Patient Gardener

So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13)

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 round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”’ (Luke 13:6-9)

The lectionary readings for this past Sunday, were not of the warm and fuzzy sort. Not pleasant and gentle. Actually a bit harsh, and in the case of the gospel reading, a bit gruesome. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the sermon prep for these readings, so sharing some of those thoughts here:

Third Sunday in Lent, Year C

Isaiah 55: 1-9

Psalm 63: 1-9

1 Corinthians 10: 1-13Luke 13: 1-9

From Paul writing to the Corinthians, vs 12: “So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.” Sounds like a very Irish warning. One of the worst criticisms of someone is that he or she has a big head, thinks too much of himself or herself.

But if we were to think of this admonition in slightly more generous terms, we might view it as a warning against being presumptuous: don’t presume that you have a certain place, a certain standing. Look at Paul’s description of the Israelites. They were certainly marked out as special. They experienced God in miraculous and visible ways. They were miraculously allowed to cross through the Red Sea on dry land, which Paul likens to a kind of baptism. They were fed with miraculous bread in the wilderness and given water from a rock in the desert. And yet, they still were not perfect in their faith. They still at times strayed off into the worship of idols, even after all they had experienced of God’s protection and provision for them!

They, like ourselves, were only human. Being only human, means we are not immune to failing in our walk as good disciples. It would be foolish and naive to presume otherwise! Rather, it seems that a good dose of humility and healthy self-reflection might go a long way in keeping us walking in the right way. And isn’t that what we are encouraged to do in the season of Lent, to prepare for our Easter celebration? To make more time for prayer, to examine ourselves, to take stock of our spiritual lives and perhaps to try out a new spiritual habit during these weeks.

Paul is not all fire and brimstone. Verse 13 reads: “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength” One commentator notes that ‘it is critical to recognize that Paul writes to the whole community’. The ‘you’ is plural. Paul is writing to ‘you all’. He is not berating this or that individual for failing to reach the mark. Testing, challenges, temptations even are things that face the whole of the community. The commentator continues: testing is a ‘burden for the community rather than something that must be borne alone.’ A church is a community together on the journey of faith. As Paul says elsewhere in his letter to the Corinthians: ‘If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.’ It is good to be reminded that we are in this together. Seasons like Lent can help us to nurture good communal, spiritual practices. Humility, self-reflection, greater devotion to prayer, honest acknowledgement of areas that we need to grow and mature in, these are all practices that we may rightly focus on in this Lenten period.

Let’s consider our connections between our epistle and gospel readings. Paul speaks of the history of the Israelite people, with the implication that it is unwise to presume a place of privilege or standing. We are all only human, we can be led astray, we can make wrong choices that are contrary to God’s ways. In the first part of our gospel reading, Jesus is questioned about two particularly tragic incidents, with the implication that those individuals had sinned in a particularly grievous way, to end up with such gruesome deaths. But Jesus does not reinforce this belief. Rather, he seems to suggest that the sudden and unexpected may befall us at any time. We had rather then, be people who are alert and who stay attuned to our walk with God. Repentance, metanoia, means to turn. Jesus seems to be saying that we should be always mindful that we are turned towards God, that we are walking in God’s direction and not another way. Here again, that little word humility is important. If we maintain an openness and sensitivity towards God, if we walk humbly, then by God’s grace we may receive guidance for all the small ‘course corrections’ we need early on, rather than requiring a dramatic turn around at a later point.

Our English word “humility” is rooted in the Latin humus, just plain ordinary dirt. Dirt is in fact to be found at the ending of our gospel passage, in a parable about an impatient landowner and a patient gardener. The landowner is fed up waiting for fruit from a fig tree. He is ready to uproot it. But the gardener intercedes. One more year, give it one further chance. Not to struggle on its own, with whatever the conditions of the soil happen to be, no actually by giving it more care and nurture: ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it’. The parable doesn’t leave things entirely open-ended, the landowner is going to come looking the next year for fruit. Nevertheless, we can feel much more a sense of possibility, knowing that a careful and attentive gardener is on the case, and doesn’t want to see any of the trees lost. He wants every tree in the orchard to be fruitful.