Devotional 3-3-13

A True Story That Never Happened …
A tree stood in a regal vineyard. It was grateful to be there. It was proud to be there. The ground was full of the strength of life….trees call it grace. The tree worked hard with its roots to pull the strength of life from the ground to make itself tall and strong, to make its leaves dark green and large, and to make the roots multiply in order to absorb more grace in order to become stronger and more beautiful. Every year for three years the owner of the vineyard came to the tree and brushed through the leaves and looked at the tree intently. “How beautiful I must be” the tree thought.

One day the tree overheard the owner talking to the gardener: “Cut this tree down, I never find fruit on it! It is just using up the good soil for no reason!”

The tree panicked: “Fruit?? He wants fruit?? I was working hard to be strong and beautiful; I didn’t know he wanted fruit??”

Then a nearby bush said, “Hey buddy, what kind of tree are you? Don’t you know?”

“Of course I know”, the tall, beautiful tree said, “I’m a pear tree…..” As soon as the tree heard its own answer, it he felt ashamed.

“So…not a beauty tree?” the shrub asked.

“…No…” the tree answered.

“Not a strong tree?” the shrub asked.

“…No…” the tree answered.

“Not a pretty big leaf tree?” The shrub asked.

The tree became more ashamed: “Ok, ok, I get it! I’m a pear tree, and I was meant to produce pears… I realize that now. But it looks like it’s too late. He expected pears, I failed him…and I have used up all of the grace around me…and now I’m going to be cut down.”

Just then the tree overheard the gardener speaking to the owner: “Give it another year. Let me put some fresh grace around it and let’s see what it does this time. If It doesn’t work this time, cut it down.” The owner agreed.

The tree was amazed and relieved. He couldn’t believe he would be given more time and more grace. He said to the shrub, “You know, if I was the gardener…I don’t think I would have done what he did.”

The shrub said, “That’s the gardener for you. He is just, well, different. His ways and thoughts are, a little higher I guess. He is really good…and really forgiving…You on the other hand are incredibly forgetful…”

“What do you mean?” asked the tree.

“Don’t you remember?” The shrub replied in disbelief, “The Gardener and the owner have been having the exact same conversation over you about this same time every year for the last three years!”

It’s a true story that never happened….

What kind of person are you?

A person marked by the cross of Christ, sealed by God’s Holy Spirit, a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven? A child of God?

What were you made for? Why were you planted where you are? I think we each know that answer somewhere inside ourselves. Of course we can always know more about the will of God for our lives…but thankfully there is grace for that, to give us understanding. And as we gain understanding, grace also gives us the courage and the heart we need so that we might be fruitful and that we might, each in our own way, give this world what God desires it to have: redemption, hope, forgiveness, love. Do you not know that these are yours to give? They will flow from you when you understand the God and the grace of God that moves through you and claims you.

Child of God, citizen of Heaven, be fruitful in this world that hungers so deeply for the love and grace of God – for this you have been created, planted, called, and empowered. Amen.

Rev Joe HIll

Devotional 3-17-12

“And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."
John 3:19-21

In Lent we search ourselves, we seek to expose more of ourselves to the light. This is the sort of constant turning of which Tom Craig spoke last Sunday. While we are being perfected we are imperfect still. And as such we often find, in the course of inattentive living, that we have strayed once more into darkness. In the Lenten season we try to take pause to assess just where we happen to be standing in life. If we should feel that we are standing in the darkness, it does not mean we are evil. What it does mean is that we must decide where we want to be standing.

We may choose to do what is false, denying the wrong of our sin and remaining in the darkness. In the darkness there deny the wrong for our sin. We keep our pride intact and do as we please. To do so is to do evil. We also have the option of doing what is true, that is to confess our sin to God and to repent. This is what it means to come into the light.

We come into the light so that it may be clearly seen that our deeds, not the deeds of sin but the deeds of repentance, have been done by God. It is God who calls us and welcomes us from the darkness into the light. God makes us see the lie of false righteousness and the truth of our need for grace and mercy. God overcomes the pride in us that would hide sin in the darkness.
Those who do what is true come to the light…those who do what is true repent and repent again. This is to God’s glory.

