Lent 1: The Wilderness Within

“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,  ⁹ “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,  ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.  ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  ¹² God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:  ¹³ I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.  ¹⁴ When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,  ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.  ¹⁶ When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”  ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”” – Genesis 9:8-17

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To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.  ² O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.  ³ Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.  ⁴ Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.  ⁵ Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.  ⁶ Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.  ⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness’ sake, O LORD!  ⁸ Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.  ⁹ He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.  ¹⁰ All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. – Psalm 25, Of David

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“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  ¹⁰ And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  ¹² And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  ¹³ He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.  ¹⁴ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,  ¹⁵ and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” – Mark 1:9-15

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Welcome to the first Sunday of Lent!  Lent is starting so early this year – I don’t know about you but we still have a few straggly Christmas decorations around that haven’t been put away yet!

A lot of people observe Lent by giving things up… and that’s not a bad idea if there are things we would benefit by giving up. But the tradition of ‘giving things up’ for Lent is actually rooted in an older tradition of fasting. We were talking about this at the Thursday night Lenten study the other night – how people a long time ago used to move away from society and fast, or form communities that were like monasteries that practiced fasting. There is something about going without food for a day, or for a few days – that’s a very effective way of bringing prayer to the forefront of life. There is something about not eating – something about telling our bodies to ‘just hush’ for a minute – that brings spiritual life into focus.

The practice of fasting was common in Jesus’ day as well. In Matthew 6:16 Jesus says “when you fast…” (do such-and-such) – but he doesn’t say “if you fast”.  Jesus assumed that people who love God would fast now and then.

In today’s world some Christians still fast; and some fast only from specific foods (for example from meat on Fridays); and some fast from things that aren’t food at all (for example, giving up social media for Lent).

In the church, for the past 1000 years or so, Lent has also traditionally been a time when new Christians prepared for baptism or for joining the church. So it’s very appropriate that Pastor Dylan is in the process of putting together a new members’ class. If you know anyone who would like to be part of that, please let one of the pastors know.

Turning to our scripture readings for today, the general theme – the concept in common between all of them – is wilderness. Unbridled nature. Our reading from Genesis today talks about Noah and the flood; and our reading from Mark talks about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness after he was baptized. On the surface these two events don’t seem to have much in common but as we dig deeper we will find a number of common threads.

Starting with Genesis: In today’s reading we are listening in on a conversation between God and Noah that happens after the flood. At this point in the story, the flood is over; the ark has come to rest on a mountain top; and all the people and animals have disembarked. And God is promising that a catastrophe like this will never happen again. So we’re coming in at the end of the story. We need to back up to the beginning.

One of the most common questions people ask about the flood is: “why would God do this?” Why would God – who loves people and loves creation – wipe out every living thing on the face of the earth?

The reason God gives us was that the hearts of all the people were all evil all the time. I know sometimes our own world feels like that – but the evil we see around us now, apparently, was nothing compared to what was going on back then. In Genesis 6:1-4 we read:

“When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of heaven went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”

The Bible is describing a group of super-beings, not-quite-human, not-quite-gods – possibly fallen angels – we don’t know for sure. But they were physically large and very strong; and the Bible says these beings caused great evil on the earth, way beyond what mere mortals could do. You and I have never seen evil on this scale.

God would have been evil if he had not done something about the evil. So God looked around for an honest human being who respected God, and he found only Noah. Noah preached God’s word to the people of his generation for 120 years – and nothing changed.

So God told Noah to build the ark. The people asked Noah what he was doing, and he told them and warned them about the destruction that was coming, and they just laughed at him. Anyone who was living at that time could have believed Noah and gotten on the ark and been saved – but they chose to turn their backs on God and do whatever they felt like.

So God, as a last resort, wiped the slate clean and made a new start. And when the ark, with Noah and his family, and all the animals, finally came to rest on solid ground again, God made a covenant: “this will never happen again”. This is what God said:

“I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,  ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you… that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  ¹² God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:  ¹³ I have set my bow in the clouds…” (Genesis 9:9-13)

It has been said that a covenant – or a promise – is only as good as the parties who make it. We know that God’s word is good. As for us –whenever we see a rainbow in the sky, do we remember God’s promise? Do we uphold our part of the agreement, and remember God’s words?

