The Fruit Tree

Address to the Tulse Hill General Church Meeting

In Bible times one of the things that people prized most highly was, you might be surprised to hear, the fruit tree. Now I have an apple tree in my garden and for most of the year I largely ignore it, but in the Autumn when the apples are ripe, I am very happy to go around and pick up the fallen ones as they taste quite nice. But I can’t say it is a prized possession!

Fruit trees were highly prized as they were not easy to grow and once established they would provide you with an annual, almost maintenance free, harvest. In the Bible a fig tree was often a symbol for peace and prosperity as they took a long time to grow and everyone dreamed of having their own piece of land with a shady fig tree to sit under.  

Because fruit was hard to grow and highly prized it became a metaphor for God’s purposes. Children were sometimes referred to as a the fruit of the womb, the good purposes of Israel were sometimes referred to as fruit by the prophets, and of course most of all, fruit became, in the New Testament, a metaphor for the work of the holy spirit. By your fruits you will be known. In our reading today we find Paul urging the Christians in Colossae to live lives fully pleasing to God and to bear fruit in every good work as they grow in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:1-14)

In the gospels Jesus even suggests that if you do not bear fruit then you should be cut off from the tree and thrown away and burnt. A tree without fruit is not only useless it uses up scarce resources that could be put to better use.  

As we meet today for worship and to consider the life and mission of our church here at Tulse Hill I think we are being challenged to consider whether or not we are bearing fruit. Are we bearing fruit in every good thing?  

One of the questions ministers sometimes ask each other is: if you weren’t a minister would you attend your church? That is quite a difficult one isn’t it? I think I would attend this church. Because you are a lovely group of people. You genuinely know each other and look after one another. You visit the sick and housebound and when you come to worship you do so with such joy and openness. I love this church!

But. And I ask this of myself too, are we bearing fruit?

One of the reasons that fruit was so valuable was that in Bible times the growing of fruit was governed, like all things, by the law. The Mosaic law regarded fruit trees as being unclean for 3 years after planting. Crops in the fourth year were to be given as offerings to God. Only in the fifth year could the fruit be eaten.  

That’s a bit tough isn’t it. You plant a tree but are unable to benefit from its harvest for 5 years! Can you imagine getting a new job and your boss tells you that you won’t be paid for 5 years! No wonder mature fruit trees were highly prized. But of course there was a reason for this bit of law. It stopped people from prematurely picking the fruit and allowed the tree to grow and be more firmly established before it could be exploited for human gain. Perhaps this was the meaning of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden? 

Now I think that there is something in this image of the fruit tree, for the tree must be mature and before it could bear useful fruit. So when Paul urges his friends in Colossae to bear fruit in every good thing he is actually declaring them to now be ready and grown up enough to bear fruit. They are now mature enough to start producing results and to do God's work of building the kingdom. 

And I wonder what that message is saying to us here at Tulse Hill. I sometimes wonder why we do not do more as God’s people in this place. I wonder why we just come to worship on Sunday and then leave this place empty for the rest of the week. I sometimes think that we could be bearing more fruit, engaged in more outward expressions of God’s love to us and our community.

But instead of beating ourselves up about why we are not already doing these things perhaps our message today is telling us that up till now we have not been ready. Our tree had not grown enough. Our fruit has not been ready to pick. Our tender roots and shoots have not been mature enough. Our time has not come.

So my question to us now – has the time come? Is the fruit now ripening? Are our branches and leaves now strong enough? Is our life together now mature enough to sustain new work, a new vision, a new reaching out into the fields. For the harvest is now ready and our fruit is ready to be picked. Is this what God is saying to us as we meet together and offer him not just our worship but the business of our church and the life and mission of our community?

In another of his letters Paul writes: “When the time was right, God sent his son..” These words remind us that God works in his own time, preparing us, slowly transforming us, growing us – until we are ready, like trees slowly growing towards maturity. An anonymous prisoner wrote recently of how one day he could not bear it anymore. It wasn’t prison that was agony but living with all he had done. He had been angry, abusive, and had ended up committing serious acts of violence against his partner. Reduced to nothing he fell to his knees and pleaded with God. “I beg you,” he prayed. He begged for forgiveness and healing. 

At first he felt nothing, but each day he prayed, he persisted and seemingly there were no results, but then one day he felt a beautiful peace surround him, he felt calm for the first time in a long time. He knew God was with him - yet he knew that his transformation took time. “God told me to listen”, he wrote “and do it his way. So every day, little by little I got to know God and his ways. God told me he had plans for me and I notice that each day when I put Jesus first I feel his joy. I feel I am free. He says.. ‘seek and you will find..’”

That testimony reminds us that all things happen in God’s time. When the time is right he brings healing. When the time is right he assures us of forgiveness. When the time is right he fills our hearts with joy.   

And when the time is right – we will bear fruit  in every good thing. Amen.