On Gardening . . .

      As tempted as I am to preach on Isaiah this morning to give us all a bit of a theological underpinning of why Body & Soul works the way it does, as a type and shadow of the Kingdom to come, where we buy wine and milk without price, I was drawn to the parable in Luke this week.  It has been a while since I preached on parables, and, given some of our conversations around here the last couple weeks, I realized its “should be” relevance in our lives today.

     We all remember from our Confirmation classes or Sunday School classes that parables are simple stories used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, right?  I see shy nods.  Weren’t most of us taught that these were easy stories that conveyed to us truths that Jesus wanted us to understand?  Maybe the “simple” put you off a minute ago?  If it did, I suspect that is more an evidence of some of your growing wisdom and faith.  To be fair, teachers rightly call them simple stories.  That’s how dictionaries define parables, and it is not as if Jesus used anything but common illustrations to teach.  The problem is that the teachings are, themselves, far more complex.  When we hear the parable of the Prodigal Son, as we will next week, are we the Prodigal Son or Daughter?  Are we the older brother or sister?  Are we the Loving Father or Mother?  Parables are simple, in that they use easy to understand illustrations.  The challenge is the application to our lives.

     Our lesson in Luke today begins with a common pastoral problem.  If God is good, why does He let bad things happen to good people?  In truth, we are dealing more with a corollary, those people must have been bad because a horrible thing happened to them, but it is all part of the same family of questions for believers and seekers.  I know, I know.  When you look at your Bibles at home, the heading will be “The Parable of the Fig Tree.”  But this pericope really speaks to the question we all have, God’s people and those who do not yet know Him!  People look around at the world and in their lives and see bad things happening all the time.  You and I are living in a world where WW3 is not a hypothetical issue any more.  We live in a world that is likely far closer to the dystopian future described by Mad Max than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis.  In case we forgot in our fears over war, the pandemic is still hitting folks, and now two more variants have popped up!  One is in Asia and one is in Europe.  Wanna take bets on where they meet?  Inflation is almost out of control, thanks to a combination of those issues.  We are watching innocent civilians being killed by an aggressor army on television.  The army’s patriarch is actually preaching that loving Christ sometimes means killing your enemies.  As we learn more about the army, though, we realize that many are trapped.  If they go home to Russia, they are killed; if they fight in Ukraine, they may be killed.  And none of them know why they are there!  When we add all the personal evils, it is easy to see why humanity has asked these questions since the beginning; and we should understand why people ask it of those who claim to know and love God.  If God is good and all-powerful, why doesn’t He do something about this mess?

     Just to remind ourselves where we are in the story, Jesus has set His face toward Jerusalem.  This journey is not going to end the way that the world will expect or hope.  Jesus has been teaching that He has come to bring division.  Apparently, there has been a tragedy that is the talk of the town.  Pilate has apparently killed Galileans and mingled their blood with the blood of their sacrifices.  Since these Galileans were clearly faithful, because they are making sacrifices to God, God should have protected them from this death and this blasphemous mingling.  Think of how people quiz us after church shootings.  When people were killed in Antioch or at the AME church in Charleston, SC, how many times did we hear a version of why their God did not protect them?  When nuns or priests are killed around the world for serving people, the same question is usually asked.  Where was your good, all-powerful God?

     Jesus, of course, understands the hearts of those questioning Him.  The assumption they are making is that those Galileans must have been bad sinners for God to have let such a horrible thing happen to them.  Jesus, for His part, understands they are missing the true tragedy of the situation.  The tragedy is death.  In the end, does it really matter how we get dead?  I mean, in the grand scheme of things, do you really care if you die in an accident, a massive heart attack, or in your bed of old age?  Dead is dead.  Sure, we’d all like the peaceful death in our sleep, but, in the end, does the manner really matter?  Jesus, of course, is hinting at the real pastoral problem.  Why does death exist?  As Christians, we understand that death is the consequence of sin.  We are taught by God that such was not His intention when He created us.  Death entered as a consequence of us not trusting Him, of us believing he lies of the Deceiver.  Jesus further emphasizes that truth with His tears and angry snort over the death of Lazarus, His friend.

