March 14 - I don't Give a Fig

There is no commandment that specifically forbids it. But, it permeates and is implied in every one of the Ten Commandments. What is it – it is “indifference”, as represented by the sin of the fig tree.

The fig tree failed to do what it was created for. It failed to fulfill its purpose...its reason for existence...its mission. Therefore, the owner of the vineyard wanted it cut down. At first reading this may seem harsh, but there are a couple of agricultural facts we need to understand. First, a fig tree takes up a good deal of space. It is very large when full grown. Its branches spread wide and its roots, ever greedy for water, reach well beyond the canopy of its branches. Because it creates so much shade and because of the amount of water it sucks up, nothing can grow anywhere near it. Second, it takes five to seven years from the time of planting for the fig tree to produce fruit. With the shortage of farmable land in Israel a fig tree would have to produce or be cut down.

The owner of the vineyard must have wanted (even loved) this fig tree very much to have planted it in the first place and even more so to have kept it for three years after it showed itself to be barren.

But, as we read, the owner finally must face the economic reality: the tree isn’t going to produce so it must go. The gardener though begs to give the tree a second chance. In fact, he’s even willing to put out extra effort to make it productive and thus save it.

This is not, as we know, a story about fig trees or agricultural practices in ancient Israel. It is a parable about the sin of indifference and about God’s grace. It is about God’s love versus His justice in His dealings with Israel. But, it is also applicable to the church today.

Just as Israel was the barren fig tree in Jesus’ telling of the story, the church is the tree in later time. God claimed for Himself a people who would bear the fruit of repentance. Knowing they could not live perfect, sinless lives, they were to live repentant lives – lives of continuous return to God. This repentant living would include acceptance of their value in God’s eyes, witnessing of His love to others (including other nations), being in relationship with God and obeying Him. This was not just or primarily an individual act. Rather, it was a corporate life style for God’s people as a nation/community. And they failed to live a repentant lifestyle time and again. In other words, they didn’t give a fig.

Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem (and ultimately His death). He desperately wants His fellow Jews to understand His mission, repent and be saved. He is the gardener who will do His all to keep the tree (God’s people) from being destroyed. But, they need to produce the fruit of repentance.

This is not just a story about Israel though. If it was, we wouldn’t need to be reading it. This is also a story about the church founded on Christ. It is also a parable about grace.

Jesus created the church first with His disciples, then after Jesus return to the Father with the communities of faith the disciples established, and finally with each congregation that bears the name Christ-ian. And God has expected each of these trees to produce the fruit of repentance.

Christ says even to us, “I will water you with my blood and nurture you with my word and Sacraments, but if you want to survive you must bear the fruit of repentance. You must recognize that you St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church are mine. You, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church must see that the purpose of your existence is fulfilling my mission in your community. You, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church must witness of my love to others who need to hear the Good News. You, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church must seek the Father’s will for your church and interpret the present time, seeing that being my church is different today than it was in the past. It takes every member fully committed to mission to accomplish this. Just as part of the tree can’t say, “I’m tired or too busy or have done my share, and I’m going to just relax. Let the rest of the tree bear fruit”...so part of the membership of a church can’t sit back and expect other members to do all the producing. Every member is needed to produce the fruit of repentance. (Just a sidebar, I know that older people are tired of bearing and younger people lead extremely busy lives and may feel they can’t take on ‘more’, but when you look at living, growing churches – like McLane Church – you see that all of the members are involved in the church’s ministry. Members of living, growing churches put God’s mission and ministry first in their lives and God blesses them accordingly) God has shown us tremendous grace. He has blessed us for 150 years and some may even feel that we don’t need to keep growing and producing, but this is not so. God sees the need in our community and beyond, and He sees the potential we have to meet those needs. He has promised to give us everything we need to fulfill the mission He has laid out for us and He will bless our efforts. But, if we say either aloud or by our inaction, “I don’t give a fig”, we need to know that even now the axe is laid at the base of the tree. We must decide whether we will respond to God’s grace and bear the fruit of repentance or be a barren tree, marked to be cut down.

Let me be very clear here. This is not salvation by works. We, as individuals, are saved by grace alone. We have been saved and nothing we do can add to that salvation or give it any more sureness than God’s promise. However, each of us is expected to respond to having been saved by living a repentant lifestyle – accepting our value to God, growing in our relationship with Him, seeking His will and using our gifts to carry out His mission. We do this as part of the church so that as we live out our personal lives of repentance, the church – St. Paul’s – is able to live out its life of repentance. What we do individually and corporately is our way of saying that we accept God’s grace – the second chance we are given – and want to be God’s church for the next 150 years. The time to decide is now. Will we say, “I don’t give a fig – go ahead and cut our tree down.”? Or will we say, “What will you have me do, Lord?” Amen