Under the Carob Tree

May 30, 2015

So we’ve been here in Portugal for four days now – our yearly vacation time together, when we both are on the move so much individually, and both have work. Usually when we come here we sleep for the first day, and then are off gung ho exploring the area – and seeing amazing things. This year we have both not been moved to explore a lot yet. We’ve slept for the first four days, interspersed with sitting by the pool reading (me) or watching Japanese movies (him). Perhaps because we have three weeks this year, instead of the usual two, and can take this time to rest before gearing up to go out.

Five years ago, we decided to take a cruise across the Atlantic, for our 40^th wedding anniversary. Unbeknownst to Norio, I wanted to do something else as well. I was reading a ship thread on Cruise Critic one day, and someone asked “Whatever happened to the ‘Singing Captain’?” A response came that the Singing Captain had retired to Portugal but that he had a website and CDs for sale. Off I went to check this out – and ended up connecting with Captain Kent Ringborn, formerly of Royal Caribbean International – and ordering ten CDs. While on his page, I also saw the note about “Portugal”. ‘What’s this?’ I wondered? So I emailed  - two years in advance – to see about booking a week in ‘Captain’s Cottage’. It turned out to be this wonderful rental place owned by Kent and Inge Ringborn. When Norio and I got off the ship in Barcelona we had a car rented, and drove through Spain via Valencia, Malaga, Alicante, Cordoba, Seville – into Portugal and on to this beautiful place in a tiny part of the Algarve called Moncarapacho, twenty-five minutes from the airport in Faro. From that time on we skipped the cruising and came directly for two weeks every year in May.

I was thinking last night how friends are made. We connected with the Ringborns via a website renting for vacation, and now are good enough friends that last night I could sprawl out on the sofa on their patio, glass of wine in hand – as if it were my own home. When we come here now, and walk in the door, it’s like another home away from home. We know where everything is. We feel at home. The general rule is if you use something, you replace it for the next guests – and that’s all. 

More to the point, I think – we and the Ringborns are friends – and we look forward to our yearly visits with them.  I think they look forward to our visits too.  There is never a dearth of conversation nor things to commiserate about, or even things to celebrate.  Norio and Inge – the more serious ones, have in-depth conversations about everything; Kent and I are the ship nuts, and can go on at length about who is on what ship where. Kent sings in the Algarve Pop Choir, which I hope to sing in - if only for the fun of going.

This year, we have become aware that we needed some soul-restoring. I am sitting under the carob tree by the pool  The Japanese have a phrase “inochi no sentaku”, the washing of the spirit. Here in the clear air, blue sky, swallows swooping back and forth, under the carob tree – we are rested and restored.

I admire bloggers, especially the RevGals who are becoming friends. I don’t know how they find the time or energy to blog regularly. My brain is always a mash of things. But here, where there is nothing but the sun, warmth, birds singing – and only faintly the sound of the A22 nearby – I feel like writing. Here we are under the carob tree, beside the still clear waters of a beautiful pool.

“Eat, Pray, Love” a sermon based on John 15:1-8 Fifth Sunday of Easter May 3, 2015

John 15 “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. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. 

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A neighbour of mine just a couple of houses over,  has a grapevine growing on his fence.  As I went past on Friday, I noticed he has cut it right back to almost nothing but the main central stem. There are piles of brush on the ground, and from the look of the cutting, one would think that vine would never produce. But by September it will be covered with bunches of wonderful tiny purple grapes, perfect for making jam and juice. 

Years ago Norio planted a lovely Bosc pear in the back yard. The first year, it had many pears on it. The second year it grew long branches, and had fewer pears. I suggested Norio trim the branches back; he thought that was unfair to the tree, it should just be let grow in whatever way. The third year we had about three pears. Then I went to Newfoundland. When I got home three years later, I found the bamboo covering a third of the yard, and the pear tree obscured by all the heartily-growing bamboo. Last summer, I hired someone to come and trim all the trees, practically back to the nub.  We will see what happens with the pear this year.

