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Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word, the Gospel according to Luke, the 13th chapter, beginning at the verse numbered 6. And Jesus told this parable. 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,

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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?" And he answered him, "Let it 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." And may God bless to us

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and to our understanding this story told by his Son. Amen. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. This is Reformation and also Stewardship Sunday and I would ask you to think with me this morning on the theme Semper Ecclesia Reformanda, which means the

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church always reforming. The motivating problem which led to the Protestant Reformation was the fact that the church of its day had come to depend more upon itself than upon its God. It was more allegiant to its traditions than it was to the truth. It sought its own counsel more than the counsel of the Holy

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Spirit. And because this was so, certain men who thought that the Word of God as it is being spoken in the here and now, not the traditions of the church, but the Word of God as it is being experienced existentially, that should be that on which the church is built. And so men like Hus and Pharrell and Zwingli and

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Luther and Calvin and Knox sought to reform the church. They thought the church should never become self-satisfied, self-contained, idolizing itself. It must always be reforming itself into what God would have it be. And this process of reformation was not something to happen only once, it was to

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happen continually, for no state of the church was perfect. Always there must be that desire to be in perfect obedience to the will of God. Semper Ecclesia Reformanda, the church always reforming, allegiant to true belief and not to its traditions. Now Jesus told a parable illustrating precisely this point, and

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I've just read it in your hearing. There was a man who had a fig tree which grew in a vineyard, and this man came and he looked for fruit on the tree and found none. And he said to the steward who managed the vineyard for him, "Cut it down, it's taking up ground that could be used for other purposes." And the steward

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replies, "But master, let's give it one more chance. Let me dig up the earth, let me prune it, let me fertilize it, and then if there's still no fruit next year, we'll cut it down and throw it into the fire." Now what's being said by this parable is that God's word to his people is, "I expect you to be productive. You

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are to bring forth rich fruitage." And that doesn't happen just from standing there. That only happens when you break up the soil, when you lop off the branches which are sapping strength from the whole tree, when you fertilize the tree with the truth. It's when you do these things that you become productive. And if

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you do not do these things, if you are not shaking up your roots and shaking up your branches, if you are not reforming, then you are fit only to be cut down. For the ground on which you stand can be used to better purposes. What the parable says is that the church must be semper ecclesia reformanda, always reforming.

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And I'd like to take this parable of Jesus and apply it to our life as a congregation this morning. For we are a tree in God's vineyard, and what does the owner come and find when he looks for fruit in us? Well the first thing he notices of course is that we are in an excellent position. A new Gallup poll on

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religion has recently been completed and it's been pointed out that more and more people are becoming interested in the things of faith. More and more are seeking to find meaning for their own lives. And not only that, but they are also, and this seems to arise out of a deep and profound loneliness, they're

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seeking healthy fellowships of individuals who can help them grow in their personal meaning. So this is a good time for religion according to the Gallup polls. Now notice that in the parable that Jesus taught, this tree, this fig tree, is in a very favored position. It's not just growing out on the road

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somewhere, it is growing in a vineyard. The vineyards were the most fertile places in which a tree could grow. So this tree is in a favored position and one could say about us in our existence as a tree of God that we are in a favored position in time. This is a time when the Holy Spirit is moving and

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interest in the things in faith is growing. But we're not only in a favored position with regard to time, we're also in a favored position with regard to place. For we sit at the center of a great city and we live in the age of cities. Cities are growing. This may sometime be called the age of the great

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metropolitan urge, people moving more and more to the center of the cities, gathering in about the cities. And not only that, but we also know from our studying of patterns of church growth that when a church is always reforming, when it is creative, when it is innovative, it can thrive no matter where

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it is located. There are three essentials in a healthy and a growing church. The first essential is that it preach the Word of God, God's love as made known through the testimony of Scripture. The second essential is that it called its people to be a holy people. That is that they come to know that there is a cost

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to discipleship and further that they're willing to pay that cost. And the third mark of a healthy church is that it preaches and teaches the Word of God, that its interest is not principally in maintaining itself but in a mission to the world. Now these characteristics I think are true of us as a fellowship of

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God's people. We believe these things. So we are in a good position not only in terms of time when interest in religion is increasing, but also in terms of place. We are at a place where we can hold high the light. Now when the owner comes to see this favored tree, he immediately asks about its production. "Where are the

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figs?" he says. "I've come for three years and I found no figs on this tree." What does the master find when he comes and looks at our tree? Well that's a very hard question for us to answer because the fact of the matter is that for the last 15 years this church has not been very productive. Attendance? Down.

