New Year's Eve [Luke 13:6-9] (31-Dec-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 7.30pm.

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

 Our sermon text today was inspired by the Holy Spirit by the apostle St Luke. And we read from his gospel where it says:

Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send to all of us today your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

New Year’s Eve is often a time when people examine their consciences to some extent. We often talk about people making New Year’s resolutions and such like. People look back on the year previous, and say to themselves, “I’d like to improve my life by doing such and such during the next year.”

But, at the same time, people sometimes look back on their life during the past year, and they might think, “What a waste of time the last year has been!” And it can be quite a wake-up call to finally get to the last day of the year, and realise that there’s another year now upon us.

In our reading tonight, Jesus tells us a parable which calls us to examine our hearts. He says: A man had a fig tree in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, “Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?”

Here we see the picture where we might picture ourselves as a fig tree which God has planted. And it says: And he came seeking fruit on it and found none.

You know, here in the church, we have been given wonderful new life in Christ, through Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism here is the time when God has planted us as a living tree in his church. Jesus says: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe everything which I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the very end of the age. Here you can see the picture, where at baptism we taken from all the nations, and planted in God’s vineyard, in the church. And it’s not as if we have simply had some ordinary plain water poured over us, that means nothing, but together with that water, God’s word was used. So when a person is baptised, the pastor says: I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The exact words that Christ says to use in Matthew 28 are used in baptism. But the church’s work is not finished simply when people are baptised, but people need to be helped and strengthened by God himself so that they don’t reject their baptism. Now that the tree is planted in the garden, God needs to water and fertilise the plant. So what’s going to be the food that feeds the tree? Jesus says: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. So you can see that as baptised people, we are called to hear the teaching of the words of Jesus. Even if we’re not baptised, we are also called to hear the same words of Jesus and to also join the company of Jesus’ baptised disciples. This is how Christians are made and how Christians are formed. And Jesus says: And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age. Do you see? – when people are baptise people and teach people the words of Jesus, this isn’t our work—this is the work of Jesus himself. Jesus actually descends from heaven himself into his own vineyard, into his own church, and actually does this work himself.

So it’s no good if someone says, “Baptism doesn’t save me—Jesus saves me.” Or, someone might say, “I already know everything there is to know, because has already saved me.” – This is dangerous talk. Jesus actually reveals that when we baptise and when we teach, this is Jesus himself. You can’t separate baptism from Jesus—baptism is Jesus. Baptism is the place where Jesus reaches out and touches us with his own hands, and plants us in his own vineyard. You can’t separate the word of God from Jesus—Jesus is the word of God. Every time we hear God’s word spoken to us form the bible, we hear Jesus himself speaking. It’s Jesus himself who comes, in his human flesh, in an invisible way, and he comes and stands among us and breathes out on us the Holy Spirit.

And so, in our Gospel reading tonight, we read: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, “Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?”

Now, what kind of fruit should be found on the tree? This picture of bearing fruit is used in many other places. For example, when John the Baptist goes out to preach, he says: Bear fruit worthy of repentance. What does he mean here? Well, as Christians we are called to repentance. We have an old sinful nature that actually hates God, and doesn’t want to listen to his word. Each of us were conceived and born in sin, and all of our thoughts, words and actions are tainted. And so, as Christians, when we come into God’s presence, when we enter into his kingdom, God requires that we turn from that, that we supress that old sinful nature. We are called to stop listening to our own voice, and to listen to God’s voice. This is what it means to repent: to come into the presence of God and to tell him, “I was wrong, and you were right.”

And when we do this, when we stop listening to our own voice, and when we start listening to God’s voice, then that living word of God creates certain fruit. But you know, we wouldn’t even know what the fruit even is, if it weren’t for God’s word. God has to tell us what kind of things we should be looking for. In Galatians 6, he says: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Now many children in Sunday schools often learn this passage. We might look at this little list and think, “Has the Holy Spirit born these fruit in my life this year?”

But on the other hand, we might think that we know what love is, what joy is, what peace is—but God also teaches us what these fruits are not. In the same passage, in Galatians, it says: Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. The very fact that we have human flesh means that we are going to be struggling with these things, and we need all the help we can get pushing down the desires of the flesh so that the fruit can grow. Here you can see God clearly showing us what the fruit is, and what the fruit is not.

But we might like to read the 10 commandments or some other passage where God clearly reveals his law to us. The reason why God has told us these things is to make us despair of ourselves, but not to despair of him. God looks at our human flesh, and it’s true—he comes seeking fruit on it and he finds none. What good is the tree than to be simply cut down, and stop using up space?

But here we read in the reading: And he answered him, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

What do we learn from this? First of all, we learn that God is patient with us. He is going to let the tree grow for another year. There’s a beautiful passage about this in 2 Peter chapter 3, where it says: Count the patience of our Lord as salvation. God is patient with us because he loves us, and wants to give us time. And so in our gospel tonight, the man says: Sir, let it alone this year also.

