Have you ever walked through an orchard when the fruit is forming on the trees? I grew up in a town called Orange (named after a Prince, not the fruit!). Orange is located on the central tablelands of NSW and when I was a child our city was surrounded by orchards. Cherries and apples were our primary crops. So I have been in a lot of orchards and there is this amazing miracle which happens in an orchard when the fruit is forming. When the trees are young, they are just trees, with wonderful leaves and a beautiful shape and they certainly look great all in rows across a whole orchard. But they are just time-consuming, money-swallowing ornaments taking up space – until the day arrives when the fruit starts to form.

What a miracle that is and when you are there, standing in the middle of that orchard watching that abundant, rich, succulent fruit appear before your eyes from nowhere, guess what you can hear? If you go right up close to one of those trees – guess what you can hear? Absolutely nothing!

Isn’t that a miracle? There’s no grunting, no groaning and no straining on the part of the tree. The fruit just forms. If the tree is well fed and watered, the fruit will always form and it will always be rich and succulent. If the tree is healthy it doesn’t have to exert any extra effort to produce the fruit – it just forms automatically because that is the God-ordained purpose for that tree.

Just as a healthy, well fed and watered tree in an orchard will always produce rich, succulent fruit, so too will a healthy, well fed and watered disciple of Christ always produce rich fruit in their life and within the life of the Church. Trees don’t have to ‘do more or try harder’ or discipline themselves or beat themselves into submission to bear fruit. Trees just need to be still and know that the fruit is already within them – just as their Creator intended. If they are healthy, the fruit will always appear, in season – it’s guaranteed. If we are not producing rich, abundant fruit as trees planted in God’s orchard, God’s kingdom, it can only be because we are not healthy trees receiving the right nourishment; we are not being fed the correct food. What is our food? Jesus told us a very long time ago and His words are recorded in John’s gospel.

John 6:27-35 (Jesus said) “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” What is our water? Listen to Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman at the well all those years ago:

John 4:13-14 “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The source of our food and drink is Christ in us. It is the gift of God’s Son, our Lord and Saviour and His indwelling presence and love within us which is the source of all life, all power, all gifts, all effectiveness and all fruit in the Kingdom of Heaven. We don’t need to imitate Jesus or strive to be like Jesus – we simply need to surrender and let the Spirit of God transform us day by day, minute by minute, choice by choice . . into the image of our Lord and Saviour.

Come, Holy Spirit, Come – fill us to the measure with the fullness of God, fill us with Your Presence, fill us with Your love, fill us with Your life! Amen.