Tomorrow Sunday March 3rd, 2013 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine: “If It Should Bear Fruit” (Luke 13:6-9)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ’s parables are rich in meaning for teaching the Christian life. In tomorrow morning’s parable from our Gospel in St. Luke, chapter 13, verses 6-9 we learn that we are God’s trees planted in the vineyard of His Church. Yes we are to bear fruit, but the parable is not pointing us to dwell on the fruit, but to dwell on and to dwell in the Vinedresser. It is the Vinedresser who makes us alive and then keeps us alive. It is the Vinedresser who gives us His life-nourishing Word and Sacraments. When we behold the Vinedresser and receive His love, then everything else follows; everything else falls into place. Then His love becomes ours and His life overflows in and through us. In Christ, you will not be cut down, but you will know life and you will bear fruit because His life has become yours and His life never ends!

In addition to receiving the Living Word of Jesus into our hearts and minds, we will also — as always — receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is one of the primary reasons we come to Church. To receive what our Lord has appointed us and commanded us to receive. In this, He takes care of us. He keeps our faith alive, strong, and growing! Thank God for this precious gift!

Also, I need to share some exciting news I just received just minutes ago: after his intensive treatment at City of Hope hospital, Bob DeYoung’s labs are going up. The treatment is working! He might even be released some time next week. This is fantastic news and thank you for your prayers for Bob and his dear family!

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:

Needless to say, therefore, there are few things more important than repentance in the Christian faith. This is what the account in Luke 13 is about. It is easy to misread Luke 13 when the owner (who represents our Father in heaven) comes to inspect the fig tree in his vineyard (the fig tree representing the Jews in Jerusalem – remember last week our consideration of Christ mourning over Jerusalem, Luke 13:34 – and the vineyard is all of Israel, His chosen nation). It is easy to misread, because of the initial reference to the Father looking for fruit on the tree. This is why so many people misunderstand what repentance is. That is repentance is often led to focus on fruit, or the works of faith. That is to say, if you look at your own life and you feel that you are being productive in good works, etc., then you might very well conclude that you must be living in repentance, because after all true repentance produces “fruit”: the good things that come from the life of faith (like good thoughts, good works, good actions, good service, good prayer, good worship, good witness, etc.). But this is exactly what gets Christians into trouble. If you focus on the fruit, then you will neglect the rest of the tree and quite frankly, you will miss the single most important part of this parable: namely, the vinedresser who is caring for the tree. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the vinedresser.

In Your Service and To Christ’s Glory,

Pastor

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