A REPENTANT LIFE
Exodus
3:1-15 Luke 13:1-9
I’m
going to begin today with the reading from the Hebrew Scripture:
Genesis and Moses’ encounter with God on Sinai. I have never had
an experience like Moses’, but I know people who have. There are
likely people here today who have had such an experience, a direct,
powerful and troubling religious encounter with the divine. Most
people do not talk about it afterwards, not necessarily because they
fear they won’t be believed, but because it is so hard to put something
like this into words.
The story of the call of Moses has echoes in the call of Isaiah that
was read several weeks ago; both calls span across the years to us,
calls to unlikely and unworthy people like ourselves for whom God has
plans; ordinary people sometimes are asked to do extraordinary things.
The unique thing about the call to Moses is that God chooses to reveal
his name, I AM. Many gods of the time had names, but others had
bestowed those names upon them. This revealing of God’s name
shows the singular nature of our God who gives us God’s name, so we can
call on God. That implicitly demands a relationship. You
can’t have much of a relationship with someone if you don’t know what
to call them.
In our Wednesday night sessions we’ve been examining ministry in daily
life. It is my position, and that of the Episcopal Church, that
all ministry comes from a call by God in Baptism, at which time
spiritual gifts for ministry are bestowed. Then it becomes the
responsibility of all of us to nurture those gifts in one another, and
support each other in the work God has given us to do. I will
come back to ministry in a moment.
Now, let us move to today’s brief and rather curious Gospel
reading. At the end of chapter 12 that precedes this reading
today, Jesus has said to people that they are hypocrites because they
know how to interpret the signs of the weather, but not the signs of
the times. Then the conversation obviously moves to a timely
topic: So, Jesus, what about the Galileans Pilate had ruthlessly
killed, and what about those innocent people on whom the tower at
Siloam fell? (And, while we’re at it, what about the victims of
the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile? )
And we note that Jesus does not deal with the question directly but
rather by telling a parable about God’s patience and mercy: the fig
tree that bears no fruit but is allowed to remain for yet another
season while it is nurtured and tended by the gardener.
Here is what we should take away from this discourse today:
First, despite the misapplied fear mongering of evangelical preachers,
God does not use disasters as a way of pruning his creation.
After all, reason shows us that; innocent and not-so innocent people
die every day in accidents and disasters. Jesus is not interested
in debating whether God mismanages the universe.
What Jesus is interested in is that all of us be reminded of the
shortness and uncertainty of life, and the need to live a repentant
life now, not later on when it might be more convenient, not only after
all other avenues have been tried. Repentance is the act of
placing ourselves totally in God’s mercy. It’s it not merely
saying, God, I’m sorry, I slipped up again, I’ll try to do
better. Rather, it is a total reordering of our lives top to
bottom, with nothing held back, nothing kept secret. That is what
Lent offers us – that time for total and complete repentance, a turning
away from all that keeps us from the love of God.
Ministry (remember I mentioned that a few moments ago?) is the fruit of
our repentance. It is what we offer to others who are lost,
distracted or completely baffled by the world’s wisdom which always
seems to work for some, but not others, and has absolutely no answer to
suffering or disaster.
So, if you were waiting for an explanation about earthquakes, you’re
not getting it here. What we get is a reminder that God has been
merciful to us, and our only response is to return to God without
delay, to admit I AM is in charge, and to use what precious time we
have to the benefit of others both within and without our faith
community.
Immediately after this discussion takes place in Luke, Jesus heals a
woman who has been unable to straighten herself for eighteen
years. The furor over this act is not that he heals her, but he
does it on the Jewish Sabbath. Then next come his parables about
the Kingdom. It’s quite a chapter, worth reading when you get
home.
Now, you’ve witnessed the call to Moses, and Isaiah. You’ve heard
the response of people who felt they were inadequate to the task.
You’ve witnessed the attempts we all make to distract God from the real
issues. It’s much easier to talk about cosmic forces of the
universe and blame them for our discomfort. But God will not let
us get away with that. It may have worked in our high school
sociology class, distracting the teacher, but not so with Jesus.
The issue is, are we going to take this time given us to repent, to
re-offer our lives totally to the God who created us, or are we going
to complain and question the wisdom of I AM? The measure of our
repentance is the ministry we offer one another in daily life, and it
is high time we were about the Lord’s business of forgiveness and
redemption.
SO, what can one do? Well, look at some examples of ministry
around you? Who are the people you know who seem to always have
time, seem to anticipate what is needed and quietly set about making it
happen?
Who are the people you are happily willing to talk to when you hear
their voice on the telephone? They seldom ask for anything except
what they can do for you.
Who are the people, perhaps one person, you know you can call on, day
or night, and they will be there for you? There are lots of them,
because God is gracious and those whom God has called have responded
and said yes, time and again. That it what it looks like to lead
a repentant life. When others are first before you, when God is
your bright morning star, when Jesus is a friend longed for and
desired, ministry begins to happen. It is fruit of our repentance
as well as the act that interests Jesus.
If you are worried about tomorrow, if you are unsure whether God is to
be trusted, if you’re not certain a relationship with Jesus is possible
or even desirable, abandon that worry and doubt right now. Just
as God called Moses, Isaiah, and a host of others before us, God is
calling each of us today. Will we say, Yes, here am I, or will we
say, Well, first I want to know about those earthquakes? When you
say yes to the God who made you, the other questions slowly fade into
irrelevance. When you repent from your life of worry and fear,
all kinds of things are possible for you and with those whom you love
and among whom God has placed you.
The Rev. Ben Helmer
St. James' Episcopal Church
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
7 March 2010