The psalm we read a moment ago is a psalm of lament. It was inspired when King David’s heart was moved because people who knew God refused to keep God’s covenants – not just this one with Noah, but many other covenants as well. David is mourning and grieving over the fact that people are not keeping the promises they’ve made to God. In order for a covenant to be good, both parties need to be faithful.  During this time of Lent, it’s good to think about the promises we’ve made to God – in our baptism, in our worship – and think about how we can be faithful.

One other interesting note on this passage in Genesis: this particular covenant – unlike many covenants in the Old Testament, did not involve any animal sacrifices – because the animals are included in the covenant. The animals are named participants.

We’ll come back to that thought in a little bit. For now, we move on to the Gospel of Mark.

The events we read about in Mark – surrounding Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River – are also found in Matthew and Luke’s gospels. But Mark, as usual, is a man of few words.

Mark starts out by telling us that Jesus came to John the Baptist and was baptized. The question is: why? John preached a baptism of repentance – but Jesus, being the Son of God, had nothing to repent of.

Jesus is standing in solidarity with us – in a way that looks forward to the cross.  Jesus takes our place in both situations. Jesus identifies with us, even though he had no sin that needed to be washed away.  And God’s response to this was, “this is my son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

In doing this, Jesus also demonstrates that confession of sin can be communal as well as individual. That is, it’s possible to confess sin as a group rather than one person at a time. When we pray the prayer of confession in the bulletin on a Sunday, there may be times when we think to ourselves, “I know I’m not perfect, but I’ve never committed that sin” – and this could be very true. But in church we confess as a group. We pray “forgive us our sins” rather than “forgive me my sins”.  Of course we can and should also confess individual sins to God privately. But when we pray together in church we stand in solidarity with each other.

In a similar way, Jesus identifies with us in being baptized, and stands in solidarity with us, and God is well pleased.

Immediately afterwards the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted or tested by Satan. This is another question that people often ask: “Do you really believe in the Devil”?

First off:  I do not think it is wise to spend too much time thinking about evil beings. It’s enough to know the basics. But having said that, probably one of the best books on the subject is CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters – which is fiction but speaks a lot of truth!  In the introduction to the book, CS Lewis writes that when he is asked if he believes in the actual Devil, he says:

“…if by “the Devil” you mean a power opposite to God and, like God, self-existent from all eternity, the answer is certainly No. There is no uncreated being except God. God has no opposite. No being could attain a “perfect badness” opposite to the perfect goodness of God…”[1]

But Lewis goes on to say that:

“The proper question is whether I believe in devils. I do. That is to say, I believe in angels, and I believe that some of these, by abuse of their free will, have become enemies to God and, as a corollary, [enemies] to us.”[2]

So Lewis is saying the devil was originally a created being like an angel, and rebelled against God, and is trying to tempt humans to join in the rebellion and disobey God the way it does.

The devil comes to Jesus in the wilderness, because if the devil can get Jesus to fall, to join in the rebellion against God, to do things his own way instead of going to the cross, then God’s plan to save the human race will fail.

But Jesus does not fall. In fact he doesn’t fall for even the tiniest bit of it.

Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. The number 40 is significant in Jewish history because the flood lasted 40 days; Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days; and the trip from Egypt to the Promised Land took 40 years. All these sets of 40 included times of testing before something big happened. And now that Jesus has been tested, something big is about to happen again.

One other common thread between these two readings is that the animals play a key role in both events!  Humanity’s fall into sin back in Genesis had horrible consequences for the animal kingdom as well as for people. Before the fall, the animal world was not at odds with itself or with people.[3] In fact, in Genesis we see Adam giving names to all the animals.

The Jewish Torah gives instructions on how to take care of animals. And there’s a passage in Hosea where God says:

“…in that day will I make a covenant… with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.”

That’s God’s promise to the animals of the earth. All of creation – all of it – waits for the redemption of humankind.

