You can’t escape from it.  Every now and again the Devil or one of his minions will creep up on you and whisper in your ear . . . that your faith is a made-up thing; that you worship a human invention.  On those occasions I want you to remember the Old Testament Lesson appointed for today.  Because, here is Moses, whom we have been taught was a great prophet; the heroic liberator of an entire nation from the grip of one of the mightiest rulers in history; . . . here is Moses, whom Holy Scripture represents to be mediator of God’s Holy Law; here is Moses . . . and he’s a sniveling, shifty-eyed weasel!  If you were inventing a religion, would you begin by telling everyone what a sap its founder was?  And yet, that’s just how the Book of Exodus begins.  First of all, how does Moses encounter the One True God, Creator of Heaven and Earth?  Is it while Moses is immersed in earnest prayer?  Not hardly; in fact, religion is so far from Moses’ thoughts or interests that God has to catch his attention by luring Moses aside with a parlor trick!  A burning bush, for goodness sake.  And then, when God discloses His purpose for Moses, . . . the guy tries to get out of it by lying to God.  He tells God that Pharaoh is so powerful and Moses is so insignificant -- as if God doesn’t know Moses was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter and grew up calling Pharaoh “Grandpa.”  And then when God meets this first objection, Moses tries to weasel out of the job by telling God that he couldn’t possibly represent Him because he doesn’t know God’s Name.

    So, we aren’t dealing with high test holiness when we’re speaking of Moses.  He certainly isn’t a credible prophet, liberator, or mediator for a made-up God.  But the story doesn’t end there.  Read on in the Book of Exodus and you’ll find that once God had gotten Moses to cooperate with Him . . . the people God picks to call “holy” are as unlikely as their liberator.  They’re whiny, ungrateful, and the most exasperating lot of sorry souls to ever entrust with divine Truth.  It is exactly as Saint Paul summarizes it.  Liberated by God in the person of Moses, the Hebrew people show their gratitude by immediately falling into idolatry, immorality, sullen grumbling, and outright rebellion.  . . . So, you see, our faith is not one that is invented.  An imaginary God would never have anything to do with such a people as Moses and the children of Israel:  a very real people with all the unholy weaknesses everyone else is subject to; . . . people just like us.  But, of course, the truth is that there are no men and women of such heroic holiness that God grooms them to lead us by their infallible insights.  There are only liars and cheats like Moses . . . who come to holiness by stages and by grace.  . . . They are called by a very real God to bear fruit, as Moses was called; . . . they are called by a very real God as the people of Israel were called; called by God to be, as Saint Paul puts it, “baptized . . . [to eat] the same supernatural food and [to drink] the same supernatural drink”; . . . called by God to encounter His holiness . . . to love it enough to appropriate it; . . . to love it enough to represent God’s holiness to one another and to anyone who might be a stranger to God . . . so that all the precious children of God might believe in Him, Who is their true Father, Creator of heaven and earth; so that all the world might eventually refuse the deeds of death and turn to follow the Way of Life revealed to us in the Commandments given to Moses and in God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

    And so, here you all are, successors and heirs of Moses and the children of Israel.  Like Moses and the children of Israel, you aren’t particularly holy (although unlike Moses and the children of Israel, you’re probably a lot better behaved).  . . . And chances are you aren’t here today for sacred reasons that arise out of the noble motives of your soul.  In all likelihood, . . . you are here today because at one time or another you were lured and called by God, just as Moses was.  . . . You have been lured and called by the One True God to be His; . . . you have been lured and called by God to come to holiness by stages and by grace . . . in order that you might bear the fruits of holiness with lives that sanctify your family, this Church, human society, and all of Creation.

    And so, Jesus tells us the wonderful parable you have heard today; . . . that

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.  And he said to the vinedresser, “Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none.  Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?”

You see, we can’t impress God by how green and leafy we are or how well behaved we might be.  He doesn’t give a hoot about how clever you are or how prosperous.  . . . God has planted you in this place to bear fruit!  . . . And God, the Father, strolls through this His vineyard to see if each of you are bearing fruit which is the image of His Incarnate Son; . . . to see if you are thankful for your daily bread . . . and if you’re as generous toward others as He has been toward you.  God, the Father, strolls through His vineyard looking to see if you regularly and faithfully forgive what people owe to you . . . as He has forgiven your indebtedness to Him.  God, the Father, strolls through His vineyard looking to see if you remember each day that you are a doer of His will and an expression of His love as well as a receiver of His protection and graces; . . . to see if you will give a cup of living water to one of His little ones who is perishing.  God, the Father, strolls through His vineyard looking to see if you are not simply using up His graces . . . but yielding, by stages, the fruits of holiness.

    And Christ’s point in telling us this parable is that God’s perfect judgement doesn’t cut down the souls that are particularly idolatrous or immoral or rebellious or sullen.  You don’t have to be a particularly evil person to earn damnation.  . . . All you have to do is fail to give to God what He created you and gave you life to do; . . . all you have to do is fail to yield fruit, . . . fruit which feeds and nourishes and blesses God’s vineyard; . . . fruit which gives proper reverence to the God who has loved us with His Life; . . . fruit which manifests God’s sacred, unconditional love to one another and to the rest of humanity.

    You don’t have to be particularly evil to earn damnation; . . . all you have to do is be careless.  But in Jesus we have an advocate, . . . because He continues His parable by saying that,

[the vinedresser] answered [the man], “Let [the unfruitful fig tree] alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it and put on manure.  And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

So, you see, this Lenten Season is a time for you to allow Christ the vinedresser to cut back that overly complex root system of yours.  That overly complex root system which extends itself here and there to tinker with everyone’s problems, diddle with self-indulgent projects, restlessly pursue imagined needs, and thirst after whatever your envy fancies . . . so that your energies are occupied with meddling among a great variety of things all over the Vineyard . . . and there is no energy left in you to flower and fruit where you are.  Lent is a time for you to allow Christ the vinedresser to dig around your roots by submitting yourself to the simplicity of fasting; by indulging in self-forgetful acts of generosity; by investing hours on your knees in personal prayer as well as corporate.  This Lenten Season is a time for you to welcome and invite Christ the vinedresser to feed your simplified life with His Holy Word contained in Scripture and in the treasured and profitable spiritual writings of the Church, and with the supernatural food and the supernatural drink of His most precious Body and Blood, . . . not only on Sunday, but every opportunity that arises, . . . allowing the manure of Christ’s sacred Presence to infect all your days with holiness.

    The faith into which you have been baptized is not a made-up thing.  It is participation in a divine life that is very real and the source of all the life that is in you.  But the favor of eternal life given to us in Baptism is not sufficient if you do not allow its grace to nourish you with the holiness of the divine life.  You can die forever with the rest of the damned . . . just by being careless.  Or, as Saint Paul puts it, “let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.”  But the wonderful news of our faith is that “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”  . . . But in order for that to happen, you must be circumscribed by Christ Jesus and you must feed upon His Word and His Sacraments, . . . because, while Saint Paul is absolutely correct -- that “with the temptation [your gracious heavenly Father] will also provide the way of escape” -- . . . the way of escape cannot be seen by anyone whose life is not simple; . . . whose life is not detached from the world, their own flesh, and the devil; . . . the way of escape from sin cannot be seen by anyone . . . whose life is not obedient to Jesus.