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Membership? Down. Giving? Down. Christian education? Down. Now it's encouraging to notice at the same time that I say that this has been true for the last 15 years that we have turned the corner and in the last two years we have seen attendance go up and we have seen membership go up and we have seen giving

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go up. Our Christian education program is still down, although amongst the little people it is growing rapidly. But the fact of the matter is that no matter how you look at our record across the last few years, for a long time we were not producing any significant fruitage. And it's only now in the last two years that

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we have begun to bring forth the blooms, the blossoms of fruit. Now why has this happened? Well that brings us to the third element in the parable. Notice that the owner says, "Cut the thing down. Let's not waste the ground on which it stands anymore." But the good steward who runs the vineyard for the master comes and

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says, "No, please sir, let me dig it up. Let me shake up the earth. Let me prune off the unproductive branches. Let me put fertilizer around it. And let's give it a little more time to see what happens." In other words, the steward suggests a progressive and an aggressively progressive approach to the health of

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the tree. And that's what we've been trying to do in the last years here. We've been doing some very progressive things. Our evangelism program, for example. We now have a whole core of trained volunteers and anyone who seeks counsel in the faith, it's immediately available in this church. Our computer center is

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used to keep in touch with all of those who visit with us. A minister who visited this church last summer and who visited the six other largest Presbyterian churches in our Presbytery said that we had the most active and aggressive and meaningful evangelistic follow-up program that he encountered anywhere.

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That's a good thing. We've moved into the area of television. We now have six telecasts a week. The mail is most encouraging and it's affecting our attendance. Every week at the door there are people who say to me, "We decided to come this morning because we've been watching you on television and people

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are becoming part of this church because of first learning about first church through our telecasts." Our demographic studies have shown that there are many single people in our area. So we are moving aggressively into the field of singles ministry. We now have the young adult ministry. We move more aggressively

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into campus ministry here in our area. We have started the Spares and Payers program. All of these things designed specifically to minister to specific needs. And I might say that the Gallup poll in commenting upon the increase in interest in religion said that one of the things that can keep that going is

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using television and another thing that can keep it going is by focusing on the particular needs of people. We've become more aggressive in establishing small groups. We now have small groups, Bible study groups, in every quadrant of the city. Now it's a very slow and difficult thing to start those kinds of groups but

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what's encouraging about them is that once they have begun they multiply very rapidly. In the area of Christian education we are seeking to start two new adult classes every year and we've added a whole spectrum of electives. Right now we have electives on the Christian and the political life, the

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Christian and motion pictures, the Christian and the Covenant, boot camp which is a series of lessons on the basis of the Christian faith. We're moving aggressively in the area of Christian education and we're moving for the first time into focused evangelism. Studying our demographic

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data, which is right up to date, we looked around and found an area near us where there is an opportunity for growth. We picked the Roslyn Farms area and the area that surrounds it. And we are now moving into that area very aggressively. It's only 12 minutes from us on the parkway. We're flooding the newspapers

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there, the penny savers, all the people who move in receive letters inviting them to this church. They receive free tape so that they have a sense of what our ministry is here. We are seeking to relate. We're trying to flood a given area with the message and we're building our theme around the idea of coming home

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because the demographics show that the folks who live in that area used to belong to churches but when they moved to that area they did not take up new church membership. So we're inviting them to come back to that of which they had some experience before. A new logo has been developed to illustrate this idea

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of coming home again. You know in all of these things you see, we're trying to do what the God who makes all things new says to us through this parable of his son. Shake up the earth, prune the branches, fertilize, do what we can to be responsive to the Holy Spirit, be continually reforming and we are

