Friday, December 5

Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the reign of God is near." Luke 21: 29-31

Let's look at a parable inserted earlier in this passage. It's a gentle parable: "Consider the fig tree." It's about Spring: "all the trees sprout leaves." You know what that means: "Summer is near." So also you should know the meaning of the cataclysmic signs of distress. The end of the world? Not necessarily. Rather, the coming of God's reign.

The parable reminds me of a beautiful passage about the end of winter in the Song of Solomon. "The fig tree putteth forth the green figs and the vines with tender grapes give a good smell. So, arise my love, my fair one, and come with me." (SS 2:13 KJV) It's Spring! The time for new life has come.

Our earliest Easter hymns unabashedly used images of Spring as symbols for new life and resurrection. In "Come Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain" (# 315) the 8th Century theologian John of Damascus refers to Spring as the Queen of seasons, which comes to render joy:

Tis the spring of souls today, Christ hath burst his prison,
And from three days sleep in death as a sun hath risen;
All the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying
From his light, to whom we give laud and praise undying.

John Mason Neale, who translated this hymn from the Greek, wrote his own Easter carol on the theme of Spring, "The World Itself Keeps Easter Day." More familiar is "Now the Green Blade Riseth" (# 311), also echoing this early Easter/Spring theme with its repeated refrain, "Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green."

What a strange juxtaposition in Luke 21 between the parable of the fig tree in spring and the dreaded dark day of wrath. But it is an ever-present juxtaposition. Earthquakes and floods, wars and rumors of war (used to stock-pile weapons of mass destruction) are indeed always with us. But so is Spring, the eternal return of new life, always with us. Chicken Little went around proclaiming that the sky is falling. In reality it was an acorn, a begetter of great oaks, a sign of new life.

However you look at it, the reign of God is coming. It could even be here. With it comes a troubling question. "Can the reign of God come on earth without earthly empires falling?" All empires rise and fall, while God reigns within, or underneath or alongside the "kingdoms of this earth!" In an era of competing nationalisms dare we sing the subversive songs of God's reign on earth?

A Prayer/Hymn: #730 "O Day of God Draw Nigh" (R.B.Y. Scott's anticipation of the Reign of God)


John Kruse

All contents copyright 2003 by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. Permission is granted to United Methodist congregations, individuals and groups to reproduce and distribute this devotional without charge. All other use requires the advance permission of the editor.