00:00:00:00 - 00:00:32:01 Rev. Trudy Welcome to Perspectives, a podcast where the clergy women at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego share their musings on scripture, theology, and what it has to do with us. Welcome to Perspectives. We start a new series today, one that we've entitled The Anger Within US. And throughout this series, we'll look at what scholars John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg determined to be the last week of Jesus's life. 00:00:32:03 - 00:01:17:11 Rev. Trudy That last week was full of increasing anger. Anger isn't foreign to us. Anger is something we all experience. And if you're like me, anger is not the most comfortable feeling. It often creates uncomfortable circumstances and circumstances that we can feel remorseful about after the fact. The anger Jesus encountered resulted in his crucifixion. So this series invites us all to really look at the anger of that last week and dissect it in ways that might make us a little bit more understanding about where anger comes from and maybe even help us to manage it. 00:01:17:13 - 00:01:43:00 Rev. Trudy A little bit better. All the purpose, of course, is so that we can be better human beings. That's the goal. So today we look at the anger caused by frustration shown through the story of Jesus in the fig tree. Welcome to episode number one Frustration. I'm Reverend Trudy Robinson. I'm here with Reverend Dr. Hannah Ka. Hannah, this story, at least the one I'll share with you. 00:01:43:00 - 00:02:09:05 Rev. Trudy The version comes from the Gospel of Mark, Chapter, 11 Verses 12 through 14. And it goes like this. Jesus was traveling with his disciples and he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree in the distance that was in Leith. He went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it, any fruits. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs, scripture says. 00:02:09:06 - 00:02:39:21 Speaker 1 So he said to it "May no fruit." Excuse me. "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" And the disciples heard that. It's one of those rare instances, I think rare, where Jesus just feels so human. He is he's hangry, right? He's hungry and he's angry. He's frustrated and he's impatient. He's reactive, he's dismissive. He curses the fig tree. 00:02:39:23 - 00:03:06:13 Rev. Hannah And I don't know about you, but this is the part that I like about Jesus. Out of the whole story about Jesus. This is an occasion where he's fully human, just like you and me. And I find comfort in his impatience, too, there, especially as a as someone who loses patience and grace all the time. And you've seen it quite often in me. 00:03:06:14 - 00:03:41:23 Rev. Hannah It comes with my expectations, right? And every time I lose patience, I think about is it my personal trait, or is it a part of the culture I'm immersed in. Since I don't want to talk about my personal trait, I want to talk about I want to blame it on the culture. There is something called, something I would like to phrase, as "vending machine culture" or more commonly known as consumerism. 00:03:42:01 - 00:04:22:00 Rev. Hannah So we put money into the vending machine and we have this expectation. The vending machine will get me the product that I'm hungry for or what I want. And or in today's world, Amazon.com, we order or even the kids order and expect it to be delivered the next day. Right. And imagine the frustration and anger and impatience we get if the vending machine does not give us the food we want right away or Amazon delivery guy doesn't deliver it the next day. We wait and we lose patience. 00:04:22:02 - 00:05:02:13 Rev. Hannah I wonder about the culture and then impatience being a part. Part of the byproduct of individualism and consumerism combined within this overarching neo-capitalism society. Capitalistic society. As an individual consumer, I spend my money for the things that I want, and my need is really important over against everyone else. I don't care about if others get their products delivered on time. 00:05:02:18 - 00:05:44:11 Rev. Hannah It's more about mine. There is an increased sense of entitlement. They're heightening expectations in us. I paid for this. I deserve this service, this quality. And just like money can buy products and services, we expect the same in our faith journey as well. We pray for this. We want this to be answered. Pretty individualized. I wonder about our faith journey and where I begin to lose patience. 00:05:44:13 - 00:06:20:17 Rev. Hannah And thinking back, growing up. I remember patience was a part of our cultural value. Growing up in Korea. I'm not sure if they still hold patience as a value. But when you're playing with other friends, I wasn't giving up. I wasn't always given what I asked for. I had way for my turn in games. And you don't always get what you expect to get. 00:06:20:19 - 00:06:57:06 Rev. Hannah And in playing games, there is a communal nature. You play with one set of toys and all of that nurtures us, to be, nurtures us to value, relationships. More than your own need or more than your immediate profit. And I think that goes all the way back to the agricultural environment of that culture. There is season of life and there's a year long cycle. 