First Presbyterian Church, Cottonwood Falls

Lent 3, “God of Second Chances”:  Luke 13:1-9

Rev. Pat Ireland, Pastor

March 7, 2010

Luke 13:1-9

¹At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? ³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. ⁴Or 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? ⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶Then 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. ⁷So 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?’ ⁸He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Jesus grew up with images of God’s reign as described by Isaiah.  In God’s economy everybody has food and even wine for celebration, whether they can afford it or not.  That’s because God’s ways are not our ways.  In this political climate I might say that if God were president everybody would have health care and the schools would have funding not just for essentials for but the extras that enrich life.  When God’s kingdom comes on earth the whole world will gather at a table like this and there will be more than enough good bread and fine wine for everyone and no one will be turned away.

I repeat the image, because it must have been imbedded deep in Jesus and helps us understand his indignation at a fig tree that bears no fruit.  For God’s kingdom to be manifest on earth, for God’s abundance and providence to be shared with the whole world, every tree, every being must bear fruits worthy of the kingdom.

Let us Pray:  Heavenly gardener, guide the words or my mouth and the meditations of our hearts that we might be fruitful.  Amen

By definition a parable has only one point.  The point of Jesus’ story, clear and simple is that a fig tree is supposed to bear fruit.   If it doesn’t bear figs it is useless- not really a fig tree at all.  God’s patience is great and long suffering but even God eventually executes judgment.

The image of fruit is a core metaphor in the Jewish understanding.  Creation before the fall is characterized as a garden full of beautiful and tasty plants.  Israel was often imaged as a vine planted by God.  You might remember Isaiah’s song of the unfruitful vineyard that begins:   “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.  He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes…”  After a lament about the failure of vineyard God asks, “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done?” ^{Isaiah 5}

Jesus’ ministry is the response to Isaiah’s question.  Give the gardener one more chance.  The image of fruitfulness is foundational and pervasive in Jesus’ teaching.  He echoed the message of John the Baptist:  “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”… “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” ^{Luke 3:8-9}

In Matthew, when warning of false prophets Jesus says: “You will know them by their fruits” ^Matt.7:16 and later warns the chief priests and Pharisees:  “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.  ^21:43. Paul speaks of the resurrection community has having already received the first fruits of the kingdom and longing for the whole meal. ^{Romans 8:23} In Galatians we find a list of those fruits:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  ^5:22-23a.

Ok, so now that we know what the fruits are, let’s return to the lesson.  It begins with reference to events that were probably familiar to ancient audiences though the details have been lost to time.  The grisly mention of Pilate's mingling the blood of Galileans with their sacrifices appears to refer to a massacre of a group of Galilean pilgrims in Jerusalem.  We don’t know why Pilate slaughtered these people, but the deed corresponds with what other historical writings tell about Pilate's brutality.

The second event apparently refers to a structure that collapsed without warning crushing eighteen people.
Both events, one a state-sanctioned terror, the other a random accident prompt us to realize how precarious our own existence is.  Jesus asserts that the victims did nothing wrong, nothing that caused their demise.  He simply characterizes life as capricious as it is nasty, brutish, and short.

Now, Jesus could have used the conversation as an opportunity to defend God against charges of mismanaging the universe; but he doesn’t.   His response is that we must not equate tragedy with divine punishment.  Sin does not make atrocities come.  They just come.  But Jesus doesn’t stop there, he reminds us that life's fragility gives it urgency.  He turns attention away from disasters, victims, and "why?" questions to address those of us who so far have survived the hazards of the universe and human society warning- we should not mistake our good fortune as evidence of God's special blessing.

Like John before him, Jesus wants to talk about repentance.  The need for repentance is a universal condition, shared by random victims and finger-crossing survivors.  Jesus is talking about death as the destruction of one's soul.  He emphasizes the suddenness with which this death comes.  The point at which it is too late to change comes without warning.  Jesus capitalizes on the memory of recent horrors to stress the suddenness of death and the unpredictability of life.  However, unlike fear mongering evangelists after natural and unnatural disasters Jesus does not promise freedom from calamity, but urges his hearers against false self-assurances.  Just because you have not been cut down, do not presume that you are bearing fruit.

God’s patience and mercy temporarily keep judgment at bay but there will come a time when it is too late!   Life’s fragility demands urgency, but that urgency shows us that life itself is an opportunity for us to seize God's graciousness.

