The God of Second Chances

Rev. Harriette Cross First United Methodist Church of Wilmington March 24, 2019 Luke 13:1-9 Year C The Third Sunday of Lent The God of Second Chances Children’s time "And if it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down." Object: Some fertilizer. Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have ever tried to grow a plant or a tree? (Let them answer.) Did it live? (Let them answer.) How did you take care of your plant? (Let them answer.) There is a story Jesus tells in the Bible about a man who had a fig tree planted on his farm. He asked another man who worked for him to take care of the tree. After a while, he came back to pick some of the fruit that had grown on the tree, but he was surprised to find that the tree had no figs. The owner was disappointed, and he told his worker to cut it down. But the worker asked him to give the tree one more chance. So the owner told him to give the tree some fertilizer, and that if it did not grow in one year, then he should cut it down. Fertilizer helps plants to grow strong so that they will produce fruit, flowers, or whatever they are supposed to produce. If you want a strong plant, one that grows and grows, you must fertilize it. Fertilizer is very important for plants and trees. Jesus told this story so that we would learn something very important about ourselves, too. Sin makes us weak. We all sin. Every one of us is a sinner. Sin makes us very weak and keeps us from living the way that God wants us to live. When we are weak, we cannot even do the good things that we want to do. There is only one way to make things better so that we can get over our weakness. We must tell God how sorry we are for our sin. This is called repentance, and it is as good for us as fertilizer is for a plant. Tell God that you are sorry, and ask him to forgive you, and you will get rid of your sin. When you do not have the sin, then you can grow strong and be the way that God wanted you to be. The next time you see someone feeding a plant some fertilizer to help it grow strong, I hope you will remember how telling God you are sorry for your sin will also help you to grow strong. Will you do that? Good. God bless you very much. C.S.S. Publishing Company, CALL in the CLOWNS, by Wesley T. Runk Luke 13:1-9 Common English Bible (CEB) Demand for genuine change 13 Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices. 2 He replied, “Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. 4 What about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.” 6 Jesus told this parable: “A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’ 8 The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer.9 Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’” Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible It is pretty easy to hear the stories of Jesus and to think of these as stories for another time. None of the them apply directly to the situations of today. But every once in a while, Jesus hits the nail on the head for us, and he addresses a situation that we have just heard about in the headlines. I chose this verse in Luke for just that reason. In this verse Jesus is meddling, and talking about our time. In chapter 12 Jesus is talking to the crowd about what it takes to be a Christian. And they have decided that this whole Christian thing is a lot more trouble than it is worth. And takes a lot more time and energy than they are willing to give. Now Jesus is talking about repentance, and give your life to Jesus. And the wages of sin is death. For centuries, they have all heard this same message. If you are sick, unlucky, or die, then that is a punishment for unfaithfulness. If you are suffering, then obviously it is something that you have done. It is your own fault. Everyone seems to have the same two events in mind to prove a point. First is a group of Galileans who went to temple to protest Pilates, rules. Pilate came and crushed the rebellion and killed all of those involved. But they had no business revolting, so may be they got what they deserved. And then there were those salvodoreans who got killed when the roof collapsed. But they chose to cross the picket lines and were killed in the process. Interestingly enough – neither of these cases is recorded anywhere in history. There is no proof that either happened, or if it did, it was not worth even recording. But today – mass killings have become way too common on the news. There was just the instance of 50 muslims killed also while in worship. Did they deserve it for being muslim? How to protect ourselves in worship is not a big concern. But nothing seems to stop people being killed while going to worship, while going to the movies, while going to work. even for just waking up and going to school – they have been killed. We have been conditioned just like the people in Jesus time, to wonder who is to blame for all of this violence. If something bad happens, obviously you did something to deserve it. Jesus makes a point that this is not true. No one deserves to die just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It reminds me of an even more recent headline of a young girl who committeed suicide – because her classmates died in the parkland shooting and she survived. In a world where we have been conditioned for generations