March 24,  2019

SECOND  CHANCE  

FIG TREES

[Instead of a homily for this 3^rd Sunday in Lent [C] I wrote this story yesterday. I used it for the Kids’ Mass this morning and the 11 AM Mass.]

The title of my story for today is, “Second Chance Fig  Trees.”

Once upon a time there was a farmer whose only fruit trees were fig trees.

And he had lots and lots and lots of fig trees in his orchard - thousands and thousands and thousands of them.

Now when he first started to grow fruit trees, he had orange trees,  apple trees, pear trees, but he  had his best luck with fig trees. So that’s what he settled on: fig trees.

He sold  his figs to Nabisco - for their fig newton bars - to Keebler and to Kellogg’s - for their fig newton bars - and his figs were the best in California - where he had his many, many fig trees.

His trucks brought his figs to bakeries all around the country and then ships brought them to countries all around the world.

He sold his figs to Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Amazon.

Vegans loved his fig bars. They were perfect for snacks and power bars. In time creative bakers put in chocolate chips, blueberries and raspberries.  Then they came up with new products. The latest is organic dark chocolate fig truffle bites - brand new March 2019.

“Uuuum delicious.”

Now to the story about the day that changed everything for him and his fig trees.If a fig tree wasn’t producing figs, he had his workers chop that tree down - almost immediately.

 “No use ….”  he would say,  “No use  wasting time and space, land and fertilizer on lazy fig trees.”

“Cut em down!”

Then  one day, believe it or not, he gave the order to cut down this one little fig tree  - but something stopped him. He couldn’t believe his eyes, but this one little fig tree - seemed to be crying. He couldn’t believe his ears, but he seemed to hear this little fig tree saying, “Give me a second chance.”

He told his workers, “Give this tree here extra water. Give it extra fertilizer - and if by this time next year, it doesn’t start producing, more and better figs, then cut it down. Why should we let it do nothing?”

Sure enough,  it started producing great figs - the best he ever tasted.

Sure enough, something else happened, not just to his fig trees, but to his personality.

He was known to be a really tough boss - always grouchy - always yelling at his workers.

He was also -  always yelling at  his kids - never, ever, ever, giving them or their teachers of their coaches or anyone a second chance.

Well after giving that fig tree a second chance, he didn’t notice this about himself, but he  started to be nicer to drivers on the highway - to people on line - in the supermarket - to neighbor and family members who just wanted to talk about nothings.

Surprise his kids saw this change in their dad and they gave him a second chance.

And this is not the end of the story. A twist turned things around a bit more.

His dad died - his dad who had started their fruit tree business - way, way back, and a long time ago.

Now  he was always tough on his dad - for not being busy enough - for not doing enough - for not figuring out - fig trees were the way to go.

Now the priest who was doing his father’s funeral didn’t know any of this. He was just trying to come up with a homily for the funeral. He did know that the family was famous for their figs.  So he looked up in the bible the two stories about Jesus and fig trees,

In one story, the figs were not given a second chance.  In the story we heard this morning, the fig tree got a second chance.

Well,  the priest who preached at the funeral of the father of the man who gave that fig tree a second chance - used that second story of Jesus for his homily and he said our God is a God of second chances.

He really didn’t know anything about that farmer - and his father -  but when that farmer heard that story that Jesus gave,  he was hearing about himself.

He started coming back to church - giving church and Jesus a second chance. He gave himself a second chance. He really didn’t like himself.

But most importantly  - his whole life changed -   giving lots of people - lots of chances - second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seven times seven chances.  Amen.