But also in the reading, is Jesus going to simply leave the tree alone without doing anything? No—it says: Let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.

It’s amazing that in the Gospels, our life as Christians is so often compared to gardening. But you see, God has created life, he has ordered it to work in a certain way—and it happens slowly, with each stage of plant or animal life having its time.

In recent years, I have become more interested in gardening that I used to. And I remember when I was a little boy, driving in the car through the country, how funny I thought it was that there should be horse poo for sale on the side of the road. Now, whenever I drive around, I’ve become a connoisseur of poo—I’m looking for all the poo bargains for my garden at home, horse manure, cow manure, pony manure, you name it.

For a person, who is not interested in gardening, poo is just poo. But for a gardener, animal manure is gold!

And so, we read in our Gospel reading where the vinedresser says to the man who planted the fig tree: Sir, let [the tree] alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.

So what’s the manure? First of all, the word of God is the manure. Now, isn’t it a disrespectful and blasphemous thing to call the word of God a pile of manure? Of course—but you see, to the world, the word of God has no value at all—as St Paul says, The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to a gardener, the manure is everything. Gardening experts today say that successful gardening is all about building up the soil. And so, to us Christians, who are planted as trees in God’s vineyard, manure is life. The word of God is everything. It’s is despised by the world, and thought to be nothing more than a smelly conversation stopper. But for us who are being saved it is the power of God. The word of God is like a rich organic fertiliser, filled with life and nutrients for the plant to soak up through its roots and produce good fruit.

But also, what’s in the word of God that makes it so rich and nutritious for us? It’s not simply rules for living and God’s law that we’re looking for in his word, but the Gospel. The Gospel is the particular word of God that shows us not where we have failed, but even when we have failed to bear fruit on our tree, the Gospel gives us the free forgiveness of sins, because of Christ and his work on the cross. So from the word of God we receive the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is the thing which we are washed in when we are baptised, and which we drink in the Lord’s Supper. And this blood is the tonic which makes the tree healthy and flourish. John says in his letter: The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. And also in 1 Peter it says that we were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Once again, to the world, Christ’s blood is just something that smells bad—rather like liquid manure. But to us, Christ’s blood is our life. You might call to mind the picture of Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and his agony is so great that his begins to sweat great drops of blood. The blood congeals and drops onto the ground. Or when Christ hangs upon the cross, we might imagine his blood dropping onto the ground from his wounds. It’s almost like at this time, as if Christ’s blood is dropping on the ground, as living water that waters the ground all around, like a tonic that conditions the soil all around, or a kind of potent fertiliser. But it’s not the plants that Jesus has come to save, it’s not the soil he has come to save—it’s us. Christ sheds his blood on the earth to show us that his blood shed for us is our health and our life, and the living fertiliser that strengthens and builds us and gives life to our souls.

And finally, there is one other thing that comes with the word of God fertiliser—and that is the cross. So often we think that as Christians our lives have to be rosy all the time. But any gardener knows that the time for fruit is a small time—most of the time is spent patiently watering, and putting on manure. And sometimes then we look at our lives and we think: All I can see is manure! Why is God sending me this suffering? When is it going to end?

Jesus says: Take up your cross and follow me. Or in our epistle reading on Sunday, it said: Beloved, do not surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

There are times in our life when things seem to be going well for us, and there are other times when all we seem to be doing is shovelling manure. But this is a wonderful blessing from Jesus himself, because he is feeding his plants with good rich fertiliser. Our whole life as Christians comes from the cross—the fruits of the Spirit grow from the tree that is fed with the fertiliser of the cross.

And also, sometimes we might think the fertilising time has gone long enough. We need to wait long enough to make sure that the fertiliser breaks down and soaks into the ground and is then soaked up into the roots. This takes time. And then we begin to share in that wonderful gift of patience. Remember our whole salvation is God’s patience with us. And when we are given the gift of patience to endure under the time of testing, we share with God in his patience—in this sense, when we are patient under the cross, we become more like God. And so, it’s a good thing that we wait long enough for the fertiliser to take effect—it’s no good running away from the fertiliser before God’s finished feeding us. It’s no use pulling a cake out of the oven before it’s cooked. It’s no use for a little child to run away from the bath tub before they’re clean!

And so to the world—we stink! To the flesh, all that ever happens in the church is that we hear God’s word, we are cleansed and refreshed by Christ’s presence and his blood, in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and we walk with Jesus each day, enduring our cross with him. And people look at that and they say, “What a pile of poo!”

But to us who are planted in God’s vineyard, these things are our life, our nutrients, and our food. The word of the cross is folly to those are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Amen.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your patience, and for not doing away with us so quickly. Give to us another year under your grace. Dig around us and put your fertiliser around us, that we may bear the fruit of your Holy Spirit. Amen.