Flinging Shit

 FLINGING SHIT – SUNDAY MARCH 23, 2025

Luke 13:1-9: “At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the other people living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent you will all perish just as they did.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the man working the vineyard, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.’”

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In a word I will just say that Pilate’s “mingling of the blood of (rebellious/disloyal/Jewish) Galileans and their (religious) sacrifices” was a cruel abuse of power at its worst. It reminds me of Trump’s illegal and atrocious abuses around sending purported Venezuelan terrorists to prison camps in El Salvador this past week. But I’m not going there today. And I’m not going there because Jesus didn’t – at least in this story. 

Some scholars might tell you that Jesus didn’t respond “politically” to Pilate’s abuse because he himself (Jesus) was not political. No. That’s wrong.

Others might say Jesus is trying to debunk the common notion that suffering comes to people individually because of their personal sins. That was indeed a belief in Jesus’ day, and it may well have been what he was choosing to address. But what I want to highlight is this: 

“Unless you repent you will all (likewise) perish!”

We have to stop thinking individually and start to think communally. People don’t just live out their own lives in little boxes and those who are good go to heaven and those who aren’t don’t. That’s not a thing!! I am wont to blame Trump and Musk for all our country’s current woes, and they are certainly the point of the spear, but we’re all letting it happen. Despite your or my outrage; our March 15^th postcards; writing our congressional representatives; and all the other really important things you or I might be doing – we as a nation are still letting this all happen.

And, despite working cross purposes from each other we are still all Americans. We are still blood relatives, friends or co-church members with those who support Trump – or don’t. In 1861 our country went to war against itself because we didn’t want to be a part of each other anymore. The Civil War, remember? How did that turn out?! 

“Unless you repent you will all (likewise) perish!”

So, cue the fig tree. Jesus goes on to talk about a fig tree, planted in a vineyard. Figs were a delicacy fruit giving witness to sweetness and joy, here in the midst of the "grapes" we all need for daily life. And the tree isn’t producing, is it? There is no joy. There is no more expectation of fruitfulness. The owner of the vineyard (and that would be us in a democracy, right?!) is apparently done with the dream. 

“Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?”

But the fig tree is not a waste – it is a hope. The fig tree is not a parasite – it is a promise. The fig tree is not dead – it is simply crippled by the sick ecosystem in which it struggles.

Thankfully there are still people of the soil among us. Thankfully there are elders and survivors of prior oppression who have lived through such seasons. I am thankful for the gift of those who give witness that the tree itself is not dead, but just diseased.

“Leave it alone. Give it more time.” 

Let us continue to care for this tree in every way we can. Continue to cultivate room for miracles!