Does anyone remember what I preached last week? To refresh your memory, I made a somewhat startling confession... which is that I really only have one sermon. It’s true, I preach the same thing over and over, week after week, hoping that nobody will notice. And to further refresh your memory, it goes like this:

Is this sounding familiar? It should. And I said it comes to us in many scriptures, and many ways.

And that’s where I ran into a little problem. And that’s why I’ve been struggling all week with what to preach. When I emailed Wil the other day with info for the bulletin, I implied that this week’s sermon was giving me a little trouble, and he emailed back wondering how that could possibly be, since I really only have the one sermon. And the problem was that this week’s gospel lesson sounds kind of like it’s for some other sermon. One about death and destruction and judgment. How could that be my sermon?

So I had to spend a LONG time looking at this scripture from Luke’s gospel, hunting for some good news. And it turns out that the good news has to do with figs. Fig trees.

Now, does anyone really like Fig Newtons? I had a traumatic experience with a Fig Newton as a child, in Sunday school, as a matter of fact. I remember it like it was yesterday. The Sunday school teacher – a person I had reason to trust! – handed me a Dixie cup of Koolaid and a "cookie." I use the term "cookie" loosely. It was this square-ish cake-y white envelope with a dark brown filling. Being a logical child, I reasoned that it was an Oreo in reverse, with the chocolate on the inside. I was mistaken. It was NOT chocolate. Suddenly, I couldn’t swallow; the cake-y stuff was dry and the brown goop was dense and pulpy, and the Sunday school teacher was pushing more of them at me. No ma’am, I’m not real hungry right now, but can I have another glass of Koolaid?

I’m told that the Fig Newton is the 3rd most popular cookie in North America, and over 1 billion are consumed each year. What I can’t figure out is WHY.

Fast forward about 40 years. I’m out of Sunday school and into Seminary, and I’m in Jordan, with a classmate who is obsessing about finding a fig tree and trying a FRESH fig. Imagine my surprise, when he talks me into trying one, and it’s GOOD. Golden in ripeness... delicate, light textured, marvellously sweet! Suddenly, I had this new appreciation for a fruit that had been terribly misrepresented to me in its dessicated state by the Fig Newton folks.

AND, I had a new appreciation for the great honour granted figs in the Bible. The fig of the ancient (and modern) Near East is the ficus carica. And in addition to luscious fruit, its large dense foliage also provides excellent shade. Though not their intended purpose, it was the large leaves of the fig tree which, we’re told in Genesis, clothed our first ancestors in the Garden of Eden. Truly a tree of Eden.

The phrase "vine and fig tree" is used metaphorically to describe Israel as a land living under the blessing and protection of God’s peace and God’s wisdom. The presence of the fig tree in the vineyard is the presence of God’s shalom, God’s peace.

And in Proverbs, the growing of fig trees is connected with the getting and keeping wisdom. And this became a tradition; if one wanted to meditate and to acquire wisdom about life and particularly about God, one went to sit under one’s fig tree. One of these days I’m going to get a grapevine and fig tree for my backyard.

So this is the rich metaphorical landscape in which Jesus’ parable of the fig tree is told from the Gospel lesson that was read. And he also tells it in the context of current events. Current events for his time were that Pontius Pilate had sent some Roman thugs to slaughter some innocent people while they were worshipping, and a tower under construction had fallen down and killed some of the construction workers. Both were huge tragedies for their time. And people asked, were these people some kind of "super-sinners" that this should happen to them.

Let me put this in context for today. Were those 200 people killed by the train bombings in Spain last week some kind of super-sinners? Or were they just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was that young man – hailed as a hero for shielding a child – who was killed a few weeks ago when the wall of the Uptown theatre on Bloor Street collapsed, some kind of super-sinner... or does crap just happen?