I was reading a sermon by Rev. Frank Schaefer, one of my favourite preachers –  and Frank was talking about this ‘producing fruit’ thing – that it really irritates him, and rubs him the wrong way the more it comes up. I tend to agree. Everything today is measured by what is called “success” – and clergy see it most in the church. I hate it when I go to meetings, and someone asks me what congregation I serve, how many members, how many kids in the Sunday School, how many study groups; it’s almost as if we are in a competition with each other, and success is marked by ‘how many’?? Being fruitful has turned into meaning how many people can you flog into coming to church?  Can you perform, how soon can you deliver, how many can you get??? You must grow, you must have more than one service, you must expand and offer more and better services and ministries than others. 

Seems to me our job, as branches, isn’t to focus on the fruit. Our job is to stay connected to the Vine. God will take care of the fruit.  Jesus encourages us to let God the vine dresser distribute the fruit according in whatever way God does – that’s not our problem. Sometimes, that may mean that the fruit is a little green.  Mature fruit has its own purpose, however.  By definition, fruit holds seeds. Unless the fruit ripens, it will be impossible for those seeds to develop into something worth planting.  As followers of Jesus, our purpose is to allow our own seeds of faith, surrounded by the ripe fruit of God’s love, to develop into something worth planting. How do we develop our seeds of faith? 

Frank Schaefer says  “…… this morning I come to church and hear Jesus talk about bearing much fruit. Can you blame me for being a little irritated by that?” but he then goes on to ask what Jesus actually means by ‘bearing fruit’. What is the difference between “work” and “fruit”. Does Jesus mean performance? producing, producing, producing? When Jesus talks about fruit, he’s not talking about the gardener who looks after the plant, he’s talking about the plant itself. 

I can dig and manure and water my little pear tree, and prune it back to allow newer growth. I cannot make it produce pears, and I cannot produce the pears The tree bears its own fruit. Fruit grows naturally, the branch does not do anything to produce the fruit; it is genetically predetermined to bear fruit when . . . it remains connected to the tree or vine and gets the necessary nutrients. When Jesus said: "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit" he did not say to us: you must be successful, he said: be fruitful! 

According to Henry Nouwen (in a sermon on this scripture passage) Jesus makes a distinction between doing and being. Nouwen says: "Success comes from doing, and fruitfulness comes from being." Being in and with God, with others and with ourselves. 

So Jesus does not say: do more! Jesus is saying work on your plant – connect to the vine, let the vine support you. He is saying: be more! Get to know God deeper, explore God, let God love you. Experience God’s inner peace once again, and his joy. Take a break from the world, be with God, be with yourself, get in touch with your self and your calling, become centered in your inner spiritual life. 

Don’t worry about fruit or success. If you are connected to the vine, fruit is a given. It will grow naturally out of your life of peace and love, of remaining centred, just as the grape grows naturally out of the vine. 

I think the book “Eat, Pray, Love” is about the fruits of the spirit – of finding ways to be close to the vine, to “abide in” the vine.  I think the quote talks about the search to be as close to the source as possible, so that we too can bear fruit – and we do whatever it takes to tap into the source in order to grow. What are the three things we do at the communion table today? We eat – the fruit of the vine, and the fruit of the earth which also feeds the vine. We pray at the table, to be nourished and to grow in our spirits. This is the process of digging, fertilising, pruning – examining, focus on our inner self and how we draw strength from the vine. The fruit of this digging and fertilising – eating and praying -  is love. Being fruitful is not at all about bodies in church, or kids in Sunday School,  - it’s about how we tap into the source of being, and grow the fruit of the spirit – love. May it be so.

Sources:                                                                

1.      “And Now – An Uplifting Word from Our Sponsor”, a sermon by Rev. Frank Schaefer, John 15:1-8

2.       “Much Fruit” Murray’s Commentary on the gospel of John, Chapter Twelve

3.      Henry Nouwen in a ( tape recorded) sermon on John 15:1-8

4.      “Eat, Pray, Love” Elizabeth Gilbert.