May the words of
my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O
God, for you are our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
We
often feel as if we are waiting for God. Waiting for God to come. Waiting for
God to act. Waiting for God to do something. Just waiting. Waiting for
something! Maybe just waiting for a sign – for a sign from God.
The
people Jesus is talking to this morning have just asked him about a sign. Just
a few verses previously, they have asked him how to interpret the times they
are living in. What is God really up to? He just looks at them and says: “You
have no difficulty knowing that when you see the sign of clouds that it is
going to rain. And you have no difficulty knowing that when you feel the sign
of the south wind that it is going to get hot. How can you not know what is
going on? God's reign is breaking into this world – and you can't see it? Watch
for it!”
So,
then the people think for a moment and say: "Okay: how about when those Galileans
were killed by Pilate: Is that a sign of God's punishing them for their sins? Is
that how God works? Is that how God rules in this world, through powerful, evil
tyrants punishing people? Is that how God deals with human sinfulness and
waywardness?"
I
can picture Jesus just shaking his head and saying something like, “Of course that’s
not what I’m talking about!” But it would have been natural for those people
following Jesus – and it is natural for us – to think that God is at work in
the world punishing the sinful and rewarding the good. When we're confronted by
bad news, it is always tempting to wonder, "Why is God doing this to
me?" or "Why is God doing this to a person I love?" It’s
difficult to pick up a newspaper or turn on the television without encountering
vivid and often excruciating details of the latest tragedy that has befallen
innocent victims. “Why has this terrible thing happened to such innocent
people?” we often ask.
Those
Galileans must have done something to deserve to be killed, right?
That
person who got diagnosed with cancer – it’s all part of God’s plan, right?
There’s
a divine purpose to these terrible things are happening in the world, right?
But
this isn’t God's work. This isn’t God's punishment for sin. Jesus implies we
are all wayward, we are all missing the mark with our lives in some way, so
really if that is the way God really works, we should all be punished all of
the time in the same way those Galileans were.
Life
is beautiful, unpredictable, and fragile. Having good things happen doesn’t
mean you are any more blessed by God than others. And more bad things happening
doesn’t mean God intends for you to suffer. Jesus tells us that punishment is
not a sign of God's inbreaking reign.
The
truth is that the Galileans died because of a corrupt Empire that ruled through
violence and intimidation. The truth is that some people get cancer and some don’t.
So then, if it’s not blessings and punishment, what is a sign that God is
reigning?
As
usual, Jesus tells a story. There was an orchard owner who became impatient
with a fig tree in his orchard; it was bearing no fruit. So, he ordered the
gardener to cut it down. "Sir," says the gardener, "let it
alone. Let's care for the tree and treat it well and give it one more year to
produce some fruit." There, says Jesus: there is the clue to interpreting
the present time.
We
need to believe in second chances, that we are all given, by God, the grace of
a second chance to become what we were created to be: lovers of God, lovers of
our neighbours, lovers of justice, and caretakers of creation. This is the good
news! This is the sign of God's activity in the world: mercy, patience, and
grace! In this season of Lent, we are called to face our mortality and
brokenness, called to repent. Perhaps we might also hear the good news that God
is calling us to a deep mercy which brings new life where none could be
previously found.
In
Jesus' view, grace is expressed in the gift God extends to us to change, to repent,
to have a change of heart, to change the direction of our lives, to return to
the Lord, so that we are travelling in the same direction God is travelling. We
all need to repent, to change, to become the loving people God intends us to be,
to turn towards God who is creating, sustaining, and reclaiming the world.
Our
sinfulness will lead to death not because God is a punishing God but simply
because that is the way of things: sinfulness is damaging to ourselves,
damaging to one another, and damaging to creation. So, God extends us grace,
waits for us to change, and continues to nurture our change by simply loving us
as we are: sometimes barren, sometimes broken people.
We
think that we are the ones waiting for God. But it turns out, God is the one
patiently waiting for us: waiting for us to turn, to change, and to have a
change of heart and a change of direction. Waiting for us to produce good
loving fruit from being lovingly nurtured. Waiting for us to produce fruit that
is nurturing for others.
In
the story, in our translation, the gardener says to the owner, "Let [the
tree] alone." But what he actually says in Greek is, "Forgive
it." The word Jesus uses in the story here is exactly the same word he
will use later in Luke's Gospel when, from the cross, he looks down at those
who have put him there, and says, "Forgive them, Father."
Forgiveness
is the expression of grace in the gift of time to allow the other to change. Extend
to them the grace of time to change, to bear good fruit. The story is about
grace expressed in the gift of time. But the story is also about fertilizing
that barren tree with love and care. There is waiting and patience, for sure,
but there is also active tending and loving. God is at work. God is always
working. And God is at work, even now, through you.
If
you want to know how God is active in the world, do not look to violence and
tragedy – look to God's work in bringing about healing, and justice, and
reconciliation. Those are the real signs of the times. That is how God is
bringing about God's rule of love and justice and peace in the world. And all God
asks of us is to repent, to turn away from harm and suffering and back to God,
who loves us and cares for us more deeply than we can ever know. God does not
wish to see us harmed, which is why God calls us to a repentant life.
Let
us pray, in the words of Saint Francis, who had much to say about a repentant
spiritual life:
Lord,
make us instruments of your peace.
Where
there is hatred, let us sow love;
where
there is injury, pardon;
where
there is discord, union;
where
there is doubt, faith;
where
there is despair, hope;
where
there is darkness, light;
where
there is sadness, joy.
Grant
that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to
be understood as to understand;
to
be loved as to love.
For
it is in giving that we receive;
it
is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and
it
is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
