Growing up in a row home in Baltimore my knowledge of nature was pretty much limited to raking leaves and mowing the lawn. Now that I live next to the Just Roots Farm I have come to appreciate many of the images that Jesus used in the Bible. Like most people for most of history Jesus was a country boy. While not a farmer himself, he grew up in a rural area and watched nature at work, up close and personal. The sower went out to sow…, let the weeds grow up with the wheat…, a man went out to hire laborers for his vineyard…, notice the mustard seed… (and in today’s Gospel) Learn a lesson from the fig tree. Jesus did not make these observations merely out of a curiosity about natural phenomenon. He saw in the world of nature a path, an avenue, a window to understand the ways of God in the world. Jesus found God more in a pile of dirt than in some obscure text.
In the Gospel of Mark Jesus says that we should learn from the fig tree to understand the times of “tribulation.” We’ve certainly got plenty of tribulation today. Maybe not darkened sun or falling stars but we’ve got a global pandemic, the scourge of racism, the bane of inequality, the presence of violence, immigrants seeking asylum, war and terrorism, intractable political and religious divisions, forest fires, mudslides, hurricanes. More tribulations? There is always the slightly worrisome fact that we are slowly destroying our environment through global warming. In addition, we could throw in community concerns about food deserts or health care deserts or educational opportunity deserts. While we’re at it, let us add our personal tribulations – health issues, family troubles, money worries. Some list. However by pointing to the fig tree Jesus is letting us know that tribulations are not all about gloom and doom. Nature can cope with even the harshest conditions. What was the line from Jurassic Park: “Nature finds a way?” So we must take the example of Jesus and learn a lesson from the fig tree, from nature to help us to see how God looks at these things that are frightening the dickens out of us.
First lesson file under “Lord, help us to hold out until our change comes.” The lesson: there is no magic basket of figs. The language of the “son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” speaks of the ultimate triumph of God. We are tempted in troubling times to imagine that God is going to rain down fire and brimstone to wipe out the bad and raise up the good. There is a saying attributed to Billy Graham to the effect if God doesn’t intervene soon, he’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. But the lesson of the fig tree is that a basket of figs doesn’t just show up. The fig tree requires tending if it is to produce a crop. We can’t just wait around for the thunderbolt from on high. God wants us to address the tribulations in our own way as best we can and leave the future in God’s hands since “of that day or hour no one knows.”
The second lesson file under “To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.” The fig tree goes through its seasons. Right now it is a season of dried leaves and no growth. Soon it will be a season of seeming death, where the fig tree resembles nothing so much as a bunch of sticks. But in the Spring will be the season of green buds and new life and in the summer the season producing sweet-tasting fruit. The fig tree teaches us to look at history and see that the world and the Church have been through “winters of discontent” many times and, while this one seems pretty severe to us, no doubt previous generations imagined that what they were going through was the worst. In the providence of God discontented winter gives way to a “glorious summer.” The fig tree teaches us to trust in the rhythm of God’s presence and action in the world.
The next lesson file under “We find our place on the path unwinding in the circle, the circle of life.” The fig tree does not exist in splendid isolation but is part of a biosphere, an ecosystem. Figs in Chicago have to be a particularly hardy variety to survive the harsh winters, Fig trees draw nutrients from the soil. Unpolluted rain provides essential nutrients that a not overly warm sun energizes. The bees pollinate the flowers in the spring. The birds eat the fruit and spread the seeds to ensure another generation. The leaves that fall off in the autumn become mulch to enrich the soil. The rabbits – I’m not sure what the rabbits do but maybe they help fertilize the ecosystem. All of the tribulations of our time are interconnected in a similar way. Concern for the environment requires concern for the economy which connects to racism and the treatment of immigrants which demands dealing with issues of violence which… you get the idea. The circle of life, the ecosystem we find ourselves part will only be healed as a whole.
The final lesson file under “all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, so thank the Lord for all his love.” That a small seed can produce an entire tree using only dirt, sun and water is astounding. Gratitude should be our byword. But learning from the fig tree reminds us that we also play a part. We water the tree when the rains don’t come. We fight off the bugs which threaten the tree. We nourish the soil when it needs nutrients. We pull the weeds which might choke it. The lesson of the fig tree, the lesson we need to take when facing the tribulations that intimidate us – yes, God gives the growth but part of the plan of God is that we have a role in producing sweetness in a world filled with tribulation. As we used to say, can you dig it?