Bearing Fruit Begins with Roots

 June 19 2022

1 Peter 1:1-21

When I take my dog for walks in the woods beside our house I notice that the blackberry bushes are already loaded with tiny unripe fruit. For me, seeing that picking blackberries is just around the corner, I can’t help but think about when I was a kid and my Dad would load our family up to go black berry picking. To a young kid, such an adventure was always approached with a sense of dread. I mean, there you are, on a hot and humid evening, sweating profusely, the mosquitoes swarming all over you and you are told to go in the middle of a large briar patch full of thorns that scratch at you every time you turn around. You have been given a cleaned out plastic gallon milk jug which the top has been cut off with a piece of twine strung through the handle so that it can be tied around your waist. What was implied was that we could all go home when the jug was full of berries; ugh! I mean, to a young kid trying to fill that jug in the midst of the sweltering heat and the scratchy thorns seemed to take forever. You would pick and pick and look down at the bucket to find that you had barely enough berries to cover the bottom of the jug. Yet you knew that you had to keep on picking because you didn’t want to hear the call to go home and find that everyone else had jugs brimming to the top with nice luscious berries and you barely had your jug half full. No matter how miserable you were what could only make matters worse is the long drive home knowing that you had not pulled your weight!

What also brought this experience to mind this week was something that is written in this first letter that Peter wrote. There at the end of the first chapter of his letter, Peter tells us that we, meaning those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, have been ransomed from the empty way of life of our forefathers. The word translated here as “empty” is also translated as being futile as it was written in our scripture for today. This word actually comes from the experience one had when they went out with a basket to pick some fruit but they ended up going home empty. I believe that this conveys more of what Peter is attempting to say to us here. You see, the forefathers Peter is referring to is the nation of Israel of which Peter was a member of. They prided themselves on being known as the people of God. The one true living God is the one who had rescued them out of slavery  and had led them to Mt. Sinai where Moses received the law from God. God through Moses led the people through the wilderness all the way to the land which God had promised to Abraham, their descendant. Yet in spite of all that God had done on their behalf, there before the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, God still warned his people that they eventually would end up in exile, thrown out of this paradise God had provided for them. They would end up being under the rule of other nations because their hearts would go after the idols of those nations. In the end, God tells his people, as recorded at the end of the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, that among the nations they would find no respite, no resting place for the sole of their foot , but instead the Lord would give them a trembling heart, failing eyes and a languishing soul. Your life, God continues, will hang in doubt before you. To understand what Peter means when he says that his forefathers came up empty, that what God had started with them had ended up being an exercise in futility, this is what he is referring to.

Now, the point of beginning here in order to grasp what Peter is writing about is so that we understand that this empty life, this is what Jesus has ransomed us from with his blood. We as the people that God has created, we were not brought to life just so that after all is said and done that we end up being people who come up empty handed. We were never meant to be people who are unsettled, unsatisfied, anxious people whose hearts tremble, people whose lives are uninspired. We were never meant to be people whose lives are plagued by doubt and uncertainty. You see, once we figure out that this is what Peter is speaking to us about then we realize that even though this letter is centuries old it still has something to say to us today.

This idea that Peter holds out the good news that instead of coming up empty we can be fruit bearing people, is also, I believe the hidden message that simmers underneath this first chapter. In the sixth verse of this first chapter, Peter writes, that in the salvation provided for us through the mercy of Jesus, this is the source of his audiences joy. Now, to use the word “joy” here for the Greek word that Peter uses is a real understatement. The word used here is not the usual word that we translate as being joy but rather it is a word which means much jumping and leaping. In other words, when these people were born from above, given a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, knowing that they had an inheritance that was waiting for them, they couldn’t help but leaping and shouting praises to God for such wondrous grace. Sometimes, I wonder if we are a little too reserved in our response to Jesus.

