March 3, 2013
Life
- Isaiah 55:1-9
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
I am getting pretty sick of winter how about you? I’m tired of the cold and the wind and the ice and the snow and the gray skies. I want some sun and warmer weather. It is no wonder that people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD when the days are so dark and gloomy. I am so ready for spring to begin. Plus Teri is in Puerto Rico right now in the sun and I’m just darn right jealous!
Today is the third Sunday of Lent. The word Lent means spring. So Lent must be the season of the church year that prepares us for spring. But for some reason Lent has been difficult for me this year. It may be because I have been so busy that I have not even had time to fully appreciate and participate in the season. But Lent is not as much fun as the other church season we talk about a lot – Advent. Advent is also a time of preparation, but our culture helps us with that process. Even if our cultural preparations for Christmas are too materialistic, just about everyone does something to prepare for Christmas. We shop, we wrap, we bake cookies, and we decorate our houses. And although it begins too early, and drives us crazy eventually, we hear Christmas carols on the radio and in the stores. And those familiar Advent and Christmas carols help us prepare for Christmas. But I haven’t heard any Lenten music in the stores this month have you?
Lent is a season that is to bring new life from the desolate days of winter. It points us to the reality that life comes from death. And I get that. The trees and flowers die in the fall and winter and then come to new life in the spring. I also believe that we do not fully grasp the joy and miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ unless we have participated with him on his walk to and on the cross. But I think what is bothering me this Lent is that I don’t want to prepare for spring, I just want it to be here right now. And I don’t want to walk that difficult journey to the cross with Jesus, I just want the Easter joy right now rather than later. In other words I don’t want to put in the work – physically or spiritually – that Lent requires. I seem to be stuck in the desolate days of winter and cannot imagine how any kind of rebirth is going to occur.
So I guess I am a poor spiritual leader for all of you today. But Lent is not just a time of anticipation and preparation; it is also a time of honesty and self-reflection. So I am being honest with you. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday when we are reminded that our lives on this earth are both flawed and fleeting. Lent is a time to stop for just a little while, to lay down the heavy burdens we carry, to be – if only for a little while – honest about who we are. Lent can be a time to acknowledge that we live with secrets, betrayals, disappointments, broken relationships, lost hopes and failed dreams. It can be a time where we feel like we are alone in the desert or that the cold winds of life will never end. We are scared and lonely and we wonder about the meaning of our lives and what God expects of us.
So while I am impatient for spring and warm weather and the glory and wonder of Easter, I am also trying to be grateful for this Lenten time – this time to struggle. Because that is what I have been doing – struggling. It is during times of stress, fatigue, malaise, and discouragement that many of us begin to reevaluate our lives. And this is what this Lenten season can be for us – a time to reevaluate and a time to consider new possibilities. It can be a time to consider the life-altering options that Christ has offered to us. It can be a time for repentance –a time to turn and makes changes – even if it is done reluctantly. So I am grateful for the scripture passages we are asked to struggle with this morning.
At first I couldn’t figure out how the two tragedies that Jesus responds to had anything to do with his story of the fig tree. Jesus is clearly telling folks that the people killed in the temple and from the tower falling on them were no more sinful than anyone else. They were not being punished for their sins. But, and there is a big but here, we do have a responsibility as children of God, as followers of Jesus to repent and change our ways. Not because God would punish us, but because we are not living the lives that God created us to live. There is judgment in this passage. Jesus did not just come to preach sweetness and light and love. Jesus also shared the message that we sin and that there are consequences for sin. All of us stand on common ground, on broken ground, in a broken relationship with God and with others. And that is what leaves us discouraged and stressed and tired. That is why we live with secrets and disappointments and failed dreams.
We tend to think of repentance as some sort of “boo-hoo, I’m sorry” moment that will hopefully result in individual change, or a turn- about or about face to a new life with new possibilities. We tend to forget that the option for repentance is also dependent upon God’s imploring invitation to take that action. Repentance is not something human beings have to do all on their own. Repentance is also a grace and mercy – a second chance so to speak – that God extends toward all of us.
We have had two different trees in the landscaped area outside the front of our house. We want a tree to be there because it provides shade from the hot afternoon sun. We took the first tree, a river birch, for granted and we never pruned it or fertilized it. And after about 5 years it died and we had to cut it down. All that was left was the stump about 10 inches in diameter. The front yard looked bare and the front of the house no longer had shade. So we decided we would replace the tree with something new. We went to a nursery and they convinced us we should buy a pin oak tree because it would grow fairly tall but not too wide and it would not grow up too close to the windows on the house. So we had the nursery remove the old stump and plant the new pin oak. (Notice we let the nursery do this because number one I did not want Mark to have a heart attack planting the tree and number two, the nursery people would know exactly how to plant the tree correctly.) But that pin oak tree has not thrived in our front yard. First of all pin oaks are not great trees for our Indiana weather. It is not a good choice for the ph. of our soil and for the lack of rain we have had over the last few years. And I have tried to save the pin oak tree, but I haven’t worked very hard at it. I did hammer fertilizer spikes into the ground in a circle around the tree, but that’s about all I have done. And so by June the last few years the leaves on the pin oak have turned brown, dried up and died.
So we are going to have to cut the pin oak down this spring. And we are going to go to a different nursery for advice for the best kind of tree to plant in our front yard. We are going to have this nursery fertilize the ground correctly for the tree and yes we will again have them plant it. And we will find out the correct way to care for this new tree and what is required of us as its owner and its gardener. We will be patient with it and we will care for it correctly and lovingly. We are hoping the third time is a charm when it comes to front yard trees for us. We are expecting that as long as we take good care of our new tree we can expect good results.
Our lives are much the same. Without nurture they wither and rot. We can’t always control the forces against us, like accidents, or bad weather, or people who do mean things to us or to those we love. As our children’s story told us today, God doesn’t hurt people because they have done bad things, but God does want us to acknowledge the fact that we have done some bad things. Jesus is asking us to make every effort to change our sinful ways. He is asking us to work on our relationships. He is asking us to share our disappointments. He is calling us to think of others instead of ourselves. Jesus is asking us to repent, to change direction, to go down a different path, to live the lives we were created by God to live.
So let us come together in this Lenten season in all our shared humanity, unified in our yearning for forgiveness and grace. And together we can be lifted up by the promises of God that all things can be new and live – even us.
Gardening is hard work. Repentance is hard work. This Lenten journey is hard work. But we have to try. Because God is, as always, giving us another chance to change our ways so we can be fruitful and live. We can do this and the words of the prophet Isaiah can be our guide.
Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy upon them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Is. 55: 6-7)
Amen.
Resources:
Lectionary Story Bible, Year C, Woodlake Publishing, Inc.
Sermons.com, Illustrations for Lent 3, Year C
“What Is Lent and How Can You Participate,” Teri Thomas