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Luke 13:1-9

God Helps Us Grow

March 20, 2022

Third Sunday in Lent

Lectionary Year C

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning! I have a question for you…
What do you think would happen if you only ate ice cream, chocolate cake, potato chips, cookies and candy every day? And then, you only drank soda – even brushed your teeth with it!? What do you think would happen? (wait for answers)
That’s right, you probably wouldn’t feel very good after awhile, would you?
Why is that, do you think? (Because that is not healthy food and makes us feel unhealthy when we eat too much of it)
What are some healthy foods that we can eat that will help us feel healthy? (wait for answers)
And do other people in your life help you to eat these healthy foods - even when you sometimes don’t want to?

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

I ask about healthy and unhealthy foods because a similar thing is being talked about in today’s scripture story.
In today’s scripture story, Jesus tells his disciples a story about a gardener.
The story goes like this: An owner of some land wants a gardener to cut down a fig tree because it’s not bearing any fruit.
To “bear fruit” is a fancy way of saying that a tree grows fruit on its branches – except this tree wasn’t growing fruit on its branches and that’s why the owner wanted to cut it down.
But the gardener says to the owner, “Let’s give the tree some more time. During that time, I’ll give it some extra special fertilizer and then we’ll see how it does.”
Fertilizer, as you may know, is extra-healthy food for a tree. And the gardener wants to help the tree bear fruit by giving it some of that extra healthy food.
When the owner hears the landowner’s plan, he agrees to give the tree another year to bear fruit.

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

If we pretend that the gardener in the story is like God, then we see that God is wanting to help the tree to grow and bear fruit by giving it better food.
And, if we pretend that we are like the tree in the story, then we might think about what some of that healthy food might be that God offers us.
For example, when God offers us love, wisdom, and patience as healthy things for us to receive that helps us grow stronger on the inside…
…then we will have more of God’s love, wisdom, and patience to share with others.
Just like the tree in today’s story is given healthier food so that it can grow its own food to share with the world, the same is true for us with God.
The more of God’s love, wisdom, and patience we receive, the more of God’s love, wisdom, and patience we have to share – which is good for us and those around us.
That’s the good news for today!

CLOSING Prayer

Let’s pray. This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,
Dear God,

Help us to receive your gifts of…

…love, wisdom, and patience…

…so that we can then share…

…your gifts with others.

Thank you and Amen

Originally posted March 1, 2013
Updated on February 21, 2022
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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