The Good Gardener

 Luke 13:1-9 March 23, 2025, Lent 3

 

We’re obviously missing part of this conversation.

We don’t really know anything about these

“Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.”

that they were telling Jesus about. Then Jesus tells

the people talking to him that they should repent

they will perish in the same way.

Parable of the Fig Tree
Paul Oman

Then he gives a story about a 

fig tree which seems like it’s

almost unrelated to everything else. 

But it’s not.

 

So it seems that some Galileans, who would be Jewish,

were killed by Pilate – we know historically that Pilate

was a cruel and violent leader, and it was very common

for him to kill Jewish people, and really all kinds of people,

just to make an example of them for other people

who might step out of line.

 

And the Romans killed people as punishment all the time then.

But these killings were worse. Either the Galileans were 

killed in the temple where the sacrifices were done, 

or they were killed and then their blood was put on the altar after the sacrifice.

 

So their punishment was death, which was bad enough,

but it was also public humiliation, religious insult,

and an insult to their families and heritage,

which was worse even than just death.

 

So the conversation was probably like this: 

if these people were killed in such a horrible way 

and their families were so insulted,

then they had to have been terrible sinners

in order for God to punish them in that way.

What could they have done that was so bad?

 

And that was pretty much how people understood things then.

God was in control of all these situations.

It wasn’t that Pilate was a demented despot who seemed

to have a contest with himself about how cruel he could be.

It was God who caused it, and why would God cause that?

Unless someone or their family had done something terrible.

This was the prevailing theology of the time.

God is an angry and vengeful God

and the events of this world – natural or human –

are just signs of God’s will.

 

You can see it in various stories in the Old Testament scriptures

You can see it in the story of Job and his friends.

They insisted since Job had such misfortune

that he obviously did something to upset God.

 

It’s a stubborn element in our understanding of God

and our relationship with God.

It has prevailed in the Christian church throughout its existence.

And some people still subscribe to it now.

 

The TV preacher, Pat Robertson used to do it with every disaster.

He said that the earthquake in Haiti was because

Haitians worshipped the devil.

He said that Katrina was caused by the people in 

New Orleans of supporting vices. And he said that 9-11 happened

because New York supported feminism.

It’s not the earth is moving, it’s not climate change,

it’s not even terrorism, it’s because God is mad

about a selection of things that Pat Robertson didn’t like.

 

And just so you know it’s not just Pat Robertson,

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church,

said after the Russians invaded Ukraine

that that the Ukrainians were to blame for the invasion because

they adopted too many western ways and had

a gay pride parade. War was not the responsibility

of an aggressive neighboring government,

it was God’s judgement.

  

Even if we don’t go to the extent this does,

we still have that way of thinking in other ways.

 

We often do it to ourselves,

When illness or calamity hits us, we wonder

“What have I done to deserve this?”

 

And then we look at other people’s misfortune too

And then we say things like

“There but for the Grace of God go I.”

And “I thank God for my blessings”

 

It still gets us to the same place

Those who are doing well are blessed by God.

Those who are not doing well are cursed by God

Same conclusion as those people

talking about the Galileans with Jesus.

 

The trouble with this understanding is

It leads to some horrible conclusions

that just don’t work with other parts of Christianity.

What about the poor? what about people who are starving?

What about the sick? What about those who have accidents and

just plain misfortunes? Are every one of them horrible sinners?

What about countries who have undergone horrible

genocides and massacres?

Are each one of those people to blame in some way?

Has God punished every one of them?

 

And in doing this we paint a really horrible portrait of God.

A God who is angry and punitive, who never forgets or forgives.

A God who keeps and excel spread sheet of our every fault and sin

and then waits to get revenge and who then metes out punishment 

in the cruelest ways and causes all the world’s suffering and pain.

A picture of a God who is basically no better than Pilate.

A God who kills and humiliates just to set an example.

 

I know that some people really prefer this

picture of God, the one who takes revenge.

Who hates whoever they hate.

Who judges and enacts punishment.

But that’s not the God I’ve read about in scripture.

God is loving and forgiving,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Even in the Hebrew Scriptures.

And certainly not the God that I learned about

from Jesus.

 

And that’s what is in the background of this

conversation that Jesus is having with these other people.

They were talking about this horrible punishment

these other people endured and the question was

“what did they do so bad that they God would

punish them and humiliate them so bad?”

They didn’t ask why Pilate was so crazy

Just why God was so angry with them.

 

And Jesus doesn’t try to talk them out of it.

But he makes them part of the equation.

Jesus says to them, basically,

If you want to play that game theologically and

drag God into it, and judge the victims we can play.

But realize you’re going to lose too.

 

If you want to look into the heart of God,

and try to see who’s got the upper hand or the better grade,

then know that you’re just as much of a disappointment.