to equate sin with suffering. We live in a world – like she did of blame, guilt shame, accusations. We are meaning making machines – we have to make everything mean something. We have to find the root cause of bad sitiuations. But sometimes it does not matter – and there are things happening in our world that we just cannot make sense of. In my younger days I used to attend a self development program – landmark education. One of the first lines that we were taught to remember was life is empty and meaningless and it doesn’t mean anything that it doesn’t mean anything. The point was not to buy into the world of blame and guilt. That generational curse can be broken because we don’t have to buy into them. Jesus spent a lot of his ministry trying to prove that point. Blaming a situation on someone or something does not make the situation any better. But Jesus does not take the meaning out of the situation, he puts the meaning into it. Jesus uses this whole situation as a teachable moment. Jesus does not say that those killed in mass killings were innocent – he says that we are just as guilty as they are. Tragedy is just around the corner for all of us. But do we let sin and suffering define who we are? Jesus says no. He uses the example of the fig tree to make a point. What you have to realize is that it took a lot of time and energy to plant a fig tree. It required the best soil and demanded a lot of water and care to grow. And once it started to grow, it would be three years before you say any fruit. You weren’t supposed to pick any fruit from the tree for seven years. That was a lot of work. A vineyard keeper had been growing and taking care of this tree for 9 years, and still nothing. At what point do you give up. Nurture or Wither We used to have a swamp maple tree in our front yard. It shaded our porch and added to the landscaping in front of our house. We took it for granted and we never pruned it or fertilized it. About three years ago it began to lose its leaves and some branches withered and died. I pruned it back to give it some life. One fall we hammered fertilizer spikes into the ground in a circle around it. The following spring it sprouted new branches and you could see new foliage. For the first time in two seasons it appeared that it might make it. But, we had an unusually dry summer and the tree continued to lose branches. Finally it was invaded by carpenter ants and the tree was doomed. We should have given the tree attention sooner but instead we procrastinated. Our efforts to save it were only temporary. Eventually the time came when we had to cut it down. In a matter of minutes the tree came tumbling down. All that was left was the stump, about 10 inches in diameter. The front yard looked bare and our front porch no longer had shade. My wife wanted to replace the tree with something new. So we went to a nursery and purchased a Bradford Pear. We selected the best tree we could find. It took several days to remove the stump. I chopped and I sawed and I dug. Finally I succeeded in removing it. We then fertilized the ground and planted our new tree. We followed the directions that were given to us by the nursery worker to detail. He had told us that the Swamp Maple was really a poor choice for our soil and area. As long as we took good care of our new Bradford Pear Tree, we could expect good results. Our lives are much the same. Without nurture they wither and rot. We can’t always control the forces against us, like weather and even people who do mean things to us. We can, however make every effort to change our ways. Keith Wagner, Does Mercy Have Limits? When we hear the story of the fig tree, we usually say that the vine grower is God and that each of us is the tree. The tree which took way to much time and energy to take care of. But what if the vinegrower was each of us. The one’s who judged that the fig tree was not worth the effort. God says give them another chance, and we say no it is not worth the effort. God says let it grow, and we demand that it is time to take it out. God says don’t judge a book by its cover, and we insist that if it it what it is. God says I gave you a chance, give others a chance, and we still insist that people get what they deserve. We stay in the world of blame, guilt and suffering. In the Methodist church, the LGBTI community says that the African church is holding is down and they need to be help accountable, and the African church says that the sin of the Americans has allowed sin in the LGBT community and they need to be held accountable. But what does God say – I don’t know I am not God. A colleague from Australia points out that as we comment on recent headlines, we all can say that the Islamic community did not deserve what happened to them. But what about the one person who pulled the trigger – is he not also a child of God. Is he not also the fig tree – that God invested a lot of time and energy to developing. Do we blame him. Perhaps Jesus would say that the one who is free of guilt can cast the first stone. Jesus does say that we are just as much a sinner as those who were killed. And that we need to first turn from our sins and repent. Turn back to the God who has nurtured us so tenderly all of these years. We don’t have to live in a world of blame, sin and guilt. Jesus and 11 blokes are sitting