The Gospel Need in a world of Corporate Greed

A Mission reading of Luke 13: 6- 9

The year 2014 is remembered as the 30^th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy that claimed several lives, only to epitomise how corporate greed continues to dominate even at the expense of human life, for it is only profit which continues to be the driving force of all versions of greed. It will soon be three decades since the people of Bhopal have been exposed to 40 tons of methyl isocyanate and other undisclosed chemical gases due to the negligence of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), claiming over 25,000 lives to date, affecting currently about 5,00, 000 with various chronic health problems. It has been the corporate greed and values of consumerism which take no note of the worth of human life, and eventually destroying justice and peace among the creation. This is just an incidence of one of its kind, for there are several other narratives to describe how human greed steers the rich and the powerful in any society, with no concern to human life and dignity. The caption that very well captures the greed of human beings today is “Yeh Dil Mange More”, ( this heart desires more) and therefore puts in perspective the struggles for life across the globe against corporate giants, be it the anti-posco struggle, or the anti-nuclear struggle. Captions like, “Neighbours envy, owners pride” have been used as captions of virtue, taking for granted the vices like envy & greed.  In such a context of greed, which affects the whole of creation, discerning the common creed of life is a challenge for us all as communities that wrestle with faith in making it more contemporary and relevant. At a time like this, when corporate greed dominates the society today, the gospel need and the Christian public witness is to affirm life, protect life and sustain life, life in all its fullness.

Jesus as recorded in Luke 13: 6-9 narrates a parable about a fig tree that continues not to bring forth fruits when the owner comes searching for its fruits. After three years of thorough inspection and waiting, the owner pronounces his judgement to cut down such a tree with no fruits, for it even wastes the soil. There comes the gardener, who pleads the owner to let it stay for one more year, for he would give extra care and effort and strive to bring fruit, and then takes a grace period of extending the life of that tree by a year, ‘if it doesn’t yield fruit even then, you can do as you want, to cut it down’, says the gardener. Now I would like to attempt to re-read this parable of Jesus from our own given context and try to decipher the voice and position of God in this parable, and find implications for us in our faith journey.

The Economic-Corporate Greed: Here is an owner of the land, who planted a fig tree in his vineyard. His understanding of a garden is to yield fruits all the time, be it grapes or figs from his garden. When he kept looking for fruits for three years from a lonely fig tree among the vine groves, he kept judging the fig tree by its yield. He wasn’t satisfied with the yield that comes from the vines in his vineyard. He like any other corporate undertaking gives a time period of three years for the fig tree to produce its yield and prove its mettle.  He believes that by only bearing fruits, a tree is worth, if not, it ceases to be worthy. All he wanted to make was profit from his garden, and therefore pronounces a judgement that three years of waiting for fruits from the fig tree is a waste of time and waste of soil and a waste of employees working on her. So he tells the gardener to ‘cut down the tree.’ This is exactly the ideology of greed, to have more and more, to have profit and to judge by those norms of profit, in this case the external visible fruits of figs.

The Eco- Feminist Creed: There comes a common powerless gardener, who dares to speak on behalf of the fruitless fig tree appealing to the owner for one more year and one more opportunity to prove its credibility. It is this employee gardener who spends lots of time with the trees and the vines in the vineyard, and knows the worth of each tree in the garden and befriends all of the trees with whom he keeps working. The gardener does not join the owner in judging it by its fruits, instead he assures the owner to take extra effort, extra care, by digging  around and by putting manure for her and appeals for yet another chance to affirm her life. Cutting down the fig tree just because it does not bear fruits is not the available option for the gardener, on the other hand the gardener wants to save life, affirm life and build a community of unity & diversity seasoned with justice & peace. Probably, according to the gardener, the fig tree would have been a space of shade for him in that scorching sun, where he could take some rest. Or the fig tree could have been a nesting place for several birds in that vicinity, or the fig tree would have had the strings of the vines tied to her, bearing the tension of those grapes on the vines. The gardener developed a cherished relationship with the trees and the vines in the vineyard, and cannot think of any tree being cut off for any reason, and therefore the gardener’s creed was ‘do not cut down the tree.’ For cutting down the trees have both sociological and ecological problems, and the small farmer very well recognises this fact and pleads not to cut down the tree.

The Encouraging Seed: We recognise the voice of God in the gardener, who counters greed by affirming life, who doesn’t judge by mere fruits, but seeks extra time and opportunity in preparing the tree to fruit. Imagine, the owner who is all powerful, who could have easily neglected the voice of the gardener or would have punished the gardener for not listening to his command. Yet the gardener, who cares for every tree equally, whether it has fruits or not, takes courage to speak to a person with power, risks his life and employment and appeals to give him an opportunity to prove life. We see an eco-feminist in this gardener, who relates to all of the creation with equality and justice, and wants all trees and plants to live and let other creatures live. The gardener knowing the ill effects of cutting down the trees, prevents such a mishap by placing his life in a state of jeopardy, in speaking back to the greedy owner. The eco-feminist towards the end of the parable says, ‘if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down’, which only shows that he is confident that the tree would bear fruits, life of the fig tree would be affirmed in dignity by next year, otherwise he wouldn’t have agreed to such a deal.

The parable is silent of what has happened the next year after all these extra efforts of the gardener, but if we stretch our imagination, two primary things would have happened. One, the owner would have realised over the year that it is not always by fruits that one needs to judge a tree, for he would have changed his mind to acknowledge life in all forms in the creation and recognises the worth of every creature as he or she comes forth. There would have been a change of mind to the greedy owner on recognising the extra efforts of the gardener. On the other hand, the other possibility would have been to visualise the fig tree filled with lots of amazing figs on her branches to surprise the owner, and the owner would have realised how mean he was in being judgemental on the tree and by wanting to cut the tree.  

Implications for us today:

At a time like this, when ecological narratives and paradigms are contaminated by human greed and selfishness, Christian Public Witness is to affirm life, support life, protect life and sustain life, life in all its fullness.

·    2014, is declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Family Farming, trying to encourage the efforts of family gardening and its role in eradicating poverty and affirming food security and sovereignty. Therefore this parable encourages local family farming by houses in the household to give extra time, efforts and energies to plant and work on farming. This parable encourages us to recognise the small landless labourers and farmers, their hard labour and their creative initiatives for food security.

·         Let us not be driven by values of greed and profit in our lives, for affirming life in all its dignity to all of the creation is all that matters in the journey of faith. Let us make a commitment to participate in the struggles for justice of all the victims of greed in our contexts, the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy, the victims of Posco, and the victims of nuclear energy plants, etc.

·         Let us not judge creation and people merely from our own perspectives and instead try to look at life in all its totality, wholeness and fullness and learn to respect the equal worth of life in all creatures of God. For justice is beyond borders.

·         Make a commitment to befriend our creation, make them as our kith and kin, stop cutting down trees, and be committed to our environment and ecology. Rise and respond to the needs of our creation.

·         Explore God among the powerless and those among the margins, for justice and peace comes from them to the entire communities. For it is no longer mission to the margins, but it is mission from the margins.

The gospel need in the context of corporate greed to is to affirm life in all its fullness and try to explore and locate God among those on the margins, specially the landless labourers, small farmers, daily wage employees, un-seasoned and off-seasoned workers etc. and continue to work for community of peace and justice for all. May God, the farmer who seeds God’s creation in all equality continue to inspire each of us to channel peace, equality and justice to all of our creation.

Rev. Raj Bharath Patta,

General Secretary,

Student Christian Movement of India.