God, whether we come into the light, whether we stand stubbornly or fearfully in the darkness, or whether we waiver in the twilight shadows between, we are never hidden from you - even if we want to be. The darkness is as the light to you and you see us more plainly than we see ourselves. Have mercy upon us Lord. Help us to hear with assurance the call of your love to us. As you bid us to turn to you time and again, let us not grow weary or prideful or afraid. Make our hearts willing to yield, to come to the truth, to come to the light, for in the light of your love we find wholeness. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Joe Hill

Devotional 3-23-11

John 4:37 'For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'"

Sowing in the gospel sense of the word is a frustrating work for the modern mind. We are willing to invest ourselves in the work of the gospel, but very often we expect and even demand to reap the harvest as well. It is akin to doing acts of kindness for someone and then pressuring them to come to church with you. It is not uncommon as I work in the hospital to hear of patients who need to be listened to or comforted getting preached to and evangelized instead. We can be so eager for a return on our investments these days that we forget that reaping and harvesting are seasons apart. Indeed some preach that we ought to be eager. But we can imagine that harvesting impatiently does violence to the crop itself.

It may not seem the best way to grow your church by next week, but that is not the purpose of sowing or reaping. To sow is to place in the heart of an individual by some act or word of compassion or dignity that meets their hunger (whether of body or spirit) in a way that conflicts with the expectation of coldness and hate that is easy to develop about the world. If we would busy ourselves with generous sowing and stop wringing our hands waiting for the harvest, I can imagine that the people of the world would begin to accumulate enough experiences of love and lift that they would in their spirits begin to suspect that the core message of the gospel is true – That Jesus is Lord, that the world and its darkness do not overcome his love. That sort of understanding and experience must be given time to grow. We cannot reap and sow in the same season.

Do you realize that I and my family did not arrive at Johnson Memorial by any seed that a member had sown? Rather a friendship older than my knowing between Jack and my grandmother has led us all to be together in service to God. Jack did not say, years ago, “this friendship with this woman will add a family to my congregation in a few decades.” He could not have anticipated it anymore than a group of Jewish disciple anticipated a flock of Samaritans coming to see their teacher!

It is natural, when we labor at anything, to want to see the fruits of that labor. But I am reminded of the illustration of the barges that travel our fine river. I have always loved to watch the waves they create and to hear them lap the shore. But these waves do not reach the shore until the barge has passed on by. The ducks play upon them and the boats bob about. But the barge captain never gets to see this. If he were to try to stop his progress in order to watch for the waves, the barge would never create them and he would never arrive at his destination. Often we must sow our acts of loving kindness and respect and pass on. At times we have the chance to sow into a given life multiple times. But be resolved to do your part and carry on. It does not belong to us to demand a harvest or to demand it at the time we desire. But God must be given time to nurture that seed in the field of that heart. The Holy Spirit shall make of it what she desires. And don’t worry, at just the right time, one of your fellows will be there to harvest whatever God may cause to grow. With this in mind we must sow liberally, even radically, and seek no more than this. And should we ever reap, we dare not be so careless as to imagine that we have won anyone to Christ on our own.

Joe Hill

Devotional 2-26-10

Philipians 3:20: But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.


Christian theologian and writer Justo Gonzalez gives an enlightening illustration about living according to one's expectations. Justo is always telling people that one day he hopes to retire to a quiet cabin in the woods where he will do nothing but fish all day.

People are doubtful that Justo will ever do this. He spends all of his free time outfitting hot rods - and loves the ones that have no muffler! He spends all of his time in the city and isn't much on reading wilderness magazines. He owns no fishing pole or tackle. Nothing that anyone sees in Justo's life suggests that he either expects what he claims to expect or that he would either enjoy or be any good at living the life he claims to expect and hope for. Others that know Justo, who also spend all their time in the city, find no clue in Justo's life to help them understand or imagine what the life he expects could possibly be like.

As we travel through our Lenten journeys, let us ask ourselves…are we living a life that prepares us for the life we expect to live when Christ returns? Do we have to declare our citizenship with bumper stickers and logos or is it obvious by the customs and accent of our ways and speech? Would anyone we meet during the day get a glimpse of the kingdom of Heaven from their encounter with us?

Let us consider whether the lives we are living now are preparing us for the life to come.

Let us consider the message of our living, whether it says to others what it might.

And let us repent, change direction, where we ought.

And let us carry on in the gladness of the grace of God. For, ultimately, we can live with expectation of what the future holds and also live with joy for what may presently be.

For if one lives as if expecting the Savior, the more real and more manifest that Savior becomes in the present, both with us and through us. Let us then live life as though the Kingdom of Heaven is indeed at hand, and we will then find that it is indeed among us.

Joe Hill