March 11, 2007

I have to admit that when I first read this assigned reading for the week, I wanted to lop off the first five verses and just focus on the parable of the fig tree. The first five verses are strange - they report events that are never reported anywhere else in scripture and allude to two separate catastrophes. But then I re-read the entire section and sat with it for a while. After a while it intrigued me. In some ways the first few verses mirrors the tabloid section at the supermarket. As you wait in line with your groceries, the headlines scream, "People gunned down as they offer sacrifices in the temple by the local militia," or "tower falls on tourists in a corner of the city." Both examples are different - one is a natural disaster and the other one is an act of violence done in the name of the state. Jesus asks the question that many of us ponder silently - Why did those people suffer in that way? Did those people suffer because of something they brought on themselves? Were they worse offenders than any others who were spared the calamity? It's an understandable question because it is hard to live in a world where random things happen to just anybody. It's why for years we questioned the victim after an attack - why were you walking in the dark alley at night? Why did you keep cash in the house to tempt robbers? Somewhere deep down it softens the blow to know that we have some control over our fate. We don't want bad things to happen to decent people. And to those murmurings Jesus answered, "no," those people in the temple or the tower did not do anything wrong.

Jesus also reforms the question itself. Look at what Jesus does with the speculation about blame. He doesn't even answer the questions of who is responsible or guilty. He just turns the topic of conversation from out there to us as individuals. He says in response to the catastrophes, "Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did." Jesus doesn't seem at all interested in the temple incident. Pilate was a cruel man and killings were probably commonplace. Eventually we are told that Pilate was replaced because he was ultimately even too cruel for the Roman Empire. But today, in this encounter, Jesus doesn't want to focus on Pilate or a natural disaster. Today, like many days recorded in scripture, Jesus wants to focus on the life choices that we make as individuals. He passes no judgment on Pilate here, but on those of us who lead unexamined lives.

Jesus punctuates his teaching by telling a story. It appears to be simple on the surface. A little chat between a vineyard owner and his gardener. Hmm, this fig tree that I planted and had high hopes for isn't producing fruit. I've checked it every year for three years and still nothing. "Cut it down! It is wasting the soil. I'll replace it with another."

"Well," says the gardener. "We could do that. But I also could dig around it and apply some manure and we could give it one more year, one more chance to produce. Then, after some additional attention, you could choose to cut it down." Presumably the owner agrees to the additional year. We don't know if the tree bears the fruit.

We are meant to apply this little agricultural parable to our own lives. We may be fretting about the news in the paper or on-line that is outside of us and Jesus pulls us back into our own lives and shines the spotlight on our behavior. Don't focus on them or that, he says; what are you doing with your resources, he asks? Are you being productive with them? Are you bearing fruit where you have been planted?

What Jesus is ultimately addressing in this text is change. We as Christians are all called to be transformed and to change - metanoia is the Greek word for repentance. And not just change for change's sake, but a turning toward God's way, not just once, but throughout our lives. Some people may talk about a particular conversion experience as a highlight in their life, but the way the Bible uses this word is not a static or one-time thing. It is a continual thing, almost like a flower bending slowly toward the sunlight in gradual increments.

A flower turns because it is designed that way. What makes you change? Do threats work for you? (if you don't do this by that time...) Is fear your motivator? Or do you just get sick of acting a certain way and getting the same results? Scholars tell us that in the Old Testament there was a range of ideas regarding repentance, from regret for one's previous actions, to changing one's mind about something, to changing one's behavior so as to bring about a moral conversion (Harper's Dictionary of the Bible pgs. 861) In the early history of the Israelites, there was more of a collective notion of guilt. Repentance included public fasting, lamentation, and confession of sin. We hear of certain kings in the Old Testament actually leading in the public acts of repentance by donning sackcloth and fasting. Sometimes these public acts didn't change a thing and false repentance was noted and scowled at by the prophets. The Hebrew prophets began to talk about an interior conversion, manifest by justice, kindness, and humility. Jeremiah and Ezekiel looked ahead to a day when God would place a new heart within God's people so that we wouldn't have to be motivated by exterior forces. By the time that John the Baptist burst on the scene, he brought new vigor to the notion of repentance for one's sins. He didn't have any problem chastising people for their moral choices and his message was fiery and dramatic, and clear. We were going to hell if we didn't shape up! Jesus replaced this fiery language with a little more restraint, but still called us all of away from sin and toward God. He reserved his strongest judgment for people in authority who did not want to change any of their interpretations of ancient practices and laws, but who interpreted the letter of the law to each encounter. Jesus also linked the actual coming of God's Kingdom or Realm to our repentance. By the time Paul writes his letters, he rarely employs the language of repentance, though he pushes hard for us to be people of faith.

Jesus' style was unique regarding repentance. Certainly there were public acts that are recorded where he challenged people to act differently. He was constantly pointing us toward God and inviting us to participate in God's Realm. One thinks of Zaccheaus who took more money than he should from others, the woman caught in adultery who was slated to be stoned, the women and men who wanted to be healed of their afflictions, the instructions to his own disciples about how to reach out to people. In these examples he calls people to change. But there are countless other circumstances that indicate that Jesus mostly taught by example - using his own life choices as a witness to his own constant transformation toward God. Eating with sinners and outcasts, touching lepers, letting women and children approach him in public, doing good works on the Sabbath, drawing away from the crowds and praying when he needed a rest. Jesus also told stories that illustrated these concepts so that we could learn from these examples. Surely the most famous is the parable of the Prodigal Son where behavior is changed dramatically by extravagant forgiveness.

So, we are in line with Jesus' teachings when we just read a story that challenges us to grow and change. Certainly the story of the fig tree has a little edge to it. One can only speculate what will happen to the tree if it doesn't produce fruit. What will happen to us if we don't use our resources and gifts to add something to the world? Certainly God holds the capacity to judge us. Perhaps God also has the capacity to remove us and use someone else to get the job done. But there is more to it than just reward and punishment, I think. We are not animals that need to have reward and punishment as our only incentive. We are God's crowning achievement, with the capacity to think, feel and act with conscience. We are designed with the capacity to change.

So when we encounter the story of the fig tree in the garden we are invited to look at our own lives and to ask the reflective questions: what have I been given by God? What personal, physical, financial, and intellectual resources lie within me? What am I doing with those resources? If I had to make my case to Jesus about how I am using my life, what would I say? Would I be ashamed or proud of myself?

Jesus doesn't often spell out the details of what things should look like. He leaves it up to us to interpret. But in the story today he gives us a timeline. He gives us a year to change. Think about what you can accomplish in a year if you open yourself to change. Pick anything significant that you feel needs to change - your contribution to the global climate changes, our involvement in a costly war, a personal transformation that we need to make, or a societal ill such as homelessness or poverty. Imagine what you could do in a year if you took the time to dig a hole around any issue or theme and apply some fertilizer. You could make some impact in any of these areas, but it takes intentionality. The tree is not just left to its own devices. It received extra care and feeding, and it was given time - not unlimited time, but ample time.

Jesus doesn't bombard any of us with a list of do's and don'ts. His style is much more general than that. But don't confuse that with a license to live as you please. We need to answer to our God ultimately and we are told in Luke's Gospel that there is a link between what we contribute and the arrival of God's Realm here on earth. During Lent we have been asking you to live with deliberation so that you might experience the kind of productivity that God's people are called to exhibit. What are you producing with your life? That is the question we are called to answer today. Amen.