around on lounges and comfortable chairs. Peter the Apostle is lying on the floor with his head on a cushion, and they're all waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Lunch is sitting on the table, but they wait. It's the year 2587. The Apostle John is writing the 15th version of his gospel on his iPad! And there's a tentative little knock at the door. A bloke nervously sticks his head around the corner, and Jesus springs to his feet and rushes over and says, "Judas! What kept you? Thank goodness you've arrived. We can get on with lunch! "And, of course, lunch is the Eucharist. God will wait for all time, even for the worst sinner. Jesus felt so strongly that he wanted us to be free, that he even went to the cross to pay for our sins. So that we could have the freedom to repent and have a relationship with God. God wants what is best for us, wants us to be our best self. God doesn’t do things to hurt people – Always there trying to help and make us feel better. If I die tomorrow – can I stand before God? What is it that I need to do differently? What is it that I may need to prune in my life, in order to be more connected to God? All of this is a part of our task – as we watch Jesus go to the cross to pay for our sins. We can listen to Jesus message to us to repent while we can – before it is too late. Let us pray…… Additional illustrations….. The Evening News Imagine for a moment that Jesus is watching television with his twelve disciples. They're on furlough from teaching and healing, taking it easy in the living room of Peter's mother-in-law, doing a little mindless channel surfing. Maybe they catch a little of an NCAA Tournament game, March Madness. These are guys, you know, just relaxing from a demanding schedule. But eventually the evening news comes on. They put down the popcorn and listen intently to the day's tragedies. One disciple says, "Hey, Jesus, that horrible bombing over on the West Bank where that guy drove a bus into a crowd of people. Do you think that because these Palestinians suffered in this way they were worse sinners than the rest?" It was a popular question in Jesus' day. Still is. If something bad happened, it must have been for a reason. Jesus scratches his beard for a moment. "No, they didn't die because of anything they did. It was a purely random thing. But let me tell you something. Unless you guys clean up your acts, you'll die just as tragically." There is a low murmur in the room. The disciples look at each other like Jesus has missed his morning medication. As two begin to leave to find a bathroom, the newscaster reports another catastrophe, this one halfway across the world. Jesus pipes up this time. "Hey, guys," he says, "those people over in El Salvador. What about them? The earthquake that hit there killed hundreds of people. Does that mean that these Salvadorans were worse sinners than their neighbors in Guatemala?" Jesus waits for his question to sink in. "No, the tragedy had nothing to do with their morals. Those people just got in the way." The disciples breathe a sigh of relief, gladdened to know that God doesn't work that way. But then Jesus looks at them all. "Let me tell you something, though. Unless you people start going in the right direction, you will share a similar fate as those Salvadorans and it will seem like a building falling on your head to crush the life out of you." I believe somebody got up and changed the channel after that. Frank G. Honeycutt, Sermons on the Gospel Reading, Cycle C, CSS Publishing Company _______________________________________ Things that we spend our time and energy on, are they bearing good fruit? Repent – focus on the things that are life giving. Our Chaotic Life This notice appeared in the window of a coat store in Nottingham, England: "We have been established for over 100 years and have been pleasing and displeasing customers ever since. We have made money and lost money, suffered the effects of coal nationalization, coat rationing, government control and bad payers. We have been cussed and discussed, messed about, lied to, held up, robbed and swindled. The only reason we stay in business is to see what happens next." Unknown Becoming What We Are Somerset Maugham said it best in his autobiography, Summing Up, "I knew that I had no lyrical quality, a small vocabulary, little gift of metaphor. The original and striking simile never occurred to me. Poetic flights...were beyond my powers. On the other hand, I had an acute power of observation, and it seemed to me that I could see a great many things that other people missed. I could put down in clear terms what I saw...I knew that I should never write as well as I could wish, but I thought, with pains, that I could arrive at writing as well as my natural defects allowed." Somerset Maugham discovered the secret of genius. The point is that life does not ask us to become what we are not. The fig tree was only required to produce figs. No more. You and I are asked only to accomplish what our natural gifts allow, but we are asked to accomplish just that. