Here is a quick summary of this series on our new church mission statement:

1.   "Rooted in God's unconditional love" affirms that all we do begins God's love for us and all of creation. We return God's love through loving other people.

2.   "We welcome everyone to grow with us" highlights an extravagant welcome, not just to join us, but to be a part of a growing, transforming community. When we love the stranger, we may be entertaining angels unaware. This welcome may sometimes stretch our comfort zones, but that is essential to growth.

3.   Today we focus on "cultivating faith, justice, and joy." These qualities are the harvest we strive to produce.

"Cultivare" in Latin means to prepare the ground for planting. The word also refers to nurturing, fostering, or developing something, whether it be plants, skills, relationships, or ideas. (or faith, justice, and joy!) It implies a deliberate effort to promote growth, improvement, or refinement. Our mission statement evolved into organic images; we are rooted, growing, and cultivating. (that makes sense for a church only six minutes from the largest botanical garden in the Northeastern United States!)

Cultivate is not often used in the Bible, but producing food is often a metaphor for God's work. Jesus called us to bear fruit and told many agricultural parables. God is like the farmer sowing seeds, which lands on all kinds of ground. Some soil is rocky or full of weeds, or the birds eat it. But the seeds in the good soil produce a hundred-fold. But not all seeds grow; they may need some help. Jesus also tells parables about mustard seeds, wheat, and tears, the laborers in a vineyard; Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. Jesus saw the similarities between cultivating plants to growing souls. 

In the Old Testament, the people of Israel are frequently compared to a vineyard or a fig tree. When people do the right thing and live justly, the vineyard is healthy, but injustice destroys the vineyard for everyone.  Micah 4:4 describes a hopeful future, "But they shall sit every person under their vine and under their fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid." Grapes and figs are a sign of well-being and a healthy society.

Today's parable from Luke 13 starts with a fig tree. After three years of waiting, the man who planted the tree is frustrated that no fruit has come his way. As an amateur, haphazard gardener, I wonder how long fig trees take to bear fruit. Is the owner being reasonable? According to my Google search, figs produce fruit between two and six years after planting. Numerous factors influence the maturity date. Figs need lots of sunlight and struggle during cold, rainy years. If you planted basil this year, you felt the owner's pain. Too much water can cause root rot. Improper pruning can affect the tree's hormone levels, damaging the flowering process. Fruit trees are not radishes that sprout in days and are ready to eat in a few weeks. I don't like to eat radishes, but I plant them because their growth rate to harvest is so satisfying. 

The landscaper in the parable understands the dynamics of cultivation and encourages the owner to be patient another year with the fig tree. The impatient owner demands productivity, saying, "Don't waste the soil on an unproductive tree. Cut it down and plant a new tree!" even though it's not the proper time yet. Impatience is a cultural epidemic. The attitude says, "What have you done for me lately? Fix this problem quickly. We think faster is better. Instant became a thing in my childhood. It was exciting to have instant oatmeal with little pieces of desiccated apple or raisins. You could have an instant breakfast by pouring milk into a strawberry-flavored powder. Dinner was easier with instant potatoes. Suddenly half the pantry was instant. Guess how many instant things I have in my cupboards right now? None! It doesn't taste good or provide proper nutrition. Do you know what the most popular thing to do at home was during COVID? People learned to bake bread. Suddenly millions of people had a sourdough starter in the refrigerator during COVID. When we had time, we rediscovered the wonder of doing things that take time. 

Fig trees (faith, justice, and joy) require a long-term commitment. Jeanne and I often rode our bikes to pick apples at our favorite orchard, the Park Hill Orchard, in Easthampton, Massachusetts. It's well-known not just for cider donuts and heirloom apples but also for being a sculpture park. A giant, red picture frame stands in the center, where we have posed many family photos with the landscape in the background. A piano hangs in a tree. It may be the world's only pick-your-own-sculptor park where human and divine creativity intermingle. 

We met the owner, a tall man with a Mennonite-style beard. He told us about his passion for apples like a sommelier would describe fine wines. The farmer gave us a tour and described pruning techniques he developed for mature trees over 50 years old. He shared his love for tart heirloom Red Astrachan and Golden Delicious apples and frowned at the popular honey crisps, which have a satisfying crunch, but all the flavor of a gas station fruit pie with a multi-year shelf life. Park Hill boasts 45 varieties of apples, and he knows when each will be ripe and whether it is better for eating, pie or cider. 

Jeanne asked how long he had owned the land. He bought the neglected orchard nine years ago. After nine years of dedication and investing more than $2 million this year, he hoped to finally turn a profit. It bustles with families, lovers, and photographers toting bushels of apples. It is an astonishing success, but it has taken nine years to be profitable. What would you be willing to invest nine years to make something its absolute best?

Jesus uses this parable about the fig tree to demonstrate the enduring grace of God. God is the persistent gardener who wants to exhaust every possibility to help us be fruitful. If we desire to cultivate faith, justice, and joy, we must have patient engagement and a long-term view. None of these qualities can be manufactured on a timetable. Faith is a relationship of trust where we learn to walk with God over time. You can't just memorize a creed. We cultivate faith through seasons of challenges. Justice, a state where fairness and equality prevail, is always a work in progress. Our best efforts are imperfect and yet we hope for the future and plant again. Joy is a gift. You cannot decide to be joyful and make yourself enter this state of wonder. You can cultivate it, perhaps through a regular practice of gratitude. But joy is a moment of ripeness discovered, like finding a raspberry hidden under a leaf.

Patience is necessary for faith, justice, and joy because the results are out of our hands. Tomatoes never ripen on my timetable. They usually ripen while I'm on vacation. Growth has its own process and time. You can do everything the right way, and nothing happens. One year I planted watermelons, all I got were small, softball-sized ones. I decided not to plant them next year because they take up so much space. But the next year, one volunteer watermelon came up anyway in the middle of my beets, and this vine produced my best watermelon ever. Cultivation is a co-creative process. We can prepare the way, increase the odds, nurture health, pull the weeds, add water and fertilizer, but we must trust the process. We are only collaborators with the sun, soil, and rain. The DNA code of the seeds does the rest. 

Paul acknowledges this in I Corinthians 3. The church was dividing into factions, and some said Paul's way is the only way, and others said Apollos, who took over from Paul, is the only way. Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered the seed, but it is God that gives the growth." Paul understood that the fruits of the Spirit of God are a co-creative process. We work in the garden, we learn to pay attention to each plants' needs for the right soil conditions, sunlight and water. A good gardener increases the odds, but the harvest is a living grace from the source of life, the living God. 

If we desire to cultivate faith, justice and joy, then we must train to be master gardeners to help these qualities thrive in the world. I looked up what it takes to be designated a master gardener and I was surprised by the answer. The obvious answer is you have to have knowledge. Master gardeners get 60 hours of training in things like how plants thrive in their climate zone, what pests and diseases are prevalent and so on. But that is only half the process. Master gardeners must commitment to being a community resource and volunteer to help others become better gardeners. You only become a master gardener by giving your knowledge away. I loved this sentence I discovered on the Gardening Channel, "Gardeners do this because they are experienced, gardening enthusiasts and love all aspects of growing plants, flowers and vegetables." Master gardeners are amateurs, which means that do this out of amore, out of love. 

This brings us full circle with our mission statement, rooted in God's love, we welcome everyone to grow with us, working towards becoming master gardeners, for the love of flourishing faith, justice and joy.