AN INTRODUCTION

The Imprecise art of rototilling

Just as the rototiller tore up hard, lifeless soil and created an environment where all kinds of fruits and vegetables could grow, so too are we encouraged as followers of Jesus to experience the tilling of the ready earth of our lives, seeing a life prepared where the fruit of the Spirit can emerge. “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:12) “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns” (Jeremiah 4:3)

What is fallow ground? Fallow ground is ground that has been left untended and therefore let go wild for a season. In order to become more Christlike and in order to better engage our community in the name of Jesus, there is some fallow ground – some areas left untended – that need to be addressed.

God’s creation design is that creation be fruitful; one of the main threads throughout Scripture is the pattern of “go, sow and grow”. “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”(Genesis 12:1-3) What we need to recognize is that not only is this pattern a pattern of creation, but it is a pattern that God has for His people, too.    

What exactly does it mean to sow righteousness? The idea here is that by our actions, behaviour, attitudes and lifestyle, righteousness would be sown, eventually leading to a crop of righteousness and God’s unfailing love in return. We cannot expect to continually sow evil without reaping some in return. As followers of Jesus, we ought to sow righteousness in order to reap the fruit of God’s unfailing love. Christ’s Kingdom “grows” as we sow seeds of the Kingdom in the world.

Not only are seeds sown in the “soil of our community”, but the seeds of the Kingdom are also sown in our hearts, our lives. If the seed of the Kingdom of God – the gospel message – has been sown in our hearts, what ought we expect that seed to do within our lives?

Have you ever felt like the cause of Christ, His Kingdom, is slowly retreating from a position of prominence in our world? We often fail to see growth in God’s Kingdom and in our lives as His followers because we’ve stopped sowing seeds - we’re just not actively sharing the gospel. As a follower of Jesus, we ought to desire growth; we ought to anticipate growth and development. Sitting around worrying about the weather – agonizing about the “right” conditions for sowing seed – just renders us completely useless. “… go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”. (Matthew 28:19)

We often fail to see growth in God’s Kingdom and in our lives as His followers because we’ve let our fields go fallow. Though Jesus remains faithful in completing His work of salvation in our lives, we need to lend Him a hand! Who is it that breaks up the fallow or unplowed ground in our focus verse? No one can break up the fallow fields of your life but you. The truth is that the breaking up of one’s unplowed ground occurs through a tremendously dynamic relationship between oneself and the Holy Spirit, but the point is that we each have to be involved in seeing our fallow ground broken up. We each ought to be active in breaking up the fallow ground both in our community and in our own hearts.

Fallow ground is simply unused ground. Spiritually, fallow ground is that which is unused, unredeemed, and unreconciled. Unused and unreconciled “ground” is evident both in the world around us and within our own lives. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it …” (Psalm 24:1) Those places, systems, and people who seem to be our enemy’s occupied territory are in essence not; they are just places, systems and people who are yet to be redeemed and reconciled to Jesus.

Hope amidst the fallow fields Our hope is that we will one day experience the completion of the good work started in us by Jesus Christ. We are His and we are being reconciled to Him. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19) and we are “God’s special possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”   (2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

We get to play a role in this great project of reconciliation. Like seeds scattered in a fallow field, we find ourselves planted in a particular place in order that we might produce a crop of righteousness; in fact that we might become the righteousness of God in the world. What an incredible reality!

A Pathway Forward … Our first number of weeks will help us to explore the fallow soil in our hearts and help us to investigate what has gone wild in our own lives. We’ll explore together what might require tending in our lives. We’ll follow this us with a few more weeks investigating the fallow soil in the world. We’ll look at what has gone wild in the world around us and learn what near us requires tending.

A Prayer By the Holy Spirit, may God awaken us to the fallow fields in our lives and in our community and lead us into them, with the intent of seeing them broken up for His glory and Kingdom.