2009 den Dulk Lecture #2 - Let it Alone for this Year (Westminster Seminary California)
listen to the audio recording of this second lecture presented at Westminster Seminary in California, April 22.
Lecture Two
Let it Alone for this Year:
The Patient Gardener Metaphor Informs Church Planting
A group of people told Jesus of Pilate’s massacre of Galileans while they offered sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem. They asked Jesus, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?” Jesus said, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” He then told this parable to them: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
In this parable, Jesus introduces us to the God of justice. Jesus’ response to the question, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans?” is to remind us that in the eyes of an infinitely just God, all of us unrepentant sinners deserve punishment. Jesus offers another example, the tower in Siloam falling and killing 18 people to emphasize his point: Unless we repent we will all likewise perish. God’s justice is perfectly connected to his stewardship. Just like the owner of the vineyard, who came seeking fruit on the fig tree he had planted there, so God is not distant from us. He is actively present with us looking for the fruit of the Spirit. It is reasonable for the owner of the vineyard to expect fruit. He planted the fig tree with the purpose of enjoying its fruit. It is reasonable for God to expect the fruit of righteousness in us. He made us and has redeemed us with the purpose of enjoying the fruit of grace within us. The owner of the vineyard is just in demanding that the fig tree be removed. The whole purpose of this tree is to bear fruit and so the owner’s command to uproot it is just. Most fruit trees mature to bear fruit in three years. Sixteen years ago, when we moved to Portland, I planted a fig tree in our garden for Glenda, my wife. She is Armenian and delights in anything Mediterranean. Oregon State University had developed a fig tree that would bear fruit as far north as Oregon. In its third year and to this day, Glenda’s fig tree produces fruit in July and in October. The owner of the vineyard gave ample time for the fig tree to bear fruit. Like the owner of the vineyard, God is just in demanding the removal of us who do not bear spiritual fruit.
Jesus presents to us the justice of God through the owner of the vineyard. Then, he presents to us the active patience of God through the vinedresser. The divine attribute of justice does not stand alone. All of the attributes of God work together perfectly. God is infinitely just and merciful. In his mercy, he displays an active patience. The owner says to his vinedresser, “’Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?” The vinedresser says, “’Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good…”
As this divine patience unfolds we discover the work of Jesus Christ as the Shepherd of the flock and as the one and only Mediator between his heavenly Father and his children. Patience is not laziness. The vinedresser proposes that he work diligently to fertilize and to cultivate the fig tree. Jesus doesn’t take siestas in the hammock. His patience is devoted to nourishing and equipping us toward fruitfulness. The Day of God’s patience is refreshingly long. Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead then ascended into heaven. The Day of God’s Patience has continued from the ascension into the present. In the Day of Patience God is not merely waiting for us to do our work, but he is working diligently to complete his work of gathering to himself all his lost children. God is not the God of a second chance but rather he gives to us uncountable opportunities to repent and to produce fruit. The gospel of this parable is much more than the divine giving of opportunities. The gospel is that Jesus Christ has actively and completely worked on our behalf. He has justified us by grace, satisfying his heavenly Father’s justice. By grace he is sanctifying us by his Spirit. Jesus works diligently to nourish and to equip us.
This active patience of Jesus is hopeful – he works hard to produce fruit in our lives and he fully expects us to bear fruit.
The vinedresser says, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not… you can cut it down.” What a beautiful picture of Jesus, our advocate and Mediator. Jesus, on our side, as our elder brother and as our legal representative stands before God his Father and refuses to cut us down. God is “not willing that any of us should perish but that all of us would come to a knowledge of him.”
The particular fruit Jesus has in mind as he tells this parable is repentance. We falsely think that God is merciful to small sinners but that he administers his justice in punishing big sinners. The crowd around Jesus was truly perplexed: Would not God forgive these Galileans their sins as they obediently presented their sacrifices, seeing with their own eyes the atoning sacrifice for their sins? Why would God choose this situation of all possible situations to punish sinners? This group of Galileans must have done something unusually wrong for God to punish them at the gate of atonement! Jesus says to the crowd and to us: All of you are big sinners. In the eyes of a just God there is no distinction between small and big sinners. Every single one of us must repent of sin. As Jesus fertilizes and cultivates us he is expecting his gift of repentance to be a daily expression of our solidarity with him.
At Evergreen Presbyterian Church we apply this parable to our church planting. An evangelist, serving in the name and stead of Jesus Christ, must regularly “call all men unto repentance.” In the church, whether we serve a mission or a particularized congregation, we must make room for barren fig trees so that Christ might be present to do his work. By regularly calling everyone to repent we break down the false assumption that big sinners operate outside the four walls of the church and that small sinners coffee klatch inside the church. For a congregation to be established and to thrive as a ministry of the kingdom of God, it must remember and apply the words of Jesus, “I came to seek and to save the lost…. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Within the four walls of the church Jesus digs around our roots and spreads his Miracle Grow so that we might bear the fruit of repentance.
As we develop officers to care for the emerging congregation, we train elders and deacons who will apply this parable. In our ministry of the word, we must present a balanced description of God: he is both just and merciful. If repentance is to become a daily behavior of the people we serve, then divine justice must be ever before us along with the never-ending, deep, deep love of Jesus. In the past year, we, elders and deacons at Ever-green, have used this parable to promote within our ministry, an active and nourishing patience as we care for the members of the church. This proactive care of the ministry of the word must be in place before any reactive disciplinary measures are executed.
Along with the apostles we devote ourselves not only to the ministry of the word but also to prayer. The active patience of Jesus comes alive in us as we pray for the flock he has entrusted to us. Prayer slows us down to see one another as God sees us, helping us to lead and to serve under the authority of Jesus. As we pray we keep in our mind’s eye the image of Christ kneeling at the roots of the fig tree, digging up the soil, fertilizing toward a fruitful harvest.
