Lent III - 3 March 2013

No, I tell you

• Both the religious teaching and the common wisdom of Jesus' day held that a person's sins caused their lot in life. If a person suffered anything, it would be possible somehow to connect the dots and trace their misfortune to a specific sin. It makes for a very neat package, all tied up in a nice bow. A lot of the Book of Deuteronomy supports this understanding of sin and human behaviour.
• The Book of Job takes issue with this and asks the age-old question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a rather well-know book by that name a few years ago.
• We thirst for answers and for justice. It bothers us when we see people we consider evil thriving in this world. We cringe when we see good, honest folk undergoing all sorts of sorrows and troubles. We say it is unfair... and it may well be.
• Jesus tackles this same question in the reading from Luke today. Were those Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they offered sacrifice the worst sinners among all the people from Galilee? Were those eighteen people killed in the collapse of the tower worse sinners than anyone else in Jerusalem? Jesus' answer is interesting and puzzling at the same time. No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.
• Now, Jesus is not both confirming and denying the sin-punishment idea here. He is issuing what some commentators call “the providential call to repentance.” He is using the news of these incidents as a teaching moment. No, these people were not such evil sinners that their sins cried out for immediate and deadly punishment while all the more righteous people were left walking around. Yes, every one of you will perish unless you change your ways.
• Jesus tells his listeners, the people then and us in the here and now, to repent. Hearing the word “repent” often brings to mind pictures of the Spanish or Mexican penitentes, beating themselves up in procession or carrying loads of cactus against their bare backs to atone for their sins. It reminds us of hair-shirted, wild-eyed preachers holding signs on street corners, proclaiming that the end is at hand and fiery judgement is soon to come.
• Repentance itself really is a much deeper issue. The word in Scripture implies little of the practise of repenting in tears and self-punishment as it does changing our lives. The word used in the New Testament actually means “to turn around.” It implies making a new start and that is quite appropriate when discussing our life in God.
• This idea of making a new start carries through into the second part of today's Gospel reading, the parable of the fig tree. In that parable, the tree that has been barren so far is given another chance to do what it is there for – bearing fruit - although there is also a warning that second chances are not infinite; there are limits. But that may not mean what we think it means.
• When you think about it, our God is a god of second chances. Isaiah wrote let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
• Does our God limit forgiveness? Is there a certain number of times we will be forgiven? Another part of the Gospels says that number is either 77 times or 7 x 70 times, depending on which version pleases you. In any event, either 77 or 490 times is far more than can be counted on the fingers AND toes, the basis of math in the ancient world. Both numbers are symbolic of immense and perfect forgiveness.
• So if there is always a second (or third and more) chance, why emphasize repentance and turning our lives around? The call to repentance is a daily call to return our lives to the One who has given our lives to us. Our God is forgiving but we are not always accepting.
• A pastor friend of mine leads a congregation in the Ottawa Valley area. In his Internet blog, he shared some reflections that his bible study group brought up, many of which are appropriate to our topic today. He asked them to reflect on forgiveness and these are a few of the responses:
• “Confessing sin is about become aware again of my need for and my dependence on God.”
• “God will not act toward us in judgement because of our sins so much as for all the gifts we refused from the gracious hand of God.”
• “Forgiveness of sins is not a reprieve from a judge but an embrace from a lover.”
• All of these reflections are very true and quite insightful:
• Repentance brings us into a right relationship with God, not as people who are perfect and righteous, but as people who understand they are created beings.
• Repentance is a way of accepting what God gives. As Isaiah reminds us, God will abundantly pardon, and we can still refuse that abundant gift. The fig tree in Luke's parable will be cut down if it does not respond to the work and the care of the gardener, but any fruit in its limbs will save it.
• Repentance is accepting the forgiveness that is present. Forgiveness then is more of a hearty welcome-home-we're-glad-you're-here than an courtroom acquittal and dismissal. (Remember this for next Sunday's Gospel.)
• Repentance is funny-odd rather than funny ha-ha. Repentance and forgiveness don't simply clear us of all charges, but restores us to a mutually loving relationship with our God.
• As Christians, one of our missions in this world is to proclaim and model the forgiveness God has given us in a world that doesn't recognize forgiveness and won't permit forgiveness. We stand for the gracious forgiveness of God and we'll be best able to speak of it when we realize we've received it.