Third Sunday of Lent
March 11, 2007


Just what is the sin of the fig tree? (how to reconcile God’s justice and mercy?)

There is a little brew-ha going on for some of the people who frequent Norwood Hills golf course. Apparently the grounds keepers, due in part to the summer thunder and winter ice storms and in part due to recommendations by golf course architects, have taken down over three hundred trees. As you can imagine, that affects the entire feel of the course quite a bit. Some of the trees were damaged. Others were not suited to our climate. But most importantly, many of them simply effected how the grass grew adversely – there were too many trees that did nothing to help the course – they produced ‘no fruit’ to use the metaphor of the gospel today. Since they did not enhance to quality of the course, it was time for them to go. Some people are quite upset about their removal. Others say it was long over due. Still for others, the jury is out. Should the trees have been spared? I suspect the question will be debated for a while.

But it is not a new debate. It has been going on for a long time. (Not about the golf course, of course) What do you do with trees that don’t produce? More importantly, what does God do about people who don’t bear fruit? That was the metaphor that Jesus ends today’s gospel with. Commenting on the front page headlines, Jesus jumps directly into the two most difficult aspects of common images of God to reconcile – God’s justice and God’s mercy. Mercy would say to the groundskeepers – keep the trees. Justice would say: they have to go. Mercy says about us: “Father, give them another chance to repent and change their lives.” Justice says: “the tower has fallen, the blood has been mingled and it is too late.

But Jesus adds a very interesting twist in the final story about the fig tree. In almost all the other gospel stories about land and ownership, God is depicted as the landowner, the master, the one who controls the fate of the property. Not here. In this one, God is depicted as the gardener. The gardener. Hmm… Tempering the divine call to bear fruit with the just sentence imposed if one doesn’t, the stories combine both mercy and justice. In the first two stories, Jesus invites his hearers not just to stand there and look pretty, but to DO SOMETHING positive for the good of the world. In this third story, the gardener pleads for just a bit more time. Not a limitless amount, but one more year, one more time to get it right. One more time to get into the game. One more time to hear Jesus say: Don’t just stand there, DO SOMETHING…

This season of lent is our time to ‘get into the game’ as it were. To stop making Christianity a spectator sport and become active in the practice of love and charity. So how will you get into the game this year? To what ACTION (not piety, not fasting, not prayer) or what kind of FRUIT are you going to bear this year?

Concretely –
· a petition in back of church called “First Things First” to Gov. Blunt about returning some of the budget surplus to restore Medicaid cuts – part of the action would be to sign the petition.
· Work a soup kitchen.
· Drive some of the sisters at the good shepherd convent to the store. (safe option)
· It is Social Justice month at the Newman Center – sleep outdoors in a Cardboard shantytown on Thursday night or join us for the candlelight vigil at 9:00pm.
· investigate the FAIR TRADE movement and buy fair trade coffee and chocolates where available…

And you get the idea.

Jesus tells us – the axe is coming, but there is time. How much, we’ll never know. Let God the gardener love you this lent into producing much fruit for the good of the world…