Never Give Up

Lent 3, Yr. C, rcl

March 11, 2007

I recently read this story about Winston Churchill who was giving a commencement address. “After enduring a lengthy introduction, Churchill is reported to have risen from his seat, strode to the podium and stared fixedly at his audience of new graduates. "Never give up!" he pronounced solemnly. Churchill then turned, walked back to his chair and sat down. As the stunned students momentarily sat in silence, Churchill, with perfect timing, once again rose from his chair, returned to the podium and again announced, "Never give up!" Now, terrified they might respond improperly, the audience never uttered a squeak as their speaker once again returned to his seat. Sure enough, Churchill returned to the podium again, and again and yet again - five times - each time delivering his single-minded message, "Never give up!" At last, feeling he had exhausted his audience and driven home his point, Churchill himself did give up and returned to the podium no more. But you can be sure that every graduate in that audience never forgot that speech and never forgot that he or she was to "never give up!"” [1]

In our Gospel reading from Luke, we hear this message loud and clear. There are other accounts of the parable of the fig tree, but Luke’s is the most hopeful, the most redemptive, the most promising. God has promised, from the beginning of creation, that God will never, ever, ever give upon us.

- Adam and Eve disobeyed the very First Rule. But God never gave up.
- Abraham wandered, and Sarah laughed. But God never gave up.
- Moses hid and shook with fear. But God never gave up.
- Saul went insane. But God never gave up.
- David plotted against Uriah. But God never gave up.
- Ahaz sold out to Assyria. But God never gave up.
- Israel fell into pieces. But God never gave up.
- The Jewish people became exiles. But God never gave up.
- John the Baptist was beheaded. But God never gave up.
- Peter denied he even knew him. But God never gave up.
- The disciples all ran away. But God never gave up. [2]

God does not give up on us. God does not punish us because we have done wrong. Those are the two messages that we are to take away with us today. Jesus tells those around him loud and clear that the Galileans who died by Pilate’s hand and those that died when the tower fell on them did not die because they were more sinful than the others. It was a common belief then and for some it is still a common belief that when bad things happen, it is God punishing us, that we have brought it on ourselves. From this notion comes the age old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Bad things happen to everyone, good things happen to everyone. All of our lives are filled with good and bad and that is something that we have to live with. Jesus had good and bad in his life – it is part of what it means to be human.

Suffering is not a consequence of being sinful – there is not a direct, one-to-one correlation between sin and suffering. Don’t get me wrong, when we are doing things that are hurtful, things that draw us away from God, there may be natural consequences of our behavior, but God does not will bad on us, rather God is willing to give us one more chance.

There are many times in our lives when we experience something that serves as a wake up call to us. These wake up calls usually come when we are suffering in our own lives or in the lives of those we love. You don’t know how many times I heard this theology when I was serving as a hospital chaplain. People were blaming the sickness of themselves or others on their actions. One mother told me that her son had cancer because she had stopped going to church and stopped praying. She told me that this was God’s way of getting her back.

But Jesus tells us loud and clear today that is not how God works. God does not make bad things happen in order to get our attention – it just so happens that when bad things do happen, we finally start paying attention, we finally wake up to the fact that we have to change our lives, change how we are living, change what we are doing in order to be the person God is calling us to be.

Amendment of life – that is what Jesus is talking about. Not merely saying sorry and moving on, but truly and radically changing how you live your life so that you will not continue to make the mistake over and over again. A few of my dear friends who are in AA talk about amendment of life. You see, in Alcoholics Anonymous, they make the distinction between giving up what you are dependent on and changing your life. One can give up the dependency, be it alcohol, drugs, food, whatever it might be, and still not be a changed person. True recovery or healing comes when they stop their dependent behavior AND take inventory of their life by looking at their anger, their mistakes, and their dysfunctions, and then asking God to remove them all.

Amendment of life means digging up those things that are not healthy and replacing them with something new, something nurturing, something which will ground you and cause you to live your life with God.

For the Jewish people of the time, the fig tree is a well known symbol of the peaceful and good life. When this tree is not producing fruit, it has no use and is to be torn down. I don’t know if any of you have ever taken care of a tree that bears fruit, but when I was living in California, we had a lemon tree in our back yard. It took lots of pruning, watering, fertilizing, etc. just to maintain the tree. When we talked to our friend who was a landscape architect about adding an orange tree, he said, “Sure, but you probably won’t see fruit anytime soon.” Trees that bear fruit often take a while to produce anything because they have to be nurtured and cared for – they have to take root before they can produce anything worthwhile. The fig tree in the parable may have been taken care of like the other trees around it, but for whatever reason, was not producing fruit yet. The Gospel of Luke gives us hope in that in the parable, the man lets the tree remain for another year in order to pay special attention to it and hope that it will bear fruit. The gardener plans to dig around it and add fertilizer, to remove the dirt that isn’t giving life, and to tend to the tree so that it will produce fruit.

There is still time for the tree to bear fruit. There is still time for all of us to bear fruit. Each Lent, we are given the opportunity to loosen the ground around us that may not be feeding us and to replace it with good soil, good ground that is nourished in God’s unconditional love for us. God never gives up on us. This parable is an invitation for us to repent, to amend our lives and grow in God’s love for us. God has not given up on you. Don’t give up on God and the opportunity to see what kind of fruit you are to bear throughout your live.

So to quote Winston Churchill, “Never give up.” “Never give up.” “Never give up.” “Never give up.” “Never give up.”

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[1] From Homiletics Online, 3/19/1995

[2] Ibid.