A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt
Intentional Interim Pastor
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
Maiden, North Carolina
Third Sunday in Lent
March 11, 2007

Scripture Lesson: Luke 13:1-9
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Have you heard the story about the church which arranged with a local painting contractor to paint the exterior of its building? The work was done on schedule, but not to the satisfaction of the church’s building committee. It was obvious that the contractor, to save money, had thinned the paint so much that it didn’t cover the old paint uniformly. The result was a blotchy, uneven mess.

The churchmen complained quickly and strongly to the less-than-honest contractor, who reluctantly agreed to send his men back to the church to do the job over. When they arrived early the next morning, the workmen saw a large sign leaning against the building, positioned there by the building committee. The message for the workmen was this, “Re-paint! And do not thin again!”

Repentance – that’s the theme of our Gospel lesson today. It’s not an easy subject to preach about because the term “repentance” itself has been so trivialized in our time. It’s one of those once-powerful words which, over time, have lost their capacity to get our attention and shape our experience. Repentance is often the subject of jokes, as I demonstrated a moment ago, but even more devastating to its power, the scope of repentance has been restricted to the purely personal and the narrowly religious. The word has become the stock in trade of fundamentalist preachers and wild-eyed, bearded characters on street corners wearing sandwich boards and warning of the imminent end of the world.

While it may be impossible to recover the Biblical meaning of the word “repentance” in our day, and thus it’s power to shape imaginations and lives, I must try because what the word communicates is so central to understanding Jesus’ ministry, not to mention living our lives according to his way. In the New Testament, three Greek words are typically used to talk about repentance. The first is epistrepho. Say it with me…Literally it means “to turn around.” In its secular meaning, it has to do with physically turning to go in a different direction. It also has a theological meaning in the New Testament, and in this context it means turning from the ways of Satan to faith and submission to Christ.

A second Greek word translated as repentance is metanoia. Say it with me… It means “to change one’s mind.” It has to do a total readjustment of one’s thinking – a change of orientation from all that is against God to that which is responsive to God. A third Greek word, this one used less commonly in the New Testament than the other two, is metamelomai. Say it… This word also has to do with changing one’s mind, but this word carries with it a strong sense of feeling regretful for the past.

Epistrepho, metanoia, metamelomai – these three Greek words carry slightly different meanings, but they all point to a common reality. They have to do with a process of transformation initiated by God’s grace, the transforming of both our thoughts and actions which takes place when a person is drawn to faith in Jesus Christ and submits to him as Lord.

This call to repentance is at the very center of Jesus’ message. You can’t read the Gospels without hearing it. St. Mark, for example, summarizes the thrust of Jesus’ ministry this way, “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” In Luke’s Gospel we are told that the purpose of Christ’s coming was to call us to repentance. And later in his Gospel, Luke records Jesus’ last words to his disciples with which he commands them to preach to all nations “repentance and forgiveness” in his name. Clearly, repentance is no joke. Neither is it merely feeling sorry for one’s moral failings and bad habits, and vowing to do better next time. Nor does the word belong solely to the preachers of end-time urgencies.

I think now we’re ready to hear what Jesus has to say to us about repentance in today’s Gospel reading. Let me read it to you again little by little, and comment as I go along.

At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

The background to this statement is that there had been a bloody incident in the Temple at Jerusalem. Some who were listening to Jesus interrupted his teaching to tell him what happened. Apparently, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who deliberately angered his Jewish subjects, had sent armed soldiers into the Temple area. We don’t know what precipitated the attack, but many Galileans who had come to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifice at the Temple were killed by the soldiers. For us, it would be as if soldiers entered our sanctuary at the Christmas Eve service and began the random killing of worshipers.

In Jerusalem on that horrendous occasion, the blood of many Galilean Jews was spilled; and, figuratively speaking, their blood was mingled with the blood of the animals being offered in sacrifice. When Jesus heard the report, he said, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

For generations this has been a favorite text of hell-fire and brimstone preachers who claim that Jesus is here warning us about what will happen to people after they die if they don’t get right with God. But this is a gross is-reading of the text! It’s not about that at all.