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beginning to see new fruits. That's very encouraging. But we're also beginning to experience pain and that is inevitable. I mean it's much more comfortable just for the tree to stand there. When somebody starts shaking at you and sawing on you and digging at you and throwing things at you, that is a tendency to make

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some people uncomfortable. Lyle Schaller, who's one of the great experts in church growth in our century, has pointed out that church growth is always upsetting to many people. It threatens some groups because you're starting new groups. It upsets old officers because they're being replaced with new officers, not

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because the new officers are superior in faith, but simply because their experience outside of the church brings new ideas in and all of us have a tendency to become set in our ways. Churches become upset when they're growing because their pastors are spending more time with potential

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members than they are with people who are already members. There's a high cost factor involved because new people who come into the church don't generally become reasonable and productive stewards until they've been in the church for at least three years, though the cost goes up before any income comes

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in. And then there's a price to be paid in terms of intimacy. You hear people say, "Well it's not like it used to be. I come and there are just so many strangers around." You're holding in your hands an illustration of what I mean. We put a new front on the bulletin last week and all week long we've been told

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about how poor it is. And I agree, I don't like it either. I dislike it almost as much as I disliked the one before. I don't believe a church is a building. A church is people. It's not a building. But the fact of the matter is that this logo that appears on the front of the bulletin is being used because it's been

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particularly developed for us by people who know the advertising approach. It's modern in its form. That color is meant to draw attention. You'll notice it says "Come Home." This is the logo you see that's being used out in this saturation area around Roslyn Farm. It's going to appear on all of our literature. It's

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going to appear on our sign boards out front as an easily recognizable logo. Life means growth. Growth means change. And change always means upset. On this Reformation Sunday we need to remind ourselves that when we start paying more attention to our traditions, idolizing our previous ways of doing things, then

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we are to the truth and to getting the gospel out to the world, to becoming a fruit-bearing tree. When we make that mistake we're in trouble. If Martin Luther had decided that he wouldn't do anything that would make some people unhappy, then my friends we would still be bowing toward Rome and toward a man

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who believes with all his heart that when he speaks of matters of the faith he cannot possibly make a mistake. Freedom involves pain and we are called to be semper ecclesia reformanda, always reforming. So the next time that you're inclined to say, "Well I like the way we did it before better than I like the way

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we do it now," let me ask you to ask yourself two questions. First, are you speaking out of your own tastes rather than out of the needs of the church? What difference does it make what's on the front of the bulletin if it will help someone come home to Jesus Christ? My friends, the church that never alters its

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views is like standing water. It becomes stagnant and polluted and it breeds ugly reptilian thoughts that hide in the darkness. Only the foolish and the dead never change their opinion and traditionalism is the last refuge of the unimaginative. So the owner comes and he says, "Where is the fruit? Cut it down. It's

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not producing." But the steward says, "Let's try these progressive things and give us one more year and we're trying to be good stewards." And the owner says, "All right, one year." So a possibility is given, but I want to point out that the owner does not give limitless time. He allows one year. He agrees to one year.

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Unproductive fellowships have only two hopes. First, that there'll be some people in their number who are courageous enough to dig and prune and fertilize, and their only other hope is, second, that they have a little more time. And that's what we have. You know, one of the complaints that we're hearing very much

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these days about the presidential campaign which is in process is that the candidates are not discussing the issues. We hear that on television and we see it in the magazines and the newspapers and all the rest of it. Now the fact of the matter is that rarely do political candidates

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really discuss the issues. And there's a good reason for that, at least good from their perspective. They know when they take definite stands it's going to cost them votes and they're trying to be elected. So they avoid those issues. Now a great number of studies have been done over the course of the last months to

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see what issues most Americans are concerned about. And these surveys indicate that the issues which seem to be attracting most people are dope, defense, national debt, education, and the family. Dope. Did you know that we have now discovered families in Pittsburgh that pay their children's allowance in