     Jesus goes on to teach that the division He has brought is the Incarnation of our need to repent of sin.  Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.  The crowd is so focused on trying to justify themselves in the face of tragedy that they forget they are subject to the same mortality.  And for His part, Jesus gives them and us a spiritual uppercut.  We all will die unless we repent.

     To further drive home His point, in case any in the audience or we missed it, Jesus brings up another tragedy, the tower of Siloam’s collapse.  Again, we do not know this tragedy.  Most of us assume it was a tower built near the pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, but that is just a guess on our part.  It would be like somebody 2000 years from now telling us about the Maryland Farms skyscraper collapsing, or something akin to that.  It makes sense why Jesus uses it to illustrate His point, though.  Faithful pilgrims killed by a collapsing tower as they waited for the healing angel to stir the waters?  That would be tragic, indeed!  Yet again, Jesus reaches for the spiritual uppercut.  Unless the audience repents, un included, we will all die as they did.

     Humanity has the same problem.  We are sinners before God.  Oh, I know, we love to read and hear I’m ok and you are ok; but deep down we know it is The Lie of the Enemy.  We are in Lent, and I expect more than one of us is trying to avoid sin as much as possible.  But even with our focus on avoiding sin, how far do we make it?  Days?  Hours?  Minutes?  Despite our focus on our wretchedness and our need of a Savior, we still do those things we ought not have done and did not do some of those things we know we should have done.  We know it.  There’s no argument.  There’s no “if I had only tried harder.”  I see the nods.  We are all Pelagians at heart, aren’t we?  Now I see the confusion.  lol

     Then comes the parable.  The parable is well known, and I see many nods.  My guess is that we have all heard sermons on this parable over the years.  The fig tree is Israel, God is the owner of the vineyard, and Jesus is the Gardener.  Has everyone heard that teaching?  Good.  In that case, the teaching is along the lines of “Israel has not born the fruit to which it was called.  The Gardener intervenes and asks for more time.  He promises to water, and manure, and give the tree time to bear fruit.  No doubt we have all heard stories about how God’s people did not live into the Covenant with God because of sin.  Hopefully, those sermons and teachings included the Church as the new Israel, when it came to that example.  We can all think of churches that bear little or no fruit to God’s glory, and, typical of our stiff necks and hardened hearts, we never recognize our own churches in that description.  Oooh, I see a squirm or three.  Must be spiritual wedgie time again!

     What makes the parables not simple, though, is our own experiences and our walk with God.  Have you ever considered that the fig tree might be you or me?  Have you ever wondered if you are the one not bearing fruit for God’s glory?  Before you dismiss the question, I will remind us all that we are the season of Lent.  I have called us all into the observance of a Holy Lent, where we acknowledge our sins and wickedness before God, and pray for the grace from Him to do the work He has given us to do.  Has God called us to a ministry or service and we rejected Him because we were tired or busy?  Did we decide that God was making a mistake calling us to do something because it made us uncomfortable or we were convinced we lacked expertise?  Have we blown off worship, the reminder and thanksgiving for what He has done for us in the death and Resurrection of our Lord Christ, because we were tired or had a great tee time or brunch planned?  Have we dishonored God in our words, our actions, or our inactions?  Have we dishonored God with our shared social media posts?  Have we ignored suffering in our midst because we knew they were the kind of people who deserved to suffer?

     I could go on, but I think your squirms testify that we all understand we are sometimes, if not more times than we would like to admit, like the fig tree in the story.  We are not always in the business of bearing fruit worthy of God.  We are a people who often would rather sin and embrace death than live as a redeemed people, thankful for the grace of our Redeemer!  In that case, of course, the parable is far more personal.  Jesus, the Gardener, is intervening with the Father, the Owner, to give us more time to bear fruit.  He promises to water and manure and till the soil so that we can bear fruit worthy of the vineyard Owner.  But He does not expect the Owner’s patience to be infinite.  At some point, the non-bearing fig tree will be cut down, that another tree might be planted in the soil.

