The Gardener Knows What is Good Enough Preached on Sunday March 20th, 2022 At Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Luke 13:1-9 Today, in this purple season of Lent, we continue our sermon series “Good Enough” in which we focus in the book of the same name by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie. Author Kate Bowler who is a professor at Duke University, has written other books, including “No Cure for Being Human (and other truths I need to hear” and “Everything Happens for a Reason … and other lies I’ve loved.” Kate was diagnosed with stage IV cancer, at the age of 35, and she is the mother of a young son. Bowler’s suffering with cancer led her to a really deep dive into what it means to be human. In particular she examines what it means to be human and in relationship with God, through Jesus. She provides a compassionate spiritual path for people who suffer as she does. And she has a particular ministry to those who have been let down by the “everything happens for a reason” heresy. This is the heresy that Jesus tackles in our gospel reading this morning. No, everything does not happen for a reason. Suffering – fertilizer – just happens. This past week, I’ve been listening to some of the “Everything Happens…” podcasts, in which Kate Bowler interviews authors, TV personalities, theologians, physicians and people from all walks of life. [1] In a recent podcast, on the topic of “toxic positivity” with Dr. Susan David of Harvard Medical School, Kate begins with the words: “I have a prayer that I started praying when I got sick, and it went like this ‘God, help me see the world as it is’ “I’d been studying the Prosperity Gospel and after so many years of watching people believe that the ‘right kind of faith, the right kind of performative joy, and the right kind of certainty’ would give them the health and wealth and everything that makes a life a life. “It had taught me a lot about hope and reaching for more and looking for the best in everything. But, it didn’t teach me a lot about coping with reality. “It was as if I’d studied and lived in a world of all bright yellows and oranges and greens. Now I would need to find a way to see clearly the world that was all deep blues, and purples and fading to greys. “We live in a social media universe carefully curated to be all the bright colors. ‘Choose joy, find the silver lining, count you blessings, sunshine, sunshine, sunshine! … If you can’t find you way to the sunnier side of life then there must be something wrong with you .. don’t be so negative, don’t say that and make it true,’ and my favorite ‘look on the bright side!’ “My prayer is so simple” Bowler goes on “‘Let me see things clearly’ but it is so hard to do it when all the acceptable emotions are crowded into one corner …” In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus is facing into the reality of things as he makes his way to Jerusalem, accompanied by the disciples. Teachings and healings are densely packed into these chapters. It is as if Jesus knows that he is living on borrowed time. He wants to accomplish everything he can, while he can. As this morning’s passage begins, people who have come to see Jesus tell him the gruesome news of some Galileans, being killed in Jerusalem. The Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, mixed their blood with the sacrifices they were offering in the Jerusalem temple. These Galilean pilgrims were slaughtered while conducting their religious rites. The people seem to be asking Jesus “What were the Galileans doing wrong, that this terrible thing happened to them?” Jesus responds, “Nothing.” Neither these Galileans nor the poor folk who were killed when a tower fell down were doing anything wrong. Suffering and tragedy is not a matter of cause and effect. Jesus stands against the religious tradition that sees prosperity as God’s blessing, and suffering is punishment for sin. He aligns with the prophets, like Micah and Isaiah, who lament and stand with the widows, orphans and refugees: all those who suffer because of injustice. Then, Jesus tells a parable. There is a vineyard, and in the vineyard there is a fig tree. Figs are sweet, delicious fruit, purple when ripe, commonly grown in the Mediterranean region. The vineyard owner is disappointed in this tree because it has not borne any fruit during its three-year existence. This is normal for fig trees. They need to be tended and nurtured for at least three years before fruit can be expected. It seems that the vineyard owner does not know this, though, and so he instructs his gardener to cut down the tree, which is taking up valuable soil. The gardener pleads for the tree, asking that the owner give it one more year, one more chance to be fruitful. The gardener promises that he will dig around the tree and feed it with manure. If the tree bears fruit at the end of the year, the owner will keep it, but if it is not fruitful he