Wednesday, February 27, 2013

For Sunday, March 3, 2013

Reading:  Luke 13:1-9

People are talking about tragedies.  A number of Jewish Galileans were murdered by the Roman army while they were worshipping.  Eighteen peope were killed in the collapse of a tower in the town of Siloam.

Popular say those who suffered and died must have deserved it.  It must have been God's judgement on their sin.  They want to know what Jesus thinks.

Jesus doesn't buy their view of God or of their fellow man (and woman).  "Were they really any worse than anyone else?" he asks.  "Any worse than you or me?"

Then he tells a story about a fig tree that stops bearing fruit.  Before cutting it down, a wise orchard-manager gives it another year and some TLC -- a little loosening of the hard-packed earth that's solidified around it, and a little manure spread around to give it something new to work with.

How easy it is to let the ground around us solidify, and to think we've taken in all the manure we need to!

Jesus encourages the people around him to take a lesson from the fig tree, because the line to be drawn ithrough the world is not between bad people who deserve to be punished and good people who are okay as they are -- but between people who think they're as good as they ever need to be, and those who keep growing by letting themselves be challenged and fed.  

It reminds me of something I've heard Muriel Coker say a few times -- that there's no person so bad there isn't some good in them, and no person so good there isn't something bad in them.  No person so good they don't need to keep changing and growing, and no person so bad that they're beyond changing and growing.

How do we do that, though??

On Sunday, a few people from the congregation are going to talk about what has made, and still makes a difference for them -- what has helped, and still helps them growing and fruitful. 

Come and hear what they have to say from their heart to yours.

No comments:

Post a Comment