"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 gardener, '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.'" (Luke 13: 6-9)

Old Testament Scholar &United Church of Christ Pastor Dr. Walter Brueggemann has this to say about Lenten Spiritual Gardening and Pruning. He writes:  Lent is a time for fresh decision-making about reliance upon the God of the gospel. Such decision-making in Lent is commonly called "repentance." It's a time to reflect on the way in which God gives new life that is welcome when we recognize how our old way of life mostly leaves us weary and unsatisfied. ...Luke, with its two odd case studies, is preoccupied with "repentance" and the call to "bear fruit." The hard part is choosing to live differently. That is always the important part, now as it was then.

There was a student at the University of Arizona who was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He was repatriated from Africa to the United States when he was in his early teens. He grew up in Flagstaff, AZ and studied Physics and Education as I recall. Last I heard, he was a secondary school teacher and continuing to succeed in his life in the United States. It would be terrific if every gardener's mortal life ends happily with such fruitful fig trees. It does not. Many Lost Boys became even more lost and afraid when the settled in the United States. Some died. Those of us who work in Christianity's Garden must be aware of the brutal ways in which worldly life often spoils all that God offers to us and our neighbors, especially those of us who are suffering. Jesus the Christ's passion and resurrection is our sanctuary in desperate situations such as Civil War or other hundreds of miles of disputes between human beings these days. We too must be prayerfully, patiently  vigilant and responsive to the needs of the people around us even as we beckon God to abide with us in the many aspects of the gardens that we live in.