak louder than words. That proverb can be traced at least as far back as a speech made by J. Pym in Parliament in 1628 in which he said: ‘A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Pictures of Silver,’ and actions are more precious than words.’

The proverb is, however, ultimately based on Biblical ideas and phrases such as 1 John 3. 18 where we read: ‘let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.’ This teaching probably then derives from Jesus’ words in Matthew 7. 15 – 21, where he argues that we are known by our fruits, meaning our actions, and that simply saying ‘Lord, Lord’ without then acting on that confession is not enough to guarantee our salvation.

In the Parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25.31-46) Jesus emphasises that it is actions, not words, that will count in the final judgement, when he says: ‘‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ St Francis of Assisi summed up this aspect of Jesus’ teaching well, when he said: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.’ So, what kind of fruit is evident is our lives?

Finally, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that such actions as faith, hope and love remain. The word he used for remain hints that such actions continue beyond the grave into eternity i.e. that we can take something with us when we die, that the fruit or acts of faith, hope and love grown in this life continue into, and continue to bear fruit in, the next. Jesus said, "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last" (John 15.16).

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Ola Gjeilo - The Ground from ‘Sunrise Mass’.

Fire and Fruit

‘Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.’ (1 Corinthians 3: 12-15)

‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.’ (Galatians 5: 22-23)

Fire and fruit are images that run throughout the pages of scripture because they are images drawn from everyday experience and also because they are images that open up reflection on spiritual experience.

John the Baptist speaks in a period when the people of Israel felt confused (Luke 3:7-18). They believed they were the people of God having a special covenant relationship with God and yet they were also an oppressed people under the rule of the Romans and their appointed Kings. They were unable to make sense of both realities together and, as a result, had splintered with some fomenting rebellion against the Romans, some collaborating with the Romans and the majority seeking to live life the best way they could in the circumstances. All these were reflected in the crowd that came to listen to John, as we hear him speak specifically to the people, the tax collectors, and the Roman soldiers.

John talks primarily about the need for fruit in the lives of those that are God’s people, but he is also clear that there is ultimately no entitlement within God’s kingdom, and he talks about that through the image of fire.

As those having a special covenant relationship with God the people of Israel felt entitled. That was a key element to the confusion they felt. Why had God abandoned his God’s chosen people by allowing them to be invaded by an oppressing Empire? They thought the covenant made with God ensured protection for them from invasion and oppression.

John turns that sense of entitlement on its head by saying that the covenant depends on God’s people bearing fruit. What he says here is predicated on the understanding that God chooses to be in a special relationship with a particular group of people, not so much for their own sake, but in order that they become a blessing to all nations, drawing all people everywhere into relationship with God. Therefore, whenever, God’s people become entitled, thinking God is primarily theirs and theirs alone, God acts to break down that sense of entitlement in order that his blessings – the fruit of his people – can once again be available to all people.

John uses the language of horticulture to talk about the way in which God does this. In John 15 we also hear of Jesus talking in very similar terms. The gardeners among us today will be very familiar with pruning in which those parts of a plant, tree, or vine that are not necessary to growth or production or are injurious to the health or development of the plant, are removed or reduced. Pruning is essential to the flourishing of plants and the production of fruit. This is, in essence, what John says is going on in his own time. The current experience of God’s people is one of pruning for future growth and the way for them to approach the challenges of that situation constructively and effectively is to prioritise growth.

Before speaking about fruit, however, John throws out a challenge to his hearers because their sense of entitlement ultimately holds the seeds of disaster. Those who persist in thinking that God is just for them and who, as a result, do not bear from fruit by being a blessing to others will ultimately risk being disinherited by being cut out of the tree or seeing the tree cut down.

However, even here the language John uses – that of fire – holds within it the possibility of refining in order to restore. Experiences of tribulation and trial, including those of being pruned, even cut off and burned, may still be refining experiences that return those enduring them to right relationship with God and to becoming a blessing to others.

John has specific instructions for all those who respond to his message by asking, “What then should we do?” To the crowd he says, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.” To the tax collectors, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” To the soldiers, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

John does not expect the same fruit to be produced by everyone. The fruit that can be grown by those in everyday life differs from the fruit that can be grown by tax collectors, as again from that which can be grown by soldiers. We know from Jesus’ teaching in the Parable of the Sower that seeds grow differently in different kinds of soil. So, also here. What it is possible or appropriate for a tax collector or a soldier to do in their circumstances to be a blessing to others might be very different from what an ordinary citizen can do. Yet, we know from the Gospels what an impact was made when tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus or soldiers, including two centurions, responded to Jesus and acted in ways that accord with John’s teaching here.

The kind of fruit that God is seeking in those who become a blessing to others is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is what God yearns to see in his people at all times and in all places. While there are times when we may experience considerable trial and tribulation, whatever our circumstances – in good times or in bad – God is seeking to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in our lives in order that we bring his blessing to those who have yet to experience or receive it.