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Using Up the Ground Soil was at a premium in Israel. It was not unusual for a vineyard owner to give a little bit of his soil up for a fruit tree but the tree took up the best soil, the deepest soil, and required the most water. A fig tree doesn’t grow fruit until three years after planting. The owner in this story, had given the tree “due season” to bear fruit and yet the tree bore no fruit. It took up valuable space and resources. The owner questioned why the tree was allowed to “even use up ground.” God had given the Israelites the choicest ground. Their land possessed everything necessary to make themselves a great nation, indeed, a light to all nations. They were strategically positioned to send the fruit of God north and south, east and west; but instead, in-fighting continued to make them a worthless fruit tree. Everyone one of us and all of our churches will have to answer (from God’s perspective) this same question; “Why does it even use up the ground?” Jerry Goebel, Why Does HE Even Use up the Ground? Suffering and Repentance Trevor Beeson stood at the high altar of Westminster Abbey to celebrate the marriage of his daughter, Catharine, to Anthony, aged twenty-three. Nine months later he stood before the same altar for Anthony's funeral, who was killed when his car ran into a wall in East London. Four months later, Trevor returned to the altar beside the coffin of his friend and hero Earl Mountbatten, who died when his fishing boat was blown to pieces by Irish terrorist. Reflecting on the experience, he said he could not blame God for these senseless tragedies. He wrote: I should find it impossible to believe in, and worship, a God who arranged for the great servants of the community to be blown up on their holidays and who deliberately turned a young man's car into a brick wall…This is not the God of love whose ways are revealed in the Bible and supremely in the life of Jesus Christ. Beeson found two insights that helped him to cope with his tragedy and to look beyond it: "The first is that, although God is not responsible for causing tragedy, he is not a detached observer of our suffering. On the contrary, he is immersed in it with us, sharing to the full our particular grief and pain. This is the fundamental significance of the cross." Second, although we naturally ask, "Why did it happen?" Beeson discovered that the more important question is "What are we going to make of it?"; "Every tragedy contains within it the seeds of resurrection." This is, after all, the whole point of our pilgrimage through Lent, to Good Friday, and Easter morning. Are those who experience innocent suffering worse than anyone else? Of course not. It can happen to any of us. But is there a connection between innocent suffering and human action? Of course there is, and unless we change our way of living, we may all experience the same suffering. What does Jesus offer us when we experience this kind of suffering? The power of God to hold us firm, to give us strength, and to see us through. John K. Bergland editor, Abingdon Preachers Annual 1992, Nashville: Abingdon, 1991, p. 108. Not Nearly as Big a Man It seems that the University of Tennessee coach bought a bolt of cloth thinking he would have a suit made out of it. He took the material to his tailor in Knoxville where the tailor measured him, examined the bolt of cloth, did some computations on a piece of paper, and said, "I'm sorry, coach, there just isn't enough material in this bolt to make a suit for you." The coach was disappointed, but he threw the bolt of cloth in the trunk of his car, wondering what he was going to do with it. A couple of weeks later he was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama -- the home of the Crimson Tide -- arch enemies of the Vols. He was on his way to the coast for a vacation. Driving down the main street in Tuscaloosa, he noticed a tailor shop, which reminded him that he had that bolt of cloth in the trunk. He stopped, thinking he would give it a try. He told the tailor he had bought this bolt of cloth and wondered if he could do anything with it. The tailor measured him, measured the bolt of cloth, did some computations. Finally he said, "Coach, I can make you a suit out of this bolt. What's more, I can make you an extra pair of pants. And if you really want it, I can give you a vest out of this, too." The coach was dumbfounded. "I don't understand," he said. "My tailor in Knoxville told me he couldn't even make one suit out of this bolt of cloth." The tailor said, "Coach, here in Tuscaloosa, you are not nearly as big a man as you are in Knoxville." I tell the story to make the point that things are not always what they seem. Our Scripture lesson -- the parable of the fig tree -- is clearly a parable of judgment. But at the very heart of it is a marvelous word of grace. Maxie Dunnam, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Not Nearly as Big a Man It seems that the University of Tennessee coach bought a bolt of cloth thinking he would have a suit made out of it. He took the material to his tailor in Knoxville where the tailor measured him, examined the bolt of cloth, did some computations on a piece of paper, and said, "I'm sorry, coach, there just isn't enough material in this bolt to make a suit for you." The coach was disappointed, but he threw the bolt of cloth in the trunk of his car, wondering what he was going to do with it. A couple of weeks later he was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama -- the home of the Crimson Tide -- arch enemies of