Sermon Title:  When did “repent” become a bad word?

Sermon Text:  Luke 13:1-9

Sermon Date:  March 11, 2007

 

Scripture:  Luke 13

 1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

 6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

 8" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "


Message

 

If you are sitting here, scratching your head, wondering what this really means, you aren’t alone.  It's hard to let God be God.  We have spent centuries trying to discern and determine, not only how God works, but also why God does what God does.  Why does God allow terrible tragedies like a busload of college students to topple over and kill seven of the people onboard….right after they had a prayer service for a safe journey?

Why does God allow tornadoes to hit a high school and kill some of the students?  Why has God allowed Wade Steffey to remain “lost” for weeks now?

Rev. Barbara Lundblad says, “We want to make sense of things that make no sense so we put words into God's mouth that are our own rather than God's.” 

Some years ago, William Sloan Coffin preached a sermon about our temptation to speak God's mind. During the years when Rev. Coffin was senior minister of Riverside Church in New York City, his son Alex was killed in a tragic car accident. Alex was driving in a terrible storm; he lost control of his car and careened into the waters of Boston Harbor. The following Sunday, Dr. Coffin preached about his son's death. He thanked all the people for their messages of condolence, for food brought to their home, for an arm around his shoulder when no words would do. But he also raged; he raged about well-meaning folks who had hinted that Alex's death was God's will. "I knew the anger would do me good," he said.

Then he went on:

"Do you think it was God's will that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper...that he was probably driving too fast in such a storm, that he probably had a couple of 'frosties' too many? Do you think it was God's will that there are no street lights along that stretch of the road and no guard rail separating the road and Boston Harbor? The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is, 'It is the will of God.' Never do we know enough to say that. My own consolation lies in knowing that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break."

Jesus knew we mere mortals would have questions with this reading. Two terrible tragedies had happened in Jerusalem. One in the temple, the other near the pool of Siloam. In the first instance, Pilate, the Roman governor, had killed some Galileans who were making sacrifices at the temple and then he mixed their blood with the sacrifices. No doubt this was a warning to other Jews to remember that Rome was in charge. In the other incident, a tower fell on people near the pool of Siloam killing 18 people who simply happened to be there. How can such things be explained?

This is the question Jesus poses. He asks the questions that must have been on people's minds. Were the Galileans worse sinners than other Galileans? Were the people killed by the tower worse offenders than all others living in Jerusalem? Then Jesus answers his own question, "No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did."

Come on, Jesus, gives us some help here.  You are confusing us.  You say there is no rational explanation for these tragedies.  You don’t say, “It was God’s will.”  These Galileans were victims of the government’s whims and Pilate’s desire for control.  It could have been anyone who was offering sacrifices on that day.  And what about the people who were killed by the tower?  That was just like the students killed on the bus last week or people in the Twin Towers or when people attending the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade were seriously injured by a falling lamppost.

Are you saying to us that we shouldn’t look for cause and effect explanations?  That those who died weren’t any worse than the rest of us?  Okay, we get that….but what about the rest of your words……”unless we repent we will perish like they did.”  What are you telling us…today…..thousands of years later?

Are you telling us to spend our time thinking more about our lives than the lives of others?  That we pay too much attention to Anna Nicole Smith’s life and death and not enough to our own.  That we spend too much time trying to figure out things, worrying about tomorrow…are you telling us to spend more time on our own sins rather than on the sins of others?

Ouch, that hurts.  Are you reminding us that “repent”

isn’t a word we should avoid at all costs?

            We don’t like the word “repent,” do we?  Repent means we’ve sinned.  Repent means we’ve done something wrong.  we’ve hurt someone.  we’ve not been there for someone when they needed me.  We avoided helping someone when we could have helped.  We’ve had bad thoughts, and on and on.

            Many churches this morning are perfectly happy to talk about sins and repentance.  We main-line congregations often shy away from it though.  Some of us came from churches where we were told we were really unworthy of God’s love at all.  That we need to get down on our knees and grovel before God and beg forgiveness….and we were told that week after week.

            And there is truth in all of that, but too often the preacher ended the service without offering forgiveness and grace.  We desperately need a deeper understanding of grace in our world.

            We heard that in John Newton’s story about giving his heart to Jesus following his conversion as a slave trader.  We hear that in story after story when people tell us about how they were able to turn from one thing to a life filled with God’s mercy.

            So maybe we aren’t so afraid to talk about repentance as we are to hear that we are basically worthless.  But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the old expression goes.

            If we ignore the fact that we have sinned and need to repent in order to be forgiven, why are we here at all?

            If we are here because that is just what one does on Sunday morning, we can stay home in our pjs, reading the newspaper and have a late lunch with friends for fellowship.

            But if the spirit of God making a difference in the world today is important to us….we have to swallow the gospel of Jesus Christ whole.  We have to admit that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God AND THIS IS THE BIG PART-- that in repentance we find grace.

            Let’s admit that there is not one of us sitting here today who has not sinned….recently, possibly this morning…..and that it is possible we have hurt someone also sitting here today.  With our words, with our actions or inactions.  We are flawed, frail human beings and we have sinned.  And in order to find wholeness we have to repent.

            It happens in marriage all the time.  You get married and when there is a squabble you kiss and make up because you guys can’t bear to see her cry and she doesn’t want you to be unhappy.  The making up is easy.  But the honeymoon begins to fade away and the making up takes a little longer until one day a big blow up occurs and no one is willing to admit fault.

            Maybe what you are fighting about today is really more about what happened last Christmas when his mother insulted her first attempt at baking a turkey and he didn’t stand up for her by saying, “But the turkey was okay two hours ago…when we were supposed to eat dinner.”  So today’s fight is about the hurt feelings that have been festering for months.

            If no one says, “I am sorry and I messed up,” that fight may never go away and when they end up in divorce court they will wonder how this ever happened.  What happened to those people in those wedding pictures, so hopeful and happy?  Where did they go?

The passage winds down as Jesus continues with a parable about a fig tree.  Will it be a parable about destruction? Will it be a story of punishment for those who failed to repent?

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?"

We should have seen this coming.  John the Baptist warned us in the beginning of the gospel when he said, “Repent and be baptized!”

"Even now," the man said, "the ax is lying at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

It has been three years since Jesus began his ministry.  The man in the parable says, "For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree." For three years God has been waiting for people to turn their hearts toward Jesus, but there has not been much repentance. Instead of repentance, the resistance to Jesus' vision of the kingdom has intensified over the three years. There isn't any fruit on the tree, so the owner of the vineyard says, "Cut it down!" (Barbara Lundblad)

But the gardener sees hope.  "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."

This isn’t a parable about farming.  It is a parable about us and our lives today.  Jesus is saying that he is going to do everything possible to get to our hearts, even those hardened and brittle, to quit being afraid to show our weaknesses by repenting.

Don’t take the easy way out and spend more time looking at the sins of others than your own.  Don’t be afraid to repent.  PAUSE

Don’t be afraid of grace and the hope Jesus brings into our lives.

"One more year," the gardener says, "I'll do everything I can to bring this tree back to life.  You never know.  This could be the year for figs.” (Lundblad, Day One)