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dope? Did you know that there are families in this city that sit down after dinner every night and smoke marijuana together because they find it aids in family communication? The gospel enables people to communicate without the false courage given by chemicals. Defense. Did you know that the nuclear

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powers in the world now have sufficient weapons to destroy each other utterly from the face of the earth 20,000 times over? And that there's never been a weapon developed in history that hasn't eventually been used? But the gospel says that the hope of the world is not to be found in swords and spears, but rather in

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allegiance to the Prince of Peace and to the Prince of Peace Corps, which is the world mission effort. Debt. When a little girl is born in a hospital in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania this morning, the minute she takes her first breath, she is $10,000 in debt. That is her part of the national debt. But the gospel says that

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responsible stewardship, frugal and careful living, sharing, and a meaningful charity, not being consumerist, but buying not just what one wants but what one needs, and always keeping kingdom priorities first, this is the answer to irresponsibility in spending. Education. The American Broadcasting Company

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conducted a survey three weeks ago and they discovered that 40% of the high school seniors in America did not know the names of the men who were running for president. I was shown an essay written by a high school student here in Pittsburgh three weeks ago which contained this line, "The moon and

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the earth are heavenly bodies that are approximately the same distance apart." The gospel says that one is to honor God with one's mind and the greatest engine in the history of human education has been the Church of Jesus Christ. Its impact on Western civilization in terms of education is

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beyond approach by anyone or anything. The family. Sexual abuse is becoming very common in American families. Let me tell you two comments made by teenagers in the city of Pittsburgh within the last one month. A girl said of her father, "He said to me, 'If you want to ride in your own Volkswagen, then you know you must

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put out sexually when I require it.'" And a boy, speaking of his mother, said, "And she said to me, 'If you want to live here, you know what the rent is.'" And she meant his sexual services. Her sons. The gospel is the single greatest support of the family. The scriptures are that which hold the preciousness of the family

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above every other earthly organization. It is the gospel that restores virtue to the believing family. Why have I gone through this list? To point out that the key issues that the public wants to hear the presidential candidates discuss, the church has the answer to every one of them. But the public is not hearing the

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church, which means that the church is not saying what he is saying in a way that can be heard. The church is not presenting a gospel in such a way that issues are being listened to and responded to. Now if we're going to be satisfied with saying the truth, but saying it in a way that nobody will

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listen to, then we will die. We will be cut down. And so will the whole society. And that's the reason that we must be semper ecclesia reformanda, always reforming, always seeking new ways to get out the truth so that people can hear the issues and hear what God has to say about them. Yes, it will cost. The

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candidates know it. Take a stand and it'll cost you votes. And it will cost the church votes, because there are people in the church who will leave it. They want things done in their way. They want the ship sailed according to the same charts by which it has always sailed. They want the old ways. And

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they'll jump ship when one tries to change. But it all boils down to a matter of love. Do we love ourselves, our buildings, our music, our traditions, or is our first love Jesus Christ? And because we love him, do we love the world? And are we seeking to bring the world to him and to his cross? There is a Talmudic story

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about how God decided where to build the temple. It seems that he was looking all over the world and he came to a place called Jerusalem. And there in Jerusalem were two brothers who owned a threshing floor. And they were paid off by their customers in terms of threshed grain. And each of the two brothers had his own

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granary there. Now every night the one brother would come under cover of darkness and he would take some grain out of his own granary and sneak over and put it into his brother's. He said, "You know, my brother has children and I don't have children, and he's going to need more grain, more income, so if I

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tried to give it to him he'd never take it. So I sneak it over and put in it at night." What he didn't know was that a little later each night his brother would come and he would take some grain out of his granary and he would carry it over and put it into his brother's, thinking to himself, "My poor brother, he

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doesn't have any children like I do. My children will take care of me when I'm older, but he's going to be all alone, so he needs more of this world's goods, so I'll sneak some of my grain into his granary." And one night they bumped into each other when making the switch and each suddenly recognized what the other

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was doing and they fell into each other's arms and they wept with joy and with love. And according to the story, when God saw that, he said, "Here, where costly self-sacrificing love for others is, here I will build my temple." And so it was. And so it is.

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