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Third Sunday in Lent, 02/28/2016
Sermon on Luke 13:1-9, by Pari R. Bailey
At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 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? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." 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. 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?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" --Luke 13:1-9 NRSV
When I was growing up, my parents planted lots of trees around our house, mostly fruit trees. We had pear trees and a big cherry tree and several apple trees. As the trees matured, we waited eagerly for fruit. And then the trees began to produce: apples and pears and loads of cherries ready for pies and canning.
All except for one tree. It was supposed to bear Rome Beauty apples. It grew slowly, and would in time—we thought—produce succulent, tart apples good for pies and other baking. But it didn’t. So my mom dug around it, fertilized it, had it evaluated by the county extension agent. We tried sprays. We tried different manures and soil treatments. Mom even got the neighbor to graft a branch on from one of the other apple trees, in order to jump start production. Well, that branch grew and produced OK, but the rest of the tree might as well been dead. After several years, my mom finally gave up.
In the Gospel lesson today, Jesus tells a little story about another tree and a gardener and a landowner. We even get the word manure, which you don’t often find in the Bible, but was certainly a part of everyday life then, as it still is for some of you today. It’s a nice little story on the surface--but you know that Jesus isn’t really talking about a tree, here. Jesus is talking about people. There is a warning: those who do not repent of their sin and turn from their evil ways—they will perish. Those people who do not bear the fruit of righteousness, they will be cut down, just like the fig tree in the vineyard. But there is also hope: the gardener pleads with the landowner for more time: just a little more manure should do the trick! Just give me another year!
Isaiah tells us in that beautiful first lesson that we are to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. It is implied that there will come a time when the Lord may not be found, when he is not near. When that time comes, it will be too late for the wicked to forsake their ways, and the unrighteous to forsake their thoughts. It will be too late to bear fruit. Remember the message of John the Baptist in Matthew 3: “Bear fruit worthy of repentance…even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees, every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
The sober fact remains. One that we don’t like to acknowledge, one that isn’t very popular among preachers or parishioners these days. Sin is real, and God’s judgment is real, too. Our God is loving and gracious, but there will come a time when those who are unrepentant will perish.
People really get turned off by this kind of talk from pastors and churches. To avoid the question of judgment, some Christians have preferred to emphasize the New Testament. They talk about the “Old Testament God” as being somehow separate from the God of love and light in the New Testament. Such folks end up emphasizing grace at the expense of a call to obedience, a call to discipline and a dying to sin.
Unfortunately, many modern Christians have been conditioned to think of God only as love, a nice guy, who just wants everybody to be nice and get along. God becomes this fluffy, sweet little old grandpa who wouldn’t hurt anybody, ever. The result of this wrong thinking is that we have become complacent Christians, not really understanding the consequences of our sin or and not taking sin seriously.
The God of the Bible is one God, not a judgmental, harsh God back then who suddenly gave way to a forgiving, loving, compassionate God in Jesus. No, God is one. And God has sent us a Redeemer, because he loves us and because he hates sin. That’s a Biblical fact. It is non-negotiable.
Jesus tells the crowds that God doesn’t punish sinners by knocking buildings over on them, or letting them be massacred, or bringing natural disasters on them. Such calamities are not indicators that the sins of the people involved were horrible, or that they got what they deserved. Lots of people like the idea of "karma"--that everything you do to others will happen back to you, but that's not a Christian doctrine, and you and I both know that lots of good people end up with the short end of the stick, while the bad people never get what's coming to them. Instead, Jesus points to a greater and lasting destruction for sinners: being cut off from God.
And yet—And yet. “Let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.” And yet—“seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.” And yet—“God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it.”
The warnings are clear, but so is the Lord clear. Now is the acceptable time to return to the Lord. Now is the day of salvation. Now the Master Gardener pleads on our behalf, waters us with even his own lifeblood. What fruit will come of that flood? What fruit will come of the feeding of this tree--your tree--with the very Body and Blood of him who hung upon another tree? Unlike the tree in the garden of Eden, which bore death, the tree of the cross bears in its bloody fruit life, for the healing of the nations. For the healing of you. Instead of cutting down those who deserve it, Jesus himself was cut off from God, stricken, afflicted, and by his wounds we are healed. We become branches grafted into the True Vine. His life is our life. We abide in him and bear much fruit.
My mom gave up on her apple tree, but the Lord has not given up on his fruitless trees. There's hope in this parable--don't cut the tree down. But there's also urgency--give me one more year.
Don’t cut the tree down, Jesus says. But also don’t let it just sit where it is. Look around at your life and ask the hard questions: Am I stingy in my love for others? Am I withholding forgiveness for old wrongs? Do I expect mercy and give none? What, when bad times come, do I trust most? Jesus digs at us with questions like these. Digs at us to break open the hard soil of our hearts and let the water flow into us, washing us clean, filling us up.
Consider: we are halfway through Lent. The church has set aside a whole season for the gift of repentance and sin and forgiveness. What have you been doing with this gracious time? The same old stuff? Time to stop. Every year is a gift from God. Don’t waste it. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and he will relent from punishing.
Come back to him. Come, delight yourselves in the rich food spread here. Come without money, without price. Come, you who are thirsty: take and drink. Return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on you, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Amen.