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.