Gardening tips
24th March 2022
Jesus told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?”
He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”’
That story connected with me because of something in my garden. We have a little box hedge next to our patio, and last year it started to die – all the leaves disintegrated. We didn’t know what had caused it until on day I say a strange insect on our window. With the help of my phone app I identified it as a Chinese Box Moth – and discovered that it devastates box plants.
So now we know the cause of the damage. To start with I cut back all the dead parts and waited to see if the plants would come back to life. But now we have decided to get rid of them and on Sunday we bought a new set of young box hedge plants to put in.
The story Jesus tells is about knowing when to give up on something which is not thriving and producing fruit. It can unsettle us a bit if we take it personally, and think of ourselves as the fig tree. But we don’t need to be anxious about being ‘cut down’ as it were – Jesus never gives up on us. We need to look a little deeper at the meaning.
The context of Jesus telling this parable is his ongoing argument with the religious leaders. They couldn’t accept the way that Jesus bypassed the more observant and religious people and spent time with those who were judged as sinners. Jesus uses this parable and others to point out the lack of fruit that is being produced by their legalistic religious practices – the lack of compassion, and justice. He is warning them that if there is no fruit – if giving them more time and some more attention produces no results – then that tree is ready only to be cut down, and God will bring new growth in other ways.
Underneath this message there is an assumption – if God is at work in something or someone, there will be growth, and flourishing, and fruit. ‘By their fruits you will know them’. It’s the same message as the image of the vine – if you abide in me you will bear much fruit.
This might be a helpful image for us to work with during Lent, when we do some reflecting on our lives. Are there areas of our lives which are not really bearing fruit – although perhaps they used to? Not necessarily things that we know aren’t good, but maybe things we do that seem from the outside to be good and important, but just fail to produce.
I really like the practice of looking back over each day and asking God to help us see what has been most lifegiving, and what has been least life giving or most life draining. We might also say, what has produced fruit, and what has seemed to be pretty fruitless.
This might be small habits or choices. Stopping to listen to the birds before I set of on my bike today produced the fruit of thankfulness. Looking at my BBC news app over breakfast might have seemed important, but actually was far less fruitful than having some space.
Or it might be bigger choices – to do with our work, our other activities, our relationships, our involvement with church, the places we put our focus in life.
It’s hard to accept that sometimes things have run their course, or patterns of behaviour need to change. In the parable there is a stay of execution – perhaps some digging and some manure might help! But there are times for digging up what isn’t growing or producing fruit, and clearing a space – preparing the soil – making it ready for the new thing which God will bring. Because God is a God of growth and he longs to grow good fruit in our lives.
God of the good soil, help us to clear space in our lives this Lent – space to listen, and to notice, and to be open to your Spirit…
God of growth, show us the places in our lives which are not really producing the fruit of life and love and energy and joy. Give us courage to question ourselves, and a readiness to make changes when the time is right…
God of fruitfulness, open our eyes to the new possibilities that you want to grow in us, and grow through us – maybe in new and unexpected ways. Thank you that we can trust, that as we stay rooted in you, you will bring flourishing and fruitfulness in our lives…