United Methodist Church Hyde Park, NY

YOU MAY ALREADY BE A SINNER
Luke 13:1-9
 
 
In a comic strip a man is pictured entering his house with the mail in is hands. Seeing him his wife says: “Gosh! Did you get another one of those sweepstake things?”
“No,” he replies, “this is from that new church over in Eastville.”
He holds up a card for her to see and reads out loud: “You may already be a sinner.”
 
Today’s scripture readings say that there’s no maybe about it – all humans are sinners. But the truth is, that’s not something we easily acknowledge.
 
I read about a man named Clint Hurdle who was a New York Mets reserve player some years ago. Hurdle was a humble man of great faith who took his spiritual life very seriously. One day he spoke to several hundred people gathered at the Salem Evangelical Free Church, telling them of the change Jesus Christ had brought into his life. This is what he said.
 
I dreamed last night I died and went to heaven. St. Peter showed me around. He took me to an enormous room filled with clocks. All of these clocks were ticking away at different rates. I wondered what all the clocks were for. Then I noticed that under each clock was a nameplate with a name engraved on it. St. Peter said there was a clock in heaven for everybody on earth, and when anybody sinned, their clock jumped ahead one hour.
I found the clocks of my friends and began watching them. Every time one jumped ahead, I’d get self-righteous and say, “Gary, I know what you’re doing” or “George, you better straighten out.”
For a while I watched their clocks, jumping ahead an hour with each sin, and then a thought occurred to me. I asked St. Peter: “By the way, where’s my clock?” And St. Peter said, “We keep your clock in the kitchen and use it for a fan.”
 
Clint Hurdle was obviously blessed with a wonderful self-deprecating sense of humor. . . and the wisdom to understand the underlying reality of human life that our scriptures remind us of today: all human beings are sinners – we have been since the time of Adam and Eve – and need to repent. Jesus makes that clear in this morning’s gospel text.
 
Some people confront Jesus with a grisly tale of Pilate’s cruelty, trying to get Jesus to judge whether these Galileans died as a result of some hidden greater sinfulness they all shared – or whether their suffering and death were the result of a random act of violence. I saw this same question raised by some in letters on the newspaper editorial pages in relation to the recent earthquake in Haiti, and it will no doubt be raised by someone, somewhere, concerning the earthquake in Chile.
 
Jesus utterly rejects the notion that those who died at Pilate’s hand were somehow more sinful than others. But Jesus does not leave his answer at that; he calls up yet another example of tragedy. Whereas the slaughter ordered by Pilate was an intentional act of blood letting, the collapsed tower of Siloam was one of those freakish incidents of nature and physics. Again Jesus answers his own question with the same emphatic rejection: “Do you think that they were worse offenders than ll the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
 
 
 
 
The lesson that Jesus draws from the two unfortunate events is the universality of sin and the necessity of repentance. The untimely deaths of the Galileans and the people crushed by the tower at Siloam ought to remind people that it is a serious mistake to put off repentance. Jesus is calling people to respond positively to his message before it is too late, and to remember that the time available for repentance is short.
 
Jesus underscores his message that a day of reckoning is coming with the parable of the fruitless fig tree. The parable is reminiscent of two Old Testament texts. Micah 7:1 compares the prophet’s search for justice in Israel to that of a frustrated harvester who finds no figs or grapes in the vineyard that he oversees. Isaiah’s song of the vineyard also depicts the failure of a well-tended vineyard to product fruit.
 
The twist that Jesus gives to these familiar images is his emphasis on divine forbearance. Three years should have been enough for the fig tree to be productive. The logical course of action is to uproot the unproductive tree so that it does not take up valuable ground that could be used to nourish a fruit-bearing tree. Jesus has the person responsible for the vineyard doing something that simply does not make sense under the circumstances, but the extravagant nature of God’s mercy is an important motif in Luke’s Gospel.
 
Still, the people need to respond to God’s mercy. The fig tree may be given another year to demonstrate its ability to produce fruit, but if it fails to do so, it will be cut down. The day of reckoning, the day of the Lord, may be mercifully delayed, but it is surely coming.
 
A story is told of an old-time fiery Irish priest who was a superb orator. His smooth, tender, loving appeals could charm the birds out of the trees. His honeyed tongue could utter sincere words of assurance that would assuage the anguish of sorrow and the bitterness of defeat. However, on suitable occasions he could give it to his people straight.
 
One morning he was preaching from today’s text as found in the King James Bible: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” He was trying hard to stress its tremendous importance. Suddenly an apt illustration flew right to him. “Do you see this fly here that’s just lit on my Bible? If you don’t repent, God is going to smash you just as surely as I’m going to smash that pesky creature!” He took a swipe at the poor little fly, and missed it. “There, my friends,” he shouted, “is mercy yet with the Lord!”
 
There is, indeed. But mercy is offered with the understanding that repentance must follow.
 
It is Lent, the season when we assess how closely our lives align with God’s intention for them. And this is the gospel of Luke, where Jesus’ message is often: “Good news! Repent!” Those two things may not seem to go together, but they do. The simple truth is not that “you may already be a sinner.” It is that you are. We all are. But the good news is that it is God’s nature to have mercy and abundantly pardon. And that is very good news, indeed.