So, what can we learn from John’s teaching including his challenge made to Jews and Gentiles alike? To act as God’s people in God’s world, we need to be those who grow the fruit of the Spirit and who become a blessing to others by sharing that fruit as widely as possible. Each of us needs to look at our contexts and roles in order to work out with God how best to do that where we are. The business of growing fruit is not a franchise where one model is simply applied everywhere. There is a diversity of soils and a diversity of fruits. Fundamentally, however, becoming fruitful by being a blessing is the intent of all that John is saying. His talk of fruit is teaching for all times and all circumstances.

His talk of fire, by contrast, is teaching for situations of extremis, where God’s people resist fruitfulness principally by thinking and acting as though God is for them alone. In such circumstances, experiences of tribulation and trial become arenas for pruning and refining; opportunities for change, for reflection, for repentance, for turning and learning. God’s intent though, as St Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians, is always that all should be saved, even if through fire.

Our task, like those responding to John the Baptist, is to continually ask, “What then should we do?” and to take the opportunities which are constantly in front of us to share what we have with those who have nothing, collect no more for ourselves than the amount prescribed, not to extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with what we have. In these and in many other ways, we can be a blessing to others and reveal the love of God through the body of his people. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Salisbury Cathedral Choir - On Jordan's Bank, The Baptist's Cry.  

The life of Jesus reproduced in our lives

Here is my sermon for today's Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Stephen Verney begins his commentary on this passage (John 15. 1 - 8) with a great evocation of the way in which vines are grown: “On a stony hillside above his house, where the thyme grows and the prickly pear, and a wild fig tree fights for its existence in a pocket of shallow soil, a farmer decides to plant a vine. In the autumn he clears a terrace, and brings top soil. He sets a post for the vine to climb, and fixes horizontal supports for its branches. Then in the spring he plants it and fences it against the goats; as it grows he trains it, and in the following autumn he prunes it back.

The vine depends for its life on the farmer, but equally the farmer depends on the vine. For the vine can do what the farmer cannot; it can take the rain that falls on the hillside and convert it into grapes, which the farmer can harvest and tread out in his wine-press, and pour the juice into his vat to ferment and bubble. The farmer and the vine are dependent on each other, and the purpose for which they work together is that water should be turned into wine.” Jesus is the vine, his Father is the farmer. They are dependent one on the other although their roles are different. Their shared purpose is that water is turned into wine; that the vine is fruitful and that its fruit becomes wine shared with others as the sign and symbol of Jesus’ blood. The process for achieving this can itself be painful; involving pruning and crushing.

We are part of this picture because there is one vine but many branches. Each one of us as we become Christians is grafted into the vine to become part of the vine itself. Verney writes: “I AM the vine, and you are the branches. Dwell in me, and I in you. Here is teaching both simple and profound, to move the human heart. If the branch dwells in the vine, then the life of the vine dwells in the branch. If the branch grows out of the stem, and out of the roots which are drawing up the goodness of the soil and the rain, then the sap of the vine flows into the branch, and the pattern of the vine’s life unfolds itself through each branch to produce bunches of grapes. So it will be, says Jesus, between you and me. If you do not dwell in me you cannot bear fruit …”

How do we dwell in Jesus? To keep our life dwelling in Christ’s, we must continually renew our decision that “what has been done once for all on the cross by Jesus shall the basis, the starting point, the context of all my thinking and deciding and doing,” writes Lesslie Newbigin. We feed this decision by protecting time for prayer, bible study and worship in our busy lives and schedules. As we do so, the sap of the vine, the life of Christ, flows into us and we produce fruit. The fruit of the vine is, as Newbigin again writes, “the life of Jesus reproduced in the midst of the life of the world, the pure love and obedience by which people will recognise the disciples of Jesus, the branches of the real vine.”

This fruit, the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives, is the real test of whether or not we are actually dwelling in the vine, in Jesus. In recent years, we have come to know much more about the spiritual life of Mother Teresa, someone whose face shone with the all-encompassing joy of one for whom “to live is Christ.” Everyone who knew her assumed that she was supported in her ministry through a deep and abiding sense of Christ’s presence with her.

Yet the opposite was true. Mother Teresa lived feeling as if she did not believe: “I have no faith” – “They say people in hell suffer eternal pain because of the loss of God … in my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss – of God not being God – of God not really existing.” Her sense of feeling that there was no God has been revealed in letters that she wrote to her spiritual confidantes. Yet, as Sister Wendy Beckett has written, “this woman who felt that there was no God and lived in emotional anguish was also profoundly aware, intellectually, that God was her total life and that she lived only to love him.” This was what was apparent in her life and ministry and this fruit showed that whatever she felt about the absence of God in her life, she was still a live branch in the vine.

