Lent 3, yr c, 2025

Well they Sun WAS shining and the snow WAS melting as I wrote this!  But even with false Spring over, experience tells even the most pessimistic of us to dare to hope that spring is around the corner and for me…that means gardening.  An excellent time for a gardening parable.

Beyond that we are in the midst of lent and lent is an excellent time for looking at what fruit we bear…individually and as a community.  Looking at what all the busyness and energy that takes up our lives is producing.

Our gospel today speaks of a parable of a fig tree.  A fig tree that is growing in a garden; using up the garden’s resources, nutrients, soil and space…and yet producing no fruit.  We read that the owner is frustrated that the tree hasn’t born any fruit, despite all the years it has been growing.  So he tells the gardener to chop it down. 

The gardener asks the owner, for grace.  Give me one more year, in which to lovingly care for and intensively nourish this fig tree;  To give the unproductive fig tree a chance to bear fruit.

The passage that precedes the parable of the fig, gives context to this story and adds a note of not only urgency, even of fear to our reading today.  Our gospel begins with what might be called ‘Jesus reads the news’.   The news of what has been heard to take place recently in neighbouring communities.  People of Galilee slaughtered by corrupt governments, others who were caught in a tragic and massive accident. And the question people are asking Jesus is why?  Did these particular people do something ‘to deserve it?’. 

No, Jesus answers…we are all sinners…and we are all in need of repentance.

This is a broken world and tragedies do certainly happen, not just to other people but to any people.  So as we journey through Lent now is the time for repentance…or we may not get our chance.  I doubt Jesus meant this as a threat…though it certainly could read that way; but it could also simply be stating the logical consequence. 

If you don’t pay attention to your daily housework, you’ll wake up one day overwhelmed.  Repent today, tomorrow it may be too late.

So, we know we are to repent.  But how are we to repent?  Often, I think we interpret repentance as saying sorry and meaning it, and that is part of it.  We also talk about repentance as a turning around…doing a 180…recognition followed by action.

So how does this relate to our fig tree?

The owner of the fig tree looks at this fig tree that he had planted three years ago and thinks… what a waste of space! 

Now, over that past several years I have been learning about gardening; especially how to cultivate plants…including fruit.  The one thing I certainly have learned is that you can’t always just stick a fruit tree in the dirt and expect it to grow.  It depends on the plant.  Raspberries apparently you can just shove a cane in and ala presto! It will grow, but blueberries for instance are quite different.  Each plant has it’s own needs.

I’ve found out that adding compost and extra nourishment to my blueberries will kill them.  They bare when I do so no fruit because they need less, not more…the more I piled on them the less productive they became.  Yet, I though what I was doing right.

What I needed to do was slow down, stop assuming I knew what was best, take a good look at what I was doing and speak to an expert.  The fig tree in the parable had been planted three years ago and the owner had grown impatient and believe he knew best.

 However, a fig tree can take 3-6 years to produce a crop of fruit and even that depends on the tree itself.   The problem wasn’t with the tree… it was the owner’s expectations.

It is the same with all of us.  We too need to calm down and consult an expert…a spiritual advisor, a wise elder, a mentor of faith, and most especially we need to sit with God and have the patience and perseverance to hear what God is calling us to.  Which may indeed be less not more, or more of one thing and less of another…we don’t know what is needed for us to bear good fruit until we take the time to find out.

God says “Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live”  not simply exist…but live! And live abundantly, bearing good fruit without waste, and delighting in all the good things that God provides.  Without cost, without expense, without draining our resources.

All this running about and stressing that we are so apt to do consumes our resources and bears little fruit.  Whereas those who partake in what God provides for them are full and satisfied and produce much good fruit with no great cost.

In Isaiah we hear God inviting us to eat and drink without price and to delight ourselves in what is good, and our psalmist speaks of the results of such a feast  He says “my soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips…for you have been my help…my soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

Satisfaction, joy, help, abundance and support is what the Lord provides because the Lord loves and cares for us.  God wants what is best for us, which is why God has covenanted with us … from Abraham to David to Christ to today…an everlasting covenant.  Not simply a promise, but a deep and abiding relationship,  a strong and mutual assurance because of God’s steadfast, sure love.

God’s promise is that love, care, support and guidance we spoke of.  Ours is that deepening of relationship, that praising and that continual listening …that soul clinging the psalmist speaks of.  Our part of the covenant is to spend our coin well and to bear good fruit for the Lord.

To not simply exist and take up space, like a barren fig tree, but to be fruitful and to serve as an example and invitation to others to come to the Lord’s table.

To eat and be filled with good things, so that they too can cling to the Lord and bear good fruit.  It is our choice how we spend the coin of our many resources, how we spend our time and energy and it is up to us turn to God and allow God to nurture us so that we can make those good choices and bear that good fruit.

Our charge in this Lenten season, and always for that matter, is to “incline our ears and come to God, to listen so that we may live…and live in God… abundantly and fruitfully.

amen