0323B2022 – Luke 13. 1-9 Lent III
We have before us tonight, “WORDS” that sound “an URGENT NOTE,” and “WORDS” that give “a LITTLE HOPE” that OUR GOD might just be a little patient…with us…
Yay, God!
How awesome is that…
You gotta love this stuff…
On the one hand, you never know when “THE END” might come for us, FOR ANY OF US, so “getting with the program” SOONER rather than LATER is ALWAYS a “good thing.”
You know, IT WOULD BE a step in the right direction, as it were…
The scriptures tell us that WE are to come to OUR GOD “in repentance.”
I’m thinking, CONTRITE hearts are a good thing. Being REMORSEFUL, REPENTANT, REGRETFUL, SORRY, APOLOGETIC, a little bit ASHAMED maybe of some of our ACTIONS, THOUGHTS, or WORDS, CONSCIENCE-STRIKEN is even better.
Maybe even a little GROVELING before the THRONE, if need be…a little hemming and hawing…
TURNING OUR LIVES AROUND and “heading out” in the opposite direction ain’t a bad idea either!
Well, at least sometimes…
On the other hand, our lesson tells US that even the “UNPRODUCTIVE FIG TREE” that might otherwise be CHOPPED down and thrown into the TREE SHREDDER or WOODCHIPPER might just get “ANOTHER SHOT” at becoming FERTILE after all.
Again, how cool is that?
We have a God of SECOND CHANCES, maybe THIRD chances, FOURTH chances or GOD ONLY KNOWS “how many chances…”
You know that FIG TREE must have been around for A WHILE taking up VALUABLE space, and doing NOTHING…
Not that I know much about these things…
But I ASSUME figs do not POP OUT right away on a SEEDLING…It must TAKE A WHILE to get there…I like that!
Same is true FOR US, sometimes, it takes US a while – to get TO BE – WHERE we NEED to be.
Or, where we were SUPPOSED TO BE all along…
Obviously, the SOONER the better, but hey, sometimes “it takes us a while…” and SOME OF US, longer than others…
And it sounds like, God is WILLING to WAIT US OUT, give us a BREAK, give us another year, give us a CHANCE to do whatever it is we NEED to DO!
Again, yay, GOD!
So, one of the things, the GOSPEL TEXT seems to be saying is … so don’t DELAY “forever” … but on the other hand, there is A LITTLE HOPE for some level of REPRIEVE, too.
BUT the “bottom-line message” is still crystal clear: you cannot wait FOREVER to get matters of “ETERNAL IMPORTANCE” right in your life…so why not, DO IT TODAY?
I guess one of the problems is, that some of us tend to PROCRASTINATE a little, “just a wee bit,” and put things OFF, postponing them…for as long as possible…
And we never KNOW, DO WE????? When he have waited, “TOO LONG?”
“Stalling,” “hesitating,” “delay-tactics,” “dilly-dallying around,” playing “avoidance games” …some of us, really have THE ROUTINE down pat!
The Jesus in Luke 13 – comes off a little differently than what we might normally or usually expect…he has some SHARP EDGES, some SERIOUSNESS of PURPOSE, and comes across as being a NO-NONSENSE kind of guy! He is actually doing some HEAVY-HANDED kind of WARNING…
So, none of us, CAN SAY that we haven’t been WARNED!
THIS IS NOT the Jesus with lily-white clean robes, who is all about softness, and light, kindness, and grace, who SPOUTS out some CHARMING-HEART WARMING stories and parables and gathers to himself little children and raises them up into his arms…to bless them. NOPE, this guy, this Jesus means business. And NOW!
In a memorable scene from “the disturbing” film Unforgiven, a young gun slinger is “literally shaking in his boots” in “shock and remorse” after having shot a man dead FOR THE FIRST TIME.
In a weak attempt to JUSTIFY HIMSELF, the young man says, “Well, I reckon he musta had it coming.”
TO THIS – the GRIZZLED OLD GUN SLINGER played by Clint Eastwood replies, “We ALL GOT IT COMING, kid.” We all got it coming…
So, this is Lent. A TIME of repentance. A TIME for returning to the Lord, our God. A TIME for getting RIGHT WITH HIM. A TIME of preparation before we meet him ANEW as the RESURRECTED LORD OF LIFE at Easter.
The question being: ARE YOU READY to meet him tonight? Or maybe a little repentance wouldn’t hurt in preparation?
The clock is ticking…
You’ve just been warned again! Amen.