Mark says that during the temptation, “Jesus was with the wild animals”.  Jewish scholars point out that “wild animals often assist the heroes of God”; and they point out that “Adam was at peace with the animal kingdom in the Garden of Eden. […] And the New Testament refers to Jesus as the Second Adam, [so it would make sense that] Jesus would enjoy a [good] relationship with the animal kingdom.”[4]

So one side-effect of this whole event is that, through Jesus, the fellowship between humans and animals that existed in the Garden of Eden is being restored. Isn’t that great news?

Jesus tells us later on to share the good news not only “with all people” but “with all creation”. St Francis of Assisi was famous for going out and preaching to animals and to birds. Some people thought he was nuts. But you know what? Those of us who have pets… have you ever mentioned the name of Jesus to them? Have you ever told your pet that God loves them? My cats purr like crazy when I talk like that. Try it sometime with your animals!

Of course we are also called to share the good news with our fellow human beings. What we see in these passages is that being God’s people begins with listening to Jesus. So this Lent, we should take every opportunity we can find to be in God’s word, and listening to Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus calls us to repentance. This does not mean that we are horrible terrible people. It just means that, in some areas of our lives, we need to change direction. Remember the word repent means “to change course” or to change direction.

In a way I kind of think of repentance as being almost like spring cleaning for the soul.  I’ve been doing some major spring cleaning in my office lately – getting rid of stuff I don’t use to make way for some built-ins. As I’ve been doing this I’ve been finding things I haven’t used in a decade or two… and I’ve also been finding about two decades’ worth of dust that flies into the air every time I move something!! Makes it tough to breathe.

That’s kind of how things are with our souls as well. We need to let the fresh air in. We need to clear out the stuff we don’t need any more – the habits that aren’t working for us any more. And we need to re-focus our attention on God and what God is calling us to.

Whatever disciplines we decide on for Lent – whether it be fasting or prayer or volunteering or giving – whatever God is calling each of us to do, we need to be doing that. It will be different for every person, but we will be going through Lent together and we can encourage each other as each one of us focuses on hearing and doing God’s word and God’s will.

The end result will be a closer walk with God, which will bring joy to us and our loved ones – and to our animals. In the name of God, I invite you all to the observance of a Holy Lent. AMEN.

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[1] CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p. vii

[2] Ibid

[3] CMJ

[4] CMJ

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Jesus Preaches Repentance

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying,  ² “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”  ³ So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across.  ⁴ Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  ⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. ¹⁰ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. – Jonah 3:1-5, 10

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Psalm 62:5-12  ⁵ For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.  ⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  ⁷ On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.  ⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah  ⁹ Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.  ¹⁰ Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.  ¹¹ Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,  ¹² and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.

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Mark 1:14-20   ¹⁴ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God,  ¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”  ¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen.  ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”  ¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed him.  ¹⁹ As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.  ²⁰ Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

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Our scripture readings this morning present us with a subject that is not easy to talk about or to hear about. The overarching theme of our scripture readings today is repentance.

It’s unfortunate that when we hear the word ‘repent’, so often what comes to mind is those old-time hellfire-and-brimstone preachers whose sermons would scare the hell out of people, but only temporarily. It seems too often turning over a new leaf in that particular way didn’t last long.

We have better examples to look at in today’s scriptures; but before we turn to our readings, I thought it might be helpful to hear what a more contemporary preacher might say about repentance. Inspired by the fact that last Monday was the day we celebrate the life and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, I went out to the internet and asked Google: “did Martin Luther King Jr ever preach on repentance?”

He sure did! So I’d like to start today by sharing a couple of the things he wrote. The first is a quote from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Dr. King wrote:

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

That’s a prophetic word if ever there was one. It’s also a great example of how to speak a prophetic word into our culture today.  King makes no apologies; he doesn’t soften his point; he confronts evil head-on.  And he includes all of us in his call to repentance – because sins committed by groups need to be repented of by groups.