 

If Pat Robertson and Patriarch Kirill

want to subscribe to the picture of God who is

counting all our sins and tallying up the debts we owe,

Then honestly, they will be judged more than all

the people they’re judging. In fact, we’re all done for.

 

Then Jesus says in essence,

“Now that you know you’re in the same boat

as the people you judge.

Let me give you another picture of God

the way that that I understand God.”

 

There’s a vineyard and a tree in it.

And the tree is not bearing fruit

It’s a fig tree, and its whole purpose

is to give figs but it’s not doing it.

 

And the landowner wants it gone

and maybe by rights that is what should happen.

But that Gardener is too soft hearted.

The gardener says, just give it one more year.

Just give it one more year.

 

The landowner is those judgmental people.

The ones who love punishment and rules.

The people who run by the way of the world.

The ones who have no time for God’s mercy and forgiveness.

They want to cut the trees down and throw them out.

 

And we are those trees,

we are made in the image of God

but we are not reflecting God to others.

We’re not doing what we were meant to do.

Not caring and serving. We’re not carrying our own crosses

and following Christ’s way of love and sacrifice.

We are not giving fruit.

 

And the Gardner is God.

That gardener knows how to create and cultivate

And that’s what he wants to do with

the trees who don’t bear fruit.

The Gardener knows that the right amount

of water, food, and care, can do things.

But it takes time. He wants to nurture us to life.

Look, God wants us to change. God needs this world to change.

Something is definitely going off the rails in this world,

and we are all part of it. It’s not just the fault of one

political party, or one person, or one government.

It’s all of us. God needs us all to repent and change.

God needs us to turn from the ways of death to the ways of life.

 

But God will not do it by cutting us down

and throwing us out, even though we might deserve it.

God has decided not to punish, but to love us into life.

 

Maybe that gardener is just a silly optimist.

But that’s the kind of gardener he is.

In his career, he has seen plenty of trees that were left for dead

come back later and bear lots of fruit.

So every year that gardener says, “just one more year.”

“Let’s give that tree just one more year.”

 

This is God that Jesus knows and reveals to us.

That is the image that Jesus offers those people.

And one that they can offer to the world.

 

Jesus reveals a God who knows that fear of punishment

can make people obedient,

but that love can make them alive again.

 

It might take longer, it might be more work.

It might not be the most expedient way.

But Jesus tells us, that the God that he knows,

has chosen to love and forgive us back into life.

Just like a Mother Hen

Luke 13:31-35

Lent 2

March 16, 2025

 

Jesus again foreshadows his own death

saying that it would be Jerusalem where he would be killed

because it was impossible for a prophet like him

to be killed outside of Jerusalem.

And then Jesus mourns over Jerusalem.

Saying “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets

and stones those who are sent to it.”

 

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

I don't know if we as American Christians can

quite understand the significance of Jerusalem.

 

We have love for our cities here in the US

I know people love Hilton Head, and Charleston,

Many people love San Francisco and New York, Chicago,

or their own hometowns.

but there is something more than love about Jerusalem.

 

David and the Israelites invaded

and conquered Jerusalem

and established it as the capital of Israel.

 

There is great religious significance there.

The place where David planned to build the temple

was supposedly the same place where Abraham

offered the first sacrifice to God.

The temple, when it was built the first time,

held the Ark of the Covenant – the 10 commandments.

 

Jerusalem is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible 669 times.

And Zion, which usually means Jerusalem, is mentioned 154 times.

 

Luke mentions Jerusalem 90 times in his Gospel.

Luke loves this city too. And he also has difficulty with it.

Jesus begins his life there with his circumcision at the temple.

In this passage today, Jesus tells the Pharisees,

that are actually trying to help him get away from Herod,

that he has to go to Jerusalem because that's

where the prophets are killed.

 

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem” Jesus says mournfully.

Jerusalem not only holds significance for Israelites

it is precious to God and Jesus as well.

 

Jerusalem is a city, but it’s also an ideal.

It represents the place at which God meets God's people.

Where God's power and grace meets

commerce and organized religion and politics.

Where God and God's people meet, where they intersect.

It is the cross of humanity and God, if you will.

 

Jerusalem is a holy city.

Jerusalem is God's children.

It represents the relationship of God and people.

 

And yet, in spite of its holiness – or because of it –

It has historically been a place of great conflict

the center of great upheaval, violence,

It is a place that is both beautiful and torn.

 

They’re not sure, but people think that the name

Jerusalem means “Heritage of Peace”.

Which might seem ironic.

The current conflict between Israelis and Palestinians

is only the latest.

Before Jesus time,

the city has been overtaken by Egypt, Asyria, and Babylon.

Then it was under Roman control in Jesus time.

