How Long Have I Got?

How Long Have I Got?

⁶ And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. ⁷ He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

⁸ “But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’”

¹⁰ As he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, ¹¹ a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for over eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, he called out to her, “Woman, you are free of your disability.” ¹³ Then he laid his hands on her, and instantly she was restored and began to glorify God.

¹⁴ But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded by telling the crowd, “There are six days when work should be done; therefore come on those days and be healed and not on the Sabbath day.”

¹⁵ But the Lord answered him and said, “Hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you untie his ox or donkey from the feeding trough on the Sabbath and lead it to water? ¹⁶ Satan has bound this woman, a daughter of Abraham, for eighteen years—shouldn’t she be untied from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

¹⁷ When he had said these things, all his adversaries were humiliated, but the whole crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things he was doing.
^{Luke 13:6–17}

What if Jesus came back today for a look see at our fruit? What fruit is He looking for?

Does He expect perfection? Does He expect a clean bill of health…spiritual health, that is? Does He want a list of your most recent vocabulary…what choice words do you use? Does He want a list of contacts of those whom you shared Him with…spoke to of what Jesus has done for you?

“A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. ⁷ He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’

I ask you: do you think that I am the one with the fig tree? That this, is MY church? Or it is the elder’s…the leader’s tree, here at St. Timothy’s?

Or do you think that the tree is YOUR tree? Do you own it?

Who is the owner?

So, what happens now? Winter is not even over quite yet, is it? Fruit? We don’t even have leaves yet.

Did you know, though, that Jesus is here. But… is He is checking and looking…?

⁸ “But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ Perhaps it will produce fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”

Who then is the vinedresser…our gardener? Jesus.

You see He takes His Word—that one that we don’t like so much. His Law…that sharp and painful thing called the TRUTH about us…and starts to dig around…in our lives…in our hearts and heads.

Then He shovels out…gets rid of the junk—all that stuff we accumulate all the time… all those bad ideas from bad influences…what we watch, read, hear…

Then He puts in fertilizer. His Gospel…and faith to believe and grow…

Yes, and it is that same stuff which the world thinks stinks…is worthless…to be thrown out…

And then plant food gets mixed in. His Body and Blood …and the water…watering us daily with His living baptismal water.

Yes, Jesus says wait. Worthless, now…much of the time…but wait, I will do something to it…to you …first.

That is this time in your life. Now. Today it begins again, if need be. This is the time of Grace. This is not forever.

Not for each of us.

We only—some of us have, anyway… have only 80 years or so.

It is not forever for the world either. God will put up with empty branches just for so long.

Listen to John the Baptist:

¹¹“I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.” 
^{Matthew 3:11-12}

Yet, as many people think, Jesus did not come and go just as the gardener. No! He came and actually became a vine in the same ground as us. He came here to graft us into His healthy and vibrant…living and fruit producing body.

Listen to Jesus explain this:

²Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches.

Do you hear Him? Do you understand what He is getting at? Is it a surprise to you that for us to bear the fruit God wants…demands… that it come from Jesus and into us?

How does this happen? How are we connected to Jesus so that fruit come out of us? Don’t you already know?

You do, but too many discount it…think it is not so…somehow…

But you do already know. And He tells you again.

³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  

Yes, Word and Water. Baptism.

A warning too, He gives us:

The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

So, we must remain in Him…connected to the main branch…Jesus.

How? Again this ought not to surprise you. You know the answer.  ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you…

If you are a disciple of Jesus, you remain in His Word. You remain in your baptism. You keep coming and hearing His Word… and being nourished by His Body and Blood.

⁸My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples. ⁹ “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
^{John 15:2-11}

So that is it. Really?

Yes!

He produces that fruit in us through His Word and Sacraments. He gives us the good works to do. They are right in front of us every day. In plain sight.

Your job. Your school. The dishes.

With Christ in you and you in Him, these everyday things become good works…and fruit, because they are done in faith and trust in Jesus. They are touched by Him in you. They become Holy and Good.

And… sometimes big and heroic things too…but many little heroic ones for sure.

His Word has that effect. It is powerful. Get into it. Be changed by it. Every day. Take it in and let it rattle around in you as you go about your day. Take in some more at lunch. Then go to bed with some more. It is that simple.

So, you don’t understand the Bible much? That is okay. It is a life-time lesson…education. The Holy Spirit has promised to teach you. But you got to get it in you first. He will help you put the pieces together. The light bulb will go on. But you need the words first…the foundation has to laid down first.

Again, that is why we have our children memorize Scripture and the Catechism. It is the foundation for the rest of their lives.

Now… how many need a refresher?

Me! Always.

And it is never too late—you are never too old…to bear much fruit.

That is God’s Will for us and Jesus is at work in us to do just that. He already has and He is and He will.

He is the Very Word of God Himself… in which all things—you and I were made. We get remade by these very same Words of God. By Him. In Him.

The Law to break up the soil. The Gospel to put in new life.

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! ¹⁸ Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 
^{2 Corinthians 5:17-19}

Fruit is already coming out. Even in, and out of us. Spring is here. Ever since Christmas…Spring was about to bloom…Easter has come…and it is almost here to stay…where winter will never be…darkness will flee…and there will be fruit in every season… abundant… forever.

Amen.

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: RSS