Third Sunday of Lent: Exodus 3:1-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9; Psalm 63:1-8
If “they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” Moses’ question is not unreasonable: after all, the voice from the burning bush has just said “I AM the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Who is that? Moses is right to wonder. And the answer is enigmatic, but what he has to live with, “I AM who I AM.”
Who among us has not wondered whether God is, or what God is? We haven’t been faced with a voice in a burning bush. We regularly assert in the creed that we believe in “one God”, but I at least have at times had my doubts. I am *not* always sure what I believe in. Here, God seems to be telling Moses that he won’t ever really know. “‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Really? God’s name is “I AM”?
In this encounter with Moses, God seems to be saying that God is with you, but you have to live with mystery: you will never fully know God. Yet our goal is always to nail God down. Humans don’t live well with mystery. We want answers to our questions, to know what we are dealing with.
If our reading from the Hebrew scriptures leaves us anchored in mystery, our reading from the Gospel seems to pin things down. It starts with Jesus talking about those who have been executed by the Romans in ways that make it impossible to provide what would have been an orthodox Jewish burial. Their blood had been mingled with that of sacrifices, or they had been crushed by a tower, so not able to be buried. Jesus suggests that ritual behavior is not the key to life.
But then he turns to a parable, always a sign that things are not quite what we think. In the parable of the fig tree, we have an owner who is frustrated that his fig tree has not born fruit. But the gardener (trust gardeners!) asks for another year, so he can provide lots of manure. If after that the tree doesn’t bear fruit, then the farmer can cut it down.
This kind of bargaining is not new. Jesus’ listeners would have known other stories: in Genesis, we hear Abraham bargaining with the Lord: would he destroy Sodom if he knew there were 50 righteous men in it? And gradually the number goes down; eventually the Lord agrees that he will not destroy the city if there are ten righteous men. (Genesis 18:22-32)
Luke/Jesus never gives us the answer: does the owner allow the fig tree another year? We don’t know. What Luke is reminding us is that Jesus wants us to bear fruit, and will provide food that helps us do so. What the food is, what the fruit is, is left open.
One of the things I take from these readings is that we need to live in uncertainty. Which, of course, we sort of know. We do not know what will happen next. We do not really know who God is. Sometimes the assertion that God is “I AM” is the best we can do.
But “I AM” tells us that God is there, even if God’s identity or name is a mystery. Similarly, we are to bear fruit, even if we don’t know what that means. And we know that God is impatient for us to do so, but will feed us generously so that we do. We will have another year.
At the end of these readings, I am left with questions. Can I live with knowing that “I AM” is there for us, but not knowing much else? What would serve as manure for us so that I could bear fruit? What would it mean for us to bear fruit?
I AM told the Israelites to leave, and they did. We have many commandments from Jesus. How well do we follow them? Do we, as we read a few weeks ago, love our enemies, and turn the other cheek? Do we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and welcome the stranger? I suspect most of us would answer, “sometimes”, or “we try”.
We are imperfect followers of Jesus. We need Jesus the gardener to put in a good word for us, and to feed us. But we are not a tree, and we can seek out the things that feed us. Let us do so, so that we can bear fruit.
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