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But….it’s Lent.
We are in this season right now of repentance and preparation as we follow Jesus on his path towards the cross. And, no matter how difficult, what better time than now, to have these conversations? For Paul, in his letter to the church in Corinth, he’s trying to get them off their feet a little bit. There’s a lot of sin and temptation going around in Corinth, and the people of the church aren’t worried. They are self-assured that they can face any test without failing. Maybe it’s self-righteousness or misplaced confidence. From the way Paul talks to these beloveds though, it’s clear that he’s worried this confidence is not in Christ, but in themselves. He wants them to be aware, because self-assuredness and self-righteousness can misstep quickly into sin and temptation and turning away from God. He even has quite the list of threats of punishment for falling. A lot of perishing and death and serpents. The Corinthians were so sure they were fine that they were putting themselves into difficult situations. Situations where sin and temptation were rampant. And instead of being aware of their own sinfulness and the ways sin can cause suffering, they were sort of just ignoring it. They felt confident, and didn’t really care if anyone was watching. It reminds me a lot of the bills we’re seeing in Florida and Texas these days, not caring at all if what they’re doing actually causes harm. Sin is anything that harms another, harms ourselves, harms our relationship with God, and the truth is, sin is not something to be taken lightly. I think it is important here to name that we are all sinners, and as Paul says, we will all perish as other sinners have, and as part of our faith in Jesus, in our faith in forgiveness, sin isn’t the end of the story. But it’s also something we should work to turn away from. Because our faith reminds us that it’s not just us who is harmed by sin. Paul says “You will all perish as they did”, unless you repent. And repentance isn’t a bad thing. It’s a turn around. A u-turn. To repent means to turn away from the temptations and sin that harm others, harm ourselves, harms our relationship with God, and instead…turn towards God. Paul kind of takes an extreme path as he describes some terrible consequences of sin and temptation. And Jesus kind of argues against him a bit, especially if you hear Paul saying that suffering is a punishment for sin. In Luke, when some of the group around Jesus tell him about the terrible death that befell some Galileans, he responds. Because it is often that when something terrible happens to someone else, when violence or death occurs in ways that are troubling, we try to find reasons. And often we try to find examples of how that death or that violence is a consequence brought onto the person. I hate to say it, but in our own efforts to understand what happened, we seek to blame the victims. Kind of like how Paul says that those who tested Christ were destroyed by serpents. It could be read that those serpents were a punishment for being worse sinners. It could also be read that if you’re trying to test Christ by handling snakes, they might bite you. Knowing about the ways people try to find understanding, Jesus rejects this idea of suffering as punishment for somehow being worse or doing worse than someone else. He asks those gathered, the question they are probably thinking – “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” Jesus says no, “No, I tell you.” And instead he uses this as an example, a reminder, “You will all perish as they did”. Unless you repent. Unless you turn around, turn towards God, towards a new kind of life. It’s not a threat, the way Paul makes it out to be in his attempt to shake some sense into Corinth. It’s just the truth. Jesus even brings up those who were killed in an accident when a tower fell down to share this truth. We don’t know the time of our death, and the deaths of others reminds us that time can be short, there never seems to be enough. And so Jesus goes into a speech about repentance. “Don’t think that someone else is a worse sinner or that they deserved their death, but turn around, turn towards God, turn towards your neighbor, that’s how you live, that’s where new life finds you.” Like Isaiah telling us in our reading this morning as God says to God’s people, “Listen and live”, live a new kind of life. One that is for God and for others. One that is filled with life and hope, not brokenness and sorrow. As a continuation of Jesus’s repentance speech, he shares this parable of an impatient landowner, an obstinate fig tree, and a gracious gardener. As a response to this call for repentance, this parable acts as a reminder that there is still time. No matter where you are in your life. There is still time. There is still time for us to think about our lives, our behaviors, and make a change. There’s still time for us to be aware of what we’re doing, of the dangers we might be experiencing. And there’s still time to turn towards God and towards our neighbor. To turn away from harm and pain and perishing. And like all parables, this one is full of symbols and possibility. It’s meant to get us thinking. Maybe you’re thinking about what manure you’re wading through that is somehow helping you grow. Maybe you wonder, if in this parable, you’re the owner. Impatiently waiting for fruit, waiting for someone else to do something. Maybe you’ve been tempted to give up on something or someone because it seems hopeless, seems fruitless. Maybe we’re the vineyard owners, not doing the work, but demanding the fruits. Maybe we’re the tree, not growing fast enough, not producing any fruit. Feeling helpless or useless, and not knowing how to turn towards that fruitfulness the owner is asking for. As we travel in this season of Lent, a season of repentance and prayerful preparation, this parable reminds us, that as we look towards Good Friday and Easter, none of this is anything we can do on our own. Repentance isn’t something we can do on our own. This new life, this fruit we might bear, is not something that we can just be confident in and make happen. It’s our gardener, our Jesus, who is always seeking to cultivate us, digging us out of our sin and temptation. Fertilizing us with faith, with grace, with forgiveness for when we fail to be who Jesus calls us to be. Jesus on the cross provides us a way out, a new way in this life. Jesus dies and rises from the dead because even though all perish, in him we rejoice in the promise of the resurrection. That sin or death is not the end of anyone’s story. But that Jesus, our rock, has put in and is still putting in the work in each of us. Turning us towards God. Growing us into fruitful trees. So that we can stand, knowing that sometimes it’s difficult to follow the path Jesus lays out for us, sometimes sin and temptation test us, but we can know that even if we fail, even if we fall, Jesus is there ready to pick us back up. So that we too can be gardeners in this world, cultivating love for our neighbors, sharing the grace we have received, and working towards hope for something new. So that, whatever sin, whatever temptation, whatever misteps we make, whatever manure we might have stepped in, Jesus is still there to give us a way, to give us truth, to give us life. Thanks be to God, amen.
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