The second thing I found that Dr. King wrote about repentance comes from one of his sermons. This was not a famous sermon; it’s just part of the archives that are available today. Here’s what he said (and I wish I could speak this in his voice! When I was reading it on the internet I was imagining his voice – but work your imaginations.) Dr. King said:

“This morning I want to talk to you about the meaning of sin. This sermon is only addressed to those persons who are conscious of moral wrongdoing. If you have no uneasy stirrings of conscience… then this sermon does not apply to you.

“But before you conclude that this sermon does not apply to you… be certain [of what] we mean by “sin”. Usually when we think of sin we think of… of gross iniquities — murder, robbery, adultery, drunkenness. But we must add to this category at least three other categories:

• There are sins of temperament — vindictiveness, stubbornness, jealously, bad temper, malicious gossip…
• There are sins of social attitude
• There are the sins of neglect

It is not alone the things that we do, but the things we have left undone that haunt us — the letters we did not write, the words we did not speak, the opportunity we did not take. How often Jesus stressed this sin. What was wrong with that… man who buried his talent? What did he do? That was the trouble—he did nothing; he missed his chance.

So here they are—sins of passion, sins of temperament, sins of social attitude, sins of neglect. I suspect that every one here fits into one of these categories: So stay with us; you too need forgiveness.”[1]

I feel like I should just say “Amen” and sit down!

Dr. King is right – there is not a single person in this room who is not a sinner. According to the latest statistics, in a random group of any thirty Americans (on average) four are hooked on pornography; eleven use prescription drugs in wrong ways; three drink too much; and more than one in four have experienced either physical violence or stalking in a romantic relationship.

Once we know we need forgiveness, and that God is a God of mercy, it becomes possible to confess our sins to God – usually in private prayer, just between us and God; but sometimes also in public worship. And when we do this, we also become willing to leave those sins behind.

That’s where repentance begins.

What repentance actually looks like will be different for each one of us; but in general, repentance includes a change of direction. Repentance does not mean – as some of those old-time preachers used to lead us to think – that we are low-down, dirty rotten scoundrels.

Rather repentance means being honest with God about where we are in our lives, where our shortcomings are, and being willing to be in a better place doing better things. It’s kind of like, when my cell phone is giving me directions while I’m driving, and I make a wrong turn, and phone says “recalibrating, recalibrating…”. The phone is figuring out a new set of directions to get me back headed the right way. That’s what repentance is like – recalibrating. Getting back on the right road.

Our scripture readings for today talk about repentance from different angles, so I’d like to take a quick look at each, starting with Jonah.

Jonah’s story is unique in history, I think. Jonah is probably the most reluctant prophet that ever lived!  God commanded Jonah to go preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh. In those days, Nineveh was a very large and extremely corrupt city – badly in need of repentance – and it was also Israel’s arch-enemy at the time. Jonah had no reason to want them to repent; in fact he would rather see God’s judgement fall on those scoundrels!  So Jonah went and traveled in the opposite direction.

God persuaded Jonah to change his mind by sending a whale – and after Jonah spent some time thinking things over in the belly of a whale, he was willing to go. I imagine Jonah probably looked a little strange after being in those digestive juices for a day or two – strange enough to convince the Ninevites that this prophet was for real!

God then repeats his command to Jonah: go preach to Nineveh. And God’s message is: “forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown”. That’s it. Nothing else.

The people of Nineveh believed God, and repented with fasting and sackcloth.

There are two very unusual things that happen in this story: First, God’s call to repentance is going out to Gentiles. This was almost unheard-of in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is mostly about God’s relationship with Israel; and the people of Israel are frequently warned not to mix with Gentiles, because they’ll end up worshipping Gentile gods (which happened far too often).

But the people of Nineveh were uncircumcised Gentile idol-worshippers, and were the enemies of Israel – yet God called them to repentance. And when they did repent, God showed them mercy. This was the first time, but will not be the last time, that God calls groups of non-Jewish people to repentance.

The second thing that’s unusual is that when the Ninevites repent, they do not sacrifice any animals – which is how repentance was done in the Jewish faith in the Old Testament. This introduces the idea that it’s possible to repent and be saved apart from animal sacrifice. The prophet Samuel once said: “to obey is better than sacrifice” – and the Ninevites learned this first-hand. Atonement for Nineveh was by faith alone in God’s word alone.

