Creekside Church Sermon of March 15, 1998 "Another Chance to Bear Fruit" Luke 13:1-9	Rev. David Bibbee
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There was a man who loved figs. He ate them every day. He put them on cereal, on salads for lunch, and in dessert after supper. Like Bubba in the film, Forrest Gump who went on and on about all the ways to eat shrimp, this man could do with figs. He had several volumes of fig cookery and attributed his family's good health to the nutritional value of figs. He even wallpapered the kitchen in a fig leaf pattern.

He planted a fig tree in his vineyard. They are prolific producers that can bear fruit ten months out of the year, and it takes about three years before they produce figs. One day he went into the vineyard to pluck the fruit from his tree, but he found none. In frustration, he told the vine dresser, "For three years I have waited patiently for this tree to produce. It has taken a lot of care and given nothing in return. Its space is more valuable than its presence. Cut it down!"

When Jesus first told this parable, the imagery wasn't lost on his listeners. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel was spoken of as God's vineyard. God carefully cultivated and tended his vineyard. Watered it with his word and law from Moses and the prophets. He patiently waited for Israel to yield a harvest worthy of God's great loving investment. But God's vineyard endured some fruitless seasons. Speaking of Israel's unfaithfulness, the prophet Joel said: "Wail, O vine dressers. The vine withers and the fig tree languishes."

God endures only so many seasons of crop failure. When the vineyard owner comes with an empty bushel basket and finds no figs to fill it, those who are responsible will have some explaining to do. As someone put it, "The chief priests, scribes, bishops and pastors, Sunday school teachers and church trustees are going to have some hard questions to answer." Why all this time and still there is so little to show for it. Israel had its chances. The church still has its chance, and this parable causes us to stop and ask how faithful and fruitful we are.

I squirm when I read the passages about Jesus and fig trees. Matthew 21: 18 reports that one day Jesus was hungry and he saw a fig tree by the road, but it was figless. So Jesus cursed the tree and it died. In Mark 11: 12 he is hungry again and comes to a tree with no figs. But Mark says there was a good reason. Figs weren't even in season. It didn't matter to Jesus, though. He cursed it and killed it anyway. I wouldn't be concerned if this was just a story about Jesus killing trees. We know however that these stories are red alert passages for our lives. Are we green, flourishing and fruitful? Are we making good use of the hope and investment God has put into us? Are we doing anything to make a difference, to glorify God, anything at all to justify our oxygen intake, or are we just taking up precious space and spending precious time?

The vineyard owner went out one day to find fruit. The branches were sturdy, the leaves lush and green. It looked like a fine tree, but it was barren. I saw an ad for a church seeking a senior pastor. It read, "We have 1800 members, 500 children in our education program, four associate ministers, a full-time administrative staff, a balanced budget, a five-million dollar endowment fund, a vibrant music program, and an awe-inspiring Romanesque building." Sounds like a dandy church. But the description didn't indicate how much fruit the church yields.

This is the bottom line, isn't it? We need fruit with the foliage. Our existence is tied to our performance. How many disciples are we making? How many lives are being changed? How Christ-like are we becoming? How many of us are serving? Too many churches are content to define success in terms of meeting the budget, securing Sunday school teachers, having satisfying worship experiences, keeping the lawn mowed, and making sure the machinery keeps running. And when the vineyard owner finds no fruit he will say, "Cut it down. Why let it use precious ground?"

God planted a people for a purpose. In the parable of the talents the master was justified in taking the talent from the servant who did nothing with it and giving it to those who turned a profit. The vineyard owner was justified in ordering the axe laid to the root of the tree. But the parable doesn't end here. The servant said, "Sir, I talked with the county extension agent who said it would be worth a shot putting some fertilizer around it." "Miracle Gro?" "No chemicals, sir. All organic. I'll spread some manure around it. Let it alone for one more year and if you get figs, fine. If not I'll shout, 'Timber!'"

My grandfather grew some great gardens but he went to great, smelly lengths to get them. I was willing to help with every phase of the gardening operation except for when he came from Lawrence's farm with a truckload of cow manure. But Grandpa was so focused on getting a harvest that manure smelled like flowers to him. "Manure and time may do the trick, sir." "Oh, alright. One more year." Here is an example of divine restraint. Though justified in his judgment, God offers grace; a reprieve to turn things around.

During my final semester of college I got "side-tracked" and fell way behind in a required course. I went sobbing to the professor with my story. "You knew the course requirements," he said. "But if you get me three page reviews of each of the eight books listed in the Syllabus I'll give you credit." I had read only one of the eight books and had three days to submit the work. So I read the first, middle, and last chapter of each book, wrote a twenty-page paper, and passed the course with a 2.5.

I remember what it felt like to get that reprieve. You know how it feels when a deadline is extended, when you have a chance to do something over, when the doctor calls with the lab reports and the diagnosis you feared is negative, or when your marriage is struggling and your spouse says he is willing to go to counseling.

In this parable, Jesus reveals two aspects of God...justified judgment and mighty mercy, and in between we have our chance to bear fruit worthy of repentance. In Exodus Moses pleaded with God to withhold his deserved judgment of the Israelites, and God had a change of heart. In Hosea God says, "I'll pour out my wrath like water." And then just a few verses later says, "How can I give you up? My compassion grows warm and tender." We tell this parable during Lent because it reminds us what time it is - your life, my life, the church's life, lies between, "Cut it down!" and "Spread the manure to see if organic chemistry will bring blossoms and figs."

This parable intentionally doesn't say what the additional year brought. We don't know if the owner of the vineyard ended up with cupboards full of figs or firewood for the family hearth. We don't know if the prodigal son responded to his father's mercy by being a model son or if he returned to the playboy lifestyle. We don't know the resolution for we are the resolution. Time won't always be on our side. Opportunities for repentance and turning around and producing the fruit God has made us capable of are limited.

The vineyard owner granted grace for one more year. What might happen within us and between us-who might be drawn to Christ's love through us if we would yield our lives to his love in deeper ways? In one of Sarah's prayer journal entries she wrote:

What harvest would God find if we all endeavored to have even a portion of the desire for growth which Sarah had? I dare say we would be surprised. The Catholic theologian Hans Kung posed this question: "To what kind of church does the church belong?" Here is his answer:

I say the future belongs to churches that know they were planted for a purpose and are accountable to that purpose. In his mercy, God has given us time because as the vineyard owner loved figs, God loves fruitful disciples.

William Willamon observes that the vine dresser's plea, "Let it alone," comes from the same Greek word which translates, "forgiveness." Jesus came into our barren, sterile condition to help and love us into being fruitful. We preferred our way and nailed him to a cross. God was justified in hot anger to cry, "Cut it down." But the vine dresser on the cross said, "Father, forgive them-let it alone."

"See, from his head, his hands, his feet. Sorrow and love flow mingled down." This is the fertilizer that is spread around us, working its way to our roots that we will have the time and the desire to produce fruit.

Thanks to William Willamon whose interpretation of the parable inspired the shape of this sermon.

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