I. Theme – We are called into faithful obedience
“Parable of the Barren Fig Tree" -Alexander Master (1430)
"Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’"
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm – Psalm 63:1-8
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Gospel – Luke 13:1-9
Today’s readings call us to faithful obedience. One way to do this is to clear a space for God.
This week, try clearing space in your life for being in solitude with God. Like clearings in a forest, where suddenly the stars and moon above come into view, such solitude can rejuvenate and strengthen us for full-hearted life.
Be ambitious: remove every obstacle in your path. Turn off the TV, unplug the radio, shut down the computer, put away your phone (especially at mealtime!), light candles, revisit your favorite music, read aloud your favorite poem, or take a walk in the woods under the night sky.
Whatever clearings you choose, let your goal be to deepen your awareness of God’s companionship and serene presence all around.
In the first reading, God’s promise to rescue the faithful summons us to a new relationship. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul looks at the experiences of God’s people in the past to show his readers how to live in obedience now. In the gospel, Jesus advises us to respond to calamities with a spirit of personal repentance.
Much of the text deals with the challenges of the wilderness, the hot desert in the Old Testament and Psalm and the need for new relationships . We who are given much squander our resources.
In any season, the garden is an organic model for a spirituality that is alive and growing. Each garden comes to maturity in its own time, producing its unique crop: figs or artichokes, pansies or sunflowers. Within each person lies this secret, sacred space. One person’s inner terrain cannot be compared to another’s; most people know intuitively which ground is barren, which is fruitful. Ultimately, like the fig tree, we are spared for our potential, not for anything we have done.
And if we are fortunate, kind gardeners sometimes intervene on our behalf. Friends “hear us into speech.” Coworkers make allowances. Someone takes us seriously; someone laughs with us; someone squeezes our hand in a tight spot. Family members forgive our all-too-obvious warts. Each gesture of respect and camaraderie stays the hatchet another degree, hoes the ground and manures it. With God’s grace fragrant as rain, we can come gradually to fruition. Sometimes, we can even become the compassionate gardener for another person.
The other bit of good news contained in this reading is Jesus’ interpretation of swift, violent death. While his hearers might be quick to read it as punishment for sin, Jesus knows that death will apply to himself as well. He who is sinless will also die a brutish death at the hands of Pilate.
We who hear about a disasters the moment after they happen can learn from Jesus that these events are not punishment for sin, but impetus for reform.
II. Summary
Old Testament – Exodus 3:1-15
Last week we heard God’s promises of family and land to Abraham. Abraham’s son Isaac sired Jacob, whose twelve sons left the land given to Abraham, and went to Egypt, temporarily, they hoped, to escape a famine. But they stayed and grew numerous, so the Egyptians, who called the descendants of Jacob "Hebrews," enslaved them. The Pharaoh’s daughter adopted a Hebrew baby, naming him Moses. He grew into an adult in the Egyptian court, then lost favor. He left Egypt for Midian (location debatable), married, and got a job.
That all explains why Moses is in the desert, why both Moses and the other Hebrews back in Egypt need to be re-introduced to the God of their ancestors, and why God wants to lead them to "a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey." It’s also instructive that, both before and after announcing the mysterious name -I am who I am- God insists he is the God of Israel’s ancestors. This is to prepare the slaves to reclaim their free and noble heritage
Moses becomes an example of God’s potentialities and the promise of humankind. Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Moses objects to his call, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” It is God, however, that knows what will be, for Moses will prove his authority when with God’s guidance Moses succeeds.
God’s announcement of the plan to rescue the Hebrews, from "I have witnessed the affliction …" to "a land of milk and honey" sets the stage for all that follows. In Lent, this prepares us to hear, at the Easter Vigil, the chapter of Exodus that fulfills the promise, and to let the same God lead us out of our bondages into a new life in the risen Christ.
Psalm – Psalm 63:1-8
The Psalmist recalls a hot, dry desert where there is no water which links to the Exodus reading. The psalmist who seeks God as one seeks water in a desert.