Next we come to Psalm 62. The word ‘repent’ doesn’t appear in this psalm. The psalm was written by King David and was probably written to be used in public worship. But the words describe the mindset – and the heart-set – of a person who repents well; a person who makes course corrections daily by keeping a focus on God and who God is.

David says: God alone is my rock. God alone is my salvation. God is my fortress – and back then fortresses were not only used for battle but they also included places to eat and places to rest – literally everything a person needed. God is my fortress.

David also says “I trust God; I am open and honest with God.” That’s a scary thought in a lot of ways. I think most of us kind of instinctively want to be on our best behavior for God – because God is perfect and holy, and God is pure goodness and pure love, and God is so much greater than we are. The last thing we want to do is to say, “God, I messed up again.”

But there’s no point in trying to fool God. In fact God knows a lot more about us than we know about ourselves, so we might as well be honest.

David says that poverty or riches count for nothing. He says the poor are a breath, and riches are a delusion. But power and steadfast love belong to God; and God loves us more than we can imagine.

Finally in the Gospel of Mark, at the beginning of the reading, John the Baptist has just been arrested. His voice in the wilderness – calling the people to repentance and to prepare the way of the Lord – has been silenced.

Jesus takes up the ministry where John left off. John has indeed prepared the way for the Lord, and the people are ready to hear, so Jesus begins.

Jesus’ first, and most important message is:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Or to say it in more contemporary language: The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Turn around, believe, and change course.

Jesus calls us to disentangle ourselves from the cares of this world – NOT ignoring the needs of the world (not at all!), but realizing our lives are short; we keep our focus on God, we follow God’s lead, and we trust in God’s loving care.

Jesus then calls his first disciples to follow him and become ‘fishers of people’. What was it that motivated those lifelong fishermen to drop their nets and walk away from everything they had known? Was it a chance to try something new and different? Was it a chance to start again? Was it an opportunity to be part of what God is doing in the world? I imagine the answer would be different for each disciple.

Jesus says: “The reign of God – the kingdom of God – is now here” – and who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

So to sum all this up for us living here in the 21^st century –

First, we need to look back at the history of our faith. One Jewish scholar says: “Repentance is as old as time itself.”[2]  And even in the Old Testament, repentance is universal – it’s for everybody, not just the people of Israel. I find it interesting that even today, our Jewish brothers and sisters read the story of Jonah every year on Yom Kippur, which is their day of fasting and repentance.

But we don’t need a special event to repent: repentance can be done by anybody on any day. So how is it done? The Ninevites repented on both an emotional level and a physical level. They let God turn their hearts, and they let God change the way they lived.

Looking at the history of the Jewish people also reminds me of the way they often begin prayers. They often start their prayers with the words: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe…” and then add more after this. For example:

• “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings snow in its time and rain in its time and the green of spring in its time…” (and then after that they might pray for those who are facing inclement or difficult weather)
• OR “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who places us in families and gives us the gift of children and grandchildren…” (and then they might go on to pray for families)
• OR “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has placed us in this church and in this community…” (and then go on to pray for the church and the community)

I love that prayer because it puts everything in focus: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe…” That’s where we begin.

Second, repentance means trusting God. God is not ‘up there’ in heaven waiting for us to make mistakes so God can get on our case. No; God is like a loving father who wants the very best for us. God wants to hear from us, just like we like to hear from our kids.

Third, in the book of Corinthians, Paul says “the time is short” and he advises the Corinthians to “be ready”. This is not a comment on the end times; it’s a reminder to stay on the path of faith… to keep making those course corrections as we journey through life.

An old Jewish rabbi was once asked by his disciples: “When should we repent?”

The rabbi answered: “On the day before you die.”

Which of course reminds us we never know when that day will be. So we prepare for our future with God by making course corrections every day – checking to see that we’re still moving in God’s direction. As Shakespeare’s Hamlet once famously said, “The readiness is all.”

