When we feel judged and unproductive—a message of grace and hope

March 13, 2013

One More Year —Nadia Bolz-Weber helps us see a parable with new eyes
Take some time to read—or better yet, listen to—this sermon by the ever-creative Nadia Bolz-Weber, who shares her thoughts about Jesus’ parable of the unproductive fig tree, the angry and impatient vineyard owner who is ready to chop it down, and the gardener who steps in with a better idea.  Nadia says, “I can relate to the poor fig tree in our parable for today.  The fig tree that for whatever reason cannot produce.  I feel like that not infrequently, maybe you do too.  Unable to produce.  Produce writing, or results at your work, or completed job applications. Unable to produce the improvement in the relationship with your mother than you’ve been trying to accomplish.  Maybe we are all fig trees in a way.” Nadia Bolz Weber is a pastor whose work we’ve featured before. Her blog, The Sarcastic Lutheran, is part of the Patheos website.

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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