Pastor Michael Harman,
St. Peter LCMS - Newell, IA
vacancies at ...
Immanuel, Pomeroy
First Evangelical, Fonda
March 11, 2007 Occuli Lent 3c LW
Just before today's Gospel reading, Jesus was lamenting that people did
not know the signs of the times - that He was the Messiah, and they needed to
be at peace with God. That is to say they needed to repent.
Some person - perhaps for political reasons - asked what Jesus thot of
Pilate defiling the Temple and murdering fellow Galileans in the act of
worship. IF He spoke out of revolution and revenge against Rome, soldiers
would put Him in prison. IF He spoke against the Galileans, He would be less
popular there and be more in line with the teaching of the Pharisees. (It was
a trap.)
Do we get what we deserve?
There are consequences to actions. Work hard, and you will be rewarded -
usually. Goof off, get canned - usually.
If a couple goes thru intensive pre-marital counseling, spends more time
planning for the marriage than the wedding, and works on forgiveness, the
marriage is good and lasting.
If a couple lives together before marriage, they are 3 times more likely
to divorce. And if there's little preparation for the actual marriage and lots
for the wedding instead, the divorce rate is very high. Again, generally:
there are direct consequences to actions.
But in this world of sin, consequences are imperfect; Murphy's Laws come
in. There is the millionaire drug-lord who has ruined countless lives who dies
of old age; and the harmless baby born in poverty who dies of SIDS. It doesn't
make sense, does it?
We begin to doubt God. Is God in control? Does He care about good
people? Does God care about justice? What about me, personally? Does He give
a fig, does He care about me?
Jesus uses two news events of tragedies - an act of murder during worship
by human hands; and an act of nature in the collapse of a tower - to point you
and me to the REAL issue: our need for repentance!
You and I have tragedies in our lives, too. We have friends and family
facing cancer, death, financial difficulty, bad weather, betrayals, dishonor,
and a host of other hardships. IF God really is in control, we ask, why these
tragedies?
Jesus asks the crowd, and you, point blank: do you feel these other
people owed more to God for their sins? Do you suppose they had done too many
bad things? Do you imagine they had not done enuf good? This is like to
degrading God our Father in Heaven to a mafia Godfather - "make sure you pay
Him off, or you will be rubbed-out!"
That IS how unbelief sees God. Either both individuals and nations are out
of His control, or, your morality and dues in the collection plates can keep
catastrophe at bay. Do you see God like that? When calamity and heartbreak
strike at you - don't you wonder if you are getting what you deserve?
Christ's stern warning is meant to smack you between the eyes: repent!
Not one of you (or me) is better than the Galileans who were murdered, or the
people who died in the Twin Towers of 9-11. From God's point of view, none
of the crowds listening to Christ in the 1st century, or reading His Words in
the 21st century, deserves to live. We ALL are worthy of suffering here and
eternal damnation hereafter.
We always need to be recall of where we stand with God because of who we
are.
Christ tells the parable of the fig tree. According to Old Testament Law
(Lev 19:23-25) for 3 years after a tree was planted you couldn't pick fruit.
The 4th year's crop belonged to God. After that, the owner could keep it all.
God, Who owns all, had invested time, money, and land on His fig tree (Israel).
Jesus, the Vine dresser, does not beg to spare it no matter what cost: He
asks only for another "year" (or season) to work the fruit of repentance.
(Isaiah 5). If, after that time, the people did not change, they would be cut
off from the living.
During the time extension, God gave them the best spiritual care possible:
the Word made flesh - His Son. Despite extra grace and time, Israel spurned
God's love & turned from His salvation. As I said in a recent sermon, God
brought the Roman Legion in to remove Jerusalem from the map in 70AD. Then in
135AD the whole nation was removed; laws forbid any Jew from living there for
as long as the Roman Empire lasted. God's patience ended for them.
Paul warned the Corinthians with history. The Israelites were baptized
into Moses, ate spiritual food and drank for the Rock that accompanied them -
Jesus Christ...
"God was not pleased with most of them; so their bodies were scattered
over the desert. These things took place as examples to keep you (and me) from
setting our hearts on evil things as they did." That is also a warning for
21st century Newell - and you and me.
God's patience today with the unrepentant will end, also. You can not
thoughtlessly break the Ten Commandments, and expect God, Who sees all,
(Occuli) to overlook a fruitless tree in His vineyard that has been cared for
with His best spiritual food for many years.
