Lent III
The Rev. Canon Christiana Olsen
“A Second Chance”
Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it… – Luke 13:8
Welcome to the third week of Lent 2007. I hope you are engaged in a holy exploration of those things most necessary to a deepening relationship with God. Usually right about now in the Lenten journey, I find myself flagging a bit. I’ve given things up, but have most likely taken them back by this third week. It’s too difficult or I just forget that I’m not supposed to be eating chocolate or cursing or drinking wine. And if I’ve added a book or daily reading, I’m now way behind. Other things have distracted me—I’ve fallen down along the way. I’m human.
The disciplines of Lent are meant to help us recognize our utter dependence upon God and to help us see—people, situations, places, events, God—with new eyes. The word discipline can be difficult for those of us who have none! But it’s helpful to spend a little time thinking about the word within the word discipline. It is, of course, “disciple.” The fruits of discipline come when we understand ourselves not as people just following rules, but as pupils learning from a Master, people engaged in life-long discipleship. And what are those fruits? What are the gifts we receive from living our lives as faithful disciples? And what are the consolations we experience when we’ve fallen down or given up?
Jesus tells us in the reading from Luke this week about repentance, about forgiveness and about second chances. In the parable, a man had a fig tree and for three years it didn’t produce any fruit. Perhaps this man’s expectations were just a little high. Maybe he was unusually impatient; perhaps he had no time for the discipline of taking care of that tree, of loving it, of feeding it. Or maybe he had no time for time. But that gardener! He knows about being a disciple: about the importance of pruning, learning how to water appropriately, giving living things another chance to bear fruit. And so he asks the man, on behalf of the tree, for another year.
Forgiveness is sometimes a difficult fruit to accept. But it is one of the greatest gifts God has to give us. Many times, the receiving of God’s gift of forgiveness isn’t the hard part—it’s forgiving ourselves that’s so difficult. If we can learn to engage in the discipleship of digging around ourselves, of feeding and watering ourselves, and of having faith in the God who made us, perhaps we will know in the deepest parts of ourselves our capability to bear fruit, even if it’s in the fourth year of trying.
Take heart! It is the third week of Lent and we are disciples of a God who loves us, a God of second chances.