The Whole of Life for Christ (4): Whole-Life Fruitfulness

I contributed today’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. It’s the fourth in a series introducing themes explored more fully in the book, The Whole of Life for Christ: Enriching Everyday Discipleship, written with Mark Greene.

God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’

Genesis 1:28

In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace... We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.

Colossians 1:6-10

‘Without doubt’, according to Bishop J.B. Lightfoot, ‘Colossae was the least important church to which any epistle of St. Paul is addressed.’ Impolite, perhaps, but probably true. What had once been a prosperous city had declined in size and significance, and was largely populated by low-born people who eked out a living as shepherds and slaves, wool dyers and market traders.

And yet it is ones like these for whom Paul thanks God, excited that the gospel which has been ‘bearing fruit and growing in the whole world’ has also been bearing fruit and growing among them. That fruitfulness is then applied to the Colossians again as Paul prays for them to be ‘bearing fruit in every good work’.

Far from being incidental, his references to ‘bearing fruit’ here and elsewhere in his letters tap into a rich seam which runs through the Bible from beginning to end. We find fruit on the first and last pages of Scripture – in the garden of Eden and the new Jerusalem – and almost everywhere in between. Look more closely, and it becomes clear that God’s desire for fruitfulness is as extensive as the gospel – with what God has done in Christ in bringing men and women back to himself and in setting in motion his plan to restore the whole of creation.

So it is that Paul sees God’s originally intended design for humanity finally being completed through the power of the Spirit bearing fruit in the lives of a transformed people – Gentile as well as Jew, men and women, shepherds and slaves, wool dyers and market traders.

Fruitfulness, then, is bound up with the larger biblical drama of creation and redemption, God’s relationship with his people and his plan for the nations. And it’s our privilege as disciples of Christ to take our place in his grand scheme, working out the implications of the gospel on our frontlines, our lives reflecting the scope of his reign, our relationships displaying the arrival of the kingdom and anticipating its future completion, all the while bearing fruit to the glory of God.

With Paul, we don’t just pray for fruit. We pray for God’s Spirit to do his new creation work in and through us, for the sake of the world in which he has called us to live.

Psalm 80

I preached on Psalm 80 last Sunday. I won’t post my actual notes, but (inspired by the example of a friend and colleague) I thought I’d use the blog as a place to think out loud about what I did and was trying to do. I preach 2-3 times a month, sometimes more, and if I have the time and inclination I may every so often try to record here some summary reflections on my sermons.

Introduction

• With reference to Anne Lamott’s book, Help, Thanks, Wow, I began by talking about the value of the psalms in giving us a voice when we might not know how to pray. This led into describing Psalm 80 as a community ‘Help’ prayer and the significance of that as well as its general lack in our own repertoire of sung worship.

• I also drew attention to the repeated refrain in the Psalm, found first in verse 3 (‘Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved’), repeated in verses 7 and 19, effectively dividing the psalm into three natural sections, and offering a big clue to its main theme – Restore us!

• I mentioned that the words in the refrain are reminiscent of the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26 (‘May the Lord make his face shine upon you’), except that the people of God felt they were not experiencing that promised blessing at this time.

Body

Taking into account the refrain, I looked at the psalm in three movements.

• 80:1-3 – Hear Us! (the heading is taken from the first words of the psalm – 80:1a). I drew attention to the requests, moving from ‘hear us’ (start of verse 1) to ‘save us’ (end of verse 2), and there being hope for this hearing and saving only because of who the Lord is – the shepherd of the flock (80:1a) and the enthroned king (80:1b-2). Not wanting to presume on knowledge, I spent a bit of time highlighting some of the biblical background of the image of the shepherd and the significance of the ark of the covenant.

• 80:4-7 – How Long? (again, the heading is taken from words in the psalm itself – 80:4a). I noted the number of times this question is asked in the Psalms. I also tried to emphasise the people’s sense here that they are suffering the seeming absence of God’s ‘face’ (signifying his blessing presence) due to God’s anger at their sin (80:4), leading to mourning (80:5) and mocking by others (80:6).