Ultimately, the fruit of our lives - the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives – is the sign of whether we are healthy branches dwelling in the vine. Prayer, bible study and worship are channels for the life of Christ to flow into our lives rather than the sign than his life is flowing into our own. As we are grafted into the vine, into Jesus, we receive his life flowing through us and take on his characteristics – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. These characteristics result in acts of love because love must act, as we saw in the life of Mother Teresa. While hate could be indifference or inaction, love is always active and must respond practically to the needs we see around us.

This Christian Aid week we can use our spheres of influence to give, act and pray, and in this way support the loving, sacrificial selflessness of Christian Aid partners who support and empower those they serve. We can choose active love over inactive indifference and, together with Christian Aid and others like them, create a powerful force for change which derives from the life of Christ flowing into us as we dwell in him and where our active love is the fruit of the vine - the life of Jesus reproduced in our lives.

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Gregory Porter & Beverley Knight - Mary Did You Know.

Breathe on me, breath of God

Here is my sermon from today's lunchtime Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

“Breathe on me, breath of God. Fill me with life anew, That I may live as thou dost live And do what thou woulds’t do.” This prayer is based on the Gospel story that we have heard today of Jesus breathing on the disciples and the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit (John 20. 19 - 23). The hymn writer takes the picture language of the Holy Spirit being like the breath of God and extends it to all of us so that we pray, “breathe on me, breath of God.” What is it about breathing that is such a good metaphor for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives? In beginning to answer that question, think consciously about your own breathing for a moment. Focus, for a moment, on the regularity of your breathing in and out.

When we breathe in we draw into our bodies the oxygen that we need for life itself. This is a picture of our taking in and being filled with what we need for life. In the same way the Holy Spirit is the life of God in our lives and comes to fill us with that life. What the Holy Spirit brings to us are all the characteristics and gifts of God. Paul lists the characteristics of God in Galatians - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. He also lists a whole series of different gifts that the Holy Spirit awakens in us; some are natural gifts and some, supernatural. But Paul says that the Spirit gives each of us at least one gift and therefore the Holy Spirit comes to give us the character and creativity of God. It is this - the character and creativity of God - that we draw into our lives in the same way as we draw the oxygen of life into our bodies when we breathe.

We breathe continually. There is no let-up in our breathing, at least not until we die. We can live a long time without food, a couple of days without drinking, but life without breath is measured in minutes. So in the same way that we constantly breath, we are to continually draw in the Holy Spirit into our lives. Sometimes Christians speak about being filled with the Holy Spirit as though it is a one-off experience - “have you been filled with the Holy Spirit?” others might ask us. By which they usually mean have you received one of the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. But being filled with the Spirit is not intended to be a one-off experience. The letter to Ephesians encourages us to go on being filled with the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit first comes into our lives as we first give ourselves to him and then we need to continually receive the Spirit on a moment-by-moment basis. For me, this constant receiving seems closely linked to prayer. The letter to Ephesians also says, that we should pray at all times as the Spirit leads. God is looking for us to be in constant communication or conversation with him through the Holy Spirit so that we can see him and receive from him wherever we are and whatever we are doing.

As the presence and thoughts of God - the Holy Spirit - are continually breathed into our lives through this constant conversation so we continually see and begin to put into practice the characteristics and creativity of God in our way of life, our lifestyles. The prayer of the hymn writer was: “Breathe on me, breath of God. Fill me with life anew, that I may live as thou dost live and do what thou woulds’t do.” This is also why Jesus can say to the disciples as they receive the Holy Spirit that they can forgive or not forgive sins. When we know and practice God’s characteristics and creativity then we are able to make the kind of decisions that God makes. This is possible because we have started to think and act like God.

However, it is important that we don’t stop there. Breathing is not solely about taking in. We breathe in in order to then breathe out. The pattern of our breathing is taking in and giving out, taking in and giving out, and so it should be in relation to the Holy Spirit. The characteristics and creativity of God cannot only be expressed inwardly. Love, joy, peace etc. cannot be seen unless they are shared. Paul continually emphasises that the gifts of the Spirit are not for our own or the Church’s benefit instead “the Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.” Just as we cannot live if we do not breathe out as well as in, so we will not come alive as Christians unless we give out as well as take in.

There are then to be two constants in our lives. A constant conversation with God in which we draw into our lives his Holy Spirit - his presence, his thoughts, his characteristics and his creativity. This is to be coupled with a constant giving out of his characteristics and his creativity for the good of others so that the Holy Spirit is available for others to draw into their lives too.