While Peter loves to hear of their jumping and shouting on account of the Lord, what concerns him is just what will these exuberant believers do when they experience sorrow and suffering on account of their faith. They are going to have to go from the most wondrous mountain top experience to the very pits of hurt and pain and Peter is rightly concerned. When we hear of this situation where those who rejoice at the good news of Jesus but are nonetheless called on to suffer for their faith, I believe that this should bring to mind a parable that Jesus had taught not only to Peter but the rest of the disciples as well. This parable is the parable of the sower and we find it in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. This parable is a story that Jesus told that spoke to just why the good news doesn’t always seem to have the same result on those who hear it.  On the face of it, the story Jesus told is just about a farmer who went out to sow some seed, and some fell along the path and the birds came and ate the seed. Some of the seed fell on rocky ground and immediately the seeds sprang up since there was not much soil but when the sun beat down on the seedlings they were scorched. Other seeds fell among the thorns and the thorns choked out the seed. Yet, all was not lost because some seed did fall on good soil and produced grain. Now, the scenario that concerns us at the moment is the one where the seed fell upon the rocky ground. Jesus explains that this is an image of the person who hears the word and immediately receives that word with joy. Does this sound familiar? Well, Jesus continues, this person has no root in themselves, so they do endure for a while but when tribulation and persecution arises on account of the word, these people immediately get tripped up. Are you beginning to understand the concern of Peter. These people have been ransomed from a life barren of fruit, an empty life yet if their life has no root, no anchor for when the storms come then they also will be people whose lives come up empty.

So, we are left wondering just what is this root, this anchor that is needed in order for these believers and ourselves that can enable us to withstand the heat when it comes? When we think about a root we know that it is a part of the plant which goes out from the plant itself to go to where water and nutrients are and then become a way for those necessary elements of life to be taken up by the plant. If the plant cannot or will not reach out to where the water is then it is going to die. In much the same way, we need to reach out to a source of life beyond ourselves, to anchor our life in the very faithfulness of God. This is the life from above that we are born into, this living hope, that we have been given through the resurrection of Jesus. This hope is a life that is ours in the world to come, the new creation, that the resurrection of Jesus is but the first fruit. This is the inheritance the Peter speaks of that is imperishable, undefined and unfading. Now, what makes our hope certain is this, that all that we are hoping in is being guarded by the power of God, it is his faithfulness that is keeping our salvation ready to be revealed to us on the last day. It is the faithfulness of God which secures what we hope in and out of this hope comes our faith which makes what we hope in a reality for us.

So, everything about our faith depends entirely upon the faithfulness of God. Now, here is where the problem lies; the faithfulness of God is not determined by our circumstances. In our joy, it is easy to know and experience the faithfulness of God. There on the mountain top the distance between heaven and earth is close, we can feel the very presence of God and we serve before the face of God which shines on us. But what do we do when we tumble down the mountain, when we find ourselves in the valley, far from God it would seem, hurting and suffering, on account of the very message which assured us of the faithfulness of God? Here is when we like the Psalmist cry out, “God, why have you forsaken me? We wonder just where is God when we hurt, when life is hard and painful, when opposition is at every turn? We like the people of Israel when faced with seems like the end of the road begin to wonder is God with us or not? This is when we, like a plant in rocky soil, have a hard time getting our roots to reach out to God, our anchor, our sure and steady source of life.

