dormant

It's late winter - the winds are calm and the skies are clear over the Yakima Valley, and the fruit trees are just showing signs of stirring to life. Temperatures have risen to 40 to 70 degrees, and on some days and nights it does not drop below 50, and those particular days are the best to 'wake up the trees' with dormant oil spray. Dormant oil prevents insect damage during the growing season of the year. It could also be said to 'wake up the trees' which have laid dormant all winter - it is the first sign of preparing for something new to grow.

And I checked - the pear trees have not reached bud-break yet but you can see the buds of new blossoms (and therefore fruit) beginning to form.

For now, though, it is preparation time - time to do what you need to do to prepare for new growth.

Fig tree in a vineyard - I haven't seen that one, yet. But I can imagine that if you planted a fig tree in a vineyard after it had time to establish itself and reach maturity, you might well go looking for fruit.

After all what about the picture of earthly happiness, when "every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree" (2 Kings 18:31)?

Yet the man who had the fig tree planted in the vineyard comes looking for fruit - and finds nothing. "Cut it down! Why should it cumber the ground?" he tells the vine-dresser. The vine-dresser intercedes: Give it another year. Let me dig around it and nourish it; then at the end of the season, we'll see.

It is like the story of the vineyard where the owner sent servant after servant to the tenants, and finally sent his son. One more try.

A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. (Luke 13:6-9, KJV)

What seems a parable of judgment is a message of mercy - and of preparation. This is a season when what seems unnecessary - the acknowledgment of falling short of God's glory - becomes necessary preparation for receiving the full abundance of life.

Moses in the wilderness was not a likely candidate for liberation - or for leading his whole people from bondage to freedom. He had killed a man - and lit out for the desert. There he was, tending sheep, and far away from his people, when the most unlikely of things happened. He saw a bush burning, and yet not consumed.

Where is God: sometimes he is found in the solace of fierce landscapes. In this most unlikely of places, the wandering prophet received the blessing of God. I have heard my people's cry; I have come down to deliver them. I will bring them to the land where they will enjoy freedom - and the bounty of fruitfulness.

If there is anywhere you will sit under your own vine and eat of your own fig tree, it is in the land of peace which God has promised.

So Moses goes on to ask, as prophets will, "Who am I to take on such a commission?"

God answers, "I will be with you."

"But who will I say sent me?"

There is an answer:

I AM WHO I AM - and I WILL BECOME WHO I WILL BECOME - the source of all being, that's who.

The source of all being, the ground of being, the nature of existence - and yet, also something... no, not a thing, not an abstract principle, but some One, who is not distant from human experience:

The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham - who promised him children as numerous as the stars at night; the God of Isaac the first-fruits of the promise; the God of Jacob, who wrestled with me all night and persevered and got the blessing.

That is who I am, that is who sends you. I am the one who sends you, to my people, to bring them the good news of salvation, of freedom from bondage, of a new abundant life.


That is the One who sent Moses - and Jesus.

It is not an easy sending - and the cost is high. So is the gift:


R. S. Thomas, "The Coming"


And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look, he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, a river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.

On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many people
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.

http://ayjay.tumblr.com/post/5739594/r-s-thomas-the-coming

God sent his Son to us, not that we might be condemned, but that we might be free, and live abundantly. He is manna in the wilderness, water in the desert - he is the one my soul seeks, as in a barren and dry land where there is no water. He is the one whose loving-kindness is better than life itself.

And so what are we to make of the bad things that happen to ordinary people?

Did they have it coming, those Galileans so horribly treated by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate?

Did they deserve it, the people on whom the crumbly tower finally fell?

No, they were no worse and no better than anyone else. The blessing of God likewise is for all regardless of merit. His comfort is not the comfort however of ease: it is the solace of fierce landscapes.

God does not promise that we will not go through the desert: God promises that he will go through the desert with us.

And so he sent his Son, who though he was equal with God, and though he was sinless, took on himself our human nature, and suffered and lived and experienced all that fallen nature can give - so that on our behalf he took up the Cross, and went on the long road to Calvary.

Was he a miserable offender, the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; who descended into hell?

No, he was the one who died for us. He is the one who went before us, and will lead us to freedom. If we accept the gift.

Not the easy dismissal of indifference, not the get-out-of-jail-free card of cheap grace. God cares enough for us to know that our sin, our fallen nature, is real - to be taken seriously - and to see us through, not abandoning us or dismissing us with a wave.

God does not pretend. It really happened - we really did fall short of the glory of God - and what also really happens is God's grace and mercy. Forgiveness comes after repentance - but it really surely does arrive.

And the fruit does appear on the tree - after the dormant time, the preparation, the pruning; after the digging around is done and the compost is spread; there comes a time of joyful celebration, of peace - when each of us will be in the vineyard, when work is done - and the fruits of the spirit are made manifest in us.

Maranatha - come Lord Jesus - and let us live the blessing of your presence.

May we who experience the barren landscape of winter come to a time of preparation, a season of forgiveness, that we be made ready to receive you when you come to us. May we welcome the blessing of your loving-kindness and may our hearts be open to you.

May we remember always that we belong to a loving God who won't leave us alone.

May we receive the blessing of God - and be reminded we are guided by love every step of our lives. (a blessing and a sending, from the Church of the Beloved http://belovedschurch.org)

AMEN.

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