Every year, I plant a row of zinnias in my backyard. And, then I wait because those seeds take a bit of time to come up. Sometimes, the seeds result in a glorious row of brightly colored flowers and sometimes they resemble a sad sack, hit or miss row of blooms surrounded by weeds.
It is to the latter I often want to say like the 
owner of the vineyard – get rid of them! Have you ever had that happen in your own planting experiences? Of waiting for the seeds’ blooms to come up. Of waiting for bulbs you planted in the fall to emerge in spring. But, once they come up, they don’t look like you thought they would? Of wanting to pull up what didn’t quite work out?
This parable is a tad confusing – why is a grape grower planting a fig tree in the middle of the grapes? Seems weird. Why hasn’t it produced anything in three years? Has it not been nurtured? Has it not been fed with good things? Has the gardener not taken care of it or, like me has given in to the weeds that want to overtake the blooms?
But do you see what the gardener does? He asks for one more in-between season – just a year of rest for the fig tree to grow while he adds messy, smelly manure as a way of coaxing that fig tree to produce fruit. Interesting – anyone who lives near a large farm knows the messy manure smell and look of the in-between seasons of resting, planting and harvesting.
Just let that fig tree rest and be nurtured so that it can grow. That is the gardeners promise to the vineyard owner. Just let that fig tree rest and be nurtured so that it can grow.
Do you ever feel you are in an in-between season? Where you don’t see promised growth? Where you feel stagnation or anxiety because you don’t know what the future holds or a vision you have of lovely blooms just doesn’t materialize? I know I have felt that. I wonder if we can hear the promise of what an in-between season might hold for us as individuals and as a community of faith. What messy, smelly manure might we need to nurture us in this in-between season so that we can bloom well.
Can we even admit we might be in an in-between season? Do we have the patience of the gardener to let ourselves rest – to give ourselves a break from being anxious about the future? To place our trust fully in God, Jesus, Holy Spirit as the Psalmist encourages us to do. To so long for the Holy One even in a time of no blooms on the fig tree, a time of rest, a time to contemplate the messiness of that in-between season. And, to know that the Holy One has not left us on our own as we rest but is right there with us.
There is a lovely book in the Bible called Habakkuk who is a prophet in the time when the Babylonians, who were becoming the dominant power of that time, (this was before the Babylonian exile) were marching towards Judah. Habakkuk cries out to God – how long will you forget us. God answers: “Write a vision, and make it plain upon a tablet so that a runner can read it. There is still a vision for the appointed time; it testifies to the end; it does not deceive. If it delays, wait for it; for it is surely coming; it will not be late. (2:2-3)”
In other words, know that God has a vision for this community of faith which will not deceive. It may require us to rest and be nurtured with all the messiness that the in-between season brings, but that eventually a vision will bloom, and it will not be late. Even in the in-between season, we must continue to trust that God, Jesus, Holy Spirit walk with us and are present to and among us. Even in the in-between season, we must trust God’s timing, not ours.
Even in the in-between season, we must trust that growth and blooming are happening though we often can’t see it or feel it. We must even trust the messiness of nurture – what manure is being loaded onto us so that we can grow and bloom as a community of faith dedicated to all forms of love and justice.
I ask each of us to trust that in this period of rest, God is still present, still nurturing us, still loading us up with messy manure meant to nurture not harm, still asking us to find the courage to change and grow and to trust one another. Can we do that? I hope we can because our larger community needs us to do that. Our larger community needs the love we bring, the justice we advocate for, and the mercy and compassion we show within this church and outside these walls.
Don’t be afraid of the resting period. Don’t be afraid of the growing and blooming. Don’t be afraid of the manure. Don’t be afraid of the blooms or the weeds. Let God show us the way by discerning when we rest and when we grow and change. Long for God and trust in God’s steadfast love. God isn’t done with this community of faith. See that vision, take it to God, and wait for the appointed time. May it be so.
[1] See a fuller discussion of this story in Amy Jill-Levine and Ben Witherington III’s book (pages 295-299): The Gospel of Luke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
[2] Karoline Lewis. Working Preacher. July 15, 2019. workingpreacher.org/dearworking-
preacher/now-is-the-time; accessed 3.14.25
[3] https://cac.org/daily-meditations/contemplation-and-action-nondualistic-journey-2016-05-13/; accessed 3.14.25