March 7: Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
I am not very comfortable with the idea of God judging us. A judgmental, wrathful God does not sit well with my image of an all-loving, compassionate God. However, I cannot argue that occasionally (often?) we all do mess up. We all make mistakes and yes, we all do sin.
I would never attempt to blithely explain all the reasons why we humans do, in fact, sin. Some but not all of the reasons might be that we are imperfect, we are wounded, sometimes we are self-destructive more than we are productive, we are into control. We sin.
Though I do not understand all the reasons why we humans sin, I do fully understand that we are in need of grace. Big time. We are so weak, so fragile and so vulnerable; we cannot function completely on our own.
And so the lesson I take out of Luke 13: 1-9 is that, just as the gardener was with the fig tree, God is also patient with us. God understands that we screw up, that we are imperfect, that we are in need of God’s nurturing and tender, loving care.
It is when we don’t understand or accept that God very much longs to extend to us God’s compassion and forgiveness that I think we are truly in trouble. When we believe that whatever we have done is unforgiveable, that we are beyond pardon, that we can never be easy with ourselves, that’s when it is time to truly worry.
Because if we believe we are beyond redemption, we cannot open ourselves to the grace of God that we so desperately need. Our conviction of our own sinfulness keeps us separated, apart from the mercy and compassion of God.
And what a terrible, terrible tragedy that is, to believe that we are beyond redemption. Like the character played by Robert de Niro in the movie The Mission, who insisted on carrying his baggage that symbolized his sinfulness over steep cliffs in the South American jungle, sometimes we are more burdened by our refusal to accept God’s grace than we are burdened by our sin in the first place.
We all sin. We all mess up. Our task is not to deny this truth or to fight it, but to ask for forgiveness and, like the fig tree in Luke’s gospel, accept God’s nurturing forgiveness. It is only then that we can truly live.
Thanks Sally-I needed that!