2026-07-30
Brooke Strong
Bear Fruit
Thursday, July 30, 2026
The Federated Church of Chagrin Falls
Over the past three weeks, we’ve been asking what it means to Take Root and Grow. This Sunday, we arrive at Bear Fruit.
When we hear the word fruit, it’s easy to think about results or accomplishments. But Jesus’ parables invite us to imagine something different.
A mustard seed wants to become a tree where birds find shelter. Yeast wants to become bread that can nourish others. A treasure hidden in a field becomes so valuable that it reorders a person’s entire life. A pearl of great price becomes the one thing worth giving everything else to possess. None of these images remains what it was. Each is drawn toward becoming more fully itself, and in doing so, becoming a gift for others.
Perhaps that’s what the kingdom of heaven is like.
This Sunday, as we gather around the Communion table, we’ll ask a simple question: What is God’s one thing?
What is God’s deepest desire? I wonder if the answer is not simply that we become better people, but that we become the kind of community where love can take flesh. A people who know one another’s names. A people who share bread, stories, burdens, and hope. A people who learn, week by week, to live like love is the truest thing.
Before Sunday, I invite you to read Matthew 13:31–52 slowly. Don’t rush to explain the parables. Instead, sit with them. What is each image becoming? And what might God be growing in us?
Read Before Sunday: Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52
Questions for Reflection
- Which of Jesus’ images captures your imagination most deeply this week?
- What in your life is still becoming?
- Where do you see God growing something that is meant to become a gift for others?
I look forward to gathering around Word and Table with you this Sunday.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Michael
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