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Revd. Canon Robin King & Revd. Katharine King

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7th March 2010

(for a microsoft word version click here)

‘A warning and a promise’

Readings :

Isaiah 55.1-9

Invitation to the Thirsty

¹ "Come, all you who are thirsty,
       come to the waters;
       and you who have no money,
       come, buy and eat!
       Come, buy wine and milk
       without money and without cost.

² Why spend money on what is not bread,
       and your labor on what does not satisfy?
       Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
       and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

³ Give ear and come to me;
       hear me, that your soul may live.
       I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
       my faithful love promised to David.

⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of the peoples.

⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not,
       and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
       because of the LORD your God,
       the Holy One of Israel,
       for he has endowed you with splendor."

⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way
       and the evil man his thoughts.
       Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
       and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Luke 13.1-9

Repent or Perish

¹Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ²Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem ? ⁵I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

⁶Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. ⁷So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

⁸" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

Sermon

Here’s a story about a preacher. An American pastor and his wife went to the funeral of an old friend who had moved away. It was held in a small hot crowded church in the deep South of America , so you can probably imagine the scene that’s coming. As they wheeled the coffin in the preacher began to preach, and he certainly gave it to them straight, no messing about. “It’s too late for Sam”, he bellowed. “He might have had good intentions for doing this or that, but it’s too late for him now. He’s dead. He might have wanted to straighten his life out, but he can’t now, no sir, it’s over. But it ain’t too late for you! People drop dead everyday. So don’t wait! Now is the day for decision. Repent while you can and give your life to Jesus!”

The pastor was horrified, and on the way home he fumed to his wife, “That was the worst thing I have ever heard in my life. Can you imagine doing that kind of thing to a grieving family? I’ve never heard anything so cheap and inappropriate. I’d never preach anything like that.” His wife agreed that it was tacky, callous and manipulative. Then she added, “of course, the worst part of all, is that it was true.”

Well, based on our readings today Jesus would agree. And Isaiah would agree too, though in a rather more inviting way. Both of our passages today contain a summons from God to accept his mercy now, while there is still time - although it’s interesting that both readings are in a way out of character. We’re used to Old Testament readings that are full of gloomy warnings, and ‘woe to my people’, and then the gospel brings the good news, the ‘oh phew, that’s ok then!’ bit. Today’s readings turn that on its head rather, it’s Jesus who has the dire warning, and Isaiah with the good news, or that’s how it seems when we hear them. I guess we’d better start with the bad news…

The gospel scene opens with news of an atrocity, and we have to listen to the words quite carefully to figure out what’s going on. It starts like this: ‘There were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.’ In other words, some people from Galilee had been killed by Pilate, and what’s worse is that if their blood has been mixed with their sacrifices, that must mean that this had taken place whilst they were at worship. So we’re talking about the murder of God’s own faithful people in God’s own temple.

How can God let that happen? Well, to the Jewish mind there can only be one answer to that question – it’s not God’s fault, it’s their fault. All suffering was thought to be a punishment for sin. So these people can’t have been faithful enough, in fact that they must have been sinful, extremely so for such an awful thing to happen, they brought it on themselves. What the people questioning Jesus want to know then is not how can God let that happen, but what did the Galileans do that was so bad that God would seek such retribution.

Jesus puts them right, and completely rejects this view that all suffering is self-inflicted – he says “ Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the others because they suffered in this way? I tell you no.” And he himself brings up another tragedy, that of 18 people killed when a building fell on them, and asks the same question – “Do you think they were more guilty than anyone else, I tell you, no.”

That in itself is a very important point for his listeners – and for us too. Because we do still carry with us to a degree this notion that bad things shouldn’t happen to good people, and also the converse, that good things shouldn’t happen to bad people, it’s just not fair. But bad things do happen to people who don’t deserve them, and Jesus underlines that point.

But then he goes on with a killer punchline, “unless you repent,” he says, “unless you repent, you too will perish.” His point is that all are sinners, even those he is with. He’s saying, ‘you may think you’re innocent bystanders, that you are good enough to be safe, but you’re not’. He turns their smug question of ‘what about them, then’ into a very personal ‘what about you’, and that’s his message for us too. He has a message for those of us who might look at the world around us and think, well, at least I’m not as sinful as them. ‘Never mind the others’, he says, ‘never mind them out there and not in here on a Sunday, never mind what they’re up to, what about you?’