It is a common enough question: Why did it happen to them? Why did it happen to me? Some of us even know people who have turned away from faith altogether, for want of a satisfying personal answer to such a question. While the answers to such questions are always personal, because the challenge to faith is personal, there are some things about it we can learn from one another and from scripture.

People want to know: is this stuff random? Or did God plan it? Select those particular individuals to die that way that day? As I read this, notice how Jesus doesn't remotely consider that God does that kind of stuff to people. But he takes the question a step further, as if to say: "Let's not talk about them. I’m here to talk about you."

Jesus knows there's fear behind the question, "Why?" Everybody's worrying that something could happen to them. Yes, he says. Somewhere down the road it IS going to be you. Something's going to get us. Something's going to happen. Maybe an accident, a tragedy, a disease, … something. So, given the little thread by which we all dangle, always just a breath away from dying, what are we doing now? What is God hoping for from us?

Jesus seems to be saying here that there is no cosmic conspiracy against us.... it’s just that we don’t get to control our own destinies. And since we can’t control life, even if we ARE control queens, we need to declare our faithfulness while we can, while we’re in the land of the living. Jesus breaks the supposed link between sin and punishment. Let me repeat that: Jesus breaks the link between sin and punishment. Jesus is NOT making that connection. We still do, sometimes, but Jesus is saying that God doesn’t.

But there is still this demand for repentance. And the demand for repentance in the here and now is universal. Death is not necessarily God’s judgment. But death pronounces God’s judgment because it brings to a close our ‘living time’ for decision and change. For repentance.

In this setting the parable doesn’t quite fit, except in a paradoxical way. The one who demands repentance from everyone, the one who warns that life is the only arena where repentance can be demonstrated, where that "turned around" life can be lived, is ALSO the one who pleads that the ‘living time’ of the unrepentant may be extended.

"A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard." And now, against the background of the Hebrew Scriptures we finally know why Jesus’ parable has a fig tree planted in the vineyard. Here again is that strong ‘vine and fig tree’ image. The presence of the fig tree — the blessing tree — creates, as we discovered, the expectation that God’s shalom will be present in the community. In the logic and language of Luke’s text, blessing and shalom become present where repentance is exercised — where the faithful embrace of God’s way is practised.

But the tree gives no evidence of blessing. There’s no fruit. In fact, it’s worse than that. In the parable, evidence of blessing has been lacking for some time. The owner said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none." According to Levitical law (Leviticus 19:23-25), no fruit could be harvested from a tree during the first three years of its life. So it’s entirely likely that the tree in the parable has actually been without fruit for not just three years, but six! The reasonable-ness of the owner’s persistent hope has been stretched, apparently to the limit. Frustrated and angry, the owner instructs the gardener to cut the tree down! Fruitless, it has just been taking up space, using up precious resources.

The gardener dares to further stretch the frustrated hope of the owner. Far from criticizing its use of resources to date, the gardener proposes investing additional resources! Even more! The gardener doesn’t know whether this special care will bring forth the desired fruit from the fig tree. "But give me one more year to try."

And, Curiously, this is where the parable ends. We don’t know if the owner consented to the gardener’s counter-proposal. We never find out if the fig tree ever bore fruit — or if it had to be cut down after all. But this is precisely where the power of the parable is demonstrated. As disciples of Jesus, as the one to whom the parable is given, we’re invited to supply the hoped-for details that will bring the parable to a satisfying conclusion. We hope that the owner will consent to the gardener’s counter-proposal. We hope that the fig tree will respond to the gardener’s mercy and special care, bringing forth that wonderful fruit of repentance — that fruit of blessing and shalom. And by hoping in this way, Jesus has drawn us into considering for ourselves a response consistent with that hope. In mercy given, we will nurture others toward fruitfulness. In mercy received, we will perhaps become fruitful ourselves. To the owner the prospect would be worth the wait.

God’s way is good. You know how I know this? I know from personal experience. Once you’ve taste those fresh, ripe figs from off the tree you’ll never be satisfied with Fig Newtons again!

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