Bear Good Fruit

Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 55: 1-9 and Luke 13: 1-9 Sermon title: Bear Good Fruit Preached on March 20, 2022 Jesus uses all kinds of metaphors, but when He talks about trees, I really have to think about what He means. What does it mean that He compares us to trees? When a sheep gets lost or when a prodigal son wanders from home, that sounds more like us. We have some agency. We know that we can wander from the fold. Unlike a tree, we have legs. I don’t imagine that I’m providing you new information when I say that trees don’t have legs, but here’s why it matters: It matters because you can’t really blame a tree for not bearing any fruit. You can’t blame a tree for not bearing fruit any more than you can blame Freddie Freeman for getting traded from the Braves. In fact, you should blame a tree for not bearing fruit even less than you should blame Freddie Freeman for getting traded because Freddie could have spoken up. He has a voice. He could have stomped his feet. He has feet. Maybe you can tell I’m a little upset about Freddie Freeman leaving the Braves. I am, and as I struggle to accept a new first baseman from Gwinnett County on the Atlanta Braves, I’m also struggling to accept the truth that when a tree bears no fruit, it often has more to do with the gardener than it does the tree. Have you ever been a gardener? Through high school and college, I cut grass at the Winnwood Retirement Community. My old friend Mike Waters is still in charge of the grounds over there. It’s a beautiful place, and I took pride in my work. One summer, I was asked to plant lantana in one corner of the grounds away from the road. This plot was tucked in a corner, and because of the way the sun hit it, this corner was perfect for lantana. That summer the plants grew and bloomed. The residents who lived in that corner of Winnwood would tell me how much they loved looking out their windows to see the flowers I had planted, and that made me happy. On another occasion, I was directed towards bags of fertilizer. When I asked how much I should put out on the plants, my boss told me we had plenty. Well, do you know what happens when you put too much fertilizer on a plant? I literally killed every flower on Winnwood’s property, and I couldn’t blame the pansies. Imagine if I had blamed the pansies for dying. No, when a plant doesn’t bear fruit, whom do you blame? You can no more blame a plant for dying than you could blame those Galileans for being killed by Pilate. You can no more blame a plant for dying than you could blame those 18 who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Whom, then, do you blame? You might blame the gardener and hope and pray for a new one. This parable from the Gospel of Luke proclaims the truth that a new Gardener has come. If we are trees, then that’s good news, but are we like trees? A tree can’t very well pull herself out of the ground to walk over to a sunnier spot. Is that true of you? A tree can’t fertilize herself. Is that true of you? A tree can’t pollinate her own flowers. A tree can’t help it if a storm comes and takes off her limbs. Life just happens to trees. Are we like trees? In some ways we are, so in some cases, being yelled at makes as much sense as yelling at a tree. I was a chaplain intern at the Metro State Women’s Prison. That was the hardest summer of my life. Every day I’d go through those gates and hear the locks clang behind me. It sucked the joy out of me, and I got to go home at the end of every day. Not everyone was that lucky. During the days, I’d go from building to building meeting with different inmates. At the far end of the complex was one place I was warned never to go. It was the intake, where county jails would drop off women so that they could be assimilated into prison life. They were given new prison clothes, they received a medical examination and an orientation to prison life. The intake officers would yell at them to make sure they all understood who was in charge at Metro State Women’s Prison and what would happen should they step out of line. Now, maybe that was necessary, but it broke my heart when a group of at-risk teenage girls came to visit the Metro State Women’s Prison, and they were addressed by those same intake officers. It seemed wise to someone somewhere to address these young girls, just 12 or 13, the same way grown and convicted criminals were addressed. Statistically, they were mostly from broken homes. Likely, they had been abused. Certainly, they had suffered trauma, yet they stood in front of the prison and were addressed by the prison’s intake officers, and it looked to me about the same as a gardener yelling at his trees for not bearing more fruit. Are we like trees? In so many ways, we are, for so much of what happened to us wasn’t our fault. People who understand that are better able to forgive. Let me give you an example. Have you been watching Ted Lasso? It’s the best show I’ve ever seen. The plot is of a college football coach from the Midwest who’s been recruited to coach soccer at the highest level in Richmond, England. This move from the Midwest to England was a bad move. American football and English soccer don’t have very much in common, but that Coach Ted Lasso would fail is according to the owner’s plan. The owner of the Richmond soccer club that just hired Coach Ted Lasso is hoping he’ll run the soccer club into the ground to get revenge on her ex-husband, who only really loved one thing: this Richmond soccer club. It's the same plot as Major League, if you’ve seen that movie, only it’s better because the owner of this Richmond soccer club, her name is Rebecca, feels remorse for having recruited Ted Lasso from the Midwest, given him a job she hoped he would fail at, sabotaged him every step of the way, and made him a pawn in her plot to cause her ex-husband pain. Feeling remorse and regret, even having come to love Coach Ted Lasso, she goes down to his office and apologizes to him. What does he do? He says, “Divorce is awful. It makes people do crazy things. I forgive you.” Divorce is awful. COVID has been awful. War is awful. Death is awful. Stress is awful. Unemployment is awful. Retirement, middle school, cancer, even some days of parenthood, are all awful. Going through those dark times, we are like trees in the shade who aren’t getting enough sun. We are like trees whose branches have been broken off by the wind. At some time or another, we are all under-fertilized, sunlight-deprived, and unpollinated, which makes us do crazy things. For those things, by God’s grace, you are forgiven. Jesus says: If you are alive today, you have today to change, but let me be very specific about the kind of change Jesus is talking about in this parable. Jesus here is telling us simply: “I am the Gardener; just receive what I am providing.” As a tree receives nourishment through her roots, just allow the Good News of the Gospel to permeate your soul. Let in the words of Scripture. Hear His Holy Word. As was true for the last two weeks, again this week our Children’s Ministry Director, Natalie Foster, is equipping our kids and our congregation to develop a new spiritual discipline. Two weeks ago, it was fasting. Last week was prayer. This week is listening, but listen to what? Today, listen for fertilizer: Mark 1:11: “You are mine, my beloved, with you I am well pleased.” John 1: 5: “The Light sines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it.” Jeremiah 29: 11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’” Psalm 85: 8: “I will listen to what the Lord says; he promises peace to his people.” Best of all, Psalm 23: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” Do you hear those words? Do you know those words? Have you memorized those words? Let them sink in, for you’ll never bear fruit if you haven’t let yourself internalize the Good News of the Gospel. This morning, you heard it again: The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. As far as the East is from the West, so has he taken our sins away. One of my closest friends once told me that out of all the things he hears in the worship service, that assurance of forgiveness is the hardest for him to believe. You have the chance to believe it today. Unlike so many, you woke up this morning because the gardener bought us a little more time. Don’t waste it by resisting the Good News He provides. Don’t waste it by only listening to the critics and suggestion givers. Hear and believe the Good News. Then and only then will you bear good fruit. Amen.