Leave It Alone This Year Also [New Year Service]

The owner of the vineyard orders the fig tree that has borne no fruit for three years to be cut down. The vinedresser pleads with him to leave it alone for just this year, promising to dig around it and put manure on it.

To be cut down is not a passing punishment but eternal destruction. Even so, Jesus does not give up on his people when they bear no fruit; even now he is pleading with God in his wrath to grant them this one year. We are here today because of that plea, because of God’s patience, and because the Holy Spirit has kept us.

The years gone by cannot be called back, like an arrow once shot into the air, but the time ahead can still be filled with as much good as we choose. Whether or not we have served faithfully until now, we must put it all behind us and, with the gifts we have received, bear the fruit of repentance, prayer, devotion and love. May each of us ask whether we have become a tree thick with leaves yet bare of fruit, and make 2020 the year in which opportunity becomes blessing.