     Of course, the parable does not end with the national or personal perspective I have just described.  Sometimes, we serve another role described in the parable.  As disciples of the Gardener and supposed incarnations with a little “i,” sometimes we find ourselves in the role of a gardener.  We use language that we are a sent people, a people sent back out into the wilderness of the world to do the work He has given us to do.  We tend our patches of wilderness, so to speak, trusting that our Lord will give purpose and meaning to the work and ministry to which He calls us.  Make no mistake, this is challenging work, heavy work.  Spiritually speaking, it can be back-breaking and seem pointless.  It requires us to get dirty, to get achy, to sweat, for His purposes.  Most of us, of course, are amateur gardeners.  We can use a watering can and miracle grow on our tomatoes and herbs at our houses, but gardening in the world out there?  Where do we even begin?  There’s no Miracle Grow for saving souls, apart from what our Lord has done for all in His Passion and Death.

     Thankfully, in Jesus’ teaching, we have an interesting instruction.  The word that our translators render as “let it alone for one more year” is the word aphes.  You and I say that word in our daily offices and worship services.  It is used in the Prayer that Jesus gives His disciples when they ask earlier in Luke’s Gospel how to pray.  In that prayer, we aphiamen others as God aphes us.  That’s right, the word that Jesus uses is forgives.  We understand why our translators render it as “let it alone,” given the context, but it is the exact same word they will render as “forgive us” our trespasses as “we forgive” those who trespass against us, when they translate the Lord’s Prayer into English.

     How do we understand that parable now?

     Forgiveness.  The most powerful experience we have experienced and the most powerful promise we have to offer others is forgiveness.  Brothers and sisters this world is messed up.  Nothing is as it should be.  Not us.  Not them.  Not anybody.  Absent faith in Jesus Christ, every single one of us are in wrong relationship with God because of our sins.  No exceptions!  And yet, though God could have rightly left us to wallow in our sins and die, He had a better plan.  He let His Son become sin so that we could be forgiven and restored to Him!  Most amazing and humbling of all, though, is that you and I are supposed to be heralds of that message!

     Why do we offer food without price?  Because He forgives us and calls us to minister in His Name!  Why do we assemble and worship Him so often?  Because He forgives us and we can only offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise for that mighty work!  Why must we forgive the people at work who slander or stab us in the back climbing the corporate ladder?  Why are we called to forgive those in our social circles who mock us or gossip about us?  Why are we called to forgive those who bully us in school?  Why must we forgive our social media friends who “call us out for our naivete or stupidity” because we understand their narrative misses God’s perspective?  Because we are forgiven!  What is the single most powerful tool we have to testify to our faith in Christ Jesus and in thanksgiving to God?  Forgiveness.  And God trusts us with that message because we, each and every one of us gathered here today, should know we are forgiven.  We know the burden that knowledge lifts, and we know the hope that promise gives.  And because of that, you and I are perfect gardeners for those God has placed in our lives!

     Make no mistake, not all will respond to our watering, our manuring, our weeding, our tilling.  In fact, given how many people rejected the Gardener as He walked among them and ministered to them and taught them, we should expect most will not.  But we garden faithfully, trusting that our Lord will give meaning and purpose even to our failures.  That, my friends, is the great promise of Lent!  Are we wretched sinners?  Of course!  But our Lord Christ has promised to redeem each and every one of those sins we have committed, known and unknown, if we but repent.  Mercifully, thankfully, that is all that is truly demanded of us.  The rest?  It is our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, our labor of true love and of true freedom, if you will.  But for those who are fed by our work, those who begin to see the barest glimmer of God’s glory in our service of them, for those who begin to understand the grace offered them by our Lord Christ though our daily life and work, it is the Answer to that Problem that has likely plagued them their whole lives!  It is the promise and hope that death is but a horizon, and not the tragedy we think we and they see now!

 

In Christ’s Peace,

Brian†