jim henson

I heard the verse about pruning from John's Gospel on the radio the other day and it got me thinking.  In it, Jesus says,

I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser.  Every branch that bears no fruit in it, He cuts away.  Every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it bear even more.  

~John 15:1-2

It occurred to me that whether we bear fruit or not, God cuts out what is useless in us.  This involves (painful) cutting and sometimes we may not be aware of why we are being cut at the time.  We need to trust that God knows, though.

We can't second guess God's intentions, but, rest assured, He is pruning us and preparing us to learn to love as He loves.

This is also a beautiful illustration of the purpose of pain in our lives.  There are those who think that Christians, or religious people shouldn't have pain and that if you do, you are not doing something right.  This verse shows that even when we are bearing fruit , God allows painful things to happen to us for our growth.

There are also those who question the existence of God based on life's pain.  Pain occurs for a reason.  Jesus acknowledged when he spoke of the man born blind, that often it is undeserved.  In this parable, though, He says that His Father does painful pruning in those bearing fruit so that more fruit can be grown for the Kingdom.

God's Kingdom is all around us.  If we are not part of its growth, others will not be shown His love through us.

Like children who do not understand parental restrictions, we question pain, but God is pruning us to show His love to the world.

In today's Gospel from Luke, Jesus tells the Simon (Peter) to "put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch."  Simon is skeptical and doesn't think this will work. Jesus tells Simon to trust in Him.

Similarly, Christ calls us all out to the "deep water" of a dependent and disciplined faith life.  We human beings often don't see a way out of our problems.  Very often, the Church (or more accurately, the people in it) seem only to exacerbate our difficulties. 

But, as I heard in a sermon yesterday, those who are not (yet) saints are saint makers.  In other words, those who challenge us the most have perhaps been put there by God to hone and polish our faith through patience and constant prayer.

Jesus is calling us to find a prayer practice that fits our station in life and practice the Benedictine virtue of stability in sticking with it.  Row out to the deep water of life.  Depend not on ourselves, money, or even each other. 

Depend solely on God.  

Today's Gospel reading is the parable of the sower. The sower (God) sows the good seed but when harvest time comes, weeds have grown up among the plants, sowed by the enemy. The servants want to separate the weeds from the good plants, but the owner refuses, not wanting to throw away good with the bad. He tells them to wait until the harvest time.

God always gives us a second chance. He wants to give us enough time to grow. Only at harvest time will God see whether or not we have yielded a crop of good or bad. In this parable, Jesus is counseling us to be patient with ourselves and with others--with the evil that is in the world. The fact that both good and evil grow together is all part of what this transient world is all about. We are to have patience with others and with ourselves.

Also, sometimes, what we may think is a weed, may not be. It is for God to judge, at the end of time, not for us. As Romans 8:28 reminds us, "All things work together for good." God uses the weeds in our lives for the greater good.

Brother Charles at Praise and Bless tells us that this parable can go even deeper than that. God sees both our good and our selfish intentions and will harvest out the good and forgive the bad.

Also in today's Gospel is the parable of the mustard seed. The mustard seed, in ancient Palestine, grows into an invasive, weedy plant. How is the Kingdom of Heaven like that? God does not work in organized little boxes. Jesus came to shake up the status quo, both then and now. His love is a radical love--stopping at no one, no race, creed, gender or status. God has no ulterior motive--he is love.

This even further, illustrates the point of the first parable. What we think may be something to be weeded out of our lives, may have been planted there on purpose.

 Our weed may indeed be a mustard seed.

Today is Friday, still a penitential day in the Church. Let's meditate on Psalm 51, the ultimate penitential psalm.

I made this slide show years ago.

I was saying the Jesus Prayer today and realized that both it and today's Gospel use the word "living".

Living Water
Today's Gospel from John tells the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus tells her that if she knew who He was and knew "the Gift of God" He would give her "Living Water."

Living water is water that is not stagnant--it is flowing and moving; it sustains life.  The early Church used to baptize in "living water".

The Jesus Prayer
Many Orthodox and other Christians pray The Jesus Prayer daily:

God is the "Living Water" Christ speaks of.  He is the Uncreated Energy.  He sustains all life.

If we meditate on that image, we discover that our troubled, stagnant lives are but a drop in the ocean of God's merciful love.  When we have stopped feeling, stopped caring and stopped moving forward, if we allow ourselves to become a drop in the deep ocean of God's caring love He will dissolve all our temporal shortcomings and cares and we will become one with Our Lord who cares for us so deeply.

Say the Jesus Prayer slowly, meditating on each word, and ask God to allow you to become one with Him.

This is a video I did some years back on Psalm 51, a psalm that is prayed every Friday in the Church.

In today's gospel from Luke, the Tax Collector utters the most beautiful and heart felt prayer in the midst of his feelings of inadequacy in the Presence of God--