2025.06.22 | Rooted and Unshaken
“Rooted & Unshaken”
Reflection on the Fruit of the Spirit
Patience
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Reflection by
Rev. Dr. Marvin Lance Wiser
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA
22 June 2025
Sam’s testimony on patience this morning is a reminder that this fruit of the Spirit isn’t about passivity or resignation. It’s not the patience or long-suffering of Job, sitting in ash and affliction. It’s something more active. It’s the kind of patience that knows there’s life beneath the surface, even when the branches look bare, it’s that resilience that Sam spoke of.
Jeremiah gives us this vivid image—not of a person, but of a tree. A tree planted by water, echoing our passage last week of Psalm 1. A tree that doesn’t panic in the drought. A tree that doesn’t clamor for quick fixes or shallow or superficial strength. It roots down. It reaches outward. It trusts in the unseen stream. While onlookers may not see much going on, growth is happening on a deeper level.
La reflexión de hoy sobre la paciencia nos invita a verla no como una espera pasiva o una simple perseverancia, sino como una confianza activa y arraigada en Dios. Al igual que el árbol de Jeremías 17, estamos llamados a estar arraigados, hundiendo nuestras raíces en el agua viva de Dios, incluso en tiempos de sequía. Si bien nuestro clima político y económico actual puede parecer una sequía, recordamos que quienes confían en el Señor no se angustian, ni siquiera cuando llega el calor. Esta clase de paciencia se trata de mantenerse conectados, recibir fuerza de Dios y de los demás, y dar fruto en cualquier época.
This is the patience we’re being called into as a congregation today.
Because while we’re not in a meteorological drought like a decade ago, we are in for a season of slender calves—politically and economically. These are difficult times to be a person of faith, or a justice-seeking church. It can feel like we’re living in a parched place, like Jeremiah says—what he calls “an uninhabited salt land.”
But the difference between that desert shrub and the tree planted by water is trust and depth of roots. Jeremiah says the shrub misses the relief even when it comes, its roots are shallow. But the tree? Even in the heat, it stays green. Even in the drought, it keeps bearing fruit, it’s not anxious. It knows presence and power, not panic or pessimism. Because its roots run deep and wide.
That’s us, beloved.
Al marcar el final de un año fiscal y comenzar otro con la reunión anual de hoy, no solo tomamos decisiones, sino que renovamos nuestro compromiso de ser una congregación arraigada e inquebrantable. En nuestra política congregacional, confiamos en que Dios obra a través de nosotros, colectivamente. Así que profundicemos nuestras raíces, fortalezcámonos en coalición y confiemos en que, incluso ahora, hay arroyos que fluyen bajo la superficie. La paciencia, en este sentido, es al mismo tiempo quietud y movimiento: estar arraigado en la esperanza y abierto a lo que el Espíritu está haciendo a continuación.
Today, as we step forward into a new fiscal year and gather in our annual meeting to elect leaders and adopt a budget, we’re doing more than taking care of business. We’re committing again to be rooted and unshaken. Rooted in God’s promises. Rooted in each other. And rooted in a wider ecology of partnership, justice, and grace.
This kind of patience means we don’t just wait for the rain. We deepen our roots now. We stretch them wide, finding the living water in unlikely places—coalition, creativity, collective trust. And we prepare together for droughts and even frozen precipitation. I know you heard me.
It’s not enough to wait for tyranny to pass, or even to work toward the eradication of it. All the while, we must also create positive structures and communities that uphold the dignity of all. It’s time for the Church to Church. Can I get an amen?
So today, I invite you to practice active patience, as Sam has shared with us. Be still, yes, take time to be still and know God—but also be supple. Lean into the Spirit. Root down in the hope that does not disappoint. And branch out and let’s cause some good trouble together this new fiscal year.
Because, as Jeremiah reminds us—even in the drought, we do not cease to bear fruit. Amen.