Jeremy L. Berg

Lectionary Reflection: Second Sunday of Lent

Genesis 17:1, 5-6; Romans 4:17

Reading between the lines, God said to Joshua, “I will make you exceedingly strong and courageous.” To Noah, “I will make you exceedingly righteous.” To Solomon, “I will make you exceedingly wise.” To Jeremiah and Job, “I will make you exceedingly miserable.” This week’s Old Testament text finds God saying to Abraham, “I will make you exceedingly fruitful.” What might it mean to have “fruitfulness” written over one’s life and destiny? Here’s the text:

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless…. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful” (Gen. 17:1, 5-6). 

I have a love-hate relationship with the idea of fruitfulness. So does our society at large. We give lip service to notion, but our life rhythms and imaginations are not agrarian enough to even approach the earthy patience and slow tedium required to bear fruit in any aspect of our lives. Dozens of prayers would rise above a prayer to be exceedingly fruitful.

Lord, make me exceedingly efficient with my time.

Lord, make me exceedingly effective at my job.

Lord, make me exceedingly attractive in the mirror.

Lord, make me exceedingly wealthy in my wallet. 

Lord, make me exceedingly winsome in social settings.

Lord, make me exceedingly romantic in my marriage.

Lord, make me exceedingly patient in my parenting.

Oh, and Lord, please wave your magic wand to make these happen exceedingly quick—no fuss, no labor, no painstakingly long and agonizingly difficult process involved. We still live the modern myth of a pull-the-lever and get instant results mindset. God, on the other hand, invites us into a plant the seed and wait a hundred years for it to begin to grow kind of Story. We enjoy eating the fruit, while God enjoys growing it.  

Fruitfulness is the payoff at the end of long hours of cultivating, breaking up hard soil, planting, watering and endless weeding. Flowers and families, cantaloupe and character, blueberries and businesses, cherries and churches—these all sprout and grow, or wither and die, depending on certain conditions and caretaking realities. But in the end, whether or not we pray for or are willing to work for a fruitfulness, we all hope to avoid a life that is either barren or full of rotten fruit. But  both empty lives and corrupt lives abound around us—each trying to pull us in their direction. One is the house on the sand Jesus warned against, and the other is a staircase to the house of horrors down below.

Some enterprising people work around the clock, cultivating corruption, growing gardens of greed, producing pain and exporting their misery to everyone around them. Their life has been exceedingly fruitful, but the fruit is all rotten and none of it will pass the Final Inspection. These need to repent and “prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God” (Matt 3:8).

On the other hand, many pass away the time sowing into the ether, manicuring a mirage, propping up a phony image, chasing after the wind and trying to be the proud owner of a garden of concrete. You can buy a luxury car, build a dream house on the beach, take a exotic vacations and post photos of it all on your Instagram, but have you grown any lasting fruit to be savored there? Your influence may span continents and your wealth may impress kings, but the things that make up a human being—soul, character, faith, hope, and love—may be strangely missing in your trophy case. 

But there is exceedingly great news to be found in the story of Abraham above. The good news is that while we may be foolhardy and fumble footed in our efforts to bear fruit in our lives, we discover that God wants to step into our weed-infested lives and dilapidated dreams to grow something in us! And if God can make a wrinkly 99 year old on viagra exceedingly fruitful, then just imagine what kind of a beautiful garden he can make out of your life and mine? 

Moreover, God wants to give us a new name to replace the old name that has accumulated a lot of baggage by now. What old name do you need to tear up and burn in the fire of God’s redeeming love? What unspoken name do you call yourself in your worst moments? My name is Failure. My name is Too Late. My name is Never Enough. My name is Imposter. My name is Embarrassment. My name is Damaged Goods. My name is Abandoned. 

Abram was given a new name—Abraham—to kickstart his new season of fruitfulness with God. Revelation 2:17 says, “To him who overcomes… I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” Ask God for your new beginning and to reveal your new name. 

Not surprisingly, Jesus picks up this vision of fruitfulness in his ministry and teachings. His invitation cuts through much of our efficiency-driven and results-oriented culture, and calls his disciples then and now to “remain in me and…you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). He himself is the Good Garden, or “the Vine”, that God is cultivating and where he is growing his people (“branches”). He then warns us to regularly check to see what we’re producing good fruit and not rotten: “By their fruit you will recognize them…every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matt 7). He then tells us what kind of character he wants to grow in our families, churches, society and souls: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5).  

So, if we’re brave enough to step into an Abraham-like destiny and ask God to “make us exceedingly fruitful,” what’s a good first step? Back to our text: “The LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me” (Gen. 17:1). Each and every day we live our lives under the gaze of certain someones—trying to please and impress and gain approval. God says, “Walk before me.” Like an Olympic athlete in a stadium running before a crowd of admirers, let us heed God’s call to Abraham and us to live our lives walking before an audience of One. 

As we walk—and trip and stumble—before Him each day, and begin to ignore the lesser someones in the crowd, I suspect we’ll begin to see our lives becoming more exceedingly fruitful. I mean, we are talking about the God “who gives life to the dead and calls into being the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). Let your imagination go this week and start dreaming about the exceedingly great things God wants to bring into being in your life these days!