You see, our circumstances are the worst possible way for us to be certain of the faithfulness of God. This is why Peter begins his letter by stating that his audience, those who found themselves as second class citizens in this world, people who were looking forward to going home, these were people who were right where they were supposed to be because of the foreknowledge of God. What Peter is saying here is that God has a plan, he has always had a plan, and the plan is working itself out just as it is supposed to be because God is faithful. As Peter states in the tenth verse of this first chapter, the prophets who had the Spirit of Christ within them prophesied of the grace that is ours today. They sought out and searched diligently, Peter says, to find out just when the moment would be when God’s anointed one would come and suffer and then go onto glory. This prophesy was revealed to them by God, he is the one who spoke to them of his plan and it is this prophesy that was the good news that was preached to those who believed. So, God had a plan, and he revealed this plan to the prophets who spoke of this plan and then just as the plan laid it out, God’s anointed one appeared. His name was Jesus and he did suffer just as the plan said that he would. God is faithful. Jesus not only suffered but he shed his blood for us upon the cross. This is what Peter writes at the beginning of his letter that these refugees, were God’s chosen people according to the foreknowledge, the plan of God, being set apart from the rest of the world by the holy making Spirit and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, which is grace and peace in overflowing measure. This sprinkling of the blood of Christ sounds like a strange way of speaking of the sacrifice of Jesus but what Peter is referring to here is something that happened when the people of Israel ratified the covenant that they made with God at the foot of Mt. Sinai. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, we read of how Moses offered up burnt offerings to God, then he read the Covenant which the people had made with God. The people responded by saying that “all that the Lord had spoken they would do; we will be obedient.” Then Moses took the blood from the burnt offerings and half of it he poured upon the altar and the other half he sprinkled upon the people telling them, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words.” So, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus is Peter’s way of speaking of the new covenant that God has made with all people.  The pouring out of the blood is the pouring out of the life of God for us; this is how far the faithfulness of God is willing to go on our behalf. Now, because of this new covenant, the very presence of God, his Spirit, is faithfully and forever with us, making us holy, making us obedient. The plan that God has always known, the plan that was revealed to the prophets, the plan which is the good news that we have heard, the plan of God’s anointed Son suffering, bleeding and dying for us to enact a new covenant between us and God, this plan is now a reality in us. This is how we know God is faithful. Beyond our circumstances there is a cross. There on the cross is one who knew the faithfulness of his Father, who knew the power of the Spirit even in his suffering, even in his pain. It is this faithfulness of God, the Father, which would not let his servant see corruption. This is the very hope of the resurrection.

So, yes, as Peter says, we right now do not see Jesus but nonetheless we love him. We do not see Jesus but nonetheless we still place our faith in him because we know that what we have placed our hope in is being guarded by the very faithfulness of God. This is why we rejoice with a joy that is beyond words, a joy full of glory and out of this world because when Jesus returns we will be rewarded for our reliance upon the faithfulness of God. This is our living hope. This hope is the welcome of Jesus when he returns. Peter tells us that this is what we have to focus our minds, our thoughts on. You see, it takes effort to take our minds, all of our thoughts, and to not be caught up in what’s going on in the world but instead to be caught up with what life will be like in the world to come. Peter insists that we are to gird up the loins of our minds. To gird means that those who wore the long robes as they did in Peter’s day, would reach down and take their garment and tuck it in their belt, so that they could go to work. To us a better phrase might be to say that we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. In any case, the point is that once we are settled in the hope that is ours, the hope which is surely guarded by the faithfulness of God, then we need to get on doing our part of the plan of God. No longer are we to be people who are driven by our desires, living for the moment as if there was nothing more to live for. No, we are to be holy in our conduct because the one who has called us is holy. God’s holiness is what sets him apart, makes him utterly different from us, and this otherness is, of course his steadfast love and faithfulness. So, as God’s faithfulness has made us faithful, anchoring our lives in the hope which awaits us this then sets us free to love others with the steadfast love of God. As people experience the love of God flowing from our lives they too will want to know the source of this love and so they too will come to know the God who is faithful, a God who has a living hope for them as well, which is theirs through the resurrection of Jesus. As they discover a life anchored in the faithfulness of God then they too will be set free to love others with the steadfast love of God. This is what it means to bear fruit, to live a life which has eternal consequences. This fruit bearing life is the life we have been created to live. This is why our Father redeemed us from the slavery of an empty life, not with gold or silver but with the precious blood of Jesus. We are God’s chosen people only because first, before the foundations of the world, Christ was chosen so that through him we might know the faithfulness of God and come to place our faith in God, the God who raised Christ from the dead and glorified him. This was God’s plan, faithfully executed, all so that we might be faithful, so that we might have a living hope. Amen.