By God's work, "in a genuine conversion a change, a new emotion, &
movement in the intellect, will, & heart must take place, namely, that the
heart perceives sin, dreads God's wrath, turns from sin, perceive & accept the
promise of grace in Christ, has good spiritual thoughts, a Christian purpose &
diligence, and strives against the flesh. For where none of these occurs or is
present, there is also no true conversion." FC-SD-II-70.
The axe of the Law, the words "cut it down", will, to be sure, fall some
day on those who are fruitless. God keeps His promises. In horror of that Day
of Judgment, we must listen to what Jesus says next.
"Sir! Leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it &
fertilize it" (for it may yet bear fruit). Jesus works and pleads for all of
us to repent!
Repentance is God's work to make us sorry for our sins. But being sorry
does NOT forgive us. It also includes His work of making us believe He paid
for ALL of our sins on the cross (fide salvifica), and turning us in faith to
His work for us. The Holy Spirit works in you (& me) so we realize we have a
new relationship with God thru Christ as His new creations (2 Corinthians 5).
The faith that God gives us produces new attitudes, desires, objectives,
behaviors, conduct, and ideas. Faith is a living, energizing, motivating force
which propels Christians and urges us to joy, hope, peace, actions, and loving
accomplishments. God works faith in us to produce this fruit of the Spirit,
just as Paul proclaimed in Galatians 5.
Christian faith is what God wants in us and works in us by means of Word &
Sacraments. Christian faith is what God expects to be shining from us and
lighting up the world. Left to ourselves, we would never bear any fruit. So
God works in us both to desire and to do His good will (Philippians 2:13 and
Galatians 2:10).
Our Father labors in history and individual lives, wanting all people to
be saved. Like the Owner of the Vineyard, He plants people with a purpose,
expecting the fruit of faith. Our Father has every right to expect it from us
because we are His own people. (trees!)
If the Gospel means nothing to a person (you) or a nation - if Christian
faith is watered down or abandoned - the warning will go out before the tree
must be removed. God's gives time of grace. He could impartially and with
justice remove with no warning. But Jesus is still pleading for us and for all
people.
Why? Compassion. Think of the murdered Galileans and the 18 crushed in
the tower. They, like all of us, did not deserve any kindness or care from
God. Our debt of sin is staggeringly huge, like some mountain, it keeps on
growing, and we can never repay God.
But there was one perfect life, lived by a Man who had spoken from a
burning bush and lived flawlessly as our Substitute. He did not deserve our
grief or sorrows; yet He surely carried them (Isaiah 53). Of all the people
who ever lived, the fruit of His faith was FAR more abundant than any other
person. This Man, and only this Man, never owed God for even one sin.
A faithless fool might wonder what Jesus did wrong for Almighty God to
punish Him on a cross: but HE did no wrong. He was cursed for us in our
place. The Passion of the Christ was to pay for every evil, to Redeem us with
His blood, to save us from our sins.
The sudden death we deserve from an evil man or accident is not the axe of
God cutting us down as the firewood for hell. All of that and more was paid
for by Christ on Good Friday and certified by Easter Sunday.
Do we get what we deserve? NO! He gives us the Gospel of the forgiveness
of the cross - which we do NOT deserve. He works faith in us to believe this
and cling to it. He works in us so we desire to obey Him in love; and live in
the joy of His salvation.
* Every tragic event around us is a warning that reminds us we live in a
fallen world that deserves God's wrath. In this imperfect world, consequences
aren't always immediate. *
But do not doubt God's promises! Our Christian faith is disgusted with
evil in our own life and struggles against it, recalling examples in history of
those who either abandoned God by wicked living OR by believing they did not
need His saving.
Authentic faith does not believe tragedy is God trying to punish us - God
punished Christ in our place. Authentic faith does not believe we can buy God
off with goodness or money. Faith clings "to Jesus Christ alone, Who did for
all our sins atone; He is our One Redeemer." Tragedy serves to make us want to
cling tighter to His mercy.
It also gives opportunity for you and me to show true fruit of faith in
Jesus by how we act in the tragedy. We do not act as tho we are people getting
what we deserve. We act in the powerful compassion of Jesus Christ.
May God work in each of us by the power of the Gospel to be fruitful trees
(Psalm 1) in the joy of His salvation; and to His honor and praise forevermore!
Amen.
