From the Pulpit: The Fruitless Fruit Tree

Canon Leonard Hamlin reminds us that God is willing to be patient with trees that bear no fruit — but we still have the obligation to grow.

Preaching from Jesus’ parable about the fig tree that bore no fruit, Leonard said Christians are called to be different after an encounter with God — in other words, to be trees that bear fruit, to have something to show for it:

What are we producing this morning as we seek to draw closer to God, to have a closer walk with Jesus? What are the expectations of what we should produce?

I think it’s safe to say that perhaps Jesus is looking for a little more joy, a little more peace that we would produce and have a little more patience, that we might have a little more kindness, a little more goodness.

You all know the list. You know the crops that ought to be produced out of the spirit of the church. There ought to be a little more faithfulness. Perhaps there ought to be a little more gentleness. And Lord knows there ought to be a little more self control with each other. And it should be obvious that there should be an expectation of a little more love.

Maybe today there could be, in this place, a little more love, the kind of love that never gives up, the kind of love that never loses faith, the kind of love that is always hopeful, the kind of love that endures through every circumstance, not artificial, but real.