00:06:57:06 - 00:07:33:06 Rev. Hannah Once you plant the seeds, you wait until it grows and yields some fruits. And have you, did you know, that ginseng takes six full years to be marketable? So patience. Who would wait six years without knowing any results? Yeah. So it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen overnight. And I think it has some parallel lessons in today's scripture. 00:07:33:08 - 00:07:38:16 Rev. Hannah Yeah, but patience was a natural process for us. Yeah. Yeah. 00:07:38:18 - 00:08:05:20 Rev. Trudy It's hard to think of Jesus not having patience, but we see it here. It's strange, though. He lives in an agricultural community. Agricultural society. And he even says it's not the season for fig. I'm going to come back to that in a moment. But this story actually continues on the next morning. And the next morning they see the fig tree withered from the roots. 00:08:05:22 - 00:08:26:12 Rev. Trudy And Peter remembered it and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look, the fig tree you curse has withered." "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "Truly, I tell you, if anyone says to says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them." 00:08:26:14 - 00:08:51:18 Rev. Trudy "Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." And talk about patience. Anyway, it goes on. Jesus says. "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your Father in Heaven may forgive you. Your sins." Okay, so this is all one pericope, right? 00:08:51:20 - 00:09:14:14 Rev. Trudy But it seems like there's a big non-sequitur in there. Jesus goes from cursing the fig tree to talking to his disciples about mountains being moved. He's encouraging his disciples to have faith, to believe, to pray and ask, to forgive and be forgiven. It seems like, I guess, Jesus had the night to calm down, you know, to gather his wits and to prepare for a new day with his disciples. 00:09:14:14 - 00:09:38:01 Rev. Trudy And he's no longer reacting. But he's teaching. But I have to wonder, is there a connection, though, between the fig tree and the disciples? This is where some of my seminary education comes into play. I'm really grateful I learned this. But the author of The Gospel of Mark uses a very unique literary device as he writes the story of Jesus. 00:09:38:02 - 00:10:02:07 Rev. Trudy He will take two stories, two pericopes, and cut one in half and put the second in the middle. So he uses one story as bookends and the other story as the the meat of the sandwich, if you will. And the two stories are really intended to be connected. And they're supposed to be in dialog. One speaks to the other and vice versa. 00:10:02:08 - 00:10:25:18 Rev. Trudy So the the story of the fig tree are the bookends. You want to know what's in the middle of the story? I bet, you know. You know. It's the story of Jesus overturning the tables in the temple. Impatience. Right. And another explosion of anger turning over tables, for Pete's sake. Another instance where Jesus is very human here. 00:10:25:20 - 00:10:50:07 Rev. Trudy But in this scenario, Jesus is angry at the people who got faith wrong. Now, we'll talk more about that story in and of itself in another episode. But for today, it seems to suggest that the fig tree, you know, was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jesus wasn't really angry at the fig tree. He was really angry at someone else. 00:10:50:09 - 00:11:14:14 Rev. Trudy He's encouraging the disciples to have faith, to believe, to pray and ask, to forgive and be forgiven. Maybe he's really angry at the disciples, or any of the people of faith, who get faith wrong. And who lack the strength of faith and really believe in the wrong kinds of things. 00:11:14:16 - 00:11:22:19 Rev. Hannah Do you think it's Mark's way of feeding kids things that they don't want to see and watching them in between stories. 00:11:23:00 - 00:11:23:18 Rev. Trudy The spoon full of sugar? 00:11:23:19 - 00:12:03:10 Rev. Hannah Yes, it is. Yes. And and I get his message. And I see Jesus taking a day or a night's rest to calm down his anger, to get back to it. And there is that value, despite all my cultural upbringing and the impatience of this culture, there is a reason for why I remain as a faithful. I try to be faithful Christian. Because there is a way to counter the culture with faith and belief and prayers. 00:12:03:10 - 00:12:34:10 Rev. Hannah Yeah. Yeah. I would like to have faith that grounds me in this culture of impatience and frustration. And I truly believe in the power of faith and belief and prayer. And they're all connected. For example, I keep saying I will lose extra pounds. Right. So I would pray about a healthier life. If you want to pray for a healthier life, wouldn't you exercise and be healthy? 