Don’t Let That Stop You From Doing What You Are Doing

Sermon-3rd Sunday in Lent March 7, 2010
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
I’ve told you many times that I have this friend Mark, in New York. They always used to say in my family, Hagan men weren’t very bright but at least they always married smart. I have told this to Mark a few hundred times about his wife Paula, who is a jewel. Mark and Paula have a 24 year old daughter, Marie, with severe autism and is also mentally challenged. It has been a long hard time for the 3 of them. Nothing makes Paula angrier than when people try to tell her why their daughter is so afflicted. It drives Paula nuts. Especially when people tell her that it’s a gift, or God’s will, or something equally comforting. Paula will freely admit that she has no idea why her daughter is the way she is, but every explanation from every person about it just makes her so MAD she can’t stand it. Paula knows absolutely that God did not cause this to teach Paula a lesson, or to teach Marie a lesson, or to teach other people a lesson. God didn’t do this, and neither did the devil. Marie just is, and Paula accepts it. What Paula has a hard time with, is other people-who have to come up with a bad reason to explain why things are.
Today’s gospel is a two parter, two different stories, two different points. But it’s also part of something even bigger. This week’s sermon is connected to next week’s sermon. Both are about repentance. Both are about forgiveness. Both are about God’s grace. So next week I can make up for this week.
Part one, week one. First Jesus tells his followers that people didn’t die because they were terrible sinners. They didn’t die because they were evil, They didn’t die to teach some one a lesson. Jesus is pretty emphatic about this. Bad things happen-but God doesn’t cause them. Recently a famous preacher national said the people of Haiti were cursed because they made a pact with the devil in 1791. So bad things happen to people who sin. So if Jesus is killed at 33 then….how is that explained? Was it because he was a terrible sinner? Bad things happen. Sometimes because we cause them, sometimes they just happen. Bad things happen to people who are good-and sometimes good things happen to people who are bad. And all of our explanations don’t seem to make a difference or to help. When I was 16 I got Crohn’s. It wasn’t fair, I didn’t like it. I wasn’t worse than every other 16 year old, and I don’t think God was trying to teach me a lesson. Bad things happen.
Jesus tells his followers that. "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?” Barbara Brown Taylor writes: In Jesus' day, there was no question about fairness. The assumption was that disease, suffering, and death bore a direct correlation with human sinfulness: the greater the sin, the more likely the misfortune. And to some degree, like it or not, we still think this way. "Calamity strikes and we wonder what we did wrong," says Taylor. We scrutinize our behavior, our relationships, our diets, our beliefs. We hunt for some cause to explain the effect, in hopes that we can change what we are doing and so stop whatever has gone (or is going) wrong.”* Bad things happen. And we desperately want to explain them away. But we can’t. And Jesus told his followers that. I’m sure Jesus got fed up with people always explaining to him that bad things were God’s gift-or trying to teach him something.
Part two. "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.” Remember several weeks ago when you heard the story of John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness? “When people came to the Jordan River to be baptized, John called them to repentance. His words were harsh and unrelenting: "Even now," he said, "the ax is lying at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
“His words were harsh and unrelenting.” That was the belief-you don’t bear fruit, you get cut down. That’s it. John also uses a tree as a parable. Only John doesn’t give much room for grace-for John, there are no second chances And in part two of today’s gospel, Jesus speaks to that.
He tells the people that they need to change. Once they’ve heard the call of God, they need to respond. Once we’ve heard God calling us to new life, we need to change. Every once in a while, we’ll offer something, a program, an event, an activity here at Trinity, and people will come up to me and say (actually I hear this a lot) “I’ll just wait til you offer it again next year. And I get this “look” on my face as I try not to scream at them, “this was it-it’s not going to happen again.” Sometimes there’s only one chance. This is America where the World Wrestling Federation or Circue de Soleil will come out with it’s “last chance-last time-end-of-the-world-never-ever-happen-again” show EVERY YEAR. So we expect not just one more chance, but LOTS more chances.
'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.
Jesus tells a parable that God gives us another chance, but he doesn’t wait until life is convenient for us to repent, to change, to begin to bear fruit. Jesus says, God gives us another chance-but God doesn’t wait until we have our life where we want it, til we are absolutely ready and there is nothing else in our paths. The tree doesn’t say, “ok, I don’t have anything else on my agenda, I’ll bear some fruit now.”
Barbara Brown Taylor, acclaimed Episcopal preacher, writes of the fig tree parable: "(Jesus wants them to turn or repent) which is why he tweaks their fear. Don’t worry about Pilate and all the other things that can come crashing down on your heads, he tells them. Terrible things happen, and you are not always to blame. But don’t let that stop you from doing what you are doing. That torn place your fear has opened up inside of you is a holy place. Look around while you are there. Pay attention to what you feel. It may hurt you to stay there and it may hurt you to see, but it is not the kind of hurt that leads to death. It is the kind that leads to life."
“don’t let that stop you from doing what you are doing”*
Listen, this is week one of two weeks of lessons on repentance. This week we hear that bad things don’t happen to us to cause us to repent. But God is trying to get us to change our lives and to start living as people who are called to follow. And Jesus says that this sermon and all the other things that are reminders, are forms of manure-trying to get us to bear fruit. Don’t change out of fear. Don’t repent because you’re afraid you’ll be punished if you don’t. Repent, change, turn your life around because it leads to life. “don’t let that stop you from doing what you are doing”
There is a story told of a bishop in England who was traveling by train to perform a confirmation service. He misplaced his ticket and was unable to produce it when requested by the conductor. "It's quite all right, my lord, we know who you are." The conductor told him. But the bishop replied, "You don't see. Without the ticket, I don't know where I'm going." It is not enough for us just to be here; we need to know our purpose.
We hear the message. Don’t respond for all the wrong reasons. Don’t try to change because you’re afraid. Repent because you know your purpose. Repent because: It is the kind that leads to life." We’re all fig trees, our calling is to bear fruit. This is our purpose. We have found our ticket. Amen.