• 80:8-19 – Return to Us! (again, the heading is taken from the psalm itself, but midway through the section this time, in 80:14a). I went fairly quickly through the extended vine image, noting how it tells the story of Israel in picture language (80:8-13). To fill out the response to the question asked in verse 12 as to why God has overrun his vine, I read Isaiah 5:1-7 (where judgment comes because the vine produced only bad fruit), drawing attention again to elements of judgment in Psalm 80 (e.g., 80:4, 16), making the central request for God to return to the people (80:14) all the more dramatic. The recognition of God’s judgment doesn’t drive the people away from God, but towards him. The end of this section sees a number of references to a ‘son’ (80:15, 17). Not wanting people to jump too quickly to Jesus at this point, I tried to explain how the language of ‘sonship’ is used in the Old Testament for both Israel as a nation and the king. I sense I lost a few members of the congregation at this point (!), but ended by reinforcing the point that whether the ‘son’ is Israel or the king, it remains clear that renewal and restoration will come only from God (80:17-18).

Implications

• I didn’t reflect at all on the provenance of the psalm (commentators mostly suggest the evidence is equivocal anyway). In fact, I made the lack of specificity into a virtue, allowing us to think about the different contexts in which it might be applicable then and the different places it might apply today. I tried to offer a few possibilities ranging from the historical to the macro to the local and the personal.

• Using Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and John Wesley as examples, I spoke about the times God has been gracious to restore and revive his dying people. I also spoke about the situation of persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria at the moment (though I tried to be careful to say that devastation might come to God’s people not necessarily through his judgment, but through the destruction that others cause). I drew attention to bigger issues that cause anxiety and fear in the world today – war, brutality, ecological disaster, including a recent local tragedy. Then, whilst recognising the corporate nature of the psalm, I invited a response on a personal level too, asking people to reflect on the state of their own ‘vine’. For rhetorical emphasis, I concluded each example with a call to pray the words of verse 19 – ‘Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.’

• Seeking to end on an upbeat note, I read from Isaiah 27:2-6 (the positive counterpoint to Isaiah 5), with its promise that God will protect his vine and that his people will bear fruit. I finished by speaking about Jesus as the Son, the king, the good shepherd, the true vine in whom we abide in order to bear fruit to the glory of God.

•••

• If I was to do this again, I’d probably try to get through the body of psalm itself more quickly in order to spend longer reflecting on its implications, possibly in interaction with the congregation.

• I’d try to be clearer and more helpful on the ‘son’ references!

• I think I struggled most with the ‘judgment’ angle in the psalm. This is not because I have a problem with God judging his people, but more with how we can know for sure in any given contemporary context whether his people are suffering due to his discipline or displeasure (how do we read the nature of God’s hand in particular situations?), and what that looks like anyway this side of the cross. This is why I felt the need to make the qualifications in the case of persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria.

Fruitfulness on the Frontline: The Journey On

I contributed this week’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. This one is the final part of an eight-part series, written by a team of us at LICC, to coincide with the launch of new resources – Fruitfulness on the Frontline.

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord… The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Acts 11:19-21, 26

Luke makes it clear that the account he tells in Acts is a continuation of the same story he began in his gospel (Acts 1:1-2). In fact, it’s the next phase of the plan that goes back to God’s promise to Abraham and the vocation of Israel to be a light to the nations. That calling, embodied supremely in Jesus, is now passed on to his followers as they continue God’s mission, bearing fruit and bearing witness – across cultural and racial and geographical boundaries – to ‘the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).

Although Peter, Paul and a few others are the main characters, it’s equally apparent that the work was carried out by ‘ordinary’ believers, who spread the word wherever they went (Acts 8:4). We don’t know the names of those who established the church in Antioch; but we do know that it was this multi-cultural mix of Jewish and Gentile believers who were first given the designation ‘Christian’. And it is this church that became the base for sending out others, launching a mission into the wider Roman world. Rightly the church equips its people to carry out God’s work in their own place, and rightly it keeps in mind that the gospel is for all nations.

Beyond numerical growth, it’s also apparent that the work of the Spirit is embodied in the lives of the new communities formed – in prayer and worship, in distinct patterns of life together, in following teaching, in digging deep into their pockets in response to the needs of others, in nurturing fruitful lives. Such a church is not just one more social organisation within society, but a community which by its very nature is a sign that God’s kingdom is present. Faith, then, is not merely private or interior, but lived on the public stage, engaged in the world.

Above all, throughout the book of Acts, the centre of gravity is God himself – where mission is not what the church does, but what God does through the church. The same gracious God, the same exalted Christ, the same powerful Spirit, and the same amazing plan means we too play a part in the continual unfolding of this story – bearing fruit in every good work, witnessing to a renewed relationship with God and the restoration of the whole of life under the lordship of Christ.

