tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653414895077719945.post9205741025967205084..comments2023-09-23T00:56:14.643-07:00Comments on EcoPreacher: Hope for the Fruitless TreeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01760478839598027696noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653414895077719945.post-67266973484805552672013-12-29T07:49:04.391-08:002013-12-29T07:49:04.391-08:00Thank you for your comment and engagement with thi...Thank you for your comment and engagement with this provocative text. We are in agreement that judgement is to be avoided when work is to be done. I think that point is clear throughout the piece. In terms of the warning to be ready to meet with God - what you offer is certainly another way the text could be interpreted. The deliberate ambiguity of the text invites multiple approaches. But again, making the tree the equivalent of human beings is fraught with risk. A tree can only be as fruitful as the environmental conditions in which it exists. How wonderful that we have a God who seeks every opportunity to protect and nourish us, giving us every chance possible. May we, as apprentices to The Gardener, learn to do likewise.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01760478839598027696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3653414895077719945.post-19617846106158557182013-11-08T04:28:52.114-08:002013-11-08T04:28:52.114-08:008 "`Sir,' the man replied,`leave it alone... 8 "`Sir,' the man replied,`leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig round it and fertilise it.<br /> 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'" (Luk 13:8-9 NIB)<br /><br />Your interpretation is powerful and insightful, but works only right up to this point. Yes, they are self-righteous, hoping that the galileans had done something to deserve it. But they aren't to give the galileans one last chance, dig round with manure, then judge them next year. They aren't to judge them at all. <br />Rather, this teaching surely follows on the back of Luke 12- warning to be ready to meet with God. <br />God is giving us one last year to yield the fruit of repentance and faith. To judge others as sinners deserving judgment is to miss that we too deserve judgment, and God has delayed all our deforestation for one last chance. Jase the Basshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15149331347659199835noreply@blogger.com