Finally, breathing is something so fundamental to life that we do it all the time without thinking about it at all. In the same way, the Holy Spirit comes in order to bring us to the point where living the life of God because you natural to us that we do it intuitively, without having to think about it. We start by consciously living the life of God in order that that life begins to become natural to us. When this occurs then we will genuinely pray with our lives the hymn writer’s prayer: “Breathe on me, breath of God. Fill me with life anew, That I may live as thou dost live And do what thou woulds’t do.”

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Breathe on me, breath of God.

Actions speak louder than words

Here is the text of my most recent sermon preached at St Stephen Walbrook (click here to listen to this sermon on the London Internet Church site):

Actions speak louder than words. This proverb can be traced at least as far back as a speech made by J. Pym in Parliament in 1628 in which he said: ‘A word spoken in season is like an Apple of Gold set in Pictures of Silver,’ and actions are more precious than words.’

The proverb is, however, ultimately based on Biblical ideas and phrases such as 1 John 3. 18 where we read: ‘let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.’ This teaching probably then derives from Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 7. 15 – 21) where he argues that we are known by our fruits, meaning our actions, and that simply saying ‘Lord, Lord’ without then acting on that confession is not enough to guarantee our salvation.

In the Parable of the sheep and goats Jesus emphasises that it is actions, not words, that will count in the final judgement, when he says: ‘‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

St Francis of Assisi summed up this aspect of Jesus’ teaching well, when he said: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.’

Despite this we all know how easy it is to be a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ by saying one thing and doing another. We also know how much those who are found out in their hypocrisy, most recently Lord Sewel, are then criticised. Christians are often criticised on the basis of hypocrisy by those who think we have a holier-than-thou attitude. However, Christians should actually be those who are most aware of their fallibilities and failings because of our recognition of our need to regularly confess our sins, as we will do later in this service when we say, in the general Confession: ‘We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness.’

This means that a full and consistent meshing of our words and our actions is often more than we can manage, which still remaining something towards which we strive.

The Bible gives us at least two sources of help in doing so. The first can be noted in the very first Psalm which uses the image of good fruit growing on a tree in order to say that good fruit grows in our lives when we delight in the law of the Lord and meditate of that law day and night. Regular meditation on scripture feeds our ability to better integrate our words and actions.

Our second source is found in Galatians 5 where the fruit that we are called to produce is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The originator of these behaviours in us is the Holy Spirit. The fruit are of the Spirit whenever and however they show up in our lives and actions.

Being led by the Spirit and regularly meditating on the scripture are the two keys to a closer meshing of words and actions in our lives.

What kind of fruit – behaviours leading to actions – are evident is our lives? Do we, like Lord Sewel, effectively lead a double live in which we live out the reverse of those things we say in public? The honest place for us to be is to acknowledge and state that there is often a gap between our words and our actions. In other words that we acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness while also asking for and allowing the Spirit and scriptures to combine in bring change within our lives.

In this way we, can avoid becoming one who says ‘Lord, Lord’ but does not do the will of our Father in heaven. In this way, we can avoid becoming those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing and will become like good trees which bear good fruit.

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Belle & Sebastian - My Wandering Days Are Over.

Tree and Fruit

Our local Scriptural Reasoning group had another fascinating and wide ranging discussion tonight as we used a text bundle on the theme of Tree and Fruit.

Here is what I said by way of introduction to the Christian text (John 15. 16):

The imagery of tree and fruit was regularly used by Jesus in his teaching. As stated here, his followers are chosen and appointed to bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the overall aim and lack of fruitfulness is to be challenged and is ultimately destructive. So he tells and enacts parables of fig trees which don’t bear fruit being given final opportunities to become fruitful before being destroyed if not (Luke 13):

6 "A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

8 "‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’"

Fruitfulness is a consequence of being ‘in’ Christ (John 15):

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Branches can only bud and grow because they are part of the vine as a whole receiving the sustenance that flows up into the vine from the roots. A vine roots in the soil but has most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, getting the best of both worlds. So, being rooted in Jesus is the way in which Christians can open to the light and bear fruit. Rootedness could mean commitment to Christ or being embedded in Christ’s life and ministry or both.

What is fruitfulness? What is it that Jesus is aiming to see in his followers? One way of answering that question for Christians, because Christianity has been a missionary faith, has been to see fruit as souls saved but when Paul writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit he is writing about the character and actions of Christians as fruit, rather than the outcome of our actions:

22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and the fruit which is grown in Christian’s lives is Christlikeness. Being rooted in Jesus enables the Spirit of Jesus to flow in and through a Christian enabling them to begin to become Christlike.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that such actions as faith, hope and love remain. The word he used for remain hints that such actions continue beyond the grave into eternity i.e. that we can take something with us when we die, that the fruit or acts of faith, hope and love grown in this life continue into, and continue to bear fruit in, the next. This brings us back to where we began, with Jesus' statement that "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last."

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Gravy Train - Think Of Life.