Lent 3C-RCL 2016
Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"
Today’s New Testament lessons – from Paul and Luke – are difficult
and to be honest I would much rather preach from the story from Exodus today – the
calling of Moses by God and the burning bush is one of my favorite old
testament readings. But I figured if I
was struggling with the New Testament readings some of you may struggle with
them as well. They are hard to
hear. And unfortunately have been
misused and mischaracterized by too many.
A common theme both the lesson from Paul and the
lesson from Luke is repentance and what does that look like. And frankly when we hear someone say that we
need to repent I usually, in by vivid imagination, hear a street corner fire
and brimstone preacher telling all those who pass the corner of 10th
and K streets that unless we repent today then we are all going to hell! Is that what these passages are telling us?
And then it gets worse! We hear Paul say that “God is
faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the
testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” Which I have heard turned into people saying
to those who are suffering – “Don’t worry God would not give you more than you
can handle.” To which my BS meter goes
into overdrive. In part because the
inference here is that God is causing your suffering – and to me it sounds like
God is causing the suffering for the sport of it. Which is a load of BS. I had other words come to mind but I decided
to stick with BS.
Part of the problem here was pointed our by another
preacher I study who said that the “you” that Paul used here is plural not
single. And he pointed out that our use
of this passage saying that an individual is not given more than they can
handle should more appropriately be read as the community will not be given
more than they can handle – I’m still skeptical but I also see that when bad
things happen we are better off in community.
When a good friend had a medical emergency that
resulted in a prolonged hospital stay and longer recovery at home it was the
community that came forward. People
rallied around and made meals for the whole family and set up a delivery
system. And one of the community – who
is super-organized made up a spreadsheet to track when and who was going to
make food so that there was never not enough and never too much. The community did not cure the bad stuff but
it did make it bearable. And a big part
of being a Christian for me is being in community.
In the reading we have from Luke people come to report
to Jesus about the atrocities of Pilot – killing the Galileans and letting
their blood mingle with the temple sacrifice.
A scandal to be sure. And they
are wondering what sin caused them to be killed. What did they do. Jesus responds that it was not the people who
were killed that caused the murder. But
we need to be careful or we too will die – we need to repent – to find
God.
Jesus then asks the crowd if they think the victims of
a disaster – the failure of the tower of Siloam was because the people were
evil – and the answer again is it was not their fault. But the people need to repent – to return to
God or they too will parish.
Jesus is saying that sin has consequences. The sin in the case of the murder of the
Galileans was Pilot’s murderous act. The
people killed with the tower collapsed was likely the sin of shoddy
construction – it was not the people who happened to be in the area when the
tower collapsed. David Lose – a preacher
I enjoy reading said “Sin has consequences, and there are all kinds of bad
behaviors that contribute to much of the misery in the world, and the more we
can confront that sin the less suffering there will be.”[1]
The question of why do bad things happen to seemingly
good people should not be laid at God’s feet.
Our theology is not one of predetermination that says a someone dies because
God needed another angel. Or that the
Twin Towers collapsed because New York and the United States allows abortions
or allows Gay people to live in loving relationship. It was not the sin of those who were killed
that caused the disaster. It was the sin
of those who thought they could act as God and cast judgment and sentence on
innocent people are the ones who sinned.
These passages all call us to repent – a theme of
Lent! But what does it mean to
repent. Does it mean telling God and the
community that we are sorry that we ate the last cookie? That we slipped and ate a piece of chocolate
last Wednesday – that we did not keep or Lenten fast? Probably not.
Frankly we all too often have a petty idea of what sin
it. Sin is not a piece of
chocolate. Sin is separating ourselves
from the Love of God. Sin is the hubris
of thinking that we can pronounce judgment on a fellow inhabitant of this earth
before we look into our own hearts and souls and clean out our own houses.
Which brings us to the parable of the fig tree. A parable that is perhaps too easy to read
with God as the owner looking for the tree to bear fruit and Jesus stepping in
as the gardener to intervene. Too keep
an angry god from chopping down the tree.
A theology of an angry God needing to punish someone for our Sins so
Jesus takes the punishment. A theology
that frankly drive me crazy. A theology which
I do not buy.
But what if we read it another way? David Lose said “Given Luke’s consistent
picture of God’s reaction to sin, then perhaps the landowner is representative
of our own sense of how the world should work. That is, from very
early on, we want things to be “fair” and we define “fair” as receiving rewards for doing
good and punishment for doing evil. (Except of course, when it comes to our own
mistakes and misdeeds – then we want mercy!) So perhaps the gardener is God,
the one who consistently raises a contrary voice to suggest that the ultimate
answer to sin isn’t punishment – not even in the name of justice –
but rather mercy, reconciliation, and new life.”[2]
How does this reading of the parable change how we see
God? It certainly aligns with my belief
that Jesus came into this world not to appease an angry God but to show us what
love is like. To show is that the Love
of God is one that is always open to all of us.
Repentance means turning towards and accepting the
Love of God. Simple right? But if it’s so simple why to we continually
turn away from that love and tear down God’s creation? Why do we continually turn away and tear down
other children of God? That is what sin
is about. That is what Jesus came to tell
us.
When we repent and turn towards God’s love we will be
able to see the Love of God all around us.
I remember one time when I fell in love.
Suddenly the simplest of things where filled with beauty. My eyes where opened up – I saw the world is
a new light. When we repent of those things that separate us from the love of
God we too see the world in a new light.
Suddenly the flowers are brighter and the sky is bluer.
So what can we say when bad things happen to good
people? One thing is that there is sin
in the world. Another is that God is with us.
David Lose summed it up this way,
“...God understands what our suffering is like. That God has promised to
redeem all things, including even our suffering. That suffering and injustice
do not have the last word in our lives and world. And that God will keep
waiting for us and keep urging us to turn away from our self-destructive habits
to be drawn again into the embrace of a loving God.”[3]
On this third Sunday of Lent – as Jesus walks towards
Jerusalem and a certain death – we are reminded that the cross is about Love – not
death. The story of God walking with us
on this earth – of suffering with us – is that the story will not end on Good
Friday. The story continues. The Love that walked with us 2000 years ago
still walks with us. In the resurrection
we see a God who is willing to go all the way to death with us to show us that
love that will not die.
Our call is to spread that Love in our
communities. To repent of those sins
that separates us from the Love of God.
To repent of the sins that separate us from our neighbor and our
selves. The gift of lent is that it
calls us to introspection. It calls us
to look at those things where we turn away from God’s love and to repent and
return to that Love. To bear the good
fruit of the tree that God has planted and nourishes in each of us.
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