Tended to Flourish

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser…By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:1,8-11)

We’re coming up on a Rogation Day, so thoughts turn to farms and gardens and such. Jesus expresses God and the Church in vineyard terms.

The picture above is a dwarf Burning Bush in my front yard. It’s getting bigger and shrubbier in its fourth year. Years 1 and 2 were me encircling it with wire and spaying the area with rabbit repellent (noxious stuff based with coyote pee, probably by ACME).

I fended off the rabbits for those two years, and last year the plant bloomed well. I was able to remove the wire enclosure, and in the fall got the glorious display of red leaves.

Jesus tells us that we are being tended with divine love. I can’t say I “loved” the Burning Bush, but I did tend it with care and no little passion vs. the predatory bunnies. The Son of God tells us that all that he teaches is to build our unity with him in a complete and abiding joy that frees us to glorify the Father by bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

As Rogation Sunday comes around, may your agricultural and commercial ventures be blessed, and, even more, may you be joyful and spiritually fruitful through the Lord’s loving tending.

Collects for Rogation Days:

Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly receiving good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life shared our toil and hallowed our labor: Be present with your people where they work; make those who carry on the industries and commerce of this land responsive to your will; and give us all a right satisfaction in what we do, and a just return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen