Ecology of Relationships

This past week I attended a Diocesan clergy retreat held at Whispering Pines, the conference center at the University of Rhode Island.  Each year Bishop Knisely brings the clergy together for a time of refreshment, meditation, and a  presentation by an invited speaker. The annual retreat helps us to build collegial relationships and to spend some time reflecting on the ministries to which we have been called.

The theme of this year’s presentation was “ecology of relationships.”  It focused on the environment in which those of us in parish settings share relationships with you, the members of our worshipping communities.  The Rev. Andrew Gerns, rector of Trinity Church, Easton, Pennsylvania, used the image of a coral reef in discussing the ecology of relationships.  Corals are ancient polyps, very small and simple organisms. The polyps extend their tentacles at night to sting and ingest tiny organisms called plankton and other small creatures.  In this way they act as filters beneath the swirling ocean current that surrounds them.

I recall that several years ago while vacationing in Key West, Florida, we went out on a glass-bottomed boat to view a coral reef.  Coral reefs are beautiful, colorful, and impressive.  I can imagine someone who has never been inside a church coming into All Saints’ seeing this magnificent structure for the first time and observing our multi-cultural congregation singing and praising God for the gifts of life we have received.

Another presentation on the ecology of relationships was about generous leadership,  leadership that provides a safe place in the midst of surrounding danger.  Look for example at the political trmoil during this election year.  There is anger swirling all around.  It is chaotic, some would say, apocalyptic.  We don’t know what will happen.  A democracy is always fragile, but today many people don’t know where to turn.  Public leadership is anything but generous or compassionate.

Today’s gospel story concerns both generous leadership and ecology of relationships.  The parable of the fig tree is about a tree that has not yielded fruit.  The purpose of the fig tree is to bear fruit.  In this case the tree has failed to produce so it is about to be cut down.  Without figs to harvest the tree “wastes the soil” taking up valuable space that could be put to better use.

Jesus told this story to illustrate how God is in relationship with us.  A gardener had a fig tree in his vineyard and when the harvest season came he went looking for fruit.  He did this for three successive years and failed to find any figs on this particular tree.  So, naturally, he wanted to cut it down because it was wasting valuable land where another fruit tree might be planted.  On second thought, however, he decided to be patient, to dig around its roots and fertilize it with manure to see whether it would bear fruit in the following year.  If it failed one more time he would cut it down.

Jesus is saying in this parable that unless we repent and turn in a new direction, a direction that leads to forgiveness and generous love, all will perish.  Our proper relationship with God is repentance.  We are to surrender all our attempts to control and manipulate God to our liking, to stop telling God how to be God, and to stop telling others what their relationship should be with God,

Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it.  In the midst of all the world’s chaos he forgives and counsels forgiveness.  The world lives, as the fig tree lives, under that word of forgiveness, a generous gift.  It is easy for us to forget that the Gospel demands an urgent response.  We are the ones charged to “seize the day,” to “repent and bear good fruit,” to live lives of forgiveness and generosity.  God is a patient gardener who waits for us to come to an understanding of his generous presence in our lives.

The image of the fig tree suggests that it is possible for us to be fed provided that we dig into our roots, our history of God’s engagement with us, and fertilize our lives that they may be fruitful by extending the love of God to everyone.

Our journey through Lent leads us deeper and deeper into the mystery of God.  God who is patient and long suffering in waiting for his people to live according to his will.  We are held accountable for our acts of freeing people from bondage and oppression, and liberating the whole creation from the chaos that prevents engagement with God who waits for the world to be united in his love.  Amen.