Saturday Reflection – 30 January 2021
Saturday Reflection – 30 January 2021
“Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.” Hebrews 6:7
The writer to the Hebrews encourages the Christian community to remain faithful and press on in spiritual maturity until we attain the full measure of Christ. The writer speaks earnestly to the community, that they should seriously consider their spiritual growth; always seeking higher ground and more intimate relationship with Christ. The danger, or peril as the chapter is titled, is in stagnation or regression. This is where as Christians, we become comfortable either with our present situation or circumstance, that we begin to slack off on prayer, or corporate worship or study of the bible or that we begin to give in to temptation or conform to societal ills or compromises. As it is easy to slip into this mode of stagnation or regression, the writer encourages the community to “…go on toward perfection.” (vs. 1)
In doing this, this ambition of attaining higher ground and a more intimate relationship with Christ should always be one of our objectives. In setting our minds in this way, then we become less inclined to slip to our peril. And then in setting our minds on this goal, we should keep the word of God close to our hearts. It is from God’s word that we can examine and extract, God’s eternal truth and be led by the Holy Spirit in a close-knit relationship with God. After all, the B.I.B.L.E. is our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. But we ought to build on this word, by seeking God, and engaging the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that connects the dots and teaches us all truth.
The writer, in today’s doctrinal text reminds us that as Christians we are like the ground that has been tilled and fertilized, in which has a seed has been planted and watered, and where a crop is expected to grow. Remember the story that Isaiah told in Chapter 5:1-2 “Let me sing for my beloved, my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” Like the vineyard in the prophet’s analogy, as Christians, we are being tilled and fertilized by the sacrifice of Christ and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Then as the word of God has been planted and watered by the Holy Spirit and the results are expected by our lip and life. Since the ground has been well tended to, then there is the fair expectation of a good yield. And if there is not, as was the danger of the people of Israel, the prophet continues to proclaim in verses 3-6 “And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”
We cannot ever get to the place where like the fig tree, we appear to be producing by showing off our leaves, but are in fact, not producing any fruit. Where instead of grapes, we produce wild grapes. That is, instead of the fruit of the spirit, there is some distortion or other unacceptable result. Jesus tells us in St. John 15:1-2 that “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” Jesus encourages us as Christians to remain connected to him, who is the true vine through constant and consistent prayer, reading and applying God’s word to our lives, through corporate worship and our humble and faithful acts of service in his vineyard. It is then that we can even be efficient in his ministry, that we can reach others, when we are authentic, blessed and led by the Holy Spirit. We should never be complacent or compromising but stick to our resolve, asking God to reveal to us to kingdom and to make us fit for that kingdom. For when the fruit of the spirit, (the crops and grapes in the analogies) become evident in our lives, then will we be blessed.
Until next week, as we seek higher ground and a more intimate relationship with Christ, may we find Him, and may He fill us with the Holy Spirit and all that we need that we may live and labour to his honour and to his glory, being fit and producing, and then shall be truly blessed. Amen.
Dominic J. Blair