Pruning Branches

Our Korean lilacs have been just beautiful this Spring. They have grown large and lush over the past couple years.   Full of blossoms this year, they smelled just wonderful.  Over the past week though they had finished their blooms and it was time to do some pruning because they had become so large.  As I pruned off the first layer it became hard to keep their shape.  I was instructed to prune further; to cut them "way" back. As I pruned, I was shocked.  What I thought were beautiful bushes on the outside, were nothing but barren sticks on the inside.  Dead wood needing to be trimmed.

How many of us are like those bushes?  We look great on the outside, but when pruned of what we own and what we wear and of the house that we occupy; what do we really look like.  The superficial beauty on the outside when pruned reveals what is truly on the inside.  Is it just bare sticks without any shape, with out any green leaves or new growth?  Are we dead wood?  Have we lost our connection with the source of new growth and vitality. 

Not only can people be like these bushes but our churches can very much be like this as well.  Lovely large buildings, full of well dressed people with preachers who are eloquent in their sermons; but what lies underneath.  Is there any new growth?  Are there any new shoots branching out?

I believe that we who are living the American dream, and our churches as well, have lost our real connection to the life giving Spirit.  "It is not scientific doubt, not atheism, not pantheism, not agnosticism, that in our day and in this land is likely to quench the light of the gospel.  It is a proud, sensuous, selfish, luxurious, church-going, hollow-hearted prosperity."  This is a quote by Fredric D. Huntington in Forum Magazine and the date was 1890.  Our congregations are dwindling as we try to look nice in the neighborhood and keep up our image while underneath we have lost sight of what is important.  As Pastor Tim Kizziar of Sisters Community Church said, "Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter."

It is time to see where our roots connect to the earth and send them deep into the soil so that we can find that life giving source of water and nourishment.  What are your priorities?  What really matters?

The bible tells us in Matthew 22 that when Jesus was asked "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

As I read Francis Chan's book Crazy Love, I am given a chance to review some of my priorities and where I need to do some pruning in my life so that I can find new growth!