The Garden

Our house has a large garden. A few years ago, Mhairi paid for a designer to come in and create a plan. It is, shall we say, a very ambitious plan which includes amongst other things, a swimming pool. It sat on our coffee table for a few years and now it sits on the office wall. I've tried to reduce the amount of growth to make our garden easier to maintain, including the removal of several large trees, but nevertheless it keeps me busy. I built the potager garden according to the plan and planted fruit trees with the intention of getting all our fruit and veggies from the garden and saving us on the grocery bill. Last year we built the steps behind the garage so I am making progress but the development is maybe half finished. Alas, other things again took a priority this year.

But I can't remember a summer like this one when the weather has been this much of a let-down. Maybe because of the bad weather, we haven't had our usual crop of apples, nectarines and plums. Summer came late and it looks like it's leaving early.

I must confess that in the Spring I didn't even plant any veggies, I just spent time clearing out the weeds that had grown through Winter and Spring. It takes time to tend the garden to get good crops. Not so with the weeds! I don't have to do anything to grow them!

If the Gardener does nothing, weeds will overrun the Garden. If the Gardener plants the wrong seed or plants in the wrong location, he won't get the fruit he wanted. Without a plan, the Garden will become a hotchpotch of half-baked ideas.

The Gardener can refer to the Gardening Manual. He will need to assess and re-assess his garden plan depending on the time he must tend it. He might need a major garden overhaul to get it looking like he wants in which case it will most likely need a whole team of gardeners to get things back on track, like one of those garden makeover shows. In the end, someone is going to have to do the hard work of tilling the ground, uprooting unwanted growth, pruning back the good plants and planting good seed for the next season.

The Bible begins and ends in a Garden. When we look around us today we can see a lot of weeds and bad fruit and very little good fruit - the fruit of the Spirit. We are not living in a very good season.

When Jesus comes, what’s he going to make of our Garden? Will we be proud to show him around our finished work or will we want to keep him out of it? It's back to basics people!

Genesis 2:15
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-20
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

John 15:1-2
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

So as gardeners in this Garden we live in;
1. We have been given responsibility to look after the Garden
2. No one else is going to do it
3. We will get good results if we plant right
4. Sometimes a good pruning is required
5. We should enjoy the gardening but realise elaborate gardens = hard work. Perhaps we should go more simple! We don’t want the entire neighbourhood laughing at our half-finished swimming pool.

I'd like to look at 1 John 2. John has a way of keeping things simple. Easy to understand and implement. That's what you need when you can't see the forest for the trees. Or the garden for the weeds 😀

1. Turn from sin and do what Jesus says! (v1-6)

In other words, dig up the weeds, sow good seed and stick to the Designer’s Garden plan. Don't be like me this spring and just dig up the weeds. Sow good seed as well. Don’t go building and planting things that are not in the plan.

The person who knows and loves God is the one who does what God asks.

To those who know they struggle, I'm not talking about our day to day failings. I'm talking about the sins that have power over us and that hurt us and others. Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf and his power can break any sin (v1) We have that same mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead to free us from death to life.

To those who think they are ok, believe God's Word when it says we have sinned 😬

Doing what Christ asks will help us love God more and the Holy Spirit will produce fruit in us that is eternal including love (v5)

Galatians 5:22-24
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

It is a fact of nature that sowing good seed produces good fruit 😊

2. Love one another and not the World! (v7-17)

A Garden must be tended to. If you neglect it, very soon you will have a mess of weeds.

Jesus said the new command is to "love one another as I have loved you". (v8 refers to Jesus' words in John 13:34-35). It is a command to fellowship. The law of love was old. However, it is new because God the Father has shown his love for us. He sent Jesus to die for us. Jesus showed us what love means. His love was so much more than the love of normal people. It was a different kind of love. So, the love that Jesus has is also in Christians. We are able to love God and each other with this new kind of love.

On the other hand, John told us not to love the World (v15). Don’t get distracted from your Garden by the World. He doesn't mean the people in your neighbourhood. God loves the World don't forget! John is talking about the things in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

Why did he say that? Was it because the things in the world are evil?

Not necessarily. There are many amazing things in the world as any traveller will know. The architecture and art in Europe are fabulous. Even the churches are filled with treasures of gold and silver.

What John is talking about is that the things in the world are fading, turning to dust. Solomon called the pursuit of pleasure chasing the wind. It has never satisfied anyone.

A person who drinks in everything the world has to offer ultimately is left with dust in their mouth and an empty feeling inside.

The world is fading away, John is saying not to love the things that are fading away, don’t be impressed by them. It is very good advice. He is saying instead to pursue the things that are eternal. Paul told us 3 things remain - faith, hope and love. Those things are worth pursuing.

Many people would say they are pursuing love! Not necessarily. True love is eternal, if you found it you will know.

That is why it is good to search for God. People who search for what is eternal are wise. Pagans who only seek to experience pleasure in the world are foolish.

3. Guard the truth from false teachers! (v18-29)

We need to dig up some of these modern teachings that contradict what Jesus said. They are weeds! John called them antichrist (v21-22).

This came up both in my bible readings this week and at our Elders Meeting. We have a strong warning to guard the flock for which we will be held accountable. Scary stuff!

John says keep on believing what you have been taught from the beginning (v24). Many modern Christian leaders are dozing, they are off guard. When enemies attack with contradictory teaching, the guards should be mobilised and fight for truth ferociously. That is not a picture of many modern churches which are abandoning plain teaching of scripture for human reasoning.

Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

I look at the World and if John thought he was in the final hour, we are counting down the seconds now. The Garden of the World is a mess and when Jesus comes, many people and nations are going to be ashamed. But in our local plot at PCC at least we won’t be taken by surprise. How is our Garden plan working out, are we getting there or do we need to re-focus on some areas that need attending to? By sticking to John’s 3 basic principles our Garden can be in good shape in no time.

Speaking on the topic of Lent which starts on March 1st and runs until Easter, Pope Francis said: "Lent is a beneficial time of pruning from falsity, from worldliness, from indifference: to not think that everything is ok if I am ok; to understand that what counts is not approval, the pursuit of success or consensus, but purity of heart and life."