Luke 13:1-9
1 At that very time there
were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He
asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this
way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you
will all perish as they did. 4 Or those
eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think
that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you
will all perish just as they did."
6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his
vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For
three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find
none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' 8 He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more
year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good;
but if not, you can cut it down.'" (New Revised Standard Version, 1989)
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| Graphic from AU United Methodist Community |
During
this season of Lent, we are asked to think about our inner life, about prayer
and study and Christian conversation. We
remember that the season before Easter was a time when people reflected on the
sacrament of Baptism, the time when each Christian is marked and sealed as
Christ's own forever. Through the
prayers and responses of the baptismal liturgy we recall that we are to support
each person who is baptized for a lifetime. The refreshing Baptismal waters beckon each
of us and strengthen us in our relationship to God and to each other. But before Christian baptismal theology
developed in the first century church, those following Christ had a different
perspective about life.
In the ancient Middle East,
people operated from a cause and effect point of view. If someone was sick, then there was an
external cause. And if there was some
kind of tragedy, then someone must have been responsible. In the second chapter of the Lenten study
book, The Way, Adam Hamilton does a great job of explaining how this
worked. Unexplained illnesses were
believed to be either caused by a malevolent spirit (i.e. a demon) or caused by
sin of the one afflicted. Either would
be considered a punishment from God for bad behavior, disbelief, or as an
example to others for what not to do.
In part, this idea was rooted
in the texts of the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament writings. Battles were won and lost based on the state
of God’s favor. Living according to the
law of the Torah became the main way that people sought God’s favor and blessing,
and if anything went wrong, then the people had no one to blame but themselves…
or God.
More and more people followed
Jesus as he went from town to village to city.
They fell into two groups – the haves and the have nots. The outcasts… the poor, the sick, those on
the fringes of society hoped there was something more to life than just living a
law not intended for them. As often as
not, these people would ask questions about the nature of sin and
suffering. Maybe Jesus could help them
reconcile their current condition with the God he talked about. The other group consisted of the Pharisees and Jewish leaders, who soon
developed a serious distrust of him and his followers. No wonder they began plotting to get rid of
him. His time would come.
In this text, Jesus is being
asked the age-old question, “Where is God when things go bad?” Some were killed by Pilate in a fit of anger
during ancient worship rituals. Did they
get what they deserved? What about those
people crushed by the falling tower by the pool of Siloam? Was it their fate because of something they
had done or were they just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Our society asks these same questions all the
time, also in response to angry outbursts or nature’s unpredictable fury. We wonder who is to blame. We look for God is in the midst of it all. We ask, “Why is this happening to us?”
Jesus had an answer, but it’s
not the one they expect. First, he reminded
them of the fragile nature of life and the pervasiveness of sin. Death and sin are always unfolding around
us. But Jesus asks them to look at the
world with different eyes. Life’s
struggles are not about assigning blame.
Instead, these difficulties help us see the need for repentance, in
essence, the need to turn away from sin and back to God.
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| Vineyard in Alsace region, France |
He then shares with them a
parable, a story filled with mystery and confusion. A man planted a fig tree right in the middle
of a vineyard. It was a very special place for a fig tree to be. The sun shone
on it; the rain watered it; it was tended to along with the grape vine that
grew around it. When the time came for
the tree to bear fruit, the owner came looking for wonderful, delicious figs,
the sweetest of all fruits. But as he
walked closer to the tree, he saw the tree was empty… no fruit… nothing.
He decided to wait another
year to see if the tree would produce fruit.
He waited through the change of seasons, expecting the best, but when he
returned to the tree a year later, it was still empty. The man, being in his estimation quite
reasonable, waited one more year for fruit to come, but when he walked to the
tree for the third time, he found the same thing: there was no fruit on the
tree.
This made him angry, and told
the vineyard keeper to cut down the tree and use it for firewood, because it
was useless to him. But the vineyard
keeper asked for permission to take special care of the tree for just one more
year. He loosened the soil around the
tree so the rain could reach deeper into the roots. He fertilized the tree to give it the extra
nutrients it needed. And there the story
ends. I wonder what happened the next
year. Was there any fruit when the man came back to the tree the next
year? Was the extra care the vineyard
keeper gave worth the trouble? Did the
fig tree finally bring forth its fruit?
I know what you’re thinking…
what happened to the tree? We want a
happy ending, don’t we? But this is not
so much a story about the fruit as it is about helping the fruit grow. Shawn’s uncle and cousin own an orchard in
Florida. Blueberries, blackberries,
strawberries and peaches… each fruit has its own needs for blooming, growing
and setting fruit. Some fruits need a
certain amount of cold weather for there to be a harvest each year. But other fruits are quite susceptible to
cold, and an extended cold spell can mean, no fruit. Several nights in the last month or so, Cousin
David has stayed all night in the fields, misting the fruit and monitoring the
temperatures so that his crop has the best chance at survival.
