Belonging, Believing, Becoming, Bearing Fruit - A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent 2025

GOSPEL: Luke 13:1-9

The holy gospel according to Luke.

Glory to you, O Lord.

Asked about current tragic events, Jesus turns a lesson about whether suffering is deserved into a hard call to obedience. He then tells a parable that holds out hope that the timeline for ultimate judgment will be tempered by patience.

1At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.2[Jesus] asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

  6Then 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. 7So 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?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Imagine for a moment,

if today’s sermon was interrupted by a phone call,

and the doctor says to you, this morning

“The results are in. The illness is terminal. You have one year to live.”

What would you do?

Some people have bucket lists,

a lists of the things they want to do

before they kick the bucket.

Do you visit that place you always wanted to visit?

Do you focus on relationships,

mending broken ones

or strengthening healthy ones?

Do you get back to the office

to finish that project or finish writing that book?

Do you finally retire?

Here’s the Gospel, the good news, in Jesus’ parable,

is one more year.

The Gardener says, “give it another year”

After 3 years of this parabolic fig tree not bearing fruit,

the Gardner says - one more chance.

What if this sermon was interrupted by a different diagnosis,

that this congregation only has 1 year to live.

What would we do?

Would we prioritize relationships?

would we hire a worship band and charismatic preacher?

would we prioritize visits to our sister churches

for future collaboration?

Would we just quietly fade away?

In Jesus’ words,

I hear an invitation:

one more year,

I’m not finished with the fig tree yet,

I’m not finished with the church yet,

I’m not finished with you, yet.

So what will we do with this gift of time,

the gift of the present,

the gift of one more year?

With Jesus, the Great Gardener,

there is an abundance of second chances.

The second chances come with a change in behaviour.

The gardener does not leave the fig tree alone,

but tills the soil,

places manure,

the gardener improves the conditions

for fruit to grow.

A word of caution:

As much as this is a message

to make the most of the time we have,

and to trust the work of the Gardener,

who causes us fig trees to bear fruit;

Trust and believe that your worth,

your value,

is not dependant upon your productivity.

The woman who gives birth to 7 children

is just as precious to God

as the woman who cannot give birth.

The man whose business employs dozens of workers

is just as precious to God

as the man who can’t hold down a job.

You are God’s creation.

God has a say in what kind of fruit you bear,

and how much.

As much as fig trees bear figs,

sometimes the conditions aren’t right to bear fruit.

There was a man I knew in the Parkland,

let’s call him Bill.

There was something preventing Bill

from joining us for worship on Sundays.

I think he struggled to believe,

at least in the traditional Lutheran way.

But Bill would often come to the seniors fellowship group:

Coffee With Matt.

It was called Coffee with Matt because the church was St. Matthew’s

or St. Matt’s,

and there was a mannequin, named Matt,

and Matt would come out

and we’ve have coffee with Matt, the mannequin.

A little weird,

and a little awesome.

Anyhow, I found Bill to be difficult sometimes

as did others in the group.

He wasn’t always the nicest person,

He had some views that offended many,

but the Coffee with Matt group welcomed him in.

As much as this was a coffee fellowship group,

it was really a support ministry for widows and widowers.

Bill’s wife had died years earlier.

Bill looked different than the majority,

he talked different,

dressed different,

drove different,

believed different.

But Bill belonged in that group

and I am convinced God used the group

to till the soil and fertilize Bill, the fig tree,

if only to help support him in his grief.

Over the years as I got to know Bill,

The hard heart I first met seemed to have softened,

and I learned that he was generous in gift giving.

Perhaps that generosity was there all along.

Bill could sure offend people,

but I also saw some fruit grow in him,

while others maybe saw empty branches or rotten fruit.

I share this story for a few reasons:

As we focus on Advent’s 3 B’s,

you can see an intentional changed order of the words.

Historically it has been understood that in Christian community,

first you believe,

then you belong

then you become.

Or, you believe, then become, then belong.

But like the stages of grief,

sometimes we find ourselves a little out of order.

Advent is a community in which we emphasize belonging,

welcome,

inclusivity,

radical hospitality

that fig trees like us can belong in the garden

with or without good fruit.

As God encounters us here,

in safe community of belonging,

we come to believe through God’s Word,

and by God’s Spirit,

by the work of the gardener,

we become bearers of good fruit

for a hungry and thirsty world.

