But Jesus is as inclusive in his comments as the problem is universal: “Do you think they were
worse sinners?” And he puts it back on them: “Not at all - and unless you repent, unless you turn to God,
you too will die.”
And, finally, another temptation is to look and to understand - but to feel overwhelmed and
powerless by the size and the complexity and the stubbornness of the problem. To know and yet not to
know.
And so, choices are made.
For example, the Washington Office of the PC(USA), in a Quarterly Bulletin of March 2, 2004,
Katherine Gordon reports that we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the war and ongoing
occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Increases of $20 billion/year in the military budget through 2009
have also been proposed.
That is a choice our nation is making - but by making this choice we are also choosing to billions
from domestic and international humanitarian programs.
And as an example of an alternative choice:
for the cost of deploying troops to the region, waging war against Iraq, and redeploying troops ($50
to $140 billion)
we might have made an alternative investment of filling the anticipated shortfall for state governments
for 2003 ($80 billion)
and for a mere $1 billion our nation might have provided health coverage for 732,064 children in the
U.S. for a number of years.³
Now, I don’t think I know anyone who would knowingly choose to have that fifth child have the
life that he, that she, does. And yet, here it is: we are the fig tree in Jesus’ parable; we are part of the
vineyard. These choices are our choices as women and men and as Americans.
You see, we try to protect ourselves from terrorists, and but I cannot you imagine any greater
terror than having to face the wrath of the owner of this vineyard or try to justify myself.
And, on my own, all I can say is, “Oh, God.”
But that’s not all there is with Jesus. John the Baptist preached “repent or die” and “even now the
ax is at the root of the tree” and that was it. There is more with Jesus - his mission is not to condemn the
world but to save the world. And so, he provides the eternal solution to the eternal problem. Here it is:
Apparently the owner of the vineyard has delegated the execution of righteousness to this
Gardener who seems to think there is still hope for these rotten trees - and this Gardener has made a bold
request for another year, during which time he will treat the tree with manure and digging in the hard soil
around the tree. What this Gardener hopes for is that the manure - the nutrients disposed of by the
animals - the waste - will restore the tree so that it will bear fruit.
And if we follow the metaphor of the manure - the waste from the animals - we might see another
metaphor - and that is the Lamb of God, the Lamb who is sacrificed, whose blood is poured out and
wasted, for you, for me, for many - this holy manure (what the Bible study group suggested we call “holy
fertilizer” as a better alternative).
Do I understand how it “works,” this atonement, this holy sacrifice? Not really. In the end, I have
to be satisfied with calling I once heard Rev. Calvin Butts of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York call
“that mysterious transaction in the economy of salvation” - and then accepting it.
Because here it is and I don’t have to understand it: this holy fertilizer and this gentle digging by
the Gardener has the power to uproot our sinful nature, bring it out into the light of day, and finally
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