The Greek word for repentance – metanoeite (which I think is a very nice-sounding word, much nicer-sounding than ‘repent’) metanoeite includes in its meaning continuous action. It’s not something that is done just once, and it’s not something we do only on Sundays. It is an ongoing state of daily change and faithfulness. When we make a daily practice of checking in with God, and steering in God’s direction, the course corrections fall into place.

So Jesus’ call to us – as it was to the disciples – is a call to companionship and closeness and growth and learning as we journey together towards God’s kingdom.  “The time is here, the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.”  AMEN.

[1] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/meaning-forgiveness

[2] CMJ

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Lent 3: “If It Bears Fruit”

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  ² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  ³ Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.  ⁴ See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.  ⁵ See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

⁶ “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;  ⁷ let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  ⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.  ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:1-9

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At that very time there were some present who told [Jesus] about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  ² He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?  ³ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.  ⁴ 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?  ⁵ No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  ⁷ So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’  ⁸ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.  ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'” – Luke 13:1-9

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Preamble: Martin Luther King, Jr., once said that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” In a parallel thought, theologian Matt Skinner recently said, “The Christian outlook on repentance arcs toward joy.” It’s a surprising thought, to think that repentance would lead to joy, but that’s the big picture thought for today.

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Our theme for this morning, the third Sunday of Lent, is If It Bears Fruit – which is taken from today’s reading in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus teaches that as Christian believers, our lives need to be bearing spiritual fruit. And if our lives are not producing spiritual fruit then we’re not really following Jesus.

But two big questions come up right away:

1. What exactly IS spiritual fruit? How do we know if we have it?
2. How does one go about bearing spiritual fruit? How does it happen? How does it grow?

I want to start with the second question first, because I think this is where many people tend to get discouraged. How do we bear spiritual fruit? How do we bring this fruit into our lives? How much time does it take? What goes into growing it?

I imagine it this way: spiritual fruit – like any kind of fruit, even the kind we eat – takes a lot of work but not a lot of effort. Here’s what I mean:

A few weeks ago I bought two dwarf cherry trees. I ordered them through the mail, and they arrived a few days ago. What attracted me to these trees is that they only grow to about 5 feet tall and you can grow them in pots!  We don’t have to dig up half the backyard just to plant some cherry trees!

But before I see a single cherry I have a lot of work to do. I need to buy LARGE pots, and dirt to fill the pots, and frost covers because the trees need to be protected from frost. I need to plant them and water them and trim them. And I probably won’t see any fruit for about three years: it takes that long for the tree to become strong enough to start producing fruit. Planting fruit trees is truly an act of faith! And it’s a lot of work.

But from the tree’s point of view, bearing fruit doesn’t take much effort. The tree grows, soaks in the sunshine, take in nutrients from the soil, and when the proper time comes it blooms and bears fruit. The tree doesn’t need to work up muscles to bear fruit. It doesn’t need to watch YouTube videos to figure out how to produce fruit. If the gardener (me) has done the work, fruit happens – because that’s what fruit trees do.

That’s what I mean by fruit takes a lot of work but not a lot of effort. The gardener does most of the work. The tree just does what it was created to do.

In our passage from Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a fig tree. This particular fig tree is not bearing fruit. In the parable the man who owns the fig tree represents God, and the fig tree represents a human being (could be anybody). God plants this fig tree in his vineyard (the world). God comes looking for fruit and doesn’t find any, so he says to the gardener (Jesus, in this story) “three years I’ve been looking for fruit on this tree, and I’m still not finding any.”

As we’ve just learned from our example of cherry tree, some trees don’t produce fruit right away. Some trees might take two years, three years, maybe even four years, to produce fruit. The gardener knows this. I think this is one of the reasons why it’s agreeable to God to give this fig tree another year, and to work with it some more. The work of producing fruit, for the most part, is the gardener’s. The tree’s job is to take what the gardener gives it and grow fruit.

What the gardener has given us is our skills, our talents, our families, our communities, everything that makes up our lives. There are times when something goes badly wrong and a tree never bears fruit. It might have been frost-bitten when it was small; it might have been attacked by animals or insects; it might not have been a healthy tree to begin with. In the same way, human fruitfulness is sometimes inhibited by sickness or violence or other difficulties that prevent people bearing spiritual fruit in their lives.

