One More Year

  My call sermon for St. John’s, Phoenixville was on this Sunday’s texts, on my birthday, no less, way back in 2001. The text is tough in a bunch of ways, namely why uncontrollable tragedies happen to people. A tower falls and kills eighteen people. Pontius Pilate has some Jewish pilgrims murdered on their way to worship in Jerusalem. “Are they worse sinner than the rest of y’all?!” Jesus asks. “No! But you’ll perish too, unless you repent!” Ouch. Needless to say, I didn’t focus on that. The text ends with a parable about a fig tree that hasn’t produced fruit in three years. The landowner tells the gardener to cut it down, but the gardener says, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around its roots, spread manure…” I said in my sermon that my job, if y’all call me, is to spread manure. I laughed. They called me anyway.

           It’s a parable of second chances. Three years of fruitlessness and frustration. How many of our corporations, public bodies, politicians—and churches—have that much forbearance? Very few. We want positive results… yesterday. We know that most things take time, but we’re not as patient as the landowner, the rightful judge. Three years! Nor are we as forgiving or nurturing as the gardener. One more year! That’s grace. Jesus expects us to be fruitful. Jesus expects us to nurture each other, to “nourish the soil.” It’s a wonderful image. We want to be fruitful, but a lot of times I don’t think we know how. It’s real easy to overthink the “fruits of the Spirit.” Too often we think “numbers,” observable, measurable, metrics, but the faith in the heart that prays and serves isn’t seen. Spreading manure isn’t rocket science—thank God! Hearing God’s Word of grace and mercy—being fertilized—and spreading God’s Word of grace and mercy—fertilizing others—isn’t too difficult. And who knows what fruit will spring up! 

Peace,

Pr. Christian