The Mercy of Manure

In the story of the burning bush, the great and majestic “I AM”  hears the cry of the Israelites in bondage and devises a plan to deliver them. In today’s Gospel, God the Gardener hears the cry of the little fig tree and conceives a plan to rescue it. What do these two stories have in common? God is the One who wants to save. Does it matter whether it is an entire nation or an insignificant little fig tree? No, it doesn’t. God is, by nature, Deliverer, Rescuer, Redeemer. 

I have a cherry tree that I’d like to rescue. It has a split in the bark that seems to be stunting its growth. I don’t want it to die. I want it to flourish. Maybe I should spread manure around it? Organic fertilizers seep nutrients into the soil slowly. The roots then can absorb what they need to make the tree grow and (hopefully) bear fruit. Manure is mercy to a sick tree. 

God wants us to flourish, too. God doesn’t want us to die. Yet one of the first things that a gardener learns is that there are no guarantees in gardening. Will the manure work? Maybe. Maybe the tree will still perish. (If it dies, I’ll cut it down and replace it with  a couple of blackberry bushes.)

There are no guarantees in holy rescuing either. God works to redeem the nation of Israel. They resist. God sends prophets to bring them back. They resist. God sends a Son to rescue us. We resist. The  Holy Spirit continually comes to direct us. We resist. 

The season of Lent is another of God’s “tries.” But there are no guarantees that what God wants to happen will actually happen. We have the free will to respond or not. Will we allow God’s manure of mercy to seep into us, to rescue us so that we flourish and bear fruit? 

Consider/Discuss 

• There are no guarantees in gardening. There are no guarantees in relationships. There are no guarantees in parenting. There seems to be a continual tension between what we try to make happen and what actually happens. Life’s difficulties cannot be solved like a math or engineering problem that has a definitive answer. Some things cannot be resolved for certain. How do we deal with that? How do we carry on? How do we  plunge ahead day by day in a spirit of courage and patience until the surety  of heaven finally rescues us? 
• Sometimes we run into situations in which we may be tempted to think, “I  cannot do any more.” As a gardener, I can chop down a dead cherry tree. As  a Christian, only God can make that judgment about a human being. Who  might we feel like giving up on? What mercy can God extend through us to  that person? 

Living and Praying with the Word 

God, you are the Diligent Gardener, the one who never gives up.  You always keep trying. You extend mercy to the most diseased, the most broken, and the most wounded. Sometimes we are tempted to  give up. You know the situations and the unresolved tensions that discourage us. We hand those over to you now. 

Lord of valor, do not let cowardice overtake us. Fill us with the courage of persistence. keep us going, keep us trying, keep us spreading mercy as you spread mercy. Help us to flourish as fertilizers for on this earth until that day when we meet you in heaven.