I have always found it a bit puzzling that one of the stained glass windows in this church is dedicated to the victims of the sinking of the Titanic. Perhaps it’s because that great ship went to the bottom of the
But there it is—a fine depiction of the Transfiguration, with its enigmatic dedication at the bottom.[i] People often ask “Why?” when disasters such as this happen. We heard a lot of such questioning after the
Jesus addresses this very question in today’s Gospel lesson. He challenges the people who bring him the news of Galileans slaughtered by Pilate on their assumption that those who died were paying in some way for their sins. He then goes on to cite another disaster, the failure of a building project.
He might also have asked with respect to the Titanic, “Do you think these people were worse sinners than all the others who crossed the
Jesus’ questioners would very likely have answered the same way we would, with a “No,” but, like us, would still be left struggling to try to understand God’s ways.
Most people that I know—and I would count myself among them—have some desire for neatness and order in life. We like things that are predictable and manageable, that can be summed up in nice equations. Humanity has striven for millennia to comprehend the reality of a life that all too often does not work quite as neatly as we wish. However much we might wish it otherwise, the truth remains that God did not make it that way.
As the prophet wrote:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
This Lent, I have been reading the book of Job, the great text on this question. Job’s “friends” insist ad nauseam that Job must have sinned, else why is he suffering? Job’s constant reply is that he did not sin—certainly not in any way commensurate with his apparent punishment. Where then is God’s justice?
Jesus’ response is unlike Job’s: don’t make easy assumptions, but look to your own life. Whether it was just or unjust, those people died. It could happen to you. The question is: Are you ready?
The operative word in our readiness, the one that really troubles us, is repentance. Luke is more concerned with this theme than the other Gospel writers. For him, the Gospel can be summed up in terms of repentance and forgiveness of sins. The trouble is that most of us good church folk can get accustomed to thinking of ourselves as ‘OK with God.’ We have little or nothing of which to repent.
Here’s an example:
I was leading a Bible study on the Gospel of Luke in another parish some years ago. When I said something like, “We are all sinners in need of repentance,” an 80-something lady responded, “Well, goodness, I’m not a sinner—I’ve never done anything like that.” It was hard to argue with her. She was in truth a wonderful person, on whom the term ‘sinner’ just didn’t seem to fit well, at least not in the conventional sense of ‘doing bad things.’ I can think of many people like her in this very congregation.
On the other side, most of us can think of other people who need to repent, people who in our books probably deserve punishment. There’s even an acronym for such folks: TEAPOT: Those Evil Awful People Over There. It’s so easy to point the finger…
Nonetheless, Jesus does not discriminate, but calls everyone to repentance:
The time is fulfilled, and the
To be a "sinner" means to participate in the fallen nature of humanity, and in that respect there can be no differentiation. We are all involved in the sin of the world, and therefore we all stand in need of repentance.
The problem may lie with our association of repentance with just stopping doing something. If that is all that repentance is, we end up with a void in our lives, which then demands to be filled. It reminds of a cartoon of a man in a padded cell, holding paper and scissors, with the caption, “I cut out drinking. Then I cut out smoking. Then I cut out chasing women. Now I’m cutting out paper dolls.”
Repentance does indeed involve an active turning from sin, but whenever we turn away from one thing, we turn towards another. The other side of repentance is the active and intentional turning towards God. Repentance leads us to a life of constant reformation of action and attitude, of asking ourselves, “How is God glorified in my life, in my words and deeds, in my thoughts and my prayers?”
Martin Luther taught that the church should be constantly in reformation, and the same applies to the members of the church. We are called to the constant reformation of our lives in accordance with God’s will, by the grace of God continuing to grow in holiness, walking with Jesus on the road to the holy city.
Things will happen while we walk this road. People will suffer and die: perhaps even us. There will be distractions: the sellers of all that does not satisfy, all that can not give life, but which beckons with its allure and enticements. But down this road lies the promise Jesus made: redemption, not retribution.
If we are all participants in fallen humanity, then repentance might be defined as our ongoing participation in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to save us all, calling us to seek the Lord while he may be found. He invites us to participate in our redemption, constantly turning our hearts to God. And, wonder of wonders, lest we believe that it’s too late, and we have no chance of reforming our lives, he always gives us another chance, just as the gardener gave to that unfruitful fig tree.
Beloved, we are the redeemed of the Lord. Let us then continue to live into our redemption, participating with God in the salvation of this holy world, through the holy Church, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
