Fruitfulness

Six months ago to the day, on a dark December afternoon, we marked the end of my time in north Bristol with a tea party. I was glad of the chance to celebrate together, especially after the confinement of lockdown, and was touched by the lengths folks had gone to - organising the tea and inviting some special guests. We had asked for some plants to go in containers on our patio; an acer and a fig. Being the coldest and darkest time of the year, and as a result of the recent poor weather, both these plants were bare of foliage. Obvious jokes were made about fig trees being barren.

Six months later and a lot has changed. We are excited to see fruit on the fig and elsewhere in the garden! But this has got me thinking about fruitfulness, not just for fig trees but also in ministry.

There is always sadness looking back - the mistakes made, but more so those moments when people weren't able to make the step needed to receive a healing etc, and things were left unresolved. Ministry is also hard and there were many occasions when I had to echo the words of Habbakuk 3

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not blossom,
    and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
    and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
    and there is no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will exult in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
    and makes me tread upon the heights.

So there is the first piece of fruit - learning to allow the failures and frustrations to drive you into the arms of God rather than into cynicism or self-pity.

For a variety of reasons I have found myself twice in the last month driving through some of my old haunts and just as it was fun driving the familiar streets (and knowing the short cuts and parking places), so too it was good to be able to offset some of the memories of hard times with happier ones combined with a sense of compassion for people that stands the test of time - to be able to pray for them as you pass their house. So that (for me at least) is the second piece of fruit - that sense of being opened up by effort spent caring for others. I was struck by something I had read by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that

Jesus' 'being-for-others' is the experience of transcendence. Only through this liberation from self, through this 'being-for-others' unto death, does omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence come into being. Faith is participating in the being of Jesus...Our relationship to God is...a new life in being 'there-for-others', through participation in the being of Jesus. Transcendence is not the infinite, unattainable tasks, but the neighbours within reach in any given situation. God in human form.

which is an important counter to the idea that transcendence is about me, now, my experience and feelings.

The fruit in this present time is different; space to read, study, explore and learn is invaluable and the luxury of being able to see what turns up - to enjoy the invites and chance encounters.

I look at the figs growing on the fig tree most days and marvel at the miracle of fruitfulness taking place so shortly after the barrenness of the winter months.