What would happen if the
fruit was left untended? What if the
cold set in, or the weeds choked out the smaller plants, or birds began to eat
the fruit before it was ready for harvest?
What if they just left it up to chance?
Well, on a selfish note, there might not be as many pies or jars of jam
in our future, but that’s too depressing to think about. No, they work hard to give the crops the best
chance to thrive, and many times that means tending to the needs of their
plants and trees in ways that make harvest more likely.
So what does this all have to
do with guilt and sin? If we look at the
story closely, we hear Jesus telling the people that guilt is pretty easily
spread around… that is, there’s enough guilt for everyone. Suffering is not a punishment for guilt or
sin. If that were the case then many of
us should be suffering much more. The
parable of the fig tree brings Jesus’ story around to its real point: that real
life is not about suffering, it is about redemption.
God’s redemption makes it
possible for us to start over again, again and again. But for lasting redemption, we must take a
step away from our sin and start on the journey back to God. That’s what repentance is. In the world of redemption, we see God as the
patient vineyard keeper, and not the impatient landowner. We become committed to a God who loves
unconditionally, not to a God who will abandon us if we lose our way.
Now, 20 centuries later, we
hear the same stories, even though we live in a very different world. Our world has daily doses of random death and
violence. And we wonder who is responsible
for all of the suffering. Hearing this
parable we are reminded that we are all guilty of something, even if it’s not
doing anything. But in our turning back to
God, we journey to the heart of faith so that we can receive the intentional
care and do the necessary work that makes our relationship with God so
fruitful. We understand our suffering
differently when surrounded by God’s grace.
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| Baptismal Font, Salisbury Cathedral, Great Britian |
Through baptism, we are
planted and watered and tended, and given time to grow into our roles as
members of the household of God. The
promises of the baptismal covenant lead to so many experiences of grace.
We experience God’s fruitfulness through our relationships with one
another as brothers and sisters in Christ, as we learn from one another, as we
share in the breaking of bread, as we join in prayer and conversation. And through it all, we learn what it means to
live a life which proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. We learn to seek Christ by serving others,
and to strive for justice and peace among all people, not just as we worship,
but every day of our lives.
In our passage from Isaiah,
we heard the phrase, “Come to the waters – you who are thirsty.” It is the invitation of a lifetime, reflected
in the waters of our baptisms, calling us to a life beyond the needs of daily
life. Remember the story of the woman at
the well? Jesus asks a woman to draw
water for his refreshment, but before that could happen, he offers her living
water, to satisfy her every need... spiritual, emotional, physical needs, all
take care of with a word of hope, and promise of freedom and eternal life.
Think of the baptismal
promises we make as our fig tree. In our
baptismal liturgy we promise to turn our backs on evil, to profess Christ, and
to live faith in our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. We promise to support those who join us on
the journey. We promise to be the
church. Think about these words. Live these words, these promises… and how,
like the fig tree, they have to be nurtured from season to season, in the midst
of all kinds of weather. Think of how
hard that is to do in a world where instant satisfaction is a way of life, and
where the world tells us that promises do not matter, when we know they really
do.
The last time I preached on
this passage was 15 years ago. I
preached in my church where we were baptizing a 4-month old child named
Branden. Born to a 15-year old mother,
there was every reason that Branden’s life would not turn out so great. His mother was a sophomore in high school. She did not marry the father, but continued
to live at home. It would have been easy
for her mother and grandparents to ask her to give the baby up for adoption,
but instead they worked at forgiveness and reclaiming trust. And after his
birth they were more of a family than ever.
And as Branden began his
journey of faith, other men in the congregation came up to stand with the
family, saying, “You are not in this alone.”
They took seriously the promises they made, infusing his life and his
family’s with the peace of forgiveness and hope for the future. They lived out the belief that even though we
come to Jesus guilty, we stand beside him redeemed. And today, Branden in a healthy, happy
15-year old, loved by many people, and brought up by a community of faith who
took their promises seriously. His
mother is a 30-year old college graduate and local business woman. She told me this summer that Branden’s birth
was a turning point in her life… her turning back to God.
This life of faith requires
us to live in the balance between sin and repentance, judgment and forgiveness…
in the place between living by rules and believing in the power of faith to us
a new creation. And as new creatures
together, we can become a force for change, light in the darkness, a tangible
representation of all that God is and does in the world.
Jesus affirms that while we
all have the power of sin present within us, that does not define us. Our new life comes from our trust in the
healing, forgiving presence of God to transform our hearts. Our relationship
with God is not a way to escape life with all its ups and downs; it is the way
we live our lives fully in grace.
Let us take the promises of
the Baptismal Covenant into our world, saying that we believe in the redemption
and forgiveness of Christ. And let us
also know that our God is a patient gardener, and with spring and Easter just
around the corner there is much work to be done. Thanks be to God.
Preached at Audubon Park United Methodist Church, Spokane, WA - March 3, 2013
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