Repentance and Mercy -Lent3C-

Today’s Gospel reading has a split personality.

First, Luke recounts two tragic events for which there is no historical record: one, a blood bath, by the hand of Pilate against Galileans worshiping in Jerusalem; and second, the collapse of a tower near the pool of Siloam.  Both tragedies were chaotic and deadly.  One exemplified human evil and the other natural evil.

People affected by the tragedy come to Jesus questioning, why do bad things happen?  Why did incidents happen to kill and injure these people (Galileans and Jerusalemites)? Were they simply a random act of violence and an accident or were they God-caused punishment?

Jesus, rather than answering the theological question of why bad things happen, Jesus comments that all will perish.  Regardless of circumstance all need to live lives of repentance, live in penitent trust, in obedience; or life has no meaning.

The second personality written in Luke’s gospel is the parable of the fig tree; a parable where the gardener takes measures to save a fig tree from annihilation- wanting to give the tree attention, nourishment, and time for it to produce fruit.

The split personality seems a bit peculiar, as if the two passages don’t connect at all, but, it makes sense in the context of Luke’s way of telling the story.

Luke – more than any other New Testament writer-  focuses on repentance. He also focuses on healing. In this passage the call to repentance is followed by -dare we say “tempered by,”-  the patience of God.  Luke suggests in the layout of the story that the timeline for ultimate judgement is delayed by the mercy and patience of God.

Relationship with God is of utmost importance and urgent!  God is patient – the fig tree might yet bear fruit.  In the story God doesn’t wipe away suffering, lived experience, tragic occurrences, and doesn’t cause them either….life is both severity and grace.  Both remain in Luke’s dialogue, neither expunging the other – in living there is tension between chaos (which includes sin and all forms of evil) and grace.

In Lent, the story is told in a similar way to that of Luke’s Gospel: we are called to repentance and reminded of God’s covenant loyalty and grace.  We are given a season – a gift of time – one more Lent, one more year; to grow and bear fruit.  In this way the grace is the gift of time.

I just finished reading, The Name of God is MERCY.  This little book is a record of an interviewer documenting the words of Pope Francis. It is questions around the idea of God and mercy, since the Pope declared Dec. 8, 2015 – Nov 26, 2016, the Holy Year of Mercy. The book speaks about repentance, living in penitent trust, in obedience; with an understanding that wrapped in these practices one will experience God’s extraordinary mercy, which is offered to everyone.  Comments are made, more than once, that God is patient in extending mercy and grace; yet, there is an importance for humanity to grasp that life is short and it is time – past time – to return to living repentance, so as to be in the experience of grace far more often.

In the end of the book is printed Pope Francis’ “Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy” It says:

The Church feels the urgent need to proclaim God’s mercy.  Her life is authentic and credible only when she becomes a convincing herald of mercy. She knows that her primary task, especially at a moment full of great hopes and signs of contradiction, is to introduce everyone to the great mystery of God’s mercy by contemplating the face of Christ.  The Church is called above all to be a credible witness to mercy, professing it and living it as the core of the revelation of Jesus Christ. (section 25)

This coming Friday and Saturday the Pope calls on Dioceses to celebrate, “24 Hours for the Lord.”  The celebration is to emphasize the Sacrament of Reconciliation – finding a path back to God, relationship with each other, and with creation; through time focused in prayer to find meaning in life.  The hope is that a turn to repentance and reconciliation will enable people to experience the grandeur of God’s mercy.

’24 hours for the Lord’ – can you do that this coming week, on Fri and Sat spend time focused on prayer; prayer that includes repentance, seeking trust, building relationship with God, basking in mercy, accepting grace.

Grace is the gift of time.

How do you use your time?  Is there relationship with God building time – have you ever focused on living 24 hrs for the Lord, so to speak?

In my last parish there was a family who was always late, generally by 10 mins.  One Sunday I took to talking about God time. It was suggested that people set their clocks back 10mins. so that everywhere they went they would be 10 mins early (or for this family, on time).  The idea was that for each daily event 10mins was freed up to wait …. not idol waiting, purposeful waiting … where one was given the gift of time to pray, perhaps for the people one was about to visit, or for the doctor one was about to see, for the neighbourhood one was waiting in, centering thoughts before a meeting, quiet to listen to the heart and what God might be saying --- grace came in the gift of time; an obedience to turn towards our maker--- and in doing so to experience God’s mercy, so as to be able to pass it along to others (to Christ as found in the world).