The Psalmist’s thirst for God is grounded in God’s abiding care. God has provided us with comfort and healing and even when God appears to be absent, we can count on God’s abiding care, regardless of life’s circumstances.
Even more telling, however, is how the poet makes the reader aware of the evident relationship with God. It is described as an actual physical longing for God in a time of separation. Recalling times of joyful worship in the temple, the psalmist praises and blesses God throughout the long nights of isolation and is sustained by God’s steadfast love.
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Paul, in these passages, not only leads us back into the wilderness but wants us to understand its meaning as well
1 Corinthians 10:1-13 reminds us that to be faithful to God is to remain in God’s ways, we actually do need to repent in our own lives and to be faithful to God’s ways. Paul looks the Israelites in the desert with Moses as examples of those who had seen God’s deliverance and yet reverted to their old ways.
The Israelites, led by Moses, passed miraculously through the sea when they escaped Egypt. They were led across the desert by a cloud. (Their encounters with these watery elements amount to baptism, Paul says.) God gave them water from the rock when they were thirsty. (Paul depicts Christ retroactively present in this event.) The exodus is a foretaste of the salvation completed in Christ—baptism in the sea and eucharist in the manna and water.
Despite all these wonders, many were still faithless, so God let them die in the desert without reaching the Promised Land. By reviewing the exodus and interpreting it as an example of God’s ways, Paul warns the Corinthians against idolatry and overconfidence in their own strength
The church in Corinth was full of division and many were continuing cultural practices, including ignoring the poor at the Lord’s table (ch.9). The Corinthians claimed to follow Jesus, but also claimed a lot of other things, such as cultural practices that were harmful to others. Paul calls upon the church in Corinth to remember their ancestors and their mistakes, and that we must all be accountable for our actions and know that God is the one who judges us.
Paul’s words give little comfort, both then and now. God strikes people down, sends snakes to bite us, and punishes every misdeed directly and without mercy. Even complaining is punished. Subservience and unquestioning faith is counseled here, lest God annihilate us. God has no patience with doubt, questioning, and complaining. There acts led to terrible consequences from the hand of God; let that be a lesson to you. All are tested in life, but God is at work to give us courage to face life’s tests.
Gospel – Luke 13:1-9
In this section of Luke we are walking with Jesus and listening as observations are made about life, not only from Jesus but also from those walking with him as well.
Luke 13:1-9 tells of a massacre by Pilate against some Galileans and then switches parable of the Fig Tree. What is the connection ? Certainly inclusion or exclusion from the Kingdom. This story is unique to Luke’s Gospel.
The question in the first part of the reading is really about punishment—did the Galileans deserve their punishment? What about the tower than fell on 18 in Siloam ? Did God cause their punishment. It was a matter of poor construction and political violence committed against persons who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Faithfulness to God does not immunize us from life’s pain. Although God is involved in all events, seeking wholeness in all events, even God can’t control the outcome of all things, Jesus implies
The focus is not about worrying about other’s punishment or need for repentance, but our own. We are the ones in need of turning back to God. We know that we are judged by God. If I judge others, I am using the opportunity to evade culpability for my own wrongdoings.
Jesus s not interested in politics or speculation about disasters. Rather, Jesus wants to and uses these questions to ponder repentance. A parable of a fig tree is the result
Jesus uses the story of the fig tree to remind us that we all have been given the opportunity to turn back to God, and that through Jesus we are reminded of that possibility, but only we can produce good fruit. We can’t go pointing out the wrongdoings of others when we are still at fault ourselves. We are the ones who need to repent and turn back to God.
Both the vineyard and the fig tree are probably figures for Israel, and the cutting down of a tree with bad or no fruit suggests judgment. Through the figure of the gardener, Jesus’ ministry is presented as a time that postpones judgment to allow for repentance.
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm – Psalm 63:1-8
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Gospel – Luke 13:1-9