Eighth Sunday after Trinity + August 10, 2025
Text: Matthew 7:15-23
You can tell a garden that is kept and tended from a garden that has been neglected. The tended garden shows careful attention, addresses weeds before they get out of hand and hurt the good plants preventing them from bearing fruit.
The Lord relates to gardening, because He put Adam and Eve on the earth (and in the Garden of Eden) to tend and care for it. He gave them responsibilities, and didn’t give them a creation that can just take care of itself.
The Gospel for today also uses gardening for a lesson:
“Beware of false prophets…You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”
Often, God likens the Church of His people to a garden. Isaiah 5 uses the image of a vineyard: “For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.” (v. 7) John 15 further illustrates who’s Who, when Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (vv. 1-2)
The Parable of the Tenants in Matthew 21 further clarifies that, just as God does the planting, growing, and pruning, He uses human servants to carry out his work: “There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit.” (vv. 33-34)
Finally, St. Paul applies this to a situation where the Church started picking favorites among those human servants:
“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field” (5-9a)
You are God’s field. Pastors are to be fellow workers of God, like God’s gardeners. Jesus says it’s possible to know a false prophet by their fruits. Of course, there’s a negative lesson from Jesus’ words: Watch out for false prophets, watch for bad fruit. But what that tells us is the fruit is the best rule the Church on earth has for evaluating her servants. To put it another way, If you want to know if you have a good gardener, you ask, how does their garden grow? What sort of fruits are being produced?
Those of us who have gardens enjoy seeing them flourish. We can relate to God’s garden metaphors—His desire for grapes, His work of pruning to remove what is dead and strengthen what is fruitful, His watering and daily attention to what He’s planted. All of it is a labor of love. But sometimes, even though we put all the right effort in, it still fails. Plants get diseased and whither, deer help themselves to our roses and crops, and the weather doesn’t cooperate. Nobody would fault a gardener for this.
These sorts of things happen in the Church too. But when they do, we need to remember the words of the Apostle, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” But what does that growth look like?
It’s important that we don’t equate growth with increase, or increase with growth. One theologian pointed out in the past couple years to me that the Church never shrinks; she only grows because God’s Word goes forth and does not return void. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10–11) God’s work for His Church is growth; not just increase in numbers. There are lots of ways to attract people under the guise of religion. False prophets are excellent at this, but they create a deception. They give the expected appearance of church, but devoid of the genuine fruits which God is seeking. Sure, they can attract the numbers, motivate people for a time with their programs. They can either attract people with their social interests or scratch itching ears who could care less for repentance and salvation by Christ. They can produce the outward appearance of growth with their buildings and followings on social media.
However, in the eyes of God, there is only one way to make growth: Planting, watering, and tending the good Word of God. The preaching of repentance for our sins against God, and the absolution that can only come through the shed blood of Christ. That is the gardening which God blesses. Yes, it might go through brown times or lean times, but let us trust our heavenly Vinedresser and be faithful to His instructions for care: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
When we get growth and increase confused, it can lead to problems. This especially comes up when we’re looking for “more people” to come into the Church. Let’s be honest, in gardening terms, we have a very large plot in this sanctuary, but it’s not always densely populated. Maybe that leads to the thought that we should be able to fill those empty spots in the pews, and that we’re inadequate if they’re not. Maybe it leads us to envy other churches around town that seem to be increasing. They’re the ones that have tons of activities and boast of how many come to their Bible studies.
But, just like having a garden that’s way too much for you to manage, this is coveting what God has not given to this congregation. It makes us fail to appreciate the precious Word of God and the promises of Jesus fulfilled at this pulpit, inthis font, at this altar. It could make us have ulterior motives for wanting to see new faces arrive. How often has a congregation been glad to see a new family mostly because they feel dissatisfied with the current state of the congregation? But all we need to be is God’s field, tended by a faithful gardener (pastor), growing with a growth that comes through the Word of God.
The Lord does not bid His Church to “bring people in” or “keep the doors open.” He’s in charge of that. What matters to Him is what we do with those He has given us, and how do His servants tend the garden that is there. In order to grow the Church God’s way, this is what to do:
- Planting His Word: Live as witnesses of His forgiveness and firm foundation in a world of shifting sand. Having something solid and eternal is something that sets us apart in a world filled with opinions and empty consolation. Invite your friends and family when, after praying, the time seems right. The Lord may very well make an eternal difference for them.
- Watering that Word by recognizing that your need for Sabbath rest is greater than the grind of the week. Everything that you now have and treasure is temporal. It can unexpectedly pass away. However, when it may be taken from you, you will still have God, who is your Rock and Fortress. Be in the Word as much as you can, whether that means Sunday or midweek Bible study, daily devotional time, or a podcast. There are many places to water that Word so that you will be tended well and be able to endure harsh conditions and the assaults that this life brings.
- Tending that Word: Yes, of course it’s the pastor’s duty to tend God’s garden, weeding and fertilizing, etc. But we also do that for one another: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1-2) The Church is the Communion of saints, of brothers and sisters who lovingly watch out for each other not just in temporal things but more importantly in our spiritual welfare!
These are all pictures which the Lord gives that illustrate what the Church ought to be. If we look to ourselves, we may find deceit. If we look to the Internet, we will likely find the allurements of our fallen flesh. But the Lord Jesus Christ has made His Church to be a garden where His pure Word is nourished in the hearts of the faithful. Repentance for all of our errors is called out; forgiveness for all of our offenses is declared. Peace is proclaimed through Jesus Christ and His righteousness alone. Peace is received in the remembrance of baptism, in the absolving words of the Lord’s servant, and on the tongue with Jesus’ Body and Blood. This is how the field of the Lord is faithfully tended and how God gives it growth.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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