Lent 3, 2025

 “No good deed goes unpunished.”  This was a favorite phrase of mine and my co-worker Roger when we worked at an optometry office.  I finished seminary and was waiting for a call, so I worked at the front desk there, setting appointments, checking with insurance, welcoming patients, and even adjusting glasses here and there.  “No good deed goes unpunished.”  This was a phrase, Roger and I used to comfort ourselves when we had gone out of our way to help someone and not only was our help not appreciated or recognized, but someone was rude to us or angry with us.  It came up frequently enough that we needed to have a phrase for it, an inside joke, to help remember that it wasn’t personal.

            Why do bad things happen to good people?  This is something we’ve all dealt with.  We like when our good behavior is rewarded.  When it isn’t rewarded, how do we know we’ve done the right thing?  Shouldn’t our world make sense and be fair? 

            Jesus in today’s Gospel is meeting his disciples who are grappling with the unfairness and even cruelty of the world, in this case coming from Pontius Pilate.  Not only has Pilate executed some Galileans, but he has desecrated their bodies by mingling their blood with sacrifices made to idols.  He has hurt the community with violence and then he has insulted them even more by this heinous religious act.  The disciples are very upset.

            Jesus doesn’t offer them much comfort.  Jesus starts them on a discussion of why bad things happen to good people.  He gives the example that a building fell and killed some people—does that mean they were worse sinners?  No.  Are these Galileans worse sinners?  No.  Jesus uses these terrible situations to remind his disciples that we are all sinners and we are called to repentance, to turn around, to turn toward God’s love, mercy, and justice.

            Then Jesus tells them a parable.  At first it might seem unrelated.  A fig tree was planted, but it is not growing and producing fruit as expected.  So rather than waste space and soil, the vineyard owner orders it cut down.  The gardener intervenes and asks that the tree be tended and given another chance.

            There are some links between the two parts of the Gospel.  The first relates to expectations.  The Disciples have expectations that people are punished when they do something bad and rewarded when they do something good, so they are confused when their friends are killed and treated so terribly.  Pilate wants people to think that people get what they deserve.  It is the temptation of the story to quit their ministry because of the pressure that Pilate is putting on them.  He is showing them there are consequences to their actions and they may pay a high price for caring for the poor and suffering people.  Jesus is reminding the Disciples to take a look at their expectations.  Where did they come from?  Are they true?  He is telling them to change their expectations and to realize that people don’t necessarily get what they deserve but to expect that their good deeds may be punished.

            In the story of the fig tree, the man who planted the fig tree had expectations of growth and fruit from the tree.  The gardener has some understanding of how, why, and when figs grow.  Some trees don’t fruit for years after they are planted.  Trees need good soil conditions, water, and sunlight to grow.  The gardener suggests some time and some tending to this tree to see if anything changes.  He is asking the one who planted the tree to change his expectations and give it more time.  The message here is that the tree should not be punished for not living up to expectations.

            Both parts of the Gospel have an element that this was out of their control.  The Galileans had no control over what Pilate did.  The Disciples had no control over what happened to their friends.  In the same way, the tree had no control over whether it grew fruit or not, whether the sun shined upon it or whether it rained, or whether some manure enriched the soil.  What do you do when you have no say about something?  What do you do when no good deed goes unpunished, when you don’t have control over the punisher?

            Both parts of the Gospel have inequality.  Some have power and others have less power.  The inclination of the more powerful ones in these stories is destruction.  The more powerful ones are evaluating and making decisions based on what is best for themselves.  The Galileans are challenging Pilate.  He decides to kill some and scare the others into fearing the same fate if they continue in their work.  The tree owner is evaluating what is best for him.  He’s not getting figs so he is inclined to make space for a new tree that will give him what he wants.  In the case of Pilate, he destroys the ones who are challenging him.  In the case of the man who planted a tree, he decides the tree is a waste of space, but he is willing to listen to others with expertise.

            What are our expectations of others and of our world?  Sometimes we focus a lot on how someone or something affects us, rather than it’s intrinsic value. Is this good for me?  Is this good in its own right?  The rain gardens were intended as both.  It is good for the earth, the insects, the cooling of our neighborhood in the summer, and the health of Johnson Creek and it is good for our pocketbook, because we will soon get a discount on our stormwater bill. We look for the good something can do. Sometimes when weighing the good, we focus a lot on whether something produces something.  We can even get caught up in our own productivity.  Am I getting enough done?  Am I producing enough steps every day?  Am I making enough money?  Do I have enough friends, enough cars, enough space in my home or my yard?  Sometimes we expect our church to produce something for us.  Does my church produce enough of the music I like?  Does it feel good to attend worship?  Does it feed my spirit and fill me up?  Are there enough kids there?  Are they dressed the way I expect?  Are they louder than I expect?

            The Parable is in a way an answer to the question, what happens when something or someone doesn’t meet my expectations?  Is that a reason to write them off, to remove them from my life?  The parable seems to be saying another option would be to tend them.  What is the root cause of this problem?  Are my expectations appropriate?  What might change the situation that I do have control over?

            I’ve just been serving here almost 4 years and most of you will not be surprised that manure Sunday is one of my favorites.  Since I love gardening, I love manure and what it does for my plants and my fruits.  I have spent many days collecting it, shoveling it, and enjoying the fruits that grow from it.  Here is something that seems like waste, discarded, and dirty, but God didn’t let anything go to waste.  Every part of the ecosystem feeds into everything else.  The plants are eaten, the animal produces waste.  That waste is aged, remember to give it a little time!  Then it feeds the plants again.  What a beautiful system of give and take, reciprocity and stewardship! The Kingdom of God is amazing!  Nothing goes to waste.  Everything has value!

            Tend the roots, give access to nutrients, tend the relationship, tend the hurting ones, the runt of the litter, the children, the ill, the refugee.  That’s what Jesus does in his ministry.  That’s what Jesus invites us to do.  When we can’t control something, when no good deed goes unpunished, when the world doesn’t make sense, when someone is failing to thrive, when the tower falls down, when we are grieving, tend to the roots, give some time, give some grace, and see what happens.