Scripture: Genesis 1:14-23; John 1:10-14 Series: Creation
Part of a Creation series reading Genesis 1 alongside John 1, this sermon meditates on the command ‘be fruitful and multiply’ given not only to humans but to the creatures of sea and air. Drawing on personal hikes where he ate wild raspberries and apples, Pruitt argues fruitfulness is really flourishing, which requires patient investment and the right conditions, just as trees need light, water, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Turning to John 1, he frames Christian fruitfulness as being ‘in the world but not of it’ (illustrated by sitting in the Aggie section at Kyle Field as a Longhorn fan): a matter of habituated desire, or holiness, rather than outward garb. Human flourishing comes not from a good job, spouse, retirement, or social-media validation, but from grace, the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ, and a life lived for others. Salvation is not a get-out-of-hell card but the gift to see as God sees and share in the in-breaking new creation, beginning today.
Illustrations: isle-royale-raspberries, virginia-apple-tree, supermarket-fruit-bags, fruit-tree-maturation, sun-moon-tides-cycles, nitrogen-phosphorus-flourishing, kyle-field-longhorn-fan, pharisee-widow-garb-desire, social-media-worth
September 24, 2023
Genesis 1:14-23
John 1:10-14
And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. - Genesis 1:14-23
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. - John 1:10-14
I did not grow up around many fruit trees. I grew up in College Station, Texas, a location not known for its orchards. My siblings had a childhood in Oregon, and would talk about the berries, bushes that they had in their backyard and they could go and pick berries whenever they wanted them; and that was something I was never able to experience in College Station, Texas. Two times in my life, while I hiking, i was able to experience the strangeness and power of a fruit-bearing tree in full fruit. One time was in Isle Royale in the middle of Lake Superior. It was soon after I had had an encounter with a moose. I noticed the moose (they are hard to miss) and thus decided to go a different direction. I thank you moose for not killing me. I then came upon a wild raspberry bush. I was by myself. They were all ripe and spectacular. I sat there for an hour eating raspberries off the bush.
A few years later, when I was hiking in Virginia, I came across a wild apple tree in the fall. The tree was full of ripe fruit. Similarly, I sat for an hour and ate fresh apples from the tree. Some of you grew up on farms. You grew up with orange trees or apple trees or bushes and those kinds of things; it was a common way of life. For those of us who did not, fruit was a piecemeal sort of food at all. You go to the store and acquire a bag of grapes, a bag of oranges, all these kinds of things. These beautiful bags hide the hands that pick them, which is a sermon for another day. Today, the point I want us to hold on to is the limited quantity of fruit in a world distant from the trees and bushes themselves. Fruitfulness is a metaphor to me in a way it is not to the apple grower.
When we look at the first reading from Genesis one, we read the words: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
Genesis one was not written with the idea of a modern supermarket and agricultural system in mind. Instead, it was in a world of fruit trees and bushes and orchards and the fruitfulness coming from those. Growth of an enormous scale. You plant an apple seed and a few years later you have hundreds of apples. The line, “be fruitful and multiply,” is famous in Genesis 1, but not here, not in this section. It’s famous later in God’s words to Adam and Eve. But it’s the same command that God gives the creatures of the sea and the and birds of the air. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” Be fruitful and multiply is not just something for humans. All living things are to be fruitful. How should we understand fruitfulness, and how does creation give us guidance in this,
Series Intro
My friends, we are continuing our series on Creation, looking at Genesis 1 and John 1 together to understand more Christ’s presence in Creation, God’s power in creation, and the importance of creation for us today. Today, fruitfulness.
I want us to focus on fruitfulness apart from that common understanding concerning Adam and Eve, which gets to reproduction. We will cover that soon. But today, i want us to rest in this idea of fruitfulness by thinking of the fruit tree bearing fruit. One of those aspects of fruit bearing trees or fruit bearing bushes is that if you plant them, they’re not gonna give you fruit that first season. They’re not gonna give you fruit that second season. An apple tree takes 7-10 to go from seed to fruit-bearing maturity. An orange could go even longer, even to 15 years. It is not quick. There is an investment needed of time, of water, of sunlight, of nutrients in order to bear fruit. We wanna rush to fruit bearing. We want that profit coming fast, that multiplication coming fast. That’s not what happens with fruit trees. When God created the life of the sea and the air, it wasn’t a rush job. And fruitfulness was asked of them.
Fruitfulness doesn’t happen on its own. In order to bear fruit, a tree needs certain things. It needs water and sunlight and nutrients. The cycle of water and light and motion was offered by God with the Sun and the Moon. We now have self-generating light in the universe. No longer is existence lit solely by the Son of God, the Word, but now there are heavenly objects to move and light the sky. A tree cannot bear fruit without light. The seasons of the earth change due to the level of light we receive over different parts of the year. There is no year without the sun. There is no month without the moon. The waters of the earth shift because of the cycle of the moon. The tides give us so much of our pattern of existence, even for people far away from the coast. The tides influence ocean currents which change the weather around the world.
