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RSSPatience and Courage
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
3/11/2007
Lent III, Year C
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
I Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
"Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down." -- Luke 13:9
The gardener was a better judge of the fig tree than the man who owned it: it takes a little while for any fruit tree to mature enough to bear. You have to be patient if you're going to farm. A lot can happen. One species isn't like another. And one season isn't like another, either: a farmer is at the mercy of the weather.
The farmers of southern Africa know their crops and their climate. They know never to pin all their hopes on one crop; too many things can happen. Root vegetables and tubers are always among the crops they raise, in case the grain crops succumb to pestilence or drought.
But this year, a perfect storm of circumstances: torrential rains, destroying homes and businesses and washing out the grain crops, leaving water saturating the soil so that not even the tubers -- so faithful a friend in time of drought -- could grow. In Mozambique, Malawi, Angola, the entire growing season will be a loss. The only ones who could show a profit were the mosquitoes, causing an increase in cholera and malaria.
Right away, Anglican bishops were in touch with Episcopal Relief and Development through Hope Africa, the social service organization for southern Africa, and the needed disaster relief was on its way: temporary shelter, blankets, medical supplies, emergency food. And equipment for the rebuilding of life: construction materials, seeds for new plantings, replacements for lost tools. Another growing season isn't far off. The people are strong. They have known hardship before, and they know how to look toward another day.
