Sermon
24th March 2019 - 3rd Sunday in Lent –
Text
Luke 13:1-9 – No blaming, just repenting
Last
week saw an horrific act of violence against humanity when a gunman entered 2
mosques and killed 50 and injured around the same.
Again
we are seeing what has dominated just about everything in Western society in
recent times.
The
left versus the right.
Each
side pointing out how the other is to blame for the state of the world today.
The
left blame the right for hate speech – homophobia, islamophobia, transphobia,
misogyny,
The
left blame the right for climate change.
The
right blame the left for our moral decay through liberalism and closing down
free speech and using children as political weapons with the most recent
children’s rally against climate change.
Even
in this shooting in New Zealand the left are blaming the right for their
bigotry and the right are blaming the left from their policies on immigration.
What
happened last week and what is happening with the state of our world is
shocking but blaming one another, as we see, simply divides us even further.
Blaming
others and pointing the finger stems from the beginning of creation when Adam
blamed Eve and God.
The
woman YOU gave me – SHE made me eat.
Eve
blamed the serpent – he tricked me.
Jesus,
in our Gospel reading, points the people away from blaming one another and
urges them to look at themselves.
"Do
you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse
sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless YOU repent, YOU
will all perish as they did. Or 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? No, I tell you; but unless YOU repent, YOU will
all perish just as they did."
Jesus
does not apportion blame to anyone.
He
doesn’t blame the sinfulness of the Galileans for what happened to them or
those on whom the tower of Siloam fell as if tragedies are a cause an effect
type of things.
Jesus
doesn’t blame God for causing that tragedy.
What
Jesus does is that he redirects their attention back onto themselves: unless YOU
repent.
Why
is Jesus so determined to have them look at themselves?
It’s
because he wants them to experience a renewed relationship with God who doesn’t
look to see who’s to blame or who to punish.
As
Jesus says in John’s gospel – God did not send his son into the world to
condemn the world but to save the world through him.
If
we’re busy blaming others and pointing out their faults then we don’t get to
experience the amazing grace that God has to offer us.
Sometimes
we blame others or point out their faults because we’re afraid of what God or
others will think of us.
That’s
what Jesus is addressing when the people come up to him to tell him about the
plight of the Galileans.
But
God is a gracious God;
A
God who when describing himself says:
The
Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in
love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness,
rebellion and sin.
We
don’t have a God who is looking for people to punish when they do wrong
This
is our Lord about whom St Paul says:
God
is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with
the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure
it.
God
is not looking for a way to punish us but for a way to lead us out of our
waywardness and back to his grace.
Jesus
is wanting us to find the gracious God who loves us so much that he sent his
one and only son to die for us – while we were yet sinners.
There
is a hostile world out there – a hostile world that rejects and hates anything
to do with God, Jesus and the church.
But he doesn’t need us defending him and
attacking others because of him because that is not in God’s nature to do so.
God
is a God who is always seeking to bring people back to him and not for us to
attack the so called infidels.
Remember
that we too were infidels before Jesus dealt with our sinfulness.
The
difference is that we know that Jesus is defending us from God’s judgment and
we should be wanting all people to know that same compassion through
repentance.
Repentance
is returning to our Father who has been waiting for us to come home to forgive
us and not punish us – like the return of the Prodigal Son.
Like
the fig tree we are given second chances, third chances and more and it is thanks
to God's grace that we can feel safe and secure in the arms of Jesus when the
day comes when all people will be judged.
Thank
God for the patience and grace of God the gardener.
Thank
God that he is the one who is tending the garden and not us.
Jesus
gives himself for us.
He
becomes the manure, the fertiliser for us as he is rejected, laughed at,
crucified as a criminal.
On
the cross he waters the ground with his own blood.
He
does everything.
We
do nothing.
We
simply trust in his grace.
In
the parable of the unfruitful fig tree we see Jesus at work for us.
What
is interesting in this parable is that Jesus doesn’t finish it.
We’re
not told what happens a year later.
We’re
not told whether the fig tree produced fruit.
Because
that’s not what Jesus wants us to focus on.
He
wants us to focus on his work of grace.
And
so too, in our world, he wants us to focus on his work of grace.
We’re
going to continue to see atrocities like we saw in New Zealand.
As
Christians our call is not to join in with the world to apportion blame.
Our
call is to offer hope to the world.
Hope
to the world of God’s love for the victims.
And
also to offer God’s forgiveness for those who commit such atrocities.
That’s
what is radical and also hard to accept – that God could even forgive them.
But
we must believe that because if there is a cut off of what and who God will
forgive then we would never know if that included us.
God
assures us that we are forgiven as he calls us to repent and experience his
grace and mercy again and again.
It
is human nature to try and apportion blame as if somehow we are innocent of
everything.
Just
as the people asked about the man born blind: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or
his parents?”
It
is impossible to offer a solution to end human suffering;
What
we see in our parable is a word of grace;
A
word of hope:
God
is still tending the garden.
God
is still working in and through his people to bring light and life, love and
peace to a broken and sinful world.
And
in that, there is indeed hope for all.