There is a warning here about spiritual complacency. God is not a God of retribution, Jesus is clear on that, but he is a God of judgement, and he will judge us all, there is huge urgency in Jesus call to repent, to turn to God, while there is still time. In that call there is a reminder that whilst not all suffering is a result of sin, sinful behaviour does cause suffering, to ourselves and to others, so of course he asks us to turn our backs on it. His is a call that is intended to jolt us into action, to living out the faith that we profess, and perhaps it takes some harsh words to do that.

But, you might say, that sounds a bit like ‘do this, or else’ and God isn’t like that surely? It makes him sound like some sort of spiritual gangster! Surely God isn’t an ‘or else’ sort of person – that may be what we think when we read the Old Testament, but Jesus has shown us a different emphasis, a God of grace and compassion, of love and mercy, not a God of fear and guilt. Surely he doesn’t want us to be motivated by fear, to turn to him because we must, but rather because we want to. Well, I think all of that is right too. I think that alongside the ‘do this, or else’ warning, we must hold the other side of the coin, the message that says ‘do this because if you do, it will be good’. Let’s look at Isaiah for a moment.

Isaiah’s message in today’s reading is also full of urgency. He’s also saying ‘get on with it’. ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. The implication is that there will come a time that we will wish that we had, that the opportunity will not be open to us for ever. And Isaiah speaks with many imperatives, not just ‘seek’ but ‘come’, ‘eat’, ‘listen’, ‘see’. ‘Turn to the Lord’, he says. The whole passage is saying, do it, and do it now. But what do we find if we do. A banquet. A feast. The richest of fare. Not just streams of water for thirsty souls, but wine and milk, and all that satisfies. It is literally life for our souls. The other side of the ‘or else’ argument is just look what God gives us if we do turn to him, compassion and pardon and eternal life. Why would we not want that? That should be what we want most of all. That should be all the motivation we need.

And Isaiah says, all these riches are without cost. For us who have no money, for us who have no currency with which to buy these things, no credit, the feast is still spread out. And here is the essence of God’s invitation, which brings us back to Jesus. For if it costs us nothing, it’s because the price has been paid. It’s not that there is no cost, but that it costs us nothing. Jesus paid the price on the cross. Jesus is the answer to ‘or else’. Jesus opened the door to eternal life.

To come back to the preacher in our opening story, there are of course some preachers like that, full of hell, fire and brimstone. And they’re not necessarily wrong, although I do think they’ve completely missed the point. But many of us find it difficult to preach a message of ‘repent or else’. I know I do. Partly because nobody wants to stand here with a deeply unpopular message! But also there’s a sense of ‘who am I, to be telling these people to get their act together?’ I’m a sinner too. Well, Jesus is the one person who can preach that message. He’s earned the right, and we must listen to him He who is completely without sin could not have suffered more in order to give us an alternative to the ‘or else’ scenario, and he must be so impatient that we don’t grasp it with both hands.

Because what is unique about Christianity is not a recognition of the consequences of sin, very real though they are, because that’s a feature of many other world faiths too. What’s unique about Christianity is forgiveness. What’s unique about the gospel is that good things happen to people who don’t deserve them, like us. What’s unique about Jesus is grace.

We need to recognise the danger of sin and do all we can to turn away from it, which is what ‘repent’ literally means – turning away. But it’s in that recognition that we discover freedom. Turn to the Lord, Isaiah says, and he will freely pardon. In our Lent course this week we were talking about whether there was more pleasure in desiring something than having it, whether to travel hopefully is better than arriving. I suppose life does often teach us that things don’t live up to expectations.

But in faith we are on a hopeful journey, and part of the reason for that hope is our belief that arriving will be much better than we can dream or anticipate, and much more than anything we’ve experienced in our lives. But also part of the reason we can have that hope now, is that we are assured of forgiveness now, and isn’t that better than to go through life wondering if we will be forgiven? Wondering if we’ve done enough? Doesn’t that then free us to live a life here and now that is full? Doesn’t that then give more sense and meaning to the journey itself?

Jesus reminds us today that we are all sinners, that’s the uncomfortable truth, especially from his lips. It reminds me of that line from Amazing Grace that goes, “twas grace that taught my heart to fear”. But then of course it goes on, “and grace my fears relieved”. God does so much more than to simply point out the problem, he also offers the solution, and takes away the fear. Jesus words may sound harsh, but they open the door to something beautiful. They are a warning, but also a promise, that the God of judgement is also the God of grace.