Pruning and Grafting Branches: Romans 11:11-18
11-12 The next question is, “Are they down for the count? Are they out of this for good?” And the answer is a clear-cut No. Ironically when they walked out, they left the door open and the outsiders walked in. But the next thing you know, the Jews were starting to wonder if perhaps they had walked out on a good thing. Now, if their leaving triggered this worldwide coming of non-Jewish outsiders to God’s kingdom, just imagine the effect of their coming back! What a homecoming!
13-15 But I don’t want to go on about them. It’s you, the outsiders, that I’m concerned with now. Because my personal assignment is focused on the so-called outsiders, I make as much of this as I can when I’m among my Israelite kin, the so-called insiders, hoping they’ll realize what they’re missing and want to get in on what God is doing. If their falling out initiated this worldwide coming together, their recovery is going to set off something even better: mass homecoming! If the first thing the Jews did, even though it was wrong for them, turned out for your good, just think what’s going to happen when they get it right!
16-18 Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there’s bound to be some holy fruit. Some of the tree’s branches were pruned and you wild olive shoots were grafted in. Yet the fact that you are now fed by that rich and holy root gives you no cause to crow over the pruned branches. Remember, you aren’t feeding the root; the root is feeding you.
(Romans 11, The Message)
I invite you to a time of lectio divina with the scripture, the photo or both. Read the passage through twice slowly and choose a word or phrase that stands out for you, that shines or shimmers, or that seems to speak louder than all the other words. Then read a third time and pray with that word or phrase. Why that one? Why now? Finally, read a final time and ask God and yourself what it is that you are to do with that phrase and your meditation. Is it an invitation? Think of it as the “so what?” What does all of this mean to me?
May God bless you in your reading and meditation on the word.
Photo: Tree on the Cliffs of Arbel