After it was under Muslim rule, then it was

captured by the Crusaders, the Ottomans, and the British.

 

It’s a holy city with a pretty unholy history.

And, although even more has happened since

Jesus time, it seems that Jesus and others knew

it was a place that had often lost its way and

has been more shaped by power, defense,

and conflict than by God’s ideals and dreams.

 

And today it still has a troubled reputation.

It’s supposed to be a refuge, a place of peace and safety.

But in its effort to keep itself safe from violence, Jerusalem’s leaders

have turned to violence. In its defense against

terrorism, it has often caused terror.

In its fear of genocide, its leaders have come close to genocide.

 

Christ in the Wilderness - The Hen
Stanley Spencer

The preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor said:

“If you have ever loved someone you could not protect,

then you understand the depth of Jesus’ lament about Jerusalem.

All you can do is open your arms and keep reaching out again.”

 

I wonder if God feels the same way about the United States?

The United States has often thought of itself

as a place that was ordained by God.

The early colonists even called it “the New Jerusalem”.

They saw it as a place that would be based on

biblical principles where people could live in peace and brotherhood.

 

And yet this very belief that the US was destined by

God to become a nation, gave us a moral justification

overtaking of native American’s land, breaking treaties,

and violent confrontations and massacres.

 

And the first settlers came to what would be

Jamestown Virginia in 1609, and the first ship

of African slaves were traded to the American colonists in 1619.

 

It seems that right out of the gate, God’s ideals

of peace, freedom, and brotherhood

were traded in for violence, expediency, and profit.

And in many ways this legacy has followed us

throughout our short history.

Now, the US has lived up to some of our ideals

as a beacon of democracy and free speech,

in our generosity and service towards other countries,

and in our defense of nations from outside aggressors.

 

But each time we seem to try and break the bonds

of our history and live up to our ideals,

we seem tempted to go down other paths.

 

We repeatedly have given our spiritual lives

over to punitive and vindictive authoritarian

interpretations of Christianity that

preach an angry and vengeful God.

We have chosen our love of guns over the protection

of our children time and time again.

And we also kill our own prophets

and destroy those who are sent to us.

We keep trading our ideals for our greed and fear.

  

Jesus says to Jerusalem:

“How often have I desired to gather you together

as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,

and you were not willing.”

 

Chickens seems to me like kind of a silly animal,

for Jesus to compare himself to.

Chickens seem skittish and fearful,

they don’t seem concerned

with each other very much.

 

But I read that it’s different for a mother hen.

Apparently, whenever there’s danger, a mother hen

will cluck for her young and when they come,

she’ll open her wings to them,

and gather them underneath and cover them.

She remains exposed to danger,

she’s ready to give her life for theirs.

 

The chicken doesn’t have any other defenses,

not very sharp claws or teeth,

all she has to give is the protection of her own body

she can only offer her own life to protect her children's.

Jesus says he feels like a mother hen.

Her chicks have scattered though.

They are not responding to the calls that she’s made.

 

And to make it worse, there’s a fox running around the house.

Some of the chicks have run off and followed the fox.

Some wander by themselves.

They’re not responding to her voice.

Even given the shelter of her wings, they would rather

wander aimlessly and try to make their own way.

God’s children have strayed.

 

We follow the fox, we search for our own little worms,

we seek out money, notoriety, security,

we resort to the ease of violence and coercion to get our way.

We scatter to the call of cynicism and hopelessness.

We claim Jesus as our savior,

but are not willing take small risks and make

even the smallest of sacrifices for others.

 

So many times we would rather take our chances with the fox

than to be gathered under Jesus wings.

 

But Jesus keeps calling to us.

When faced with children who reject, deny, scatter and self-destruct

Jesus does not close herself off to Jerusalem

Jesus doesn’t look to punish or toss them aside.

Jesus opens her wings, one more time like the mother hen.

But this leaves her in a very vulnerable position.

Her chest and organs exposed to the danger.

 

Jesus says that he will not see Jerusalem again

until he hears them say

“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the lord.”

 

And that is what Jesus hears when he rides back

into town for the last time on a donkey.

Jesus does go back to Jerusalem

To face the fox, and all those other scattered children.

 

The mother hen attempting to protect her chicks,

She shields them with her own body

She protects them by giving her own life.

 

In that city, at that time, the grace of God had a definitive

interaction with the town of Jerusalem,

And the powers of organized religion and politics and commerce.

And the grace of God won.

 

Grace is God's final word on Jerusalem

and God's final word on us

on our wandering our sin,

and our flirtation with foxes.

 

We will always be God's little chicks, called together by our baptism

Even as we wander around, leave the nest,

scatter to search on our own, and follow after the fox,

God's grace is still God’s final word.

She always waits for us,

ready to spread her wings,

hoping to gather us together again.