Fruitfulness for trees and birds and fish have to do with a lot of factors. A bird may be fruitful in one location and desolate in another. Fish can live well in one part of the world and flounder in another.
A term I like in this is flourishing. It is when a flower can broaden and expand to their fullest. It’s flourishing When God says to the birds of the air and the fish of the sea be fruitful and multiply. God is also saying, flourish. Flourish in creation.
When we look to the gospel of John and what’s going on here in John 1: 10-14, we have an understanding and description of Jesus. He was in the world, but the world did not know him. He came to his own people, but they did not accept him. But to those who received him, he gave power to become children of God. born of the will of God and not of flesh. The word became flesh, but not with the will of flesh. We were made children of God, but not with the will of flesh, which means a different will, a different light to bear fruit.
Jesus is in the world, but he is not of the world. This is often used in language about being a Christian. Christians are in the world, but not of the world. Be in the world, but not of the world. There are a lot of ways to be in a place. I grew up in College Station, Texas, about a mile from Kyle Field. My grandfather and my father both had season tickets to the Aggies. They were good seats because they got them when the Aggies were very bad. And they were very bad for many of the years I lived there. They were good, as well, but mostly average. I would usually get to go to an early game during the season, games against Stephen F. Austin or Louisiana Tech. When I went to ut (or as my grandfather said, t.u.) my family still had the season tickets, so I could go to the game as a pretty rabid Longhorn fan. I was in the old alumni section, but I was not of it. It wasn’t because of what I was wearing. I didn’t wear annoying Longhorn gear. I wasn’t a troll. I didn’t wanna be rude or mean about it. I loved my grandfather. I wasn’t going to try and hurt him or embarrass him. The reason why I was in the section, but not of the section is because I desired something completely different from what they desired. Everyone around me wanted the Aggies to win. I did not. I did not want them to win. I, in fact, wanted the opposite. I wanted them to lose. There are layers to this. I could have been there and just worn the gear, but not really cared about the outcome. There is a temptation for Christians today to act in this manner. They put on the garb of Christianity, but desire the same things as the world desires. To Jesus, the garb is not as important as the desire. We see this over and over again in the Gospels. When the pharisee is condemned for praying on the street corner, or when the woman is praise for giving all she had, even if it was a microscopic part of what the rich man before her had, we see garb dismissed and the desire praised.
Jesus gives us the power to become children of God and desire something different than the world. And this tells us a lot about fruitfulness and what human fruitfulness really looks like.
A tree doesn’t bear fruit because it wants it badly enough. There are a lot of other factors involved. Following Jesus is not just a momentary act of the will but habituated desire that has been practiced and expanded upon. Another word for this is holiness. Holiness doesn’t mean the person praying in the street corner or someone holier than thou, but someone who desires what God desires and not what the world desires.
When Jesus comes in the gospel of John and the author describes that he was in the world, but not of the world, he did not have the will of the flesh, but the will of heaven. What we see is how humans can flourish. Our fruitfulness is not based on the circumstances of the world and the desires of the world. We are in fact delinked from it. Our circumstances impact us and affect us, but they don’t have to feed us, and they don’t have to determine who we are. If a plant doesn’t get enough nitrogen, it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s probably not going to bear fruit. Nitrogen helps grow stems and leaves that plants need. If a plant doesn’t get enough phosphorus, it’s not going to flower. It doesn’t matter what you do with all the other factors. It may look pretty, but it is not going to bear fruit. What it takes for you as a human to bear fruit is not a great job, a great spouse, a great retirement, kids who listen to you, long vacations, good hobbies. It doesn’t take owning a business that’s better than your neighbors. It doesn’t even take the Longhorns winning. Human flourishing comes from somewhere else. In Jesus Christ, we see the limits of the flourishing of the world, and we see the possibilities of flourishing as children of God. You are offered life. You are offered peace. You are offered heavenly nitrogen and phosphorus to flourish. This is found in the Holy Spirit, which is offered for you. This is found in the gathered body of Christ, set apart for you. This is found in a life lived for others. And so my brothers and sisters receive the grace to have your desires change, the grace to be at Kyle Field, but not of Kyle Field or to be at Texas Memorial, but not of Texas Memorial. In your desires to desire different things. This is what God wants of you and offers to you.
Salvation is not just to get you a get out of jail free card to avoid hell, but the gift to see God now. To see as God sees and to be a part of the in-breaking new creation. To desire something different than what the world tells you you need, and to realize that your value, your worth, your purpose is not based on the world. It is not based on instagram or facebook or your neighbors or your siblings. It’s not based on winning. It is grace all the way down.
You are loved. You are free. you can flourish. And it can start today. The circumstances of your life may not change but your life can change by the power of God.
Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, your grace is sufficient to transform us wherever we are. Help us to receive your grace and affirm our Yes to you, since you have already said Yes to us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Please stand as you are able for our closing Song of Praise, Oh How I Need You.