Readings: Psalm 63; Isaiah 53 1-8; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
When I was performing in operas with the WA Opera Company I had the privilege of performing with some amazing singers. In my very first opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio by Mozart, I performed opposite June Bronhill. It was rather daunting, but when I spoke with her about her long, successful career as an international opera star, she said to me `You`re only as good as your next performance`.

It`s amazing, but it`s true. When I went on stage with June Bronhill, despite her amazing career, we were equals in that we were both there to perform, to entertain. The audience might have cut her a bit of slack because of what she had done. They might cut me a bit of slack because it was my first time, but in the end if we didn`t deliver the goods this time, we would have failed.

Today`s readings from the Bible are a strange disconnected collection but when I read them it was that phrase that occurred to me - `You`re only as good as your next performance`. Let me walk you through the readings and show you what I mean.

Psalm 63, today`s Psalm starts off a theme of food and drink that runs through the other readings. `Oh God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you`. And then in verse 5 `My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips`. Where and when does this spiritual God-feast happen? In Church or in the Temple? No, `When I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night`.

So for the Psalmist meditating on God is like a feast for his spirit. A midnight snack, perhaps? But this same Psalmist says in Psalm 69 `Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.` Clearly meditating on God is a feast for the soul, but sometimes, when the water`s up to your neck, you`re so flat out swimming that it`s hard to meditate.

Isaiah in chapter 55 has a great way of getting our attention. Food and drink - a free feast! `Ho everyone who`s thirsty, come to the waters, and you that have no money, come buy and eat.` It sounds too good to be true! And that`s the whole point! In case we haven`t got the message he goes on with the impossible analogy, `Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.` Of course it is impossible. This is a spiritual feast, not a physical feast! Like virtually all of the book of Isaiah, this is written as the voice of God. God is offering everyone a free spiritual feast.

Open wide, he says, but not your mouth, that`s the wrong orifice! `Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.`

But it isn`t just a matter of accepting this free feast for the ears and that`s it. Verse 6 says, `Seek the Lord while he may be found . . .Let the wicked return . . . to our God, for he will abundantly pardon`. Life is not one long feast. Nor is it a journey with God, joined at the hip. Sometimes we feel close to God and sometimes we question his very existence.

And as we struggle with questions like that, check out verse 8. `My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are my ways your ways, says the Lord`. So maybe if I `seek the Lord` and can`t find him I`m looking for the wrong God or in the wrong way or in the wrong place.

That reminds me of a couple of silly stories. The first is about the man walking home one night who sees a drunk crawling around on his hands and knees under a street light, feeling for something. `Did you lose something?` he says. `Yes, I dropped my key over there in the shadows.` `So why aren`t you searching over there?` `Oh, it is pitch black over there, the light`s much better here!`

The other story is about the man who was lost, driving out in the country. He pulled up and asked a local yokel, `Can you tell me how to get to the city?` The yokel scratched his head, took the hayseed out of his mouth and said, `Well, if I was you I wouldn`t start from here!`

Sound like a lot of nonsense? Exactly! After all, if God really is the ground of my being, how can I not find him? Indeed, as the Psalmist said in another place, I can`t escape God, no matter where I go.

But Paul`s letter to the Corinthians makes it clear that being surrounded by God`s presence isn`t enough. The Israelites were under the cloud of God`s presence. Along with Moses they were even baptised in the Red Sea. They feasted on the spiritual food and drink that God provided in the desert, but they still drifted off and forgot about God, preferring the golden calf they could see and touch.

Christianity is not about something that God, we or someone else did at some time in the past. Because of God`s nature, we are loved and God is with us, regardless. Knowing that, we are called to live out our faith, our faith in God`s love, every day. When it comes to living up to our calling, we are all only as good as our next performance.

That`s what Jesus is telling us too in his parable of the fig tree. The passage from Luke 13 is `rather stark` as Bill Loader puts it `with its dire warnings about repentance`. Each of the warnings tells the same story - `Don`t relax and think bad things only happen to bad people.` As Rabbi Harold Kushner`s book title affirms, bad things happen to good people and our understanding of God needs to acknowledge that.

Indeed, Jesus is the example of that fact. His death has been interpreted many ways, trying to turn disaster into triumph, but perhaps the message is simpler. Living a life of love and vulnerability is no guarantee that bad things won`t happen, but it is God`s way of living, so it is the only way that works in the long run. It isn`t a question of building up a record of avoiding doing the bad things other people do. It is a call to live a life of love each and every day, with no days off for good behaviour!

Then comes Jesus story of the fig tree. I can relate very well to this. At home we have a Genoa fig tree. I was given it by a friend who sang its praises and the way his one produced masses of little black figs. I accepted it politely, because I`m not all that fond of figs, and planted it by the path on the way to our back door. For the first few years there was no sign of fruit and I was tempted to pull it out, but then I learnt about pruning it and how it fruited on new wood. This year we had a wonderful crop of delicious figs and, yes, I`m now a fig fan!

Jesus message about the fig tree is partly that we have a second chance (and maybe we do need a bit of pruning) but it is mainly that we are all on borrowed time. We can`t relax in the reputation of the trees from which we were sprouted. We must produce fruit. As fig trees we are only as good as our next crop!

And that brings us back to the theme of food - we are not just called to partake of a love feast, we are called to produce one. To live a life that is a sustaining feast of love for all those we meet. What an image - and what a challenge!