URC Daily Devotion Friday 20 December 2024

St Luke 6: 43 – 45

Jesus said: ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

Reflection

A participant at the Friday Drop-In hosted by a local church had been allocated an allotment and wanted to grow potatoes, onions, and garlic for the weekly communal lunch. Would anyone help him? I offered to take a look, with another of the Drop-In guests who used to work as a gardener of lawns and flower beds. On the first visit the neighbouring plot holder gave us some spare onions, which we planted. On our next visit another new friend gave us seed potatoes so those went in too. The previous plot holder had left us a legacy of purple sprouting broccoli,  chard, mint and three apple trees. Plus a thicket of brambles behind the shed. “We must cut those down” said my co-gardener. “Let’s wait” I replied “they have no thorns, so they’re likely cultivated blackberries”. Time proved this to be true and the fruit was harvested for jam to sell, and for Friday puddings.

Scripture offers gifts to the gardener, although I respond to this reading with “yes, but” and “it all depends”. Sometimes a good tree does produce bad fruit, or rather fruit that started good and turned bad due to attack by disease and pests. Clearly it is true that a bramble bush cannot yield grapes, although it can still produce a useful crop. Perhaps scripture is meant to be received poetically rather than scientifically.

Reflection on the abundance of the heart is the punchline of this text. It’s easy to think that abundance is always positive, as in Christ coming to give life abundant – yet an abundance of spite, bile and cynicism has a withering effect. When we know our own heart, and when we choose to align our heart with God’s love, we have more chance of producing good fruit for ourselves and our communities.  

Prayer

Gardening God, 
who prunes with firm and tender care, 
seed in my heart good treasure,
that I may share words of encouragement and love. Amen