Luke21: 29-end Gospel reading.

In my garden I don’t have a fig tree, but I do have fruit trees which have long been telling the season, like the fig tree in the reading from Luke.

As Luke tells it, when you see the trees come into leaf, you see it as a sign of summer coming, a hope of fruit to come. I inspect my apples and pears and plums every day to watch the changes, as blossom has come and gone, the tiny fruits started to form and now the beginnings of colour touching the fruit as a promise of ripeness to come. It is exciting, because although the promise is there, there is no guarantee that we will get to pick and eat the fruit: others, mostly the many birds of Sussex and equally many insects, will come and eat in their own time (usually just before I get there).

So Jesus’ fig tree parable holds many signs and symbols for us. He uses the story to warn of the dangers to come upon the earth, and the signs that the kingdom of God is near. To show how easy it will be for us to take our eyes from God and be caught unawares, just like the man who walks in the forest, with his eyes on the trees, who is brought up short as he steps on a hidden animal trap.

The last few months have been just like this: what we considered normal life going on about us, our eyes on our daily anxieties or fixed on the spring or summer holidays we may have booked. There were lots of potential worries in the world – hunger, war, political conflict, Brexit – so the little signs coming out of Wuhan seemed fairly insubstantial at the turn of the year. And suddenly we were brought up short, the trap closed and so did normal life.

How do we make sure we notice the signs of God’s kingdom? How do we keep our attention on Him rather than on ourselves? Jesus taught us to be watchful and to pray. He showed us how to do this in his days before his trial in Jerusalem: by day he taught and witnessed to the Word, by night he rested and prayed. He asks no more of us than this, his own Way.