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Mark 11:12-14; 20-25. On the following day, when they came from Bethany , Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it. In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered." Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." NRSV When God placed we human ones in the Garden of creation, we were encouraged to be productive. The very first commandment of God to people –, in the creation stories of Genesis – is to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth;” to subdue it, and have dominion over it. Here is at least is one of God’s commandments which we have gotten real busy about. We watched, last month, as the estimated population of the U.S. alone passed the 300 million mark. It was a Tuesday morning, like today, October 17, 6:46 AM local time … the U.S. population surpassed three hundred million people. And I slept through it.
That’s a net population gain of 360 people … during our worship time today. I did the math. If we Americans were to stand side-by-side and hold hands, our number would stretch 170,455 miles. Hand-in-hand we would encircle the earth not once or two times around, nor three, or even four or five or six times round, but seven times around the globe. Just us! “Be fruitful and multiply” God says, “and subdue the earth.” And you’d never guess it from the way we get about “subduing,” but we’re far from the largest nation in the global community. I began to think about those numbers, and their impact, in light of some other statistics some other factual realities that it might be fruitful to consider. On that Tuesday – like this Tuesday – and each day in between then and now, while we were being fruitful and multiplying, people were dying, worldwide, at the rate of 22 per minute, from starvation alone. Not from war or terrorism, not from handguns or assault rifles, not from smoking or heart disease, not from bad water, not from crime or drugs or AIDS … 22 a minute from starvation
That’s a loss, a death toll 1,320 people … during our worship time together today; more than 30,000 people a day, day after day. And yet with our agricultural capability – with our capacity alone – the United States, with our now 300 million-plus people, is able to feed the world population not once, nor even two or three times over, or even 4, but 5 times over. We, on our own, are capable of feeding the world, five times over, and yet 32,000 people a day are starving to death; 24,000 of them, children. I can’t sleep through that. ----------------------------------------------------- As Jesus walks along the road today he experiences the hunger of the world. He looks on a fig tree that stands fruitless and he rebukes it with an angry curse. And it shocks us, doesn’t it? I mean, a little fig tree and it has no fruit on it and it gets condemned. “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And my heart starts to go out to it. I feel sorry for the fig tree, and I begin to reach for my bracelet and I’m wondering “What Jesus Would Do?” … when I remember: it’s Jesus that’s DOING it! In Matthew’s account of this story, the fig tree withers immediately … “before their very eyes.” This is clearly done for effect. Jesus is in full prophetic mode and voice here. This is a wake-up call of sorts, a harsh object lesson for the disciples … but what does it mean? Mark’s Gospel employs what’s called “sandwiching” here:
Jesus’ cursing of the unproductive tree takes place as he and his disciples make their daily trek into Jerusalem during the Passover festival. And sandwiched within the slices of the fig tree story is Jesus’ confrontation with corruption in the Temple . What God has intended to be a house of prayer for all people, has become a den of robbers, he says. And Jesus turns the tables on the money changers. “When I wanted to gather them, says the Lord,” through the prophet Jeremiah, “there were no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.” It is the next morning that we get the other slice of the fig tree story. Peter sees it as they make their way toward Jerusalem once more, and he wonders at it, … withered away to its very roots. In the time of the writing of these Gospel accounts, the Jerusalem Temple is in ruins; ... not one stone lies upon another. ---------------------------------------------------- When you do a little digging into fig lore, you uncover some interesting things about fig trees. In the wild they develop fruit when pollinated by female fig wasps. They are less affected by seasonality than by the work of these busy wasps. So in wild stands one can at most any time find trees in various stages of setting fruit – some blooming, others dormant. Another interesting thing about figs is that the precursors of the fruit generally appear before the leaves. ----------------------------------------------------- This fig tree that Jesus comes upon – leafed out in fullness – anyone would expect to find heavy with figs. Instead he finds it lacking anything fruitful or substantial;
"When I found Israel , it was like finding grapes in the desert,” says the prophet Hosea. When I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.” “But now Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, and they yield no fruit.” The tree that fails to bear fruit, withers and dies. Is this the harsh judgment of God – the curse of the Christ – or is this the natural outcome of its failure to be fruitful? It would seem to be one and the same; the only difference is who we blame. ---------------------------------------------------- "Either make the tree good, and its fruit good,” says the Gospel, “or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. “ - Matthew 12:33-34 And the Lutherans among us begin to squirm a little … …. all this fruitfulness talk about good and bad trees begins to sound a little like “works righteousness” and it makes us nervous. “Even now,” says John the Baptist, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. - Matthew 3:10 ---------------------------------------------------- The fruitless fig tree might represent the apostasy of the people of God in Jerusalem in the first century, or the iniquity of people of faith in any age; … that put forth a fine show of leaves with nothing fruitful underneath. These trees fail to sustain life because they fail to give life. They shine in the sun for a brief time and then they wither and die. But a fertile tree – a tree that bears fruit – FEEDS.
For All the Saints quoted Basil the Great recently in his treatise on mercy and justice, where he says:
“God has not left us the poor to feed because God is unable to do so. Rather God asks from us, for our own good, the fruit of justice and mercy on their behalf.”
---------------------------------------------------- My little church out in Dripping Springs – our little fledgling New Life Lutheran community – is a green sprout, a promising sapling. But we will fold up and die if it we do not branch out …
It probably won’t happen right away, “before our very eyes,” but over time, we’ll wither and waste, and die. And we will have been but the brief promise of shiny leaves, gleaming in the sun, that turned inward on ourselves fade, and grow brittle and blow away in the wind. ----------------------------------------------------- But … we’re blessed by this Gospel today … harsh as it seems it reveals a great promise. We’re blessed to know that what we believe – what God has revealed in Christ – is the power to tackle monumental challenges:
We are ALL blessed to know that we can believe our way into being Christ’s way in the world, …and live into the great calling of this Gospel on our lives. We heard that calling in the Deuteronomy text today: to have special care for the aliens, the “others” who come into our midst … regardless of how they choose to trim that tree in Farmer’s Branch. We recognize that we are just one little fig tree, but growing in a wild stand of trees that are all in various stages of setting fruit. And we begin to feel a sense of urgency about that because to minister to these aliens, these others that come among us we will only have one opportunity … …every 31 seconds, of every day. And we remember … that the harsh object lessons of Scripture … and of life as it is …are meant to awaken us to life as it can be:
It is this world – this starving, conflicted reality – that the kingdom of God is seeking to break into, now! This is the world that longs for the goodness of God to bear fruit, …for the children of God to be revealed, now. And as Scripture shows us – from beginning to end – as the living ministry of Jesus shows us – from beginning to end, and beyond – God has determined that this Kingdom of Heaven will break in through people, through people of faith. Not through mighty miracles and sweeping acts of supernatural power. But through countless small miracles blooming in the lives of ordinary people like us. … People who will obey God’s call to love as we have been loved. For better or worse, for rich and poor alike, God has decided that we are the points at which the kingdom of heaven will enter into the barren oken places of this world … or not. Amen.
Deut 24:17-22
17 You shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; you shall not take a widow's garment in pledge. 18 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this.
19 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all your undertakings. 20 When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.
21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. 22 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt ; therefore I am commanding you to do this. NRSV
Heb 9:15-22
15 For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. 16 Where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, 20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you." 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. NRSV
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