Smells Like Repentance – Third Sunday in Lent (Luke 13: 1-9)
As you might have guessed from looking at the cover of the bulletin, our scripture reading and our sermon this morning is about repentance. Over on the sanctuary wall to my right you will see a symbol on one of the pictures that looks like the sign on the front of the bulletin. The curved arrow telling you to make a U-turn and reverse course. Of course, I have learned that up here in Michigan -or least the Metro Detroit area- you have a different name for U-Turns. Here it’s just “making a left.” Which makes sense. It’s like an act of repentance from a city planner who forgot to put a left turn lane at an intersection. Also, the word repentance means to turn, to make a new path. In Hebrew, specifically, it means to turn around and to go in a new direction. Especially when you realize you are moving toward a bad situation, such as driving north when you want to be going west or south. As beings who are wonderfully and lovingly made by our creator, yet personally flawed, we often find ourselves in situations we would have liked to avoid. In the more serious cases we turn to avoid potentially tragic or doomed situations.
This is the sort of thing Jesus calls his audience’s attention to in today’s reading from Luke. He brings up two deadly incidents in which Israelites were killed. The first that he mentions is a time when Pilate, the Roman governor of Jerusalem, ordered the killing of a group of people while they were making sacrifices, as per tradition. The second event Jesus refers to is when eighteen people were killed when a one of the towers on the wall of Jerusalem fell on them. In both cases, he asks the crowd, “Do you think these people died this way because they were more sinful than you?” And both times he answers his own question in the negative. “No, they were not more sinful.” These were tragic events, but they were not fault of those who died. One was an accident, the other a killing sanctioned by the Roman authorities. Even still, Jesus warned his audience that if they did not repent, they would meet the same fate as those who had died so tragically. However, he does not say this as an example of what will happen to you if you do not repent. He brings up these example to express the urgency in their need to repent.
Christ does not claim that sins are judged individually, one worse than the others. Or that any particular sin would earn someone a punishment. In fact, Jesus isn’t really talking about sin, is he? He is talking about repentance. There are all kinds of things we might consider sins and tragedy is part of the world, but one does not necessarily lead to the other. It is the lack of repentance that leaves people open to judgement of their sins. These stories of tragedy from the real world are used by Jesus to remind his audience that they are called to repent in the face of tragedy because it reminds us not that we deserve to be punished, but because life is finite. There is not a hierarchy of sins, and we all meet the same fate eventually. So, while we are here, we are to produce good fruits. Repentance is part of that process. Life can be short, and often times difficult, but God calls us to new life and Jesus shows us a better way. So why continue to live the old way? Why not turn around and head in that new direction?
That is the role repentance plays in realizing and sustaining the realm of God. Repentance is not a process of self-flagellation. God does not expect us to beat ourselves up over our sins or mistakes before falling to our knees to beg God’s forgiveness. Repentance is not a process of tearing ourselves down out of shame or guilt. It is about building up something as a way of healing, both us and our relationships that affected by our failures. To do this we must both acknowledge failings and apologize for them as a way of showing remorse. The third thing it requires is taking action to correct the failing.
We can see this at work in our world in many ways, but one prominent example is in Alcoholics Anonymous, or other programs that follow the 12 Steps of recovery. All these aspects of repentance are part of such 12 Step programs. Admitting to our failings, apologizing, and making amends. People who are seeking recovery through the 12 steps first must admit that they had a problem, an addiction that was out of control and harming their life, and that they were unable to deal with it alone. Later in the process come the steps that involve admitting to things they have done to harm other people. Then, if it would not cause further harm, they undertake the steps of apologizing to the person they hurt by making amends to them or doing something that could help them to overcome the hurt. This is part of “doing the work” of recovering from a life lived in addiction. It is also an example of “the work” of repentance, of making that U-turn while there is still time to adjust course. An example of what it looks like to start to carve a new path. Jesus, as he often does, illustrates this this with a parable.
In this parable about the fig tree that was bearing no fruit Jesus shows us that there is still time for repentance, and that it also requires a little work. This scripture calls back to Luke 3:9, in which John the Baptist tells us that every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. In the parable, Jesus tells the story of a vineyard owner who is ready to cut down and burn one of his fig trees because it has been unfruitful. However, the gardener intervenes and asks for one more year to try and get the tree to bear fruit. Because of the gardener’s commitment the owner decides to give the tree a chance. One more year to make it work and produce good fruit. For those of us who are represented by the fig tree in this story (and that would be all of us here), repentance is part of the work of producing good fruit. Repentance is a chance to stop doing what is not working and try something new.
The words of John the Baptist may leave us feeling as if we are in trouble, we are at risk of being thrown into the fire. Well, in this parable of the fig tree that has failed to bear fruit, Jesus gives us some hope that even if we make mistakes or have sins that we need to repent of, we are given the chance to do that. Like the fig tree that got a reprieve until the next year, we are given the time to repent. God doesn’t seek to punish us for these mistakes. God’s wrath doesn’t fall on us swift and immediate, but God does call us to repent, to turn around. We always have a chance to make a new start. This parable of the fig tree represents God giving the people a chance to repent before the end of the age. In the liturgical year of the church, Lent reminds us of this opportunity. It serves somewhat like the road sign in the picture on your bulletins. It is a sign that reminds us that we may be headed in the wrong direction and now would be a good time to turn around.
However, this parable of the fig tree also reminds us that repentance can be an unpleasant business. After all, the gardener sets about the task of caring for the tree and bringing out its fruit by putting fertilizer around the tree. And for the farmers and gardeners of Jesus’ time, that meant spreading manure. Which is appropriate because the work of repentance is messy and smelly. It means going back and dealing with something you might not want to deal with, something you thought you were passed. Which perhaps is why people tend to avoid repentance. Because it is not just a matter of turning around, but it is also about getting your hands dirty. Digging them into the muck of your past mistakes, failures, and sins. Then not only is it going to be messy, but it will be smelly. An unpleasant smell that you can no longer mask or ignore by denying the problem. Which is a popular thing to do, these days. Deny the problem, deny the failure, the mistake, the sin. Which is a good way to stay headed in the same direction It is the way to continue to bear no fruit, or even, bad fruit.
So, the tree needs that good fertilizer, the manure, that has the things the tree needs to grow in new and fruitful ways. We need repentance and all the things it provides us that helps us grow. Things like acceptance, healing relationships, and correcting the old, harmful behavior. We need this kind of repentance in our lives. And so, God gives us the time to do it, because God wants us to repent, because God wants us to bear fruit. God knows we can bear fruit. God made us to bear good fruit. This fruit that will nourish the whole world.
We are given the time to repent, as well. Our gardener has seen to it. As we continue on the Lenten journey to cross and the empty tomb, we remember that time we are given. We remember that death and judgement are not what we have in store for us. The road turns toward resurrection and new life. So, God continues to call us to do the messy, smelly work of repentance that turns old pain into new fruit.
Amen.