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The pear tree that grows in the church<br />
grounds by my study keeps me in tune<br />
with the seasons. Barren in winter, it<br />
slowly re-grows its leaves throughout<br />
March and April before bursting into white<br />
blossom for a week or so in May. Then from May<br />
to September it slowly grows the buds that will<br />
eventually become pears. In September and<br />
October we frequently end up with more pears<br />
than we know what to do with (though a friend<br />
made some very nice perry out of them last year).<br />
The abundance of fruit that autumn brings is<br />
quite marvellous - as you will know if you’ve ever<br />
walked through an orchard just before the apple<br />
harvest.<br />
Yet, despite nature’s seeming generosity in<br />
her provision, most fruit-bearing plants and trees<br />
need to be carefully tended if their fruit is to be<br />
August/<br />
September<br />
<strong>2015</strong><br />
enjoyed. In my previous house we had a wild vine growing up one of<br />
the walls. The grapes looked very attractive, but they tasted horrible.<br />
Our pears are useful for stewing but not particularly nice to eat off the<br />
tree. Growing good fruit is a perfect combination of nature’s wizardry<br />
and human endeavour.<br />
Perhaps this is why fruit becomes such a helpful metaphor for our<br />
own growth and development. We bear fruit in our own lives from<br />
a mixture of our own inherent personal traits as well as our own will<br />
to change. Jesus recognised that the fruit that we bear in our lives<br />
comes from something much deeper within - a good tree bears good<br />
fruit, a bad tree, bad fruit. You are known and judged by the fruit that<br />
you bear.<br />
If this sounds a little too much like folk-wisdom for our sophisticated<br />
tastes, then it’s worth spending a little time thinking about our lives<br />
and how we project ourselves to others. Are we like my pear tree<br />
seemingly full of fruit, but actually of very little substance, or like my<br />
wild vine - attractive on the outside but sour on the inside?<br />
Or are we instead like a well cultivated orchard bearing<br />
good fruit from good lives?<br />
The Bible recognises that none of us is perfect, and<br />
that the fruit that we bear is rarely as perfect as we<br />
would like to think. Nevertheless through following<br />
Jesus our lives can be changed and become more<br />
fruitful. What fruit are you bearing right now?<br />
Being Fruitful<br />
Rev Toby Hole,<br />
Vicar,<br />
St Chad’s Church, Woodseats<br />
St Chad’s Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats<br />
Church Office: 9 Linden Avenue, Sheffield S8 0GA<br />
Tel: (0114) 274 5<strong>08</strong>6<br />
Page 3<br />
email: office@stchads.org<br />
website: www.stchads.org
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