Text: Luke 13:1-9 Third Sunday in Lent March 7, 2010
Numerous times growing up we would travel to Minneapolis to see the Yankees play the Twins. Up in the 3rd deck was a hot dog vendor who had a unique invitation, “Haaaawt dawg.” As the years went by I would come home to the radio blaring in my father’s bedroom. He was asleep and the Twins game would be on and I could hear in the background the invitation for a hot dog.
Here we are half way through Lent and Jesus is reminding us of the invitation to repent. Some would translate it “change your mind” instead of “repent”. The words from our Isaiah reading, “seek the Lord, return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, for he will abundantly pardon.” Things were not going the way God wanted so he sent his son to change things up and that involved an invitation to repent.
This invitation comes in the midst of two tragedies full of ‘whys’. Some Galileans are killed by Pilate as they were offering their sacrifices, apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tower of Siloam falls and kills 18 people, a freak accident. Why? Why would these disasters happen? Where was God? How many times I have heard that. What had they done to deserve this? Who was to blame? People always need someone to blame. That is what the thought pattern would have been at that time. Was it their sin or their parents? There is that tendency to judge others, and we do that far better than looking at ourselves. Jesus squelches that idea right away, “Don’t even think that way.” Tragedy and disease are a part of life, not to be avoided, but it is certainly not God punishing you.
God does not make people sick, cause earthquakes and towers to collapse, or violence. Tragedy is a part of the human condition and sometimes we get caught in it. Same with prosperity and good health, those are not signs of God’s favor or blessings thinking those are better people. For God there is no connection between sin and suffering. Don’t ever think that way.
With Christ you are able to endure and carry on throughout the tragedy and sufferings of life. On an airplane a woman heard the two young ladies next to her going to a family funeral for a second time in two weeks. “I don’t know why God is doing this to our family.” The lady had to interrupt, “I want you to know that the God I have come to know in Jesus Christ is not the originator or sender of tragedies. He offers and blesses us with his loving forgiveness so that in all circumstances of life we may sense his presence and be sustained by his love.”
I am reminded of that great verse from Romans, (14:8) “Whether we live or die we are the Lord’s.” As we face these situations, and we will, if we focus or center on Christ, then as Gregory Boyd says “we are able to avoid the conclusion that God is mysteriously behind all the suffering.” Instead of holding up the question ‘why?’ we need to hold up Christ as that woman did so beautifully on the plane.
In the midst of this conversation Christ holds up the invitation to repent. We have not died, we have not been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or had a freak accident, so you have the opportunity to repent, change your mind, “return to the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon.” The lie that God causes blindness and disease to punish sin needs to be replaced with the truth of God’s compassion and repentance.
It is tough being a parent, especially when it comes to discipline. How many times have I said or heard said, “I’m going to count to three and you better . . .” You better in this instance bear fruit – after all, you are a fig tree. God is about second chances, the invitation to repent. A call to return to God, we sing this during the Lenten season in a few of our settings, “Return to the Lord your God.” God wants us back home. Most agree this tree has had six years and nothing has happened; it is not living up to its potential, or expectations. It needs to be held accountable. Major expense has been laid out for land, equipment, taxes, the trees, six years of manure and supplies; you can see why the owner was getting a little antsy.
Fruit bearing was a sign of repentance, something that does some good, new life. It’s like the poem by Toyohiko Kagawa: “I read/in a book/that a man called/Christ/ went about doing good/ It is very disconcerting to me/that I am so easily/ satisfied/ with just/going about.” Is that our problem? We are easily satisfied, we are complacent and in spite of the fertilizer, all the resources, such as prayer, reading the bible and worship, we are still just about “going about”? “Where’s the fruit?” That’s what Jesus wants to know. We are given multiple chances. When will we take this repentance invitation seriously?
Garrison Keillor warns us, “You can become a Christian by going to church just about easily as you can become an automobile by sleeping in a garage.” Our parable says that we’re not called just to be here. It is a clear warning against a fruitless existence in the light of God’s grace given to us.
And God provides the nourishment for us to see that this is done. This fruit bearing life is a gift from a God who loves and forgives—even people like you and me. It all begins at this table. You are forgiven. The Body of Christ given for you. The blood of Christ shed for you.”
My father before going out to eat would frequently say, “My treat.” What you have is an invitation to repent, change your mind, to come to him, to turn around, to be welcomed, pardoned, filled and refreshed. And Jesus says, “My treat. ” It is all at his expense and he will abundantly pardon.