John 15:1-5

 I was with someone recently who had quite a tan. And I immediately felt envious and thought how nice it must be to spend a lot of time at the beach. And then I realized that the tan came from …. Mowing the grass. 

 I saw co-op members this weekend at Queen Maryann and the Towers working on their borders. And it was a tremendous sight to see, beautifying the neighborhood. Except that they were treating the plants so gently. A little extra dirt here, a little mulch there, … like tucking the tulips in for the night. On the other hand, Howie, the professional gardener for the church, has a much firmer hand. He moves thru the garden, constantly breaking off shoots and branches. He speaks with affection about different species and how they perform. He knows when they blossom and what they like and what they won’t tolerate. But even while gazing fondly at a hydrangea, he will absent mindedly bend down and break off a blossom he doesn’t like or a stem that seems wrong.

 There are times in life when we feel like the grass that has just been cut, or a flower where one of the stems was suddenly chopped off. I think that one of the ways people succeed or fail in life is whether they develop more discernment to understand what is going on with them and whether God is in it.

 The Lord truly understands the disorientation that we feel when something does not go the way we expected. And you will hear in John’s gospel this morning something of why that is happening in your life and how to discern what good thing will be the result. If you have come today with a life problem, I truly pray and expect that you will end this service with a new sense of peace and courage.

 The Lord is interested in productivity. God is sometimes compared to a farmer and we are bushes and flowers in which the Lord is interested. One problem is that we are not all that concerned with productivity as the Lord measures it. I have mentioned before that the church works with this wonderful personnel agency. One of the things that those profiles reveal is that almost everyone is capable of far more than they believe. Early failures, lack of guidance, lack of love at home – all these factors teach us early in life not to expect too much. Keep your head down. And so we take all the wonderful potential and gifts that God has given and try not to use them.

 This has its own cost on our spirit and body. God has created a heavenly economy where we are supposed to use the gifts we have been given. Forcibly subduing ourselves from our true potential creates all sorts of emotional and physical symptoms itself. That makes sense doesn’t it? If God created you with gifts to be a hammer, and you feel that the job of construction is too noble and you aren’t confident enough and so you decide to be a door stop. You won’t be a very good door stop, because you have a handle for people to trip over and you may not be heavy enough to keep the door always open. We always feel loss and tension when we don’t use the gifts that God has placed in us.

 But God, that master gardener, does not just watch benignly as we dumb ourselves down. The Lord leaps into action with mowing and pruning to increase our yield. Some of the hard experiences that you feel in life can be used by God to make you more effective, … if you let it happen. I sure feel unhappy when that pruning is happening because it feels like God doesn’t care or maybe I failed and lost God’s favor.

 We cheated with the lawn in the Prayer Garden. We wanted one right away to enjoy this Spring so the gardeners put down a pre grown sod lawn. You just lay it down and fit the pieces together. But now they mow it once a week to force more grass to grow and force the roots down into the real soil. We paid $1,000 for that lawn. We’re all very interested for it to grow and be a success. But maybe the grass doesn’t feel that way as its being cut and forced to reach deeper with roots. Roots that will be strong enough to face the winter still to come.

 Our task is to abide in Jesus while the pruning happens. I encourage you to develop a weekly discipline of church attendance. People frequently say to me that they don’t need to go to church to pray. I absolutely agree. But the atmosphere of worship reassures us of peace with God and energizes our faith to a new level. It is an important way to abide in Christ.

 More people stop here during the week to pray. I wish that everyone would use the Prayer Garden during the week. I am not a plants and flowers guy by background, but the sheer beauty of the Prayer Garden has a curious effect on my soul.

 We need to protect our spiritual disciplines in life, prayer, worship, Bible reflection – so that we can abide in Christ during the pruning.

 I have had two Cambodia meetings this week to get ready for the trip. One of the joys of the trip is meeting Christians who have gone through war and their faith did not fail. They truly have gone through pruning. One young man said, I expected to be arrested and I went home and to bed and laid there and shook for 24 hours. The Lord does not send these experiences, but the Lord uses them as a pruning so we emerge even more ready to be used by God.

 One of the few presentations that I remember in life was at Northwestern University. The speaker was Dr. Helen Roseveare. She started a mission hospital during a time of revolution. She is a strong and wonderful British woman, very determined. She started her talk with a branch that she stripped away flowers and stems as she spoke. And she used a similar verse to John 15, but from the Old Testament,

 [Isa 49:2] In the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow” Think about making an arrow. Someone has to take a branch and strip off the flowers and stems, finally strip away the bark itself. A lot goes on the create the balanced, accurate arrow that will work with the bow.

 Helen Roseveare was attacked by an army group that took over the hospital. You can find out more in her biography. But what stood out to me was that the attack came after a long life of faithful service. And that God was able to use that attack so that it became one more pruning in her life that made her even more effective.

 God wants to use your life in ways that you have not even imagined. And one preparation for that is the pruning that makes you more productive. But you have to be abiding enough in Christ to let it happen. You have to be ready to accept the new you as it emerges. Perhaps you are going to be a more lush expanse of lawn. Perhaps you will end up producing more flowers and better balance as a hydrangea. Perhaps you will be scarcely recognizable in your new work as a polished arrow.

 You must let it happen. [John 15:8] My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit. Abide in Christ.