St John's Talk 2026

by Rev. Bridgette Siepker

The Making Christian of Human Souls

This is the purpose; this is the goal. This is what we are working towards as human beings on our way to becoming Christian. Christianity has been gifted to us, born in us and now it must develop and be brought to fruition. This picture of fruition can be helpful to contemplate and lead us to a deeper understanding of where we are in the year and what our task is.

​Let us take a little lemon tree as a picture. There may appear on this tree little blossoms that satisfy the bees but soon after that one notices little dark green hard fruits that appear. The ovum that was fertilised begins to swell. This fertilisation process, the marrying of heaven and earth so to speak, was not enough - in fact it was just the beginning. Now starts the work of the plant to develop that which it has been gifted with.

As we look back on our most recent festivals we may have a feeling that Ascension and Pentecost were just the beginning, providing gifts of possibility. We may be tempted to live with these unopened, unexplored and undeveloped gifts and be satisfied or we can be a little more like the tiny fruit and begin to explore all that has happened, to live into the reality and to try and deepen our understanding of what we have been given.

For a long time the little green lemon seems to make no progress and then there are times when it seems to grow very quickly. Once it reaches its optimum size it slowly begins to change colour and begins to become a little more soft - less hard. One has the feeling that forces are working both from the inside of the fruit and from the outside of the fruit to form it and bring it to ripeness.

God’s work is one of ripening, leading us into fullness. We may like to think of Christ as a seed or the Spirit working in us as given at Pentecost and it is our work to bring it to fruition with His help. He works from the inside. However. Christ is also the one that has penetrated the ether space as at Ascension and works from the outside from the realm of light itself.

As the Lemon becomes more and more yellow, more and more ripe, we know that it can never reverse the process it has undergone. The process of transformation, of ripening is irreversible. It is permanent. The fruit is forever changing and is changed.

John is the one that recognises the process that has to happen. We cannot remain satisfied with a gift we have not fully opened and explored, we must begin the work of transformation, of change, of metanoia.

We are reminded in our St Johns epistle that the space in which this happens is a grace filled space. I do not have to do the transformation on my own out of my own power, I just have to be conscious of what is happening and bring my longing devotion and active participation to the process.