Retribution is out - Repentance in is!

Sermon - Luke 13:1-9

Welcome to the third Sunday of Lent where retribution is out and repentance is in. Please indulge me as I share the latest list of what’s in and what’s out.

What’s out – perishing! What’s in – self examination!
What’s out – nations in war! What’s in – nations in dialogue!
What’s out – hording the food! What’s in – feeding all who are hungry!

What’s out – judgment! What’s in – confession!
What’s out – believing natural disasters are divine retribution! What’s in –believing God was the first to cry at the tragedy!

I began with this list to introduce a new reformation, a reformation that begins inside each one of you, and a reformation that begins where you are and turns you to repentance. I offer the word reformation as another way to think of repentance. Reformation is a word that we commonly associate with Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and the other protestant reformers in the 16th century. But it is precisely a reformation is called for in Luke.

Today I ask, what needs reformation in your life? What needs drastic change? What will cause you to parish if you fail to repent of it?

Tragically, time and time again we’re called for reform, yet we never quite manage to do this on our own power. No matter how much harm is caused by not reforming we continue in our ways. Only a force outside our self can cause us to spin around.

One simple illustration of this comes to us in the form of the comic strip Peanuts.

In one episode, the weather is snowy and icy. We can all sympathize here. Poor Snoopy is in his doghouse and he is terrified to leave because of the snow and ice. The problem for Snoopy is the extra weight of the snow is going to collapse his roof. Snoopy needs to move from under the snow covered roof or he will parish. Charlie Brown sees the impending collapse and a scared Snoopy underneath. Charlie Brown pleads with Snoopy to come out of the dog house into safety, but Snoopy can’t bring himself to leave his doghouse. Finally, Charlie Brown, decides to try to lure Snoopy out with a pizza. Snoopy is unable to resist the savory scent of pizza and runs out of the doghouse, just before his roof gives to the weight of the snow.

In Snoopy’s case, Charlie Brown was able to rescue Snoopy before he perished. Tragically, this is not always the case. In Peanuts, the Bible, and in our lives, there are stories that end with people being lured out of their doghouse in time and stories where people whose doghouse roofs cave in before they leave. And it seems that more often than not, the doghouse roof caves.

In Snoopy’s case as in our own, retribution isn’t the reason to repent. Jesus points this out quite clearly. God doesn’t send the snow and ice to collapse roofs in response to un-repentance. In much the same way Jesus says the 18 that were crushed when a tower fell in Jerusalem were no better or worse than others in Jerusalem. Tragic events happen. We must always be careful to appropriately label them as tragedies and not divine retribution. Jesus very clearly rejects retribution and calls for repentance.

Unfortunately, there were those in Jesus’ day and there still are, those who link their loyalty to God with retribution. Those who were and are trying to link God to retribution were and are trying to divide the world into two camps: the us, who are righteous and virtuous, over and against the them, who are sinners and profane. And when bad stuff happens to them, for example, a hurricane, a terrorist attack, or a pandemic disease, we call it God’s retribution for their sin. This is exactly what Jesus is speaking against. If you try to divide people not only is it wrongheaded, but it brings destruction and that is not what God is about. God is about the redemption and reconciliation of all of creation, bringing us all together, ultimately and finally.

The truth is the idea of retribution is relentless. Fred Craddock says that illness, poverty, disease, loneliness, and death are often viewed as the punishment for sins known or unknown. For Christians, the fatal blow to the idea that suffering and death are the lot of the guilty came at Golgotha. The One without sin suffered and died on the cross. We, who are Jesus' disciples are forever freed from the ancient notion that prosperity and good health are evidence of divine favor, and that poverty and suffering are clear signs of divine wrath. Jesus rejects ideas that attempt to explain God causing suffering, not only because they don’t work, but because they direct attention from the primary issue, that is, the obligation of every person to live in repentance and trust before God without linking their loyalty to God to life's sorrows or joys.

In closing I must make clear…God is certainly with us in everything we celebrate and in everything we lament. God is with us in the triumph of earning the ‘A’ and in the sorrow of losing of a loved one, in the joys of a reconciled friendship and in the struggles of depression, whatever we go through wherever we are in life God is with us. We must remember that Jesus says these life experiences are not in any way reward or retribution. And yet he still makes clear the urgent need to reform. I must confess as I wrote this I found myself asking the same question as Prof. Shore : "If punishment is not directly related to sin, then—explain it to me again—why should I repent?"

Jesus might simply say, "It is necessary."

“Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." Friends in Christ there is still time, the fig tree has not been cut down yet, God is willing that none should perish. Friends in Christ, repent and live.