Sermon

St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

March 11, 2007 - Third Sunday in Lent

The Rev. Vicki L. Smith

Luke 13:1-9

Jesus did not say, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”  That was Ben Franklin.  Despite the Elizabethan language, Jesus did not say, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”  That was Shakespeare.  And Jesus did not say, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”  That was my grandmother.

It is important that we know what Jesus did not say, and what he did say, especially in today’s gospel lesson, which is confusing, to say the least. 

There were some present who told Jesus about Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way that 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 18 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 did not say that the Galileans suffered because they were notorious sinners.  In Jesus’ day, and for many people in our day as well, suffering was understood to be punishment for sin.  Jesus said that it was not.  Right here, in today’s lesson, he severed the connection between sin and suffering   He said that suffering is not punishment for sin – not for the Galileans, not for those killed by the falling tower, not for us.  Life is not like that – God is not like that.  Of course there are some sufferings we bring on ourselves with the choices we make and the things we do, but much of human suffering is undeserved, the result of forces beyond our control.  Sometimes bad things just happen – it’s nobody’s fault and nobody deserves it.  Jesus clearly said that suffering is not punishment for sin.

Nonetheless, Jesus did say that we should repent.  “Unless you repent, you will die as they did.”  While our sins may not cause towers to fall upon us, or violence to strike us, our sins still damage and control our lives; our sins take us away from Christ and keep us from being the people he has called us to be.  Jesus did say that we need to repent.

But, Jesus did not say that if we don’t repent, we’ll die violently, nor did he say that if we do repent we’ll be protected.  Think of the people who made up his original audience – Peter, James, and many others who would later suffer and die for their Christian faith.  We must not, and cannot read Jesus’ words here to mean that if we repent, we will not die and we will not suffer.  That is not God’s promise.  Jesus did not say that repentance was protection from the struggles of human life.

When Jesus said, “Unless you repent you will all perish as they did,” I think he was saying that unless we repent, we will perish as they did, not violently or unfairly, but unprepared.  I think he is warning us that unless we repent, we risk dying before we’re ready, with sin on our hearts, with regrets, with damaged relationships, with hurtful words in our mouths and sinful actions in our hands.  Jesus wants us to know that life is fragile and uncertain.  Any time now, a tower could fall on us, and we would not have the chance to repent and make things right. 

Many medieval monks greeted each other every morning with the words “momento mori” – remember you must die.  They did this not to be morbid or mean, but as a reminder that we don’t have forever to change our lives; we don’t have forever to apologize, to mend that relationship, to make peace, to repent.  We need to do it now – we don’t have forever. 

But, we do have now.  Think about the parable Jesus told at the end of the gospel lesson today.

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 fruit tree and still I find none.  Cut it down!  Why should it be wasting the soil?”  He replied, “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.”

God gives even an unfruitful fig tree another chance.  God gives us another chance.  We are living in that one more year.  By the mercy of Christ, we have been given the opportunity and the time to repent, to change our lives and to bear fruit for Christ. 

Jesus wants us to know that we cannot count on repenting tomorrow – for tomorrow may never come.  The tower may fall between now and then.  But we have today, we have right now – to repent, to amend our lives and to live as Christ would have us live.  One of the commentaries says about this passage that Jesus is calling us to live each day in such a way that we will have no fear of giving an account for how we have used God’s gifts. 

Jesus did not say it exactly this way, but it’s a good summary of the learnings from this story of Galileans and fig trees.  May we respond to Jesus’ call to repentance and live each day in such a way that, should it be our last, we will be at peace with God and our neighbor.

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