As an extra reminder of living a discipline of purposeful waiting, it was encouraged that people add a piece of masking tape or a sticky note to their clocks and time pieces that read: “God’s time.”

Today’s split personality in the text calls for repentance and mercy amidst the chaos and grace of life.

We do not know the length of our days, so there is an urgency to relationship with God; there is an urgency to find meaning life so that life can be lived into the fullness of repentance and mercy.

This is diaconal Sunday in the ELCIC. It is a moment of time when we lift up the ministry of deacons. The word “diaconal” is from a Greek word literally meaning “going down into the dust.”  They are baptized people in the church --- like our very own Bill Macintyre--- who follow a call to the ministry of Word and Service--- being educated and trained to facilitate their role as an ordained person working in community.  Diaconal ministers focus on service; on being the bearers of mercy, the gardeners who take time to give fig trees, people, attention and nourishment.  They go down into the dust of peoples’ lives --- serving as councillors, running food banks, organizing hospices, washing lepers, coaching those with addiction; meeting people in the chaos and depths of life, and there offering mercy. Diaconal ministers are examples to the community of faith of what bearing fruit looks like; and they remind each of us of our baptismal calls to strive for justice and mercy.  We are reminded that mercy is time --- time offered in prayer, in service, in seeing Christ in the other.  Seeing their service is to encourage our service -our repentant and humble hands to work in the manure pile around peoples’ lives.  Messy.  Dirty. From here trees are coaxed to bear fruit … before it is too late.

Fred Craddock – preacher and professor- wrote: “there is yet time; God’s mercy is still in serious conversation with God’s judgement.”

Beautiful thought, isn’t it? That God has this split personality where sin and evil; chaos and severity; judgement and punishment --- is weighted by God’s mercy; held in time.  Time will tell if the world simply continues to spin in spirals of destruction or if by some great mystery, some fantastical outcome, an epic explosion will take over the world --- where judgement tempered with mercy is God’s kingdom come in its fullness; where all figs trees have born fruit of repentance, obedience, discipline, mercy --- where in the fullness of time the world is healed and creatures live with meaning, purpose, and mercy for all, and in all.

The blessing to you this day are the words of poet Henri-Frederic Amiel:

Life is short and we have too little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel the way with us.  So, be swift to love; make haste to be kind…and may the blessing of God…be with you now and always.

Satan - Alive and Well (Lent 1C-2-16)

What do you see when you look at this painting?

It is a coniferous forest – spruce and fir trees – in dusky light, at the eve of a snow storm.

It is a Canadian forest in the depth of winter.  It is not the most hospitable place: dark, cold, a boot swallowing snow scape, no sure paths, acres of space to be alone with the potential to get lost.

This could be interpreted as our experienced version of the desert. Jesus goes off into the wilderness.

My first parish, as you know, was in the wilderness of Northern NB, amidst hills, valleys, and coniferous trees – a land of snow, furious winds, bears, coyotes, and black flies all summer long. It was my place of wilderness training after the high of ordination; trying to figure out what pastors actually do from day to day.

 Jesus went to the wilderness to seek God’s direction after baptism – he went to set himself on the path for ministry and to fulfill his call. Jesus had just had a spiritual victory, if you will, a mountain top experience – having heard God say, “You are my beloved Son.”  He enters the wilderness, high with emotion… and it is in this state that Satan tempts him, with the promise of one great experience after another; tempted by experiences of power, glory, and material wealth. Although one goes to the wilderness to listen for God’s voice; in this wilderness Satan waits with an arsenal of demons. 

Power, glory, and material wealth…  all of this crosses the mind of a new pastor in a new parish; and how the pastor interacts with such temptation affects his or her relationship with church council, the congregation, and the community.

I was reminded this week of those early days, by a post on FaceBook from a woman who lives in northern NB.  The post was an article about a man who recently left a church in Plaster Rock.  The church has been there for 20+ years. In my time there it was called the Apostolic Pentecostal Church.  They built a new building and invited the community to come and see; which I did.  The church plant was huge and they had a large membership (making some of the other local churches and pastors jealous).   The pastor’s office -the inner sanctum- was decked out in solid oak fixtures; people were separated – male and female- upon arrival, introduced to a number of members and taken on a tour, phone calls were made in following weeks to anyone who visited during the open house; the church had a school and sent young adults to a private college in the States; paychecks were brought by members to the church with the church taking their cut and giving back what they deemed people could live on; the church found houses for members brought into the community – holding their mortgages; they found every member a job, threatening local businesses of boycotting their establishments if they didn’t give jobs to their people upon request; it was a church whose members shared what they had, provided for everyone, made people feel included; they prayed together, worshiped for hours, lived a noticeably different life – reminiscent of Christian communities Paul talked about in his letters … but, then, the demons showed their faces.  The pastor made all the decisions, pronounced the community ethic, took more – so as to have fancy cars, trips, and winabegos; baptisms were done in Jesus’ name alone, interpretation of scripture became self-serving.  Power, glory, and material wealth thrived.