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m not entirely comfortable with God’s judgment, especially as traditionally presented: ‘Sinners in the hands of an Angry God.’   God does not want us to live in fear; but in love.  So I had to proceed cautiously with this lesson.

God desires what is life giving and life affirming for us, and all of creation.  Jesus is our model for such a life.  Therefore God is not unbiased or disinterested in how we live.  In that sense of course God judges.  God notices how we live.  But the text doesn’t say that bad things happen to bad people or that good things happen to good people.  That is not divine thinking.   What the text says is that sooner or later the opportunity to change, to turn to God, will no longer be available.

Even now, sometimes we go down a path for so long that only a miracle can turn us around.  It is easier to turn around or change direction when if you haven’t gone too far in the wrong direction.  But if you are well down the road, you make excuses to avoid turning around.  Surely I can get there from here.   There will be another opportunity to turn.  I’ll just go a little farther before I decide.  And pretty soon, you find you are out of gas, stuck in the mud, at the end of the road and/or completely lost.

Not so long after I came to Chase County I was returning from Salina.  On the last leg of the trip, east of Marion, almost to the county line, I decided to take the back road Don used when driving Mariners back from a Sweetheart Dinner.  It was the first sunny day after a couple weeks of rain.  I turned north of 150 on a well-used gravel road soon coming to another intersection.  The sign pointing north read: gravel ends, so I turned east toward Chase County.  Without warning the gravel ended, but hey, I’d come this far I didn’t want to turn around, so I drove right on.  I hadn’t gone a ¼ mile before I was hopelessly stuck in the mud.  I couldn’t go backward or forward.  Life can be like that when we refuse to listen to God.

But lets forget about the road and go back to the fig tree.    Remember this is a parable, with only one point and that is:  We can make no presumption about the option to repent, to turn to God’s desires, to bear fruit for the kingdom.  We need to respond when called; before becoming hopelessly stuck in the mud!

IF we yielded to temptation and treated the story as an allegory, we might say the owner was God and Jesus was the gardener.  The tree is the church or disciple.  But, Luke is not telling us that Jesus pacifies a God who is too eager to rush to judgment.  The owner has provided the gardener and this gardener is incredibly patient. The tree has not been left to its own devices.  Everything possible is being done to get the tree to grow, as it should.  God does not leave people to their own resources but nurtures and encourages their repentance. Maybe it is because God has so much invested in us that we’re still here!  God is the eternal optimist, the great gambler reluctant to cut his losses.  God is ever hopeful of good fruit.

The parable's power comes through the suspense it generates.  Will fruit emerge in time to thwart the ax?  Our God is a god of second chances.  The lesson sounds harsh, but in reality the message is one of consolation and encouragement.  It is asserting that it’s important for people to turn away from the belief that God is controlling the bad things that happen to people and all creation.  God is there giving strength to the survivors, comfort to the mourners, and a second chance at a fulfilling life for all.  The question left unanswered is:  How will this season of second chances play itself out?  Or phrased another way:  Do we take advantage of our second chances?

Lent is a time to look at our own lives to see where we are not producing fruits of the Spirit.  We do this not to feel guilty and unworthy (i.e. judged and cut down) but to see where we need to get a little more fertilizer in order to produce good fruit.

Someone once said:  Religious differences are not nearly so disastrous as religious indifferences.  Lent is a time to confront our indifference.  A little poem by Toyohiko Kagawa makes the point:

I read

In a book

That a man called

Christ

Went about doing good.

It is very disconcerting to me

That I am so easily

Satisfied

With just

Going about.

If we insist on living our lives just going about without purpose or direction, sooner or later we’ll get so dizzy, so lost, so stuck that we can’t find our way back.  The message for today is simply to turn around, to be intentional in your living and in your discipleship.  Those who really do follow Jesus produce fruits fit for the kingdom, fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

We are blessed this morning to install two elders who have accepted a call to service.  We have elected them because we see in their lives the fruits of the Spirit, fruits worthy of the kingdom we seek to manifest in our midst.  It is not just session, not just elders, but all disciples who are called to be fruitful.  So we’ll follow the installation with participation in the banquet of the Lord, where there is always abundance and all are welcome.  We will receive the gardener’s gift so that we might produce fruits worthy of God’s reign.   Amen