Blog
Blog
Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, March 20, 2022
Luke 13:1-9
“Say you’re sorry!” How many times did we hear this from our parents or have said this as parents to our children?! “I’m sorry,” we say, they say, grudgingly. It’s often a “fake” sorry, right? We know it’s the right thing to do and to say, but our hearts aren’t in it. This morning’s words from Jesus in Luke’s gospel are tough! He says, “unless you repent, you will all perish.” It strikes me a lot of us still as adults don’t really understand what repentance is. We may think that whatever we do six days a week is our business as long as we come to church and say we’re sorry to God, confessing our sins, on Sunday. We may be even more cynical as good Lutherans and think we can’t help but sin. We are sinners in need of a Savior and so we do as Luther instructed us to do and “sin boldly” without any real change in behavior or desire to change. This is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer described as “cheap grace:” expecting forgiveness from God without truly being repentant. We go through the motions on the surface but don’t really change anything about our lives.
As we continue to focus on transformation this Lent, I’d like us to take away two very important, basic concepts of the Christian faith that Jesus tells us about in this beautiful yet challenging parable about the fig tree: 1) Repentance is a change of heart, a change of mind. It literally means to turn around and go in a different direction. Repentance is not just words that we say but an earnest process of life transformation. 2) As Christians, we are rooted in and constantly nourished by God’s grace. Grace is not just words we say before a meal but the undeserved love of God for us. God’s grace changes everything for us.
God’s grace changes everything. Jesus begins our gospel reading by responding to some people concerns about tragic current events. The people, as many people are today, are focused not on God’s undeserved love, but on undeserved suffering. Should they blame God or sinful people for that suffering? As we hear more about Pilate in just a few weeks at Jesus’ trial and conviction, their story shows how terrifying a ruler Pilate was. He has slaughtered some Galileans (and realize that Jesus is a Galilean) during a ritual, religious sacrifice. Good, faithful, innocent people, killed by an oppressive government. Ukraine. Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan. Not much has changed, has it? And then Jesus brings up another example of undeserved suffering: the tower of Siloam falls on eighteen people – faulty, aging infrastructure? We’re not sure. We might think of the Surfside apartments in Miami as a modern, tragic equivalent.
Jesus unequivocally rejects the common belief that the violent tragedies and terrors of the world are God’s punishment upon sinners. This kind of suffering is not our fault or God’s fault. Unfortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t completely explain the cause of suffering, but he acknowledges it as undeserved. And then, Jesus stresses the urgency of repentance – of life change, of turning to God, of turning away from our selfishness and toward relieving others’ suffering. Why? Because, I think, these tragic circumstances in our world are reminders that life is short, and life is precious. How do we want to live our lives when there is a possibility we could perish tomorrow? And what eternal or lasting promise can assure us even in the darkest of times that God’s will for us is life, not destruction and death? As the Lord asks us in our reading Isaiah, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Incline your ear and come to me; listen, so that you may live.” What are we living for? And what is worth dying for? These are transformative questions of faith. These questions are how we begin to be transformed by grace.
In response to these difficult questions and tragic current events, Jesus tells us a short parable not to talk about undeserved suffering but rather undeserved love – God’s grace. Most commonly scholars interpret people to be the fig tree. However, I’d like for us to rethink that idea for today and rather think of ourselves as the gardener that the owner has hired to care for the fig tree, the fig tree being our life of faith. Because here’s the thing, a fig tree cannot feed, water, or fertilize itself. The fig tree needs a human being to care for it and do these things. It is not the fig tree’s fault that it isn’t producing fruit. The fig tree is wasting soil because the gardener has failed to care for it properly; maybe through neglect, maybe he just didn’t know how to care for a fig tree. Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about gardening period, much less how to get a fig tree to grow fruit. I’d have to do some research. Thankfully today we have Google! Similarly, we need to learn how to nurture our faith lives through practice and care – worshipping, praying, serving, giving, sharing God’s love. We can take responsibility to learn and grow to be better spiritual gardeners to cultivate our faith lives so that they bear fruit.
Here is the point – repentance is turning from the ways of the world to the way of Jesus and learning from him. God gives us the gift of faith and the gift of life itself. We did nothing to be born as who we are or where we are. This is grace, the undeserved love of God. But God did not create us merely to exist. God wants us to thrive; to have our lives bear fruit. What is the fruit we can produce because of God’s grace? Kindness, generosity, love for our neighbors, patience toward others, striving for peace, faithfulness and so on if we think about the fruits of the Spirit. A life of faith that makes a difference that others can see, just like you can see fruit growing on a fig tree. And I prefer thinking of ourselves as the gardener of the tree, because it exactly what we mean when we use that churchy word “stewardship.” A steward is a servant of God. A steward understands that all of what we have is entrusted to us from God, it is not actually ours. What we think is ours is actually God’s. The gardener has been trusted to care for the fig tree, but God is the owner of the vineyard. And yes, God is patient, God gives the gardener another year, but if you have ever tried to grow anything, you know this is not a parable for procrastinators. You can’t wait until day 364 to start tending the soil, fertilizing the tree and watering it. Producing fruit takes time and nurture. Repentance, turning toward God and following Christ’s direction, takes time. Faith is a journey and a process, much more than a few magic words to pay lip service to God so that we get into heaven. Life is precious, and it could end tomorrow – only God knows. So how do we want to live today? Hopefully, like workers in God’s garden, producing life-giving, life-changing fruit for the world rather than people like Pilate who reject Christ’s life-giving, saving ways.
In a world that is still focused on suffering and tragedy, may we turn and listen to God to truly live. May we use all that God has given us – our time, our work, our money, what we’re good at doing, our bodies, and so on – to nurture and nourish our faith lives so that we are transformed by God’s live-giving grace and can offer this tangible fruit to others. Repent! Turn back to God. Be refreshed by his grace, and then be fruitful. Amen.
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