SECOND
CHANCE
FIG TREES
[Instead of a homily
for this 3rd 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.