In either case, God, the gardener, digs around the tree and puts manure on it. I expect this is probably not a very pleasant experience for the tree. Trees don’t like having their roots messed with: no plant does. And nobody I know (human or plant) enjoys having manure thrown on it!

In some ways we can parallel this to life’s difficulties and challenges. God may sometimes allow difficult things into our lives to help us grow. Let me say quickly: not all difficulties, hurts, or sicknesses are from God. Some tragedies – for example the war in Ukraine – are the result of other peoples’ sins. Some tragedies – like the example Jesus gives of a building falling on people – are simply accidents. These are things God never intended.

But for everyday difficulties, God may allow them into our lives to help us grow stronger. If we face into them with prayer and with trust in God, God will bring about changes in our lives (‘change for the better’ is the definition of repentance) and use them to help us produce fruit. God has created every single one of us to be fruitful. Bearing fruit is what we’re created to do. It’s what we’re here on earth to do.

To take this from a slightly different angle: Jesus once said (in the gospel of John): “I am the vine, you are the branches…

“and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes [that is, trims back] so that it will be even more fruitful. (John 15:1-2)  And Jesus goes on to say, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; but apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:5-8)

The way we go about bearing fruit is to stay connected to Jesus – and we do that through Bible reading, and prayer, and fellowship with other believers, and worship. If we stay connected to Jesus, the True Vine, we don’t have to push fruit out like a woman in labor. It happens naturally because it’s what God created us to do.

So how can we recognize the fruit of the Spirit? What are we looking for?

First off, fruit is something that benefits others. Just like trees don’t eat their own fruit but rather give their fruit to the gardener, and the gardener then takes care of the tree and feeds it, and it becomes a circle of care:  the tree for the gardener, and the gardener for the tree. In much the same way the fruit we bear is for the good of others.

The apostle Paul lists some of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. He says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” – Galatians 5:22-23. I don’t think this is a comprehensive list; it’s a list to start with.

Paul also lists seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in I Corinthians 12. He includes: wisdom, understanding, wise counsel, courage, knowledge, holiness, and fear of the Lord. He goes on:

 28 First, God has placed apostles in the church. Second, he has placed prophets in the church. Third, he has placed teachers in the church. Then he has given to the church miracles and gifts of healing. He also has given the gift of helping others and the gift of guiding the church. God also has given the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages. 29 Is everyone an apostle? Is everyone a prophet? Is everyone a teacher? […](I Corinthians 12:28-31)

The answer to these questions is assumed to be ‘no’. No one has all the gifts; no one has all the fruits. The point is to have some. And then Paul goes on in verse 31:

31 “But now I will show you the best way of all…”

…and he leads us into that beautiful chapter on LOVE, the greatest gift and the greatest fruit of all.

These things grow in our lives naturally, over time, if we stay close to God, pray regularly, read scripture regularly, and do our best to follow the teachings of Jesus. The fruit will come.

In the beginning of our reading Jesus points out that tragedies in life may come. If they do, it does NOT mean that anyone is a worse sinner than anyone else. In a world that has rebelled against God, sometimes bad things happen. And at times like these, prayer is our best response. Again looking at Ukraine – I have been moved to tears as I read and hear the people in Ukraine turning to the book of Psalms and reading the Psalms as prayers. In the face of unthinkable violence and tragedy they are staying close to God, and they are asking God to be their protection. And their faith is inspiring the faith of people around the world. Does God want this war? NO. Are the people bearing fruit anyway? ………….. oh yes!

At the end of our story, when everything has been said and done, there is waiting for us an amazing reward. Isaiah describes it in our reading for this morning:

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.  [² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?] Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”  (Isaiah 55:1-2)

This passage is a true and trustworthy promise of God. It is for all of us trees who stay connected to Jesus and through him and in him bear good fruit. So hang in there, Trees of God. Stay connected and trust the Gardener. The fruit will come. AMEN.

Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church and Hill Top United Methodist Church, 3/20/22

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