Luke 13:6-9
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
”‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
Dear fellow redeemed: This text for New Year’s Eve is part of Jesus’ commentary on calamity. Luke 13:1-5
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
One aspect of calamity that we should take to heart is that all sin – including ours – deserves the wrath and judgment of God in terrible ways. Furthermore, if we will realize this, and recognize the Grace of God such that He has preserved us from so much of what we have deserved, then we will show our faith in a life of repentance.
The point of our text is that we have now been given the time in which to do it. We call the time in which we have to live, the time of grace – a time in which the fruits of repentance will be produced, or not. ”‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
And I do mean this is a time of grace! What does this world deserve, after all? More that once, the time in which we find ourselves has been called the post-Christian era. Think of what that says about Christians. It says that those who call themselves Christians have failed to diligently pass on the faith that was passed down to us. In neglecting the very first commandment to love God first with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, millions of Christians or “posers” as Christians have neglected what He has called us to do – to be His witnesses to our children and to our neighbors, our country, and the world in general.
If you have read the Old Testament – and you should have, even in the abridged edition of Sunday School – you see that all of human history is really about God giving the promise of the Savior that, when it works faith, brings forgiveness, life, and salvation. In the Old Testament, it was the promise of the Savior to come, in the New Testament, the good news of the Savior who came to save us.
But around the world those who have received this promise marry without regard to the faith of the person they marry. Not surprisingly, they neglect God’s command that children be brought up in the Christian faith.
Some don’t marry at all, and never have their children in a Christian family.
Just as bad, Christians who marry fail to bring their children up in the faith. No wonder this is the post-Christian age when there is so little Christian instruction that children are ignorant of their Creator, while they have a hundred idols of popular culture.
That is just a corollary to those who refuse to have children because they would affect their life style.
For all of this, the children are without excuse when they reject the faith that was, admittedly, passed down to them so half-heartedly. They take up the lifestyle of the unbelieving world in which they live. Those who call themselves Christian do not worship the true God. They worship nothing but themselves. They commit fornication and adultery, live in drunkenness, gossip, anger, greed, and profanity as much as the world in general.
For all that, in spite of the reasonable call for judgment, Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
Our Savior pleads that the time of grace be given sinners.
”‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
And in that time of grace the call goes out, “Repent!” and that call is twinned with the offer of full and complete forgiveness.
Yet beware, for the end of another year reminds us that the time of grace will not last forever.
I hope you are preparing yourselves and your children and loved ones to live in the post-Christian era. In Europe there are 2 ½ times as many practicing Muslims as practicing Christians. And the Muslims don’t kill their children to preserve their standard of living, as does the majority of the population.
Prepare for a world in which life has no intrinsic value, in which there is no truth, no standard of morality, no guide. Prepare for such a world by bringing forth the fruit of repentance.
Marry a Christian.
Raise Christian Children.
Speak up for your faith; bear witness of the fact that humanity has soiled the world given to it, soiled it with sin, and that Christ alone is the true Redeemer of the world.
Bless this fellowship with your regular presence and encouragement.
Study God’s word, and bring it meaningfully into practice in your life.
Use the blessings with which God has entrusted you to provide also for His word.
Take your faith seriously. Live it is faithfully as our neighbors live their life without Christ.
In other places, Christians are already living like this, bravely, courageously, faithfully. Consider this commentary by British atheist Matthew Parris,1
Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good. . . .
… In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. …
Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: …
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I’ve just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.… Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.
And isn’t that the post-Christian era that we pass on to our children?
We have a little time in which to change, in which to repent, in which to make a difference. Our life, symbolized by that fig tree, is not yet cut down. There yet is time. Maybe there will be only a year, a month, a week, but while there is time, let us bring forth the fruits of repentance and faith – serious Christian faith.
Amen.
1http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece, accessed 12/30/08, quoted at http://www.geneveith.com/atheist-promotes-christianity-in-africa/_1249/
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