For the next three weekends, a pastor has a choice with Gospel texts depending upon how the OCIA program is observed locally. If there are Catechumens, you may hear John 4. If not, you will hear from Luke about a vineyard with a fig tree in it! What’s that tree doing in a vineyard?  Perhaps he wants to make us curious and get us thinking. So, we get a parable from Jesus that I like to call, “The Last Chance Story.” The message could not be clearer. If we are in this vineyard (the world or the church), then something is expected of us. We may not just take up space, using up nutrients without producing something. A person who says or thinks that never hurting anyone or not doing anything wrong is in trouble. Jesus is going to ask what good we have done. The basic Christian test is not about what you can get out of life, but what did you put in? In the parable, that fig tree did nothing, but it had a champion willing to dig around and fertilize it. Yet, there was a limit. After one more year, the limit came. I believe this Gospel says that there is a final chance. Yet, there is a limit. It would be dangerous to live in denial of this fact. If we consistently stay in denial and do no good, it is not God who condemns us. We do it to ourselves.