Rather, the context of Jesus’ statement is political. Many Jews in Jesus’ day were supportive of rebelling against Rome. They were part of, or at least encouraging of, a violent insurgency against the Roman occupation, much like the drama being played out today in Iraq. In their opposition to Roman occupation, he Jews had adopted Rome’s violent ways. Instead of living according to God’s way, instead of behaving as God’s people, the Jewish nationalists had adopted the world’s way. And Jesus was saying to his listeners that those who persist in taking up the sword against Rome will inevitably perish under the sharp edge of Roman swords. So, Jesus warned his listeners, “Unless you repent” – that is, unless you turn away from the way of violence – “you will all perish as they did.”

And then to make the point even more strongly, Jesus added this statement, “Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

You see, Siloam was a small area within the city of Jerusalem, just south of the great Temple. Apparently there had been a building accident in Siloam, and eighteen people were crushed by the collapsing masonry from a tower. The point Jesus was making is the same point he made with the example of the Galileans whose blood was spilled by Roman swords in the Temple area. Namely, if you don’t repent – that is, if you don’t turn away from the ways of violent insurrection against Rome – you will be crushed by the falling masonry when Roman troops eventually lay siege to the city and knock down its buildings and walls on top of you and your children.

Far from talking about what would happen to people after they die, Jesus was warning the people of his day about what would happen to them before they die, if they continued to pursue the world’s way of violence against the Romans. At this point Jesus told the crowd a parable:

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ (The gardener) replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”

The point of the parable is that God is gracious in giving his people time to repent, time to renounce their violent, nationalistic ways. Maybe the gardener in the parable is Jesus. Through his ministry, Israel is being given another chance to be true to its identity as God’s people, to be a light unto the world’s darkness, to behave differently. In other words, Jesus was saying to the people of his day, “There’s still time to avoid the coming disaster, time to repent, time to become who you are as God’s people, time to renounce the ways of the world, time to follow my way, time to bear fruit for God’s kingdom. There’s still time to change.”

Alas, they didn’t. They didn’t change course. They didn’t repent, but continued headstrong in pursuing the way of the world rather than the way of God. They pursued the course of violent nationalism. Within four decades after Jesus’ crucifixion, Rome had had enough of the Jewish insurgency. Roman troops rolled into Jerusalem in August of the year 70, and with the sword spilled the blood of tens of thousands of Jews, and crushed many thousands of others as they toppled the buildings and walls of the Holy City! God had given his people sufficient warning and time to repent – time to change direction, change minds, change course – but they didn’t. And as a result, they perished, just as Jesus had said.

Is there any word for us here? I think so.

This passage causes us to think about our nation, our community, our church, our vocation, our family relationships, our personal life, and to ask specifically, “What needs to change if we are to live, not according to worldly standards, values, and patterns, but according to God’s way revealed in Jesus Christ?” In these various dimensions of life, both corporate and personal, in what ways do we, do you and I, need to repent – go in a different direction, think differently, act differently?

Remember…when Jesus called on the people of his nation to repent of their violent, nationalistic ways and to reject the worldly agenda which was leading to a cataclysmic confrontation with the power of Rome, he assumed that they could change, that change was possible, that re-orienting their lives and living in God’s way was do-able, and that even at the “eleventh hour” changing direction was possible and effective to bring about a different result. The same is true for us today. The good news is, with God’s help, we can change.

This passage, especially the parable Jesus told, also speaks of God’s greatest mercy. Do you know what that is? Time! God grants us time to repent – change direction, change our thinking, change our behaving, change our believing – time to bear fruit for God’s kingdom. But the time granted in God’s graciousness is not endless, and we do not know when “time’s up” - that is, when the consequences of living against the grain of God’s way come to pass.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, these are matters most appropriate to the season of Lent, to this holy time provided in the mercy of God for introspection and self-examination, for noticing how we have wandered from God’s way, for identifying those things we need to change. There’s no better time than Lent for epistrepho, metanoia, metamelomai – repentance – a change of direction, a change of thinking, a change of behaving, in order that we might follow Jesus’ way in every aspect of daily life.

Let us pray:
O God, maker of every thing and judge of all that you have made, from the dust of the earth you have formed us, and from the dust of death you would raise us up. By the redemptive power of the Cross, create in us clean hearts and put within us a new spirit, that we may repent of our sins and lead lives worthy of your calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.