As repentance toward reconciliation and restoration is the goal of pastoral cultivation, we must bear in our ministries the mark of discipline. Our reformed church tradition has been accused of being harsh in discipline and so we revisit this parable of Jesus including the vinedresser who says to the owner – “You can cut it down.” As officers of the church serving in the stead of Christ Jesus, the head of the church, we plead for one more year. In the face of divine justice we plead in the name of Jesus, “who loved us and gave his life for us,” “Give us one more year to cultivate toward genuine and sustained repentance. Give us one more year!”
When I was a student here at Westminster Seminary, Dr. Godfrey required our reading of the entire Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. To this day, not merely during this 500th Anniversary year or because I am a reformed minister, but mainly because of its rich usefulness, I regularly consult these pastoral writings. Concerning the purpose of church discipline, Calvin writes of three ends in view: “The first is that they who lead a filthy and infamous life may not be called Christians, to the dishonor of God, as if his holy church were a conspiracy of wicked and abandoned men. For since the church itself is the body of Christ, it cannot be corrupted by such foul and decaying members without some disgrace falling upon its Head. Therefore, that there may be no such thing in the church to brand its most sacred name with disgrace, they from whose wickedness infamy rebounds to the Christian name must be banished from the family.” He continues to speak in equally strong language concerning the profaning of the Lord’s Table. Such language is offensive in our present age, especially within the larger church. Now and then one of our reformed ministers of the gospel will publicly read such language with venom and volume thus inappropriately proclaiming the heart and tone of Calvin’s biblical view and practice.
Calvin supplies a second and third end: “The second purpose is that the good be not corrupted by the constant company of the wicked, as commonly happens. For there is nothing easier than for us to be led away by bad examples from right living…. The third purpose is that those overcome by shame of their baseness begin to repent. They who under gentler treatment would have become more stubborn so profit by the chastisement of their own evil as to be awakened when they feel the rod.” Here we discover that there is a process of discipline that begins with gentle care and tender admonishments toward repentance. There is room for the active patience of elders who minister the word, pray, and humbly persuade the church toward right living. Only when a member stubbornly defies this tender care along with divine truth, scorning the gospel of grace, do we apply the rod. This is proven to be the thought and practice of Calvin as he writes under a subsequent heading, “Severity and mildness in church discipline.” He writes, “But we ought not to pass over the fact that such severity as is joined with a ‘spirit of gentleness’ befits the church. For we must always, as Paul bids us, take particular care that he who is punished be not overwhelmed with sorrow. Thus a remedy would become destruction. But, from the purpose intended it would be better to take a rule of moderation.”
Over the course of this past year I have observed Evergreen’s elders tenderly apply the gospel to members entangled in sins. We are careful to draw the circle of information and accountability as small as possible, for whomever “turns a brother from the error of his way covers a multitude of sins.” These words of the Apostle James connote a process. How long does it take to “turn a brother from the error of his way”? We encourage our elders to beg God for one more year. “Give us one more year to promote repentance. Then, if there is no fruit, You, O Lord of justice and infinite holiness, you can cut it down.”
Church Planters are often accused of compromising the ministry of the word, prayer, and church discipline: “Those church planters will do anything to attract people and leave them comfortably in their sins, just to beef up the numbers.” While this may be true, it can also be fairly said that some reformed ministers publicly read letters of censure divulging private sins and situations that the body of Christ has no business knowing, divulging information that is better kept in executive sessions where elders “cover a multitude of sins.” It can be fairly said that some of us reformed ministers are angry, suppressing our own vileness by over-reacting to the sins of others, rather than repenting ourselves of our treacheries against a holy God and his perfect law. As a church planter and as a Minister of the Gospel I have made mistakes at both extremes. I have been too harsh overwhelming a sinner rather than “turning a sinner.” I have also been too permissive, pampering and propping up stubborn sinners, fearing that they will turn ugly and wreak havoc on the church. My growth toward balance in this area has come over the years as I have learned to work within a plurality of elders. Together, we apply this parable of Jesus as we seek to care for the flock entrusted to us. More profoundly, we have helped one another as ordained officers to repent of our own sins, to sit under the word, to humbly pray for each other, and to discipline our own sins. As officers we are modeling a daily repentance.
R.S. Thomas wrote this poem titled, “The Coming.”
And God held in his hand
a small globe. Look, he said,
the son looked. Far off,
as through water, he saw
a scorched land of fierce
color. The light burned
there: crusted buildings
cast their shadows; a bright
serpent, a river
uncoiled itself, radiant
with slime.
On a bare
hill a bare tree saddened
the sky. Many people
held out their thin arms
to it, as though waiting
for a vanished April
to return to its crossed
boughs. The son watched
them. Let me go there, he said.
The Father sent the Son who entered the miseries of our race and world. The Westminster Confession of Faith describes the office of Mediator and Surety: “This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake; which that He might discharge, He was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfill it; endured most grievous torments immediately in His soul, and most painful sufferings in His body; was crucified, and died, was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no corruption. On the third day He arose from the dead, with the same body in which He suffered, with which also He ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of His Father, making intercession, and shall return, to judge men and angels, at the end of the world.”
As the incarnate Son of God upon this earth and now in the heavenlies at the right hand of God, our Lord Jesus kneels to thrust his hands into the humus around our roots. The holy hands he lifts before the angels in heaven have dirt under their nails – even more to the point, his hands bear the scars of nails. As Graham Kendrick taught us to sing in the 1980’s, “Hands that flung stars into space to cruel nails surrendered.” This one and only Mediator between God and man continually says to his heavenly Father, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”