Fruitfulness in the Bible

To go with the launch of a new set of resources from LICC, called Fruitfulness on the Frontline, I wrote the following piece for the LICC website (pdf here), essentially trying to offer what amounts to a mini biblical theology of fruitfulness.

If you were asked what the Bible says about fruitfulness, some key passages might well spring to mind. Galatians 5, surely – the fruit of the Spirit? John 15 – vine and branches? Yes, and yes. As it happens, though, we find fruit on the first and last pages of Scripture – in the garden of Eden and the new Jerusalem – and almost everywhere in between. Look more closely, and it becomes clear that God’s desire for fruitfulness is as extensive as the gospel – with what God has done in Christ in bringing men and women back to himself and in setting in motion his plan to restore the whole of creation.

Created for Fruitfulness

So it is that fruitfulness begins with God himself, who creates land with the capacity to produce plants and trees which bear fruit, who blesses animals to be fruitful and multiply, and who calls on human beings created in his image to ‘be fruitful and increase in number’ (Genesis 1:26-28). That original mandate has to do with building families, growing crops and breeding animals – essentially cultivating creation. Yet, such cultivation provides the basis for the organisation of society and includes, by extension, the development of culture and civilisation – building houses, designing clothes, writing poetry, playing chess – as we represent God’s rule over every activity, in relationship with others, reflecting God’s own creative hand.

Sadly, the expectation that Adam and Eve would spread God’s blessing from Eden to the whole world is shattered when they disobey God and are expelled from the garden. What will God do now? But, as Genesis continues, so the promise of fruitfulness is reiterated – to Noah after the flood, and to Abraham and his family, where numerical growth of the people is bound up with God’s covenant with them, for the sake of blessing all nations. Then, after the covenant at Sinai, the promises are linked to the people’s obedience to God in the promised land, as God’s ‘vine’ planted there (Psalm 80:8-11).

Through all this, as we see in Psalm 1 and elsewhere, bearing fruit becomes an archetypal image of righteous living. The righteous, those in covenant relationship with God, who constantly meditate on his law, are like a tree planted by a stream that produces fruit (Psalm 1:3). The tree is well located, well planted, and well watered. Because of that, it thrives, bears fruit in season and does not wither.

Alas, however, the repeated complaint of the prophets is that Israel as a vine or vineyard seems unable to bear fruit. ‘The song of the vineyard’ in Isaiah 5:1-7 is particularly poignant, recording God’s deep sadness that his chosen people who had been planted to bear fruit, ultimately for the blessing of the nations, had produced only sour grapes. The consequence in the Old Testament story is that they suffer judgment and dispersal in exile.

Even so, the language of fruitfulness is picked up again in promises of restoration back to the land, sometimes associated with the giving of God’s Spirit (as in Isaiah 32:15-17). Isaiah 27:1-6, in particular, provides a moving counterpart to 5:1-7, using the same language. In spite of their fruitlessness, God remains lovingly committed to his people, and will assume responsibility for the care of the vine, watching over it, watering it, and protecting it against enemies. This is because he has large-scale plans for his vineyard – nothing less than to ‘fill all the world with fruit’ (27:6)!

Fruitfulness in Christ

Given the rich Old Testament background, it’s perhaps no surprise that Jesus uses images related to fruit and fruitfulness, sowing and harvesting, fig trees and vineyards. Especially evocative is his statement ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener’ (John 15:1). The upshot of Jesus’ declaration and his use of the vine image is that he is now taking up the role God had assigned for Israel. Union with Jesus in the vine means participation in the restored end-time people of God who are called to bear fruit to God’s glory (John 15:8).

Paul too picks up the language of fruit at various points in his letters, where the original mandate of fruitfulness given at creation finds fulfilment in the worldwide transformation of a people – Gentile as well as Jew – a people who bear the fruit of the Spirit as a sign of the new creation. As Paul says in Galatians 5, those who walk by the Spirit (5:16) and are led by the Spirit (5:18), who live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit (5:25) are no longer under the authority of the law. Nor are they bound to ‘gratify the desires of the flesh’ (5:16), that way of life marked by alienation from God and each other. Instead, the death and resurrection of Christ and the giving of the Spirit have ushered in a new era – a new creation no less (6:15) – in which the Spirit animates our relationship with God, just as he promised through his prophets.

