Sermon March 3, 2013

Luke 13:1-9

13At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? ³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. ⁴Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’
6 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. ⁷So 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?” ⁸He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’

This reading is a bit of an anomaly in the gospel of Luke. If it were in Matthew’s gospel, it would seem to fit in a bit more. Matthew’s gospel is the one that has all the threats about, “IF YOU DON’T REPENT YOU’LL BE THROWN INTO THE OUTER DARKNESS WHERE THERE IS WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH.” Luke doesn’t usually go that route. His gospel is more joyful, less threatening. But this story, at least on first read, doesn’t seem like the joyful Jesus we all love and wish to follow.

This is a two-part reading but all part of a much longer speech, or really more of a question and answer period with Jesus and a large crowd. We’re in the part of Luke’s gospel now when Jesus is really pushing the envelope. In these chapters he is causing folks to question everything. Just before this portion of the speech he tells the story of a rich but foolish farmer who chooses to store up things for himself instead of be rich toward God. Then he challenges his listeners to not worry about their lives and reminds them that where their treasure is, there is the heart as well. He warns them to always be alert for signs of the kingdom and that from the one who has been entrusted with much, much will be asked, and finally that he is bringing division and not peace. In reality, all of these things are difficult to hear from Jesus. I’m not entirely sure why the crowds stuck around through this challenging speech. But if they did, they will find themselves questioning everything, their values and the values of the culture, what is really important in life, what God intends for us and from us. 

By the time Jesus gets to the question about the Galileans he’s really on a roll so he challenges the long-held belief that bad things happen to people because they deserve it. Like Pilate was especially cruel to that group of Galileans because they were particularly bad sinners. Or the freak accident of that tower falling on and killing a group of 18 people happened because that group deserved divine punishment more than anyone else. 

It’s a common problem for humans to want more control over our lives than we actually have and so very often we try to find something or someone to blame, even for things completely out of our control. It still happens. Remember Jerry Fallwell after 9/11/2001 or Pat Robertson after hurricane Katrina? They blamed senseless tragedy on particular communities of people, pointing fingers at what they called deviance from an originally Godly America. These days we have hurricane Sandy and the Sequestration – to name only a few - to use as fuel for more fires of blame. And that does not yet include the incidences of personal tragedy like violent abuse and illness that are all too often blamed on the victim. 

To all of that Jesus says, look – tragedy happens and you can’t go blaming the victim or victims for it thinking that you’ll be exempt because of your superior moral living. That’s not how this works. Tragedy happens and it’s terrible and we’re all subject to it. Life is too complex to be limited by simple cause and effect rules. “Also?” he says, “repent.” 

Now to me, it seems like this last admonition to repent is a contradiction to the rest of what Jesus just said. Why threaten me with a death like these when you just said that these deaths were not caused by sin?

Well it is important to remember that in Greek, the word “repent” means to do a complete turn-around, a total 180. Repenting has to do with facing one direction, realizing it is the wrong one and turning completely around, turning one’s face toward God, not one’s backside. In the context of this long speech Jesus is making it means doing a lot of things that are different from our nature. It means being rich toward God and not storing things up for ourselves. It means not worrying so much about our bodily needs and spending more time with our hearts focused on God. It means knowing that much will have to be sacrificed and there may even be conflict but ultimately that a relationship with God brings more joy than anything else. This parable of the fig tree is meant to teach just that. God continues to come to us, tending to us, loving us, caring for us, and when we repent, when we turn around, we see that God is and always has been there and we can bask in the joy of a loving relationship with God. 

The threat of this parable is not so much, “repent or you’ be thrown into the fiery furnace,” and more “repent or this is the joy you’ll miss!” So often in other Gospels especially it’s threatening with death or hell or some other terrible calamity. And for me, that’s just not very persuasive. It is similar for me with other disciplines like eating right or exercising. The threat of heart disease or other malady, very real though they may be, doesn’t make me want to change my eating and exercising habits. On the other hand, the renewed energy I feel when I get on the elyptical for a few days in a row, or the alertness I have in the middle of the day when I’ve eaten a protein rich breakfast instead of donuts, well that makes a difference.

Perhaps more to the point, I read a story recently about a social worker who was also a part-time seminary student. In his first year he took a Spiritual Formation class in which they learned about and practiced many different spiritual disciplines. Over Christmas break they were each to spend one hour a day reading aloud from one book of Scripture and then praying over its connection to their lives. So every night he would come home from work, eat dinner, take his beagle, Sadie, out for a walk, watch some TV and then at 10:30 he would turn off the TV, settle himself on the couch to read and pray. Well over the two weeks that his wife was gone, he was very faithful about the practice and Sadie the beagle joined him, sitting next to him on the couch each night. 

Soon, though the habit was interrupted. The man had a long day at work, got home late and didn’t feel like praying. So when 10:30 rolled around he kept watching TV. And you know what? Sadie the beagle, realized what was happening and started tugging on his pants leg to remind him what time it was. Another night, he got home exhausted and went to bed early, but Sadie paced back and forth on the floor next to the bed until he got up to read and pray. 

For some reason it is very easy for us to forget about the joy we have when we live a life firmly rooted in God. We forget about the joy in the presence of God. We forget what it’s like to use the Spiritual gifts God has given us. We tend to turn our backs on God. This story is like Sadie the beagle, pacing back and forth, tugging on our pants, reminding us to repent, turn around. Reminding us of the joy we have in relationship with God, that God is always giving us another chance, another year, more air to breathe, more fertilizer to help us grow. God doesn’t give up on us. 

Woman who Molleen knew – lived in an inner city neighborhood in Saginaw. It was rough, the buildings were not well maintained, a few were boarded up, trash lined the sidewalks and streets which were cracked and potholed. She had an idea that if it looked a little bit nicer, maybe people would take a little more pride in their neighborhood. Maybe people would take care of their lawns and then, maybe, just maybe they’d take care of each other. So, she planted a curb garden in that square of land between where the sidewalks cross and the corner of the curb. She planted flowers and a few veggies too. The next day when she came out, the garden had been trampled. Plants smashed and uprooted and dirt all over the sidewalks. So, she planted again. And the same thing happened. And again she planted and again the garden was trampled. Now, a person with less gumption, or maybe we could call it hope, might have given up. But this woman planted again and then stayed up to see who it was ruining the neighborhood beauty. Well that night she saw that it was the neighbor kids across the street. They were young, too young to be out at that hour of the night. But it was pretty likely the grown-ups in their life were working two and three shifts trying to make ends meet. 

The next day, she went out to plant again and saw the kids outside. So she called them over. But instead of yelling at them or calling the cops, she took them to the garden and explained what each plant was called, what it needed to grow, if it had a use, what kind of sun and soil and water regimen it liked. A few days later, those same kids asked if they could have a few of her plants to plant in their own yard. 

Jesus does cause us to question our values and the values of our culture. This Lenten season is a great time to ask ourselves, what is really important in life and what it is that GOD wants for our lives. Jesus does not promise that a repentant life will be easy or even that it will make sense all the time. But he does promise a loving relationship with God and the grace to keep bearing the fruit we were born to bear.