Easy yet difficult

Weekly Reading.........................Daily Readings

Of Soil: Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday is quickly approaching. And what a Sunday this promises to be - a harvest meal on the lawn with apple pressing, jumping castle and the street blocked off to help us celebrate.

But leading up to Harvest Sunday, 26 Sept, I am visiting the food gardeners of our congregation and discovering an array of interesting and productive gardens. First stop was Kristy Daley's garden. Beans, carrots, a whole bed of strawberries and quite a bit more.

As we visited, Kristy shared with me how easily a garden can get away from us with our busy schedules, so that we don't harvest what is possible. How true that is! A garden is easy to plant once the beds are in place. But it takes disciplined daily tending to lovingly help the garden reach its' potential, something we gardeners know all too well.

Of Soul: How true that is for the "gardening" of our souls too. Just like a planted garden itself, regular watering, weeding, thinning, pruning and pest control in our lives is necessary for us to harvest the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control - and experience the fullness of faithful living.

The daily readings (a link at the top of this page) have proven so helpful to me as a beginning point for cultivating the "garden" of my soul. I call up the Jerusalem Cross Garden blog on my iTouch while still in bed each morning, link to the Daily Readings, and am always inspired. Above all, this habit has become a discipline that, connecting me with God, reminds me in all things to put God first, beginning with each new day. There is a surety about such a practice that is beginning to yield its' harvest. It helps me do the daily weeding, watering, pruning, thinning and regular fertilizing required to live a loving, Christian life.

Check back here regularly for photos of other members' gardens and while visiting, do some fertilizing. "Click" in to God.
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Tasting the Fruits - Creamy Cucumber Side and Gifts of Grace

Weekly Readings..........................Daily Readings

...of soil: The cucumbers lay ready in the JCGarden - green, good sized, mouth watering. Now was the time! The waiting was over. It was the moment to pick. And more important than the picking, it was time to taste! Taste that which was good, that which was so worth laboring and waiting for. With the harvest comes its' enjoyment.

Plain cucumbers are never too tasty even though they are refreshing on hot summer days. But the Whole Foods Market website carried a recipe (click to read) that promised to transform an ordinary vegetable into a culinary celebration of the fruit of Gods good earth - Greek yogurt, lemon zest, rice vinegar, Vidalia onion. Perhaps we can use this side dish as a tasty complement to the salmon caught for Salmon Sunday on our Salmon Safari's this year?

...of Soul: Harvesting the fruits of a deeper walk with God, like tending a garden, doesn't come easily. In the richness of disciplined Christian fellowship, meeting weekly as the Lectionary Groups do, we begin to harvest the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. These qualities do not come suddenly. But over time, looking back, we see how we truly are on the path towards sanctification and holy living...Christ Jesus being our guide. And this tastes good even as we anticipate finding ways of Christian service to better be about "Growing Gods' kingdom by making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."

Truly with the harvest - whether it be cucumbers or love, joy peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control - comes its enjoyment!

Multiple Colors from Green

Weekly Readings................................Daily Readings

Still in the long green season of Kingdomtide as we cycle through the liturgical year, the green of the Jerusalem Cross Garden reflects the liturgical "go" of this time.

Called to be in the world but not of the world Christ invites us first of all to respond to Him and through His love and grace to be changed and to commit to walking daily with Him through the everyday situations of life. Then as renewed people, forgiven and set free, on the journey towards Christian perfection, we are challenged to "go." "Go make of all disciples" or "Go into all the world" and in the "going" to find the color of Christian purpose and challenge. For it is in the going that the promise of the harvest - hearts warmed, lives changed, spirits refreshed, color returned - is realized.

We see it in the green garden. Orange/red nasturtiums, blue/gray cabbage, golden wheat, yellow marigolds. Truly Kingdomtide as a season is becoming a green light into a colorful life of mission and service and renewal.

Under Our Own Fig Tree

Sunday Readings............................. Daily Readings

Slowly, methodically, the Jerusalem Cross Garden is becoming a quiet space that speaks to matters of the heart and world.

An amphora fountain (soon to be connected) speaks of that water that will cause us never to thirst again. A memorial bench invites busy and distracted lives to linger awhile and be grounded by the cross. The lush garden points to the God of creation who bends all creation towards life. Food plants - grape vines, cabbages, wheat, carrots, squash, peppers, tomatoes, onions, herbs - speak of our God who provides all we need, perhaps calling us back to the basics in a world so practiced in excess. And in the shade of the pergola over the memorial bench, perhaps we can discover our "own fig tree" under which we can regularly sit to enjoy the fullness that comes from a life grounded in the Word and committed to Christian action.