Then, when writing to the Colossians, expressing thankfulness to God for their faith, love and hope, Paul writes that the gospel is ‘bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world’, just as it has been doing among the Colossians themselves (1:6). And as part of his prayer in 1:9-14, Paul prays that they will be those who are ‘bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God’ (1:10). Those references to ‘bearing fruit’ and ‘growing’ are remarkably similar to the phraseology and thought of Genesis 1:28. Paul appears to be suggesting that the gospel is creating a people who now fulfil the purpose of the creation mandate, a people who are being remade in the image of the Creator (see Colossians 3:9-10). Amazingly, Paul sees God’s originally intended design for humanity finally being completed through the power of the gospel bearing fruit in the lives of men and women!

As we pray and work to see fruit in the spread of the gospel, and as we abide in the vine bearing fruit to the glory of God, and as we seek to walk in step with the Spirit who does his new creation work in and through the church, we look forward to the new Jerusalem where trees will bear fruit for the healing of the nations. Echoing Ezekiel’s vision of the restored temple (Ezekiel 47:1-12), John too sees an Eden-like ‘river of the water of life’ proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1), with the tree of life on both sides ‘bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month’ (22:3). Where humans were formerly denied access to the tree of life, now John’s vision includes it, describes how it produces fruit every month which renews those who eat it.

The picture John paints – of free access to life and vitality – is hugely significant in a world where people struggle to overcome disease and death. Here the natural order is wonderfully transformed, with God’s promises of restoration finding their ultimate fulfilment in the renewal of the cosmos to be a place where God and people can truly dwell together. Here too, citizens of the new earth are drawn from all nations in fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, itself reflecting the original blessing of fruitfulness on humanity right back at creation. Here, by God’s grace, we will take our place.

Fruitfulness on the Frontline

Yesterday, LICC launched a new set of resources – Fruitfulness on the Frontline – including a book and a DVD designed especially for small groups.

Here’s some blurb from the webpage:

‘We all have a life on the frontline in the world that’s significant to God. But can we see how God has been working in and through us? Can we imagine what God might be pleased to work in and through us on our daily frontlines?’

More information about the DVD, including a short video promo, is available here.

More information about the book, published by IVP, is available here.

A Discussion Guide has been written to go alongside the sessions, along with a raft of other resources (including prayer cards and preaching guides), to which I have made some contributions.

Fruitfulness on the Frontline (1): A Fruitful Life

I contributed this week’s ‘Word for the Week’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. This one kicks off an eight-part series, written by a team of us at LICC, to coincide with the launch of new resources – Fruitfulness on the Frontline.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Honour her for all that her hands have done,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:30-31

What does real fruitfulness look like? How do you know it when you see it?

The book of Proverbs closes with a poetic celebration of a woman who ‘fears the Lord’. Significantly, we reach the end of the book and discover that the model to emulate is not a religious ‘professional’, like a priest or a prophet or a scribe, but a woman whose faith is shown in her daily life. In fact, this remarkable portrayal is the Bible’s fullest description of the regular activity of an ‘ordinary’ person – a woman whose ‘fear of the Lord’ is demonstrated in her everyday activities of being a wife to her husband, a mother to her children, providing for her family, managing her household, engaging in international trade in cloths and textiles, negotiating the purchase of fields, looking out for the poor...

The book which begins with the affirmation that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ends with praise of one who embodies it.

No wonder we are called on to honour her for ‘the fruit of her hands’, as more literal versions translate the phrase in verse 31. In what does this fruit consist? How is it demonstrated? The ‘fruit of her hands’ is the result of her work, that which allows her to plant a vineyard (31:16). Her spinning of yarn and reaching out to the poor are also actions performed by her hands (31:19-20). Whether it’s savvy commerce, technical competence, or tender compassion, all are attributed to the work of her fruitful hands – the deeds that bring her praise.

In keeping with the command to our first parents in the Garden of Eden, the fruit of her hands is a life which brings forth the potential of God’s good creation. As such, the woman becomes a model for all of us who are called to be faithful stewards of all that God has given us, in a way that’s productive and beneficial to others.

And the call to fruitful living is applicable in different spheres of life – at the city gates and in the market squares, in our homes and in our workplaces. Far from being removed from the rhythms of everyday life, such fruitfulness embraces a range of skills and tasks, worked out concretely in the kitchen, on the field, at the desk, wherever God has placed us.