Isaiah 55:1-9

Oh dear ……………

If you are anything like me then this story of the unfruitful fig tree will fill you with a sinking feeling. As I look at the fig tree that is my life, and inspect the branches looking eagerly for big ripe juicy figs I find that despite all my frantic activity, for some reason there doesn't seem to be too much there! There is plenty on the tree – lots of leaves and twigs that I've been busily producing – in fact so many of them that they don't let much light in – but not too many real and actual figs.

Once we've realised our poverty of figs the next step can be to resolve to produce more. We will get up earlier, we will read our bible more earnestly, we will run more groups and attend more meetings to learn about fig growing. By dint of our very own effort we will squeeze figs out of our branches no matter what.

Alternatively we may take this realisation of our poverty to be final confirmation that we're just not cut out to be a real fig tree – the fruitful Christian life just isn't for us. We decide that we're really just ornamental fig trees, designed to look pretty and take up a bit of room in the garden – hide an unsightly wall or something and that we'll just hope that the gardener is in a good mood when he comes checking fruit.

Yet, I don't believe that God wants these feelings of failure for us. Whilst these words are most certainly something of a wake up call, and a reminder that our time on this earth will surely end in judgement, they are also words spoken to us by Jesus who is gentle and humble in heart: Jesus who takes delight in the humble offering of a widow, who makes Peter who ran away the rock of his church. The same Jesus who promises that he is the good shepherd who will abandon all else to search for one lost sheep, and looks obsessively for one lost coin. So if these words make you feel lost too then take heart, relax and keep your ears open to God who has words of finding and blessing for you.

The analogy of fruit is one that is developed elsewhere in the Bible – and always it is clear that fruitfulness is a gift, a work of God: one that we must be open and receptive to, but we cannot claim the credit for bearing fruit. This is perhaps most clearly articulated by Paul writing to the Corinthians who affirms: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

And so perhaps God is trying to say to us that what he desires from us is not more frantic activity, not that we should try to squeeze more out of our busy lives: but that we should find the ability to be still and listen to Him, to be attentive and responsive to the promptings of the Spirit in our lives. To stop and listen.

Have you ever tried talking to someone who is busy doing something else – perhaps they're cooking, or watching something on TV, or reading the paper – try to remember a time and remember what it felt like. It's hard isn't it – hard to feel that you are being listened to. The person might hear your voice, may respond with grunts and half-hearted comments, but you know that they're not really listening. You could make them listen: you could shout STOP!! and switch off the TV, or tear the newspaper from their grasp and scream “just listen to me will you”. But we rarely do this - we don't want to impose ourselves on the other person, but we do want them to value us enough to stop and take time to listen. So quite often we stop trying to say what we were going to say, and wait for another opportunity when the person will be more open, more receptive.

And so it is with God. God is always trying to speak to us. But He is maddeningly humble and infuriatingly discreet in how He speaks with us – and we are so often distracted by other things, so that we barely hear Him, and certainly don't listen with our full attention. Being God He could shout STOP!! and bang the table to get our attention – and occasionally He does just that. But what He really wants is for us to be quiet and still and unpreoccupied before He speaks to us. And so He waits for another opportunity … and as we distract ourselves more and more, so He, the One who is the bearer of fruitfulness waits and waits and waits.

God calls us in Isaiah. “HO! Everyone who is thirsty”.

God calls those who are thirsty – those who know that they need to drink deeply of the water that he gives – and not everyone does. So if you feel that your life is dry, and even the leaves on your fig tree are starting to wilt then take heart - God is calling you! And what does he say … “You who have no money , come buy and eat – come buy wine and milk”. Can you imagine walking up the Moor ……. or in your minds eye go to middle Eastern bazaar where the stall holders are calling out to you with their wares. Would you hear them calling “Anyone with no money, come here” ….. and so you'd have to say “I love what you have here – it's just fantastic, the best thing that I've ever seen. But how can anyone with no money buy from you?” And God says “Precisely, exactly, now finally I've got you where I want you. You are poor, you are weak, you can't buy anything that I have to offer, you can't earn it in any way – it is a gift and so listen.” Don't be ashamed that you approach God with empty hands and a thirsty heart and a disheartening awareness of your own barreness – that is the only way that you can approach Him. It doesn't work if you imagine that you can approach God with a delusion of self-confidence and a bulging wallet that means you can trade with Him on equal terms – you can't. Blessed are the poor in Spirit.

God is relationship. God is always wanting to speak with us – not in a generalised way “Attention earthlings … this is the voice of the Misterons” – but in a personal way … in a way that speaks to you, the way that you are, right now, right here, in this place.

When you get home flick through your Bible and find the times that God calls to people – notice how personal it is. Look at the call of Abram – God speaks to him of needing to leave to go to the land that He will show him. Look at Jacob who has the most personal encounters, who wrestles with God, who meets him in an almost comedy situation under the Oaks of Mamre. Look at Moses – God calls his name “Moses, Moses” and then argues patiently while Moses tells him all the reasons that He is the wrong person. Look at Samuel and David and Ruth who is personally cared for. Look at Jeremiah and Mary and Peter - look at them and see how personally God calls them – and know that it is the same for us – if only we will listen. So look at the circumstances that enabled them to listen.

Often God's voice comes when we are least expecting it – He likes to surprise! This is a relationship that we are called into – not a rule book, or a set of ideas – but into a relationship of love and trust.

Fruitless people, how often are we still and quiet and receptive to the voice of God. How do we take the time to listen to that discreet and humble and life giving voice.

It is interesting that God does not only know us by name as individual people – He also knows Churches by name – and so in the first 3 chapters of Revelation we find the risen Christ speaking to the churches deeply and personally – knowing their characteristics: their strengths and their weaknesses. And so how do you as a Church take time to listen to what God wants of you. IN some ways you need to forget this beautiful building and come with your hands empty and a sense of poverty.

Listening to God also means movement – a bit of a paradox there. But look how often Jesus is in motion and activity as he speaks to His disciples – heavily engaged in whatever is happening around him – crossing a lake, climbing a mountain, healing people, on a road to Jerusalem, by the pool of Siloam – there is activity. Jesus did not sit in scholarly seclusion having abstract discussions as the other Rabbis of the day did – He was always moving, and his disciples were always in a state of uncertainty about what was going to happen next – but also in a sense of growing trust that Jesus was in control.

And so it is with our mission as a Church. We cannot sit still. And we cannot wait to be sure where we're going before we set off – Jesus just doesn't do things that way. So we must listen, and then go – do the small, simple, humble things which Jesus puts our way – being open to the unexpected. We need to resist the temptation to try to control everything – to focus on the negatives – and leave room for God.

There is no blueprint – because we bear fruit as a result of a relationship – not a manual.

And the Good News is that the gardener trusts this barren old tree enough to go on putting down fertiliser – he doesn't stop offering his Spirit to us. Are we prepared to stop, to be still, to receive and then, having believed and doubted, to follow as God takes us beyond ourselves to who He knows we can be, and to the fruit that He has prepared for us to produce.

Amen