is welcome to cut it down. Some years ago, the Rev. Jean Niven Lenk wrote a book called “Fertilizer Happens.” I first met Jean in the spring of 2013, when I applied for the position of Student Pastor with the First Congregational of Stoughton, UCC. Pastor Jean had a great reputation in the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC. She had injected a new spirit of discipleship into the Stoughton Church. She was an outgoing, energetic person you couldn’t help but like. I was eager to have Jean be my mentor. When I went to interview with her, Jean warmly welcomed me to the church office. We began talking right away only to be interrupted by a phone call. It was Jean’s brother calling to say that their mother had taken a turn for the worse and we being admitted to hospital. Jean turned to me and said, “I’m so sorry, Liz, my mom is dying and I really need to go,” she left me in the hands of the church administrator. I was offered the position of Student Pastor beginning the following September. But on Good Friday of that year Rev. Jean received a devastating diagnosis. She had stage IV cancer. She never became my mentor. Rev. Jean eventually retired from her position at the Stoughton church in order to focus on her treatments and spend precious time with her family. She went on to live with cancer for 8 more years. She finally died on February 27th of last year. A member of the Stoughton congregation once told me that when Jean visited people who were going through the worst experiences of sickness or loss, they might ask her why this was happening to them. Her response was always the same “poop happens.” (She said something different but this is a sermon, so I won’t say the actual word.) It’s not your fault and it’s not anyone else’s fault, poop happens. After Jean left ministry at the Stoughton church she focused on her exhausting treatments and the pain of her condition. But that didn’t mean she was going to do nothing. First she began a blog, updating loved ones, colleagues and congregants on what was going on in her life. And then, she compiled the blog posts, her sermons and other writings into a book that was published by the time she officially retired. The name of that book is “Fertilizer Happens.” The subject of Jean’s book hinges on the parable we heard today. Jean finds meaning in way that the gardener tends the fig tree by feeding it manure. This gives the tree the best chance of bearing fruit in the future. Jean had been widowed twice. Her first husband, Darcy, died of cancer in 1982. And her second husband, John, the father of Jean’s two children, died in 1997 of a heroin overdose. She says “The fact of life is – fertilizer happens. If we’re fully alive, we are going to experience pain and suffering, but suffering can be transformative. New growth can spring from the fertilizer of our lives.” [2] Jean saw the crap that she had experienced as the fertilizer for new growth. She says she had been reluctant to talk about her husband John’s addiction because she was ashamed. People might ask her why she had married an addict and how she could not have noticed that John was using. These are the people who feel most comfortable with the “everything happens for a reason” heresy. Jean says that for many years John’s death felt like a meaningless waste, until she found that she was called upon to minister to people with drug addictions. She could do that ministry without fear or repulsion because she had already lived the life of someone whose loved one was addicted. This is the growth Jean discovered as a direct consequence of the fertilizer of John’s death. I don’t know if any of us here to day “have a book in us.” I know that for myself, today, making the lemonade of a spiritual book out of the lemons of life sounds exhausting. We have all been through so much these past two years: lockdowns and isolation; online work, learning and worship; travel restrictions; adjusting to a new ways working, shopping, and socializing; and, of course, loss. Right now we may well be ready to simply rest for three years. And that is one of the invitations here. The reality is, suffering and loss is not our fault. The reality is, we are allowed to rest. The reality is, we need to be fed and nurtured. We can not know whether the fertilizer of this time will create fruitful new growth. And so, in this purple season of Good Enough, may we know that we are held and nurtured by our tending, loving God, until such time as we may be fruitful again. Our only prayer may be ‘God, help me see the world as it is.’ That’s good enough for us, that’s good enough for God. May all God’s people say, Amen [1] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everything-happens-with-kate-bowler/id1341076079 [2] Lenk, Jean Niven. Fertilizer Happens: A Pastor’s Faith, Calling, and Journey with Cancer (p. 33). WestBow Press. Kindle Edition.
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