Lent 3C March 7, 2010

LENT 3C

March 7,  2010 from Sermon Nuggets

• Isaiah 55:1-9. A prophetic song in which God promises mercy, pardon, and abundant provision to those who repent and trust in God.
• Psalm 63:1-8
• 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. The pattern of the baptized life is to be one of continual repentance, trusting that God will not test us beyond our strength.
• Luke 13:1-9. There is time for repentance and response — the fig tree and the gardener.

-Jesus teaches the people to replace their worldview that bad things only happen to bad people.

-…we are deep in Lent, the season of honesty about our sin and honesty about our need to change.  Willimon

- Jesus refused to be drawn into our questions about unfairness and injustice of the world.  Instead, Jesus becomes our judge and encourages us to repent.  Let us confess our sin–all those things that keep us from wholeheartedly following the way of Christ — Willimon

-Reinhold Niebuhr once said, ” Christians in America would like to believe in a God without wrath that saves a world without sin through a Christ without the cross.”   No fruit produced there.

-Lent is a time for “following.” The narrative about Jesus’ suffering and death provides a way in which we are able, in an act of disciplined imagination, to situate (or resituate) our lives in the story of Jesus. We become aware that the story of Jesus requires and permits a new version of our own story of life and faith. Walter Brueggemann

-But for those of us who have discovered that we cannot make life safe nor God tame, it is gospel enough. What we can do is turn our faces to the light. That way, whatever befalls us, we will fall the right way. B.B. Taylor

-The question for the owner of the vineyard is how long will he allow his soil, moisture and nutrients to be used without bearing fruit. The question for God is how long does he wait until repentance comes to a nation, a church, or an individual.

-Two terrible tragedies had happened in Jerusalem. One in the temple, the other near the pool of Siloam. In the first instance, Pilate, the Roman governor, had killed some Galileans who were making sacrifices at the temple and then he mixed their blood with the sacrifices. No doubt this was a warning to other Jews to remember that Rome was in charge. In the other incident, a tower fell on people near the pool of Siloam killing 18 people who simply happened to be there. How can such things be explained? Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad
-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.”

-Maybe the vineyard is the whole earth. Maybe it’s the church. Maybe it’s your life and mine. Jesus isn’t giving up on any of us–you, me, the  church, the whole earth. There’s hope in this parable–don’t cut the tree down. But there’s also urgency–give me one more year. Rev. Barbara K. Lundblad

-What a grace time can be for us….to have space and time to grow, mature spiritually, reform our lives, serve the Lord and remove the obstacles, big and small, between God and us and between us and others. Look at what we humans put Jesus through and still God didn’t give up on us; we are graced with time.  Jude Siciliano
-The purpose of the first part of Lent is to bring us to compunction.  “Compunction” is etymologically related to the verb “to puncture” and suggests the deflation of our inflated egos, a challenge to any self-deceit about the quality of our lives as disciples of Jesus.
Mark Seale, in “Assembly”, vol. 8, no.3.  Quoted in THE LIVING PULPIT,
-Jesus’ parable moves in the direction of promise more than threat

-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.”  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.
-I note that the “sin” of the fig tree is not that it is doing something bad, but that it is doing nothing! It is just taking up space in the orchard. BrianP. Stoffregen

- Why bad things happen to good people?  Book by, Kushner

-The words from the Godspell song, Day by Day, were to the point. “Day by day, O dear Lord three things I pray; to see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly… That’s the meaning of repentance. To look at ourselves in the person of Jesus Christ and have a genuine heart’s desire to have his spirit shape our lives.

-Toyohiko Kagawa I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good.  It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.

-Lent is the offer of the vinedresser to each of us of one more year

-But Jesus’ parable isn’t primarily a lesson about farming. We’ve already noted the connection between the three years of the parable and the three years of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is the gardener, isn’t he? He refused to give up on those who are living in the vineyard. Maybe the vineyard is the whole earth. Maybe it’s the church. Maybe it’s your life and mine. Jesus isn’t giving up on any of us–you, me, the church, the whole earth. There’s hope in this parable–don’t cut the tree down. But there’s also urgency–give me one more year.  Lunblade

-”What have you done?” Jesus asks, and “What have you left undone?” Such questions, like the parable of the fig tree, move us toward repentance, a word that means to turn around, to believe things can be different, to trust that the one who calls us to turn around will be there even when we fail. ibid

-Growth is not so much advancing ones self as it is becoming oneself.

–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.”