Good Morning Rehoboth,
This week’s scripture brings me back to Ash Wednesday, and specifically to the words that I said to everyone as I drew crosses on their foreheads. If you forgot, I said “repent and believe the gospel.” We throw this word, repent or repentance, around a lot. We tell people to repent. We say that we have repented. We even pray that God will give us the strength to repent. When I think of repentance I think of the Catholic rite of confession. Where you go into a box and say “forgive me father for I have sinned.” But the question I am sitting with this week is what does it mean to repent? When I told you to “repent and believe the gospel” what did that mean to you?
I bring this up because our scriptures this week are centered on this idea of repentance. Some bystanders tell Jesus about some recent tragedies and they are asking whether or not they are more favored by God because they avoided the tragedies. I don’t think I want to get into this discussion of tragedies, but I think Jesus response is where I want to swim this week. Jesus says to the people “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.” You see that word “repent” is in Jesus response. For Jesus there seems to be the idea that without repentance our deaths will be like all others. I believe this sermon will have to get at what does it mean for us actually to repent? I may be wrong but I think many people believe that repenting simply means we want to live a better life. Or we repent of singular sins. Repentance seems to be thought of as purely moral transformation. We repent because we have sinned. But is that it? Does repenting simply mean saying we haven’t lived the right way, or does it mean something else? I will give you a hint, I think it means something more. Yes, we need to repent of sins but that’s not enough to make our deaths different. Living a good life isn’t enough. To repent I believe means to see the word from a different perspective. How would our lives change if we saw repentance not as regret for sins but as a desire to see the world differently?
Another route that probably be weaved together is to look at this parable. A couple of questions to consider this week is who is the gardener in this parable and who is the man who owns the fig tree? And, what does it mean for us to bear fruit? Maybe, it is only when we repent, and truly repent that we can bear fruit. I hope you can swim in this idea of repentance this week. How does the idea of repentance affect your daily life? In this season of repentance, we may need to spend some time thinking about what that means. I don’t know, but this is what I’m wrestling with this week what about you? What is this text saying to you? Where do you want me to explore?
May your week be filled with the love and peace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening to my ramblings.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Lee
763-913-4756