the Vols. He was on his way to the coast for a vacation. Driving down the main street in Tuscaloosa, he noticed a tailor shop, which reminded him that he had that bolt of cloth in the trunk. He stopped, thinking he would give it a try. He told the tailor he had bought this bolt of cloth and wondered if he could do anything with it. The tailor measured him, measured the bolt of cloth, did some computations. Finally he said, "Coach, I can make you a suit out of this bolt. What's more, I can make you an extra pair of pants. And if you really want it, I can give you a vest out of this, too." The coach was dumbfounded. "I don't understand," he said. "My tailor in Knoxville told me he couldn't even make one suit out of this bolt of cloth." The tailor said, "Coach, here in Tuscaloosa, you are not nearly as big a man as you are in Knoxville." I tell the story to make the point that things are not always what they seem. Our Scripture lesson -- the parable of the fig tree -- is clearly a parable of judgment. But at the very heart of it is a marvelous word of grace. Maxie Dunnam, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Look to God Bryan Zuckor was the quintessential 14-year-old boy-next-door — adventurous, athletic and popular at the Southern California Presbyterian Church where he worshipped and vigorously participated in youth activities. Zuckor’s wholesome life ended when he was shot and killed by a fellow student at Santana High School in Santee, CA. I suspect his grieving parents have asked themselves, ‘What did we do to deserve this?’ We moderns understand, of course, that this is not a rational question. We know that the question itself comes from a far more primitive time, a time when people thought God was a vengeful, eye-for-eye kind of God. We moderns know better. And yet, the question lingers. By all accounts, 15-year old Andy Williams was none of the things that Bryan Zuckor was. Andy was not athletic or popular or a member of a church youth group, or even a school club. But he had access to a gun, and now the whole nation knows just how frustrated and angry Andy was. He was apparently the shooter who killed Bryan Zuckor and fellow student Randy Gordon. Surely Andy’s parents, his friends, and teachers are asking, "What could we have done differently to have adverted this tragedy?" With that question we show how different we are from our ancestors. We moderns do like to believe that we have the power, we have the strength and wisdom to alter the course of human events, if only we make right and timely choices. Today, in Luke’s gospel, Jesus speaks to us all. To those who would see themselves as the ones to blame. . . . To those who assume their suffering is some form of divine punishment . . . . To mortals who see themselves as immortal, as able to exercise control over people and events . . . . Jesus speaks to us all, saying, "Humans need to look to God, not to themselves and their life experiences for the security for living." For the confidence to live life to the fullest, humans need to look to God. Sid Burgess, When Bad Things Happen _________________________________________ The Evening News Imagine for a moment that Jesus is watching television with his twelve disciples. They're on furlough from teaching and healing, taking it easy in the living room of Peter's mother-in-law, doing a little mindless channel surfing. Maybe they catch a little of an NCAA Tournament game, March Madness. These are guys, you know, just relaxing from a demanding schedule. But eventually the evening news comes on. They put down the popcorn and listen intently to the day's tragedies. One disciple says, "Hey, Jesus, that horrible bombing over on the West Bank where that guy drove a bus into a crowd of people. Do you think that because these Palestinians suffered in this way they were worse sinners than the rest?" It was a popular question in Jesus' day. Still is. If something bad happened, it must have been for a reason. Jesus scratches his beard for a moment. "No, they didn't die because of anything they did. It was a purely random thing. But let me tell you something. Unless you guys clean up your acts, you'll die just as tragically." There is a low murmur in the room. The disciples look at each other like Jesus has missed his morning medication. As two begin to leave to find a bathroom, the newscaster reports another catastrophe, this one halfway across the world. Jesus pipes up this time. "Hey, guys," he says, "those people over in El Salvador. What about them? The earthquake that hit there killed hundreds of people. Does that mean that these Salvadorans were worse sinners than their neighbors in Guatemala?" Jesus waits for his question to sink in. "No, the tragedy had nothing to do with their morals. Those people just got in the way." The disciples breathe a sigh of relief, gladdened to know that God doesn't work that way. But then Jesus looks at them all. "Let me tell you something, though. Unless you people start going in the right direction, you will share a similar fate as those Salvadorans and it will seem like a building falling on your head to crush the life out of you." I believe somebody got up and changed the channel after that. Frank G. Honeycutt, Sermons on the Gospel Reading, Cycle C, CSS Publishing Company _______________________________________ The