the holy gospel according to
luke, the 13th chapter. glory
to you, o lord.
13At that very time
there
were some present who told Jesus
about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans
suffered in this way
they
were worse sinners than all other Galileans?
3No,
I tell you;
but unless you repent,
you will all perish as they did.
4Or 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?
5No,
I tell you;
but unless you repent,
you will all perish just as they did.”
6Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in
his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.
7So 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?’
8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I
dig around it and put manure on it.
9If it bears fruit next year,
well and good;
but if
not,
you can cut it down.’”
the gospel of the lord. praise to you, o christ.
-----
some people in the crowd come
to jesus with an age-old struggle about evil and sin in the world.
the jews are living under
occupation. pilate continues to rule violently over them, working hard to
quash even the smallest sign of rebellion. violence and oppression are daily realities.
the cross and crucifixion are
political instruments of torture and punishment and won’t be made into
religious symbols until well after their political purpose has ended.
life is uncertain. so it makes
sense that the jews want to find a way
to make
meaning out of,
to
place blame for,
and to
be excused from
the violence and the oppression around them.
and the issues they raise are important.
how responsible are individuals for the bad stuff that
happens to them? does god punish us? why are these bad things
happening?
were the galileans killed
because they were such bad
sinners? were those killed by the tower of siloam really worse offenders?
are the victims of violence in
neighborhoods east of troost worse sinners? are the people of haiti or
joplin greater offenders?
was she asking for it?
did he deserve it?
i have to admit, i like to find
out who is responsible for bad things, for mistakes, for hurt, so that i know where to place blame… so that i
don’t have to worry about being blamed or being hurt. it’s pretty easy to
look at the violence in the world around us and blame the victim. if it’s
the victim’s fault, it means i’m safe. if he deserved it or she was asking
for it, then it couldn’t possibly happen to me, because i wouldn’t ask for it, i’m not that bad.
i’m
nice! i’m a good person.
it makes us feel safer because: we’re not like
them. we’re not so sinful.
but when asked if “they”—those other people—were worse sinners, twice
jesus says,
“no,
i tell you;
but unless you repent, you will all perish.”
just like today, sin was not
simply an individual thing—an issue of personal piety. systems were set
up to reinforce inequalities.
today racism and sexism are two
forms of sin that have become institutionalized. that is, they’ve been
knitted into the fabric of our society in such a way that many people,
especially those who seem to benefit from them, don’t even notice.
it’s
how it’s always been.
perhaps the jews had become so
accustomed to the occupation, that they forgot that it was a reason for killing and death, like some who think the
children of god east of troost are to blame for the violence they suffer.
they forgot. and we forget that the pain and violence
experienced so often by women and people of color are part of a larger system
that we might not notice, but that affects us all.
institutionalized sins, like
racism and sexism are all around us. they infect our economic and social
systems, our entertainment and our politics. they are an epidemic that
continues to spread as it goes unnoticed or, unacknowledged.
they have become embedded in
our culture in such a way that many of us who are oppressed can feel it, even
if we can’t articulate what it is we’re feeling or struggling with, and many of
us who are oppressors don’t even notice it. and so often many of us can
find ourselves in the role of both oppressed and oppressor with conflicting
feelings and emotions as ever-present struggles inside of us.
yet jesus knows what we need.
repent.
he
says.
“unless you repent, you will all perish.”
it is not their fault, but we as a
culture must repent for the role we all
play in continuing and upholding institutionalized sin. we are connected. each of us, one
to another. sexism and racism don’t just harm women and people of color,
they harm us all. it is not good for our souls to be put, for arbitrary
reasons, above or below another person; to be put on a pedestal and pressured
to maintain that position at all costs keeps us from being in relationship with
others.
as does
being constantly knocked down from any pedestal.
these systems of oppression can
prevent us from recognizing everyone
as children of god, worthy—always—of
god’s love and grace.
repentance is key.
repent, turning
around—re-turning—to the goodness of god’s way. to the recognition of each
other as beloved children of god. in calling the crowd and, by extension,
us to repentance, jesus brings us back also to the cry we heard by the river
jordan. as john was baptizing and proclaiming a baptism of repentance, he
told the crowd gathered then, “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
jesus knows the difficulty we
face. he knows what it takes to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
that’s why he tells the parable.
because the thing about that
fig tree is that on its own in the vineyard, with no second chances—no
grace—that fig tree would be chopped down. and if we are that fig tree. we cannot,
by our own power, put an end to systems of oppression.
but we have a god who never gives
up.
a god who is bigger than sexism and racism and all the powers of evil.
every time we repent, we recall
our baptisms:
we get to again renounce
racism, sexism, and all the forces that defy god.
we get to renounce these
systems of oppression—the powers of this world—that rebel against god.
and we get to renounce the ways
of sin that draw us from god.
and god comes to us again and
again and again, as the gardener; cultivating the ground, spreading manure,
nourishing us that we might bear fruit. we cannot and do not do it
ourselves. only god can. and god chooses to do it through
us.
god nurtures us into bearing
fruits like immanuel’s involvement in the struggle to level the economic
playing field by working to raise the minimum
wage and cap interest rates on payday
loans, both of which would positively impact primarily women and people of
color, those most likely to live in poverty.
god is working in us to bear
fruits worthy of repentance in involvement to reduce gun violence as part of
the movement to change our culture of violence. reducing gun violence
would positively impact us all and especially those most likely to be victims
of gun violence: african american
youth and women who are,
or could become victims of domestic violence.
god works through us as we
repent, re-turning to god to bear fruits worthy of repentance. god works
through us as we advocate to expand medicaid coverage for those without means
to afford health care on their own, giving those who are more likely to live in
poverty
the help
they need.
there is so much that god can
and does do through us as we repent,
renouncing
racism, sexism, and all the systems of oppression at work in the world.
and god is at work in our
repentance.
always
forgiving
and always working to nourish us
so that the fruit we bear may be fruits worthy of
repentance.
repent. re-turn to
god. for in god there is life. and we can trust that god will
always work for one more year, one more chance—more time to work with us, to feed
us [table], to water us [font], to help us bear fruits worthy of
repentance.
thanks be to god!
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