Did Bill have a crisis of faith?

Did Bill actually believe?

I don’t know, it is hard to say.

I’m glad Bill didn’t have to believe properly

before he could belong.

Bill’s fruit was not a term on council,

nor washing dishes after a potluck,

Bill’s fruit - at least one of them - was generosity.

Sometimes I thought Bill looked uncomfortable in the group.

In the parable,

it is the Gardener who places manure and turns the soil

for the good of the tree,

But manure is uncomfortable,

it is smelly,

and manure is also part resurrection,

manure allows for new growth

from old decay.

One way to understand the manure in the parable

is hardship or challenges.

They say “don’t pray for patience

because God will give you an opportunity to be patient”

Patience is learned by practice.

God is at work in you,

and this means there are times for manure,

times in which God will help you grow

though it may feel uncomfortable,

and it might happen through hardship

turmoil and challenge.

Sometimes this happens when a person in need

interrupts you when you don’t have time for the interruption.

Or when you are confronted with a truth

that exposes our outdated assumptions,

And it can even happen when faced with the reality

of injustice or tragedy.

For the person who experiences God in nature,

the manure might be the call to strive for climate justice.

For the traditionalist who experiences God in ritual and symbol,

the manure might be a new expression of worship.

For the person who finds God in solitude,

the manure might be an invitation into new community.

For the intellectual who experiences God in bible study

the manure might be a new insight

that challenges old interpretations.

For example, many Christians have been raised

to believe that non-heteronormative romantic relationships

are sinful.

Passages like what we heard from First Corinthians

and sexual immorality:

people assume what this is about.

This particular instance of sexual immorality

is about a story from the book of Numbers,

34,000 people fell,

Israelites were engaging in public intimacy with Moabites,

with people who did not respect the worship of God - 

YHWH.

This led to the people worshipping other gods.

God’s Word is alive,

and good fruit grows with good biblical interpretation,

when we can look past our own assumptions.

This takes time.

It takes time to grow fruit.

If you plant raspberries this spring,

you might not get any fruit

until next year.

God is patient with you,

and God will till the soil of your heart,

and afflict you with manure

so that you will flourish.

If the gardener sees you withering away,

expect the Gardener to change the conditions

so you may flourish.

God’s Spirit is the comforter,

who comforts us in affliction,

and afflicts us when we get comfortable.

Sometimes things happen that don’t allow flourishing to happen.

Jesus gave two examples of such tragedies.

We don’t know much about these tragic events Jesus refers to;

only Luke’s Gospel records them in our bible.

The tower falling and killing 18:

that is likely a tragedy that occurred at random,

with no one to blame.

The other story is a tragedy of brutal treatment of Galileans

by the empire of the day;

an injustice,

a complete disregard for the Galilean’s ritual,

and a disregard for their lives.

Whether the suffering occurs by random,

or by the power of human hands,

Jesus invites us to repent,

to return to God.

Jesus combats the bad theology of the day:

Suffering is not a punishment for sin.

Suffering does not mean disfavour with God.

God’s grace is not transactional.

Repent, Jesus says,

change your mind.

Return to God,

Sometimes it is our self-protective mechanisms

that keep us from changing.

I’m not good enough easily becomes identity.

or, I’m only as good as what I produce.

Again, here’s the good news in Jesus’ parable:

By God’s Spirit,

the tree that is still living,

though it bears no fruit,

still can.

The tree still belongs to Christ, the Gardener.

Return to God.

Returning to God might mean

asking ourselves some self-interested questions:

What kind of soil is my tree of faith planted in?

Am I getting enough Son-light?

Is my tree watered in the baptismal font?

Am I allowing myself to be nourished

at the table?

Am I cultivating the soil?

am I restricting the Gardener’s access?

Are my branches growing in a way

that other trees don’t get son-light?

In the end, you cannot force a tree to bear fruit

- trust in God’s Spirit,

trust in the Gardener - for yourself, and for others.

Repent - return to God.

Give thanks to God that

The call to repentance

is accompanied by the Gardener’s patience.

Even if you aren’t bearing fruit,

even if you think your tree is dead and gone,

even if the fruit you bear builds the empire,

God decides what to do with your tree.

Sometimes good fruit takes time to grow.

The fact that you are breathing

means that God is not finished with you yet.

Thanks be to God. Amen.