Epiphany 02: The Fig Tree

Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

1. Tim talked about the Fig Tree as a Jewish symbol. In some senses, it represents a promise of safety, security, and provision. In others, it is used as a symbol of Nationalism, used to give license to kill, sometimes in the name of God.
Calling back to the Bible’s first mention of a fig tree, in the story of Adam & Eve, Tim also talked about the way these symbols can represent the human temptation to hide, and to avoid our own nakedness and vulnerability.
In both senses, Tim likened the Jewish Fig Tree to the American “stars and stripes.”
Reflect back on your own life to date. Whether the fig tree, the American flag or something else, where are places in which you’ve rallied behind/under a powerful idealogical symbol and used its cover as a way to exert your will upon others, in whatever way and to whatever scale? In other words, where have you acted (or supported others to act) to overpower or subdue someone else’s voice/ideas/intentions/humanity and felt justified in doing so for reasons of “Christian righteousness?”
Likewise, where are places in your story that you’ve perhaps taken cover under the banner of an idealogical frame or symbol in order to avoid and hide from the painful and vulnerable realities of human existence, either your own or that of others?
2. Tim talked about the nature of American Nationalism and the ways in which the story of America is often tethered to the storyline of Christianity. He shared the idea that the identities of many American Christians are more American than Christian. He cited Stanley Hauerwas’ observation that many teach their children that being a Christian is their choice in a way that being an American is not.
How does this idea strike you? If you are an American by birth, does it feel more or less immovable than your identity as a Christian? If you were born into a Christian American family, how does your experience line up with Hauerwas’ observation?
And how do these two signifiers of identity function within you today (if you are both American & Christian)? Does one feel more or less fluid than the other? Share about why you think that might be.
3. (Final infographic included below as a memory refresher) In the latter half of his sermon, Tim walked through Richard Rohr’s idea of a human’s spiritual journey through life. The journey starts with a period of intense ascent, followed by a time of crisis, and then either a path of continued ascent in pursuit of building our towers, or by a leap from our tower into a period of descent in which we are no longer trying to win or conquer, but are, instead, learning to die to ourselves and pour out our lives for others in love. “Love,” Tim said, “is always a fall.”
Reflect on the potential trajectories laid out by Rohr and their differences and outcomes. Share about your own experiences of the stages described (so far in your life): ascent, crisis, then continued ascent or descent.
Which feel familiar? Current? Elusive? Confusing? Do you see yourself on one of the trajectories Rohr describes as leading toward either “old fool” or “holy fool?” How so or why not?