When people felt pressure – when a person wanted to leave…

They lost everything – family, friends, house, car, other possessions, and they were excommunicated.  That’s what the article was about – the cult – it seemed okay at the time of joining – it sounded good- , but, people had no freedom.  They were not welcome to think and believe for themselves. Leaving meant stepping out into a new wilderness, alone.

What do you see when you look at this painting?

Between the trees are grotesque and evil demon-like faces.

This painting scared me when I was young.  It hung above the living room couch, and if ever alone in the house, I avoided the living room once nighttime fell. I always saw the faces more prominently than the trees. The painting was painted by the Southern ON artist named Jack Bechtel and was won in a raffle by my father. My dad also saw the faces, and knowing Jack, went to his studio to ask about them.  Jack was adamant that the painting was trees, only trees – no faces!  Not so long afterward, Jack died of cancer. Did he paint out those demons sub-consciously?

Living close to the Apostolic community and interacting with people in Plaster Rock who were members of this church, had me reflect on the presence of Satan in our lives. I was reminded this week that I haven’t talked about Satan and demons for a long time. It isn’t really a topic we face front-on in the church today and it sits in opposition to technology, science, and the critical mind.  We talk of a philosophical understanding of evil: exemplified in poor choices, awful feelings, and unloving deeds; but, Satan as an entity, as concrete, not so much.

I once read that, ‘the devils greatest achievement is that we do not really believe he exists.”  In an early sermon, I wrote, “Satan is a master of disguise, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, hiding and achieving success through many normal means, including through Christian organizations because we either don’t believe or are afraid to look. We do not want to find the devil working through us, as we may be chasing our own visions and goals on the way to following God.  Sometimes we like being selfish, having power, and a little glory.”

Satan came to Jesus when he was waiting on God.

Filled with the spirit, Jesus’ heart desired to be open to hear God speak – Jesus was humble and vulnerable on this part of his journey. An open heart meant an open opportunity for Satan.  What if Jesus the charismatic leader listened to the wrong voice?  We need to be aware at all times and in all places that Satan is very much alive and excited at the possibilities of working through us; using us without our knowledge while we think we are getting on with doing the Lord’s work. 

Satan is no fool.

Satan focuses not on Jesus’ weaknesses, but, rather, Jesus’ strengths.  Generally, we think that it is weakness that is a human beings downfall… Satan understands this, so instead uses our strengths; the things through which we have the potential to seek and/or gain power, glory, and material wealth.

Satan is persistent.

Three times the Devil comes to Jesus in the wilderness, with a different tact each time.  And when Jesus resists the temptation, we find out this is not the end: when the devil had finished every test, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time.

Satan is not stupid.

Satan uses something good and simply twists it just a little for his own purposes.  Notice in Luke, the Devil quotes scripture – probably better than some of us can.  The scripture is used to deceive, taken out of context and used in a self-serving way.  The church in Plaster Rock started in solid doctrine, no wishy-washy sitting on the fence beliefs, a community that welcomed and looked after each other… until it twisted into power, glory, and material wealth.

On Wednesday night we began Lent, remembering that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Over the next five weeks we will partake in Jesus’ ministry and be called to look closely at our hearts and the path we have chosen to travel and live.  We travel with Jesus – daring to enter the Canadian winter spruce forest – to the wilderness, to listen for God’s voice; we go mindful that Satan is lurking along the path. Satan wants to get a grasp on us; to have us turn away from what God is doing in the world.  We will be tempted to power, glory, and material wealth; while God calls for the Lenten practices of carrying less baggage, being courteous – giving alms, and praying. Remember that on this journey Satan will not likely appear with horns and a red suit, but, disguised – quoting scripture and looking like the Good News.

Almighty and merciful God, we believe that through Jesus’ name you have given us power over Satan and demons.  Encourage us to look for evil and rid our lives of evil and its destructive forces.  May your angels protect us and the evil one have no power over us. In Jesus’ name.  Amen.