Psalm 122 on March 16th, 2025
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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In our lesson for today, things are bad. I don't know how else to say it. Jesus confronts us with horrific death and murders, blood of the Galileans, towers, falling on people, cities that kill prophets. What is going on? And these events are brought up to Jesus so he can answer the age-old question, why do bad things happen? What did these people do to cause these terrible things to happen to them? Were they worse offenders than all the others? What can I avoid so God doesn't smite me? Why do some people suffer while others grow old and get fussy about their lawns?
It took 830 a little while to get it to you, though. There is human evil, there is natural evil, there is accident evil. And surely God is in control, so God must have some sort of a reason for this. But Jesus doesn't answer their questions. Instead he gives a more general use stating that bad things happen all the time everywhere. This is a real fun topic for early on a Sunday, isn't it?
When it comes to bad things happening in our world, we tend to focus on all the trees. We notice the individual bad events that happen to others. Jesus zooms out to see the whole forest. And evil are not restricted to certain people in certain places because they did or didn't do certain things. Lots of bad things happen. Brokenness happens, pain happens, death happens, and it's going to happen to you.
Everybody's Sunday is still going okay? It's important to face that reality. It's like how we start the season of lint. We start by saying remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. We see mortality, bad things, broken lives, broken people and a broken world. And this type of news bombard us. It's not hard to find disaster, suffering, and tragedy. And instead of giving you the laundry list, I'll just trust that you are aware that this type of stuff really happens. Our world is broken. We are broken. Sin and death have their hold. That's the big picture. That is what Jesus sees and that is what he hopes we see.
And the big picture brings a clarity to us which avoiding the mess of life doesn't give. Avoiding the pain and the brokenness doesn't make it non-existent. In fact often ignoring it only exacerbates those issues. And so Jesus brings it out into the open. In this world is pain. Here is cruelty. There is hurt. Well more checking. Everybody hanging in there?
But Jesus doesn't leave us with only bad news. He uses two images today to reveal what God is doing in the midst of our reality. And the first is that image of a fig tree. Jesus tells a fig tree that doesn't produce figs. What good is a fig tree that doesn't produce figs? Cut it down. But says the gardener, let me do some work. Let me dig around it. Give it some fertilizer. Then we'll see what happens.
A fig tree, we are supposed to produce fruit. But when we avoid the truth around us, when we turn inward and focus only on ourselves, we fail to produce that fruit that we're meant to. Fruit of repentance, fruit of good works, fruit of faithfulness in the kingdom of God. And this parable sounds kind of scary at first. Like Jesus is holding up this image in front of us and says, you better bear fruit while you still can. But really Jesus is doing two things here. First he's calling us to honesty. About who we are, about our need for God, about the ways that we fall short. And that's why he says repent. Repentance is turning back to God. Reorientation of our lives toward the one who plants us, who tends us, who nourishes us. And fruit is the evidence of life that is nourished by God. And that fruit isn't just for us. It's for others. It's a love that serves. It's mercy that restores. It's forgiveness that mends generosity that uplifts. Because that is what a life rooted in God does.
But the second thing that Jesus is telling us through this parable is even when we aren't producing fruit like we should, God is not waiting with the woodchipper. Instead of chopping us down, God is patient with us. God keeps working on us. God tends to us so that we might bear the fruit that God expects. God tills our soil. God waters us. God takes the manure of our world and uses it to fertilize the feed, to foster our growth. And in the midst of our broken, sometimes fruitless realities, God is not hasty about giving up on us. God does whatever it takes to help us bear fruit worthy of the kingdom. Also that we might notice the pain around us turn toward God and bear fruit for the world.
Then the second image that Jesus uses to reveal what God is doing in the midst of our reality is that of a chicken. Which sounds like a feeble image. And I'm taken back to the scenes from back to the future where Biff is, what's the matter, McFly, chicken? It's not really the most encouraging image, is it? But it's not just any old chicken. It's a mother-in, you might say. Which is worse. I mean, why not pick a mama bear or something ferocious? The very least one of those, a mother geese that chase you and hunk after you? Anything, anything that might give us a little more confidence.
But Jesus chooses a mother-in on purpose. While we would prefer someone or something to fight off the danger and scare away enemies, Jesus instead gives an image of comfort. He wants to reassure us. As we've established, He knows that bad things are going to happen. They happen to us all. No amount of ferocity will stop them. Yet when the fox proules, the chicks are not left to fight alone for themselves. They are not alone. Evil will come, death looms, and to deny that is foolish. But Jesus, our mother-in is there with tenderness, with care, with presence. We are not alone. You are not alone. Christ is there. Jesus is present in Jesus' comforts, no matter what is going on around you. Jesus brings us in under His wing, not to drive away all that is bad, but to assure us that even in the midst of the bad, it will be all right. Jesus has us, and all will be well in the end.
And that's the heart of the Christian message, isn't it? That bad things are going to happen to us. Just as bad things are going to happen to Jesus as He sets His face toward Jerusalem and the cross. During this season of lint, we walk with Jesus toward that end, toward His pain and suffering, toward His death, toward those bad things which are still present in our world today. Death is what happens when foxes go after chickens. But death is not the final word. That is not the end of the story, because God's love is bigger than all those things. Despite all the wrong, all the bad, all the tragedy, God's love does not fall away when times are hard or sad or tragic. God is there. God's love persists. God is present even in the midst of this world, our world.
And Jesus is there to tend to nourish, to comfort, to help us bear fruit. Jesus is there with mercy, with grace, with promise. Promise that though this world's tyrants rage, they cannot win the day. Resurrection wins. Love wins. God wins. And because of that, we win. And for now, we gather together under the wing of our Lord and Savior, hearing again, His promises that no matter what He is with us, we are fed. And we are nourished by God, given Christ's body and blood to help us grow deeper roots and bear kingdom fruit. And even in our realities, in our brokenness, we are still love, still comforted, still tended to by God. And that is good news. That is good news for today. And that is good news for every day. Amen.