March 24, 2019; Isaiah 55: 5-10; Luke 13: 5-9

What about that fig tree?

Fig trees have a way of blowing in.  I have one or two in my back yard.  It’s not like they are multiplying from across the yard, they come in over the fence, from God knows where.  They find a nice spot and they grow.  I welcome them.  I don’t ask any questions.  They are like Biblical guests. The Bible has quite a bit to say about the humble fig tree. But bearing fruit is a different matter. That’s the question the Gospel of Luke deals with.  If your land is limited and rainfall not plentiful and you are running out of manure because your goats do not have enough to eat, then should you keep that pesky old tree or should you rip it out and replace it with a fresh new sapling with an eye to the future. It’s not an issue if you have plenty of land, but land has always been an issue in Jesus’ world. More so now than ever.  If you watched the news this last week, you will find the US is making a consequential new decision about land in that region.

                You have already heard about the text and what Jesus would have had in mind in those days with those words.   But how should we interpret the fig tree story in our day and age. Perhaps the interpretation that’s closest to the text is that of the fig tree as us, as people who keep sitting in this soil and using the manure and all we do is take space and be a nuisance to God and the world.  I think we can all think of people like that.  We get impatient because all we ever seem see them do is get in the way. We’re ready to give up on them. But for us that is kind of presumptuous isn’ t? Who are we to say that someone has become useless.  That is not our prerogative as Christians it seems. That’s what terrorists and dictators do. They just move them people out of the day. And more and more it seems we live in an age of terrorists and dictators.

                Friends, maybe the fig tree is like are our theological explanations.  We use statements about God and human suffering and try to make it all sound nice and neat.  And the reason we do that is because we do not know what to do with the suffering of others.  Eric Barreto who teaches at Rola and Veronica’s seminary (Christian Century February 27, 2019, p.19) writes about a friend in a wheelchair who had people come up to him and tell him that if he really prayed he would be able to get up he would. Barreto calls this “theological malpractice.” Barreto says: ”Why do we this? To others? To ourselves? Why do we rush to a mind that explains rather than a heart that cracks open with tears? Perhaps because the world is complex and difficult to explain. Perhaps because we know too well that we will not always. Be onlookers onto suffering, but eventually be its victims. Perhaps because we actually do not believe in the transformative power of God’s grace. Perhaps because sitting with pain is a spiritual discipline we have fled at every turn…”

                Friends, maybe if we dig deeper into the soil we find that the fig tree is really our own faith.  Perhaps our faith isn’t strong enough. Perhaps it doesn’t get enough nutrients and we blame everything but ourselves for that lack of faith, even though faith is really a gift from God.  But maybe we are the ones that close off the roots and keep the fruit from growing because we really don’t give faith a chance. Maybe it is too new to us. Maybe it is too ancient and the language and stories are weird.  Maybe we don’t like the people that are always talking about their faith.  We get turned off by them or we hate their hypocrisy. We don’t want to be like them because their self-satisfaction makes us sick at our stomachs.

                Friends, we could dig even deeper in that land of ours and find there God.   Maybe at a deeper level God is our fig tree.  We have a yard full of stuff and some of them are fragrant or fast growing, even though the growing season is very brief. That old fig tree does us very little good. And look at our world.  It’s is going down the drain and our leaders lie through their teeth about it.  Maybe we want to give up on God altogether sometimes.  It’s tough language, but I’m not so far off am I, friends.  Maybe sometimes we have to have this kind of bottom of the barrel talk with God to clear things up.  But then how do we get God to respond as God speaks mostly in silence.  Actually we have the words in Isaiah in our text for today where God speaks:” My thoughts are not your thoughts” and “My ways are not your ways.” No one knows the mind of God.”  Friends, keep the fig tree.  You will be glad you did. Thanks be to God. Amen.