00:12:34:12 - 00:13:07:07 Rev. Hannah So it's not about just saying the prayer and expecting the result right away. It takes our participation in it. When you pray about things, right, you put your efforts in it. You pay attention to it, and we want to make sure we are moving in the same direction. And things don't happen if we don't invest our heart and efforts in it. 00:13:07:09 - 00:13:20:03 Rev. Hannah But I want to say that I'm not sure if I'm always faithful, but I try to grow into that direction with my faith and prayers. 00:13:20:05 - 00:13:47:09 Rev. Trudy It's a very interesting dynamic. The faith and belief. Faith, belief and action. All of it, right? And there is a great connection between the faith that we believe, that we profess. It drives us into action. And sometimes when we're out acting, we have to return back to the belief to keep us going. Right? It's a real dynamic situation. 00:13:47:11 - 00:14:20:19 Rev. Trudy But it's so in this story, Jesus is mad people getting faith wrong. And and he sees this fig tree and then even says, you know, it's not the season for figs. And if he's really talking about perhaps we human beings who are fig tree like, and and really don't produce the fruit that we are capable of, right? Maybe that's why Jesus is really angry. 00:14:20:21 - 00:14:46:20 Rev. Trudy And it makes me wonder, how many times do we think, it's not the right time to do this? Whatever this something of faith might be, that maybe in another season, that'll be the right time. Right? And, you know, I mean, we procrastinate. We can find all sorts of reasons not to do something. And eventually there's never a good time. 00:14:46:20 - 00:15:13:20 Rev. Trudy And, you know, it just simply is not the season for figs. You know, I have to wonder sometimes, what are we waiting for? And and and I know that I get angry. You know, I. Yeah, believe it or not. Yeah, I get angry. I get angry. In fact, I have been known to say throughout my life, I just want people to do their job, you know, so I can get Jesus saying, you know, "Come on, fig tree, just get it done!" Right. 00:15:13:22 - 00:15:35:21 Rev. Trudy I want people to do their job, whether I'm waiting for a callback from the repairman or for the server to take my order or for a coworker to just get something done. You know, we wait. We wait for others where it's that communal the of of agriculture. Right. We can't do anything til we're all doing it together. And we want everybody to do their part. 00:15:35:21 - 00:16:05:22 Rev. Trudy But I know I fail to do my part in many ways. And I notice that when I don't act sometimes I just don't know what to do or how to do it. And that's when I began to think about the importance of mentoring, of having someone like Jesus to the disciples going ahead of you, showing you how to do it and and mentor us not just in ability, but in our attitude as well. 00:16:06:00 - 00:16:16:04 Rev. Hannah Yeah. And how much patience and time did it take for you to mentor to this point? And I mean, and. 00:16:16:04 - 00:16:21:12 Rev. Trudy You in particular? Yeah. we don't have time for that. Okay. All right. 00:16:21:14 - 00:16:54:00 Rev. Hannah I want to highlight the fact that you just don't see. I want people to do their job. You also say, do you think they're ready for this? Is this the right season or sometimes when I'm too slow, you would say, hey, now we aren't in the right season for that. So looking for a rhythm and the right season through mentoring is what makes our faith community healthier and growing, too. 00:16:54:01 - 00:16:55:19 Rev. Trudy Yeah. Yeah. 00:16:55:21 - 00:17:27:05 Rev. Trudy It takes all of us and it takes faith and it takes people to take the lead. And we take turns doing that. Yeah. I'm grateful for the people in my life who life who have mentored me. And I remember being surprised at the moment. I thought, gosh, I think I think I'm a mentor to someone, you know, And I think we all can be that to one another in so many ways. 00:17:27:07 - 00:18:01:13 Rev. Trudy That's our perspective. And so now it's time for you to think about yours, and we invite you to consider these questions. What frustrations do you have? Is your anger misplaced at times? What is your experience of mentoring, either being mentored or mentoring another? And what fruit are you capable of bearing if you weren't procrastinating? I hope you enjoy this podcast. 00:18:01:13 - 00:18:31:00 Rev. Trudy Thank you for joining us today. If you want to have others to discuss these questions with, we invite you to join us for Convergence. We have all sorts of details about all sorts of things, including Convergence and other podcasts of this perspective. And so we have all of that information on our website. I'll see you next time. This is a production of First United Methodist Church of San Diego. 00:18:31:02 - 00:18:54:13 Rev. Trudy To learn more about our events and ministries and to access additional learning resources, visit fumcsd.org.