March 7, 2010: Lent 3
Get busy living, or get busy dying. The words of prisoner 81433 to his prison friend. Get busy living, or get busy dying. Words of hope in the face of a hopeless prison life.
You may recall the book and movie from which these words and characters come from. The Shawshank Redemption, by Steven King, and in movie form featuring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, is an inspirational yet quite terrifying movie. It lacks Steven King’s usual source of supernatural evil and instead captures the very ugly human condition of a prison. In the midst of those horrors, Andy Dufresne tries to keep not only his own hope alive, but also tries to inspire his friend and the prisoners around him to hope as well. When the novella was published, it was put in a section called “Hope Springs Eternal”. A good message for all of us.
It may sound strange to pair this image of hope in the midst of prison pain against the gospel passage we just heard. Jesus is confronted with the news that Pilate had killed Galilean pilgrims at the temple in Jerusalem and poured their blood on the altar sacrifice in Jerusalem. A horrible image, and one loaded with the imagery of curses and eternal damnation amongst the Jews. Jesus hears their words and sees through to their fears. The ones who raised this horrible event were trying to ease their own fears of death by blaming those who were killed. The dead must have committed some awful sin and earned such a terrible fate, they imply by bringing this up to Jesus. It is this notion that Jesus clearly denounces. No I tell you, Jesus says. Their sins are no worse than yours. They did not earn their horrible demise any more than you have earned the chance to continue breathing. Neither were the sins of those who tragically died in Jerusalem when a guard tower collapsed upon them.
Stop condemning folks because they have died horrible or tragic deaths. They did not earn that any more than you have earned your wealth and good fortune and continued life.
Jesus does not seem very hopefilled and inspiring, but he is not done teaching. “But unless you repent, you will die just as they did”. At first glance perhaps Jesus is saying that by practicing repentance we can earn protection. So there is something we can do! Here’s one action that can earn us something. We can protect ourselves in God’s eyes, by repenting.
Repentance, though, has nothing to do with earning our lives back from God’s judgment. The repentance that was taught by John in the wilderness and now by Jesus is not about earning our lives back through our own acts. Repentance is about turning our lives over to God and not living for ourselves at all. A life of repentance is what Jesus invites us into, that we no longer live for ourselves but now live for God. We turn from ourselves. This is the root meaning of repentance. If you repent to earn something for yourself, then it is not repentance. We call that bargaining.
We learn of the repentant life through the waters of baptism, the waters that John and now Jesus’ disciples offered to all those who heard the call. Descend into the waters, and emerge on the other sides wholly new. Offer your life to the waters of baptism, descend and drown your sorrowful, sinful lives into the holy water and ascend no longer alive to yourself, but alive now in God. The sinful human life, full of selfishness, greed, envy, and anger, is left behind in the water, and rising up we live no longer for ourselves. We become the body of Christ, the living the ministry of Christ, following the one who leads us. This is our hope. This is the life we are to get busy living.
And this is why Jesus tells the crowd to repent. For the death at the hands of Pilate or under the clay walls of Siloam, or any of the millions of other deaths these mortal bodies die is coming, no matter what. But we have an opportunity to not live only for that death. We have an opportunity to not just get busy dying. Yes these mortal bodies will die, but we can repent of our sinfulness and live instead for and in God. You will die no matter what, but you have the opportunity through repentance to live. Get busy living.
Our tradition is full of the life of repentance. Each Sunday we make part of our time together in worship an opportunity to share in the disciple’s work of repentance. We confess our sings, either at the beginning of a service to highlight the penitential tones of Lent or just before we share in God’s Peace. Confession, the liturgical act of repentance marks our time together each week. And each day our daily prayers in the morning, evening, and just before bed are opened with the call to repent! The season of Lent itself is an opportunity to examine our lives through mediation, conversation, and learning. We may find it uncomfortable to focus time and energy on repentance(and considering our sinfulness weprobably should be uncomfortable), but our lives as disciples are rich with it.
The baptismal understanding of repentance is even woven into our Lenten journey this year. The gospel selections for Lent follow a pattern that evokes a portion of our Baptismal liturgy. Take a BCP and turn to page 302. The first question asks “Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?” The first Sunday of Lent we shared the gospel passage of Jesus being confronted by Satan in the wilderness, and Jesus rejects Satan’s offer. “I renounce them” we answer. The second question asks us “Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?” What better response to that is there than Jesus’ response last week (Second Sunday of Lent) to the threat of Herod when he says “you tell that fox that I am going to keep on ministering!”. “I renounce them” we respond. The third question asks us “Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?” And this week we hear Jesus teach us, his disciples, that our lives are to be filled recognizing our sinful scars and casting them aside in the baptismal water. “I renounce them” we answer.
Our lives as disciples, instructed and taught to us through our baptismal promises and formed by our Lenten journey, are offered forth to God through our work of repentance. We can ignore Jesus’ calling to a life of repentance and choose to get busy dying, following our sinfilled mortal life to their all too mortal ends. Or we can chose to get busy living, living the life of one who accepts the charge to cast aside our sinfilled lives in the waters of baptism and find our lives remade and renewed in the life filled body of Christ. Yes, our mortal bodies will die a mortal death, due to our nature woefully tied to our sinfulness. But we get to choose to live our mortal time alive in Christ, a life turned over and gracefully accepted by God.
Jesus knows, though, that this life of discipleship, full of the hard and miserable work of repentance, is not easy. After responding to the crowd and telling them that their lives are in just as bad a place as those who died at Pilate’s hands and under the tower of Siloam, Jesus offers some hope that only he can provide. The short parable about the fig tree, the owner, and the gardener goes by in just a few sentences. Jesus offers no interpretation, and many modern commentators shy away from it. The fig tree has gone three years since is was planted as is not bearing fruit. In gardening terms, it’s time for the tree to go. If we see ourselves as the withered fig tree, who by all gardening rights has wasted its chance, then hearing the owner (God) tell the gardener (Jesus) to cut us down sounds pretty terrifying. And the practice of repentance is in part to constantly remind ourselves that we are unable to bear fruit by our own efforts.
So to these withered trees that cannot bear fruit Jesus chooses the one way to bring fruit forth. He lays himself down, holy food for God’s creation. We come to this table not deserving this incredible service; that’s one thing we learn as we practice repentance. And from this place, from these crooked, fruitless trees, fruit comes forth. When we accept the life we are offered in Christ we get the chance to witness Christ’s fruit being born forth into the world on our limbs. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ fruit is born into the world, and when we turn our lives over to him in repentance and faith, we are blessed to witness his work.
Jesus makes the greatest sacrifice, knowing that only through his offering can our crooked branches bear fruit and be worthy of a place in God’s creation. By his grace we are offered a life to live, a life lived through his grace. Jesus is our great hope that springs eternal, and we accept that grace by living a repentant life. So go on, Get Busy Living. Repent, turn to him, and find your limbs bearing his fruit.
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