Community Church Sermons
Year C
March 7, 2010
Lent
03
“The Lost”
Isaiah 55:1-9
Luke 13:1-9
Rev. Martin C. Singley, III
I’m very happy to be hearing from many of you about how much you appreciate the picture on the front cover of our Lenten bulletin cover. A few years ago, I was honored to speak to a group of married Roman Catholic priests, and they presented me with a gift – a print of Bohdan Piasecki’s “Last Supper.” It’s one of my most treasured possessions because it came from a group of people who are very special to me, and because the painting represents the Last Supper in a much more accurate way than the daVinci painting. Piasecki’s “Last Supper” shows it as the Passover Meal it was - with women, children and strangers all gathered with Jesus and the disciples. I love looking at the people gathered around Christ’s table.
And every time I look, I see something different.
This week, I’ve been noticing one particular person. Do you see the fellow, the second from the right, sitting on this side of the table? I noticed that he is not really looking at Jesus. He is looking away, head tilted down, with a kind of distant look. He almost looks like he is ashamed – like he is aware of something in his life that keeps him from looking Jesus in the eye. He looks to me like a person aware of some failure, some sin – or sins. And he looks to me like he might be thinking he doesn’t really belong there in the presence of Christ. To me, he looks lost.
I once noticed this same look on the face of a woman named Betty. She had come to be with her sister Arlene in the final days of Arlene’s life. Betty told me she wanted to pray – for Arlene, for the family, for herself even – but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. I asked her why she felt she couldn’t pray.
“I’ve not lived a good life, Marty,” she wept. “I’ve done so many wrong things. I know that God would never listen to someone like me.”
Betty represents a lot of people – maybe even most people. We don’t know how to handle sin – in our own lives and others’ lives. Remember what happened after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit? When God came walking through the Garden in the cool of the evening, they hid. They hid from God because they were afraid.
Betty was hiding from God. Perhaps the man in the painting is hiding, too. Are YOU hiding from God?
When I was a boy, I dreaded my mother saying, “Wait til your father gets home!” Not that I was a bad little kid, but my mother had to say those words every once in awhile – okay, like every day – okay, several times a day. And when I heard my father come through the door, I did what any kid would do. I ran upstairs and hid! Unfortunately, our house was way too small to hide out for very long! As I heard my father’s footsteps coming up the stairs toward my room I knew I was going to get it. Once, I tried to avoid the pain of the spanking by sticking a book down my pants. That only got me more of a spanking. You see, sin leads to sin – and punishment is multiplied.
I learned as a boy that I could run, but I could not hide, and my father’s hand would find my bottom sooner or later.
And that experience with my dad – who like every other parent was just trying to survive the experience – he really was a good and loving dad – that experience deeply influenced my understanding of God.
When you sin, just wait till your Father gets home! You get spanked. You get punished. You get sent to your room. You get grounded. You get cut off. You live in the shadow of God’s great anger.
So there was Betty, sent to her room without supper for all the bad stuff she’d done. She knew God did not want to hear from her. And there is the man in the painting, looking like he’s all alone in the shadow of shame, not wanting to even look at Christ for fear of what Christ will do.
Many of us find it difficult to deal with the ramifications of sin in our lives. Does God hate us, disown us and reject us?
And when people sin against us, what should WE do? Give them our own personal version of judgment day? Send them directly to hell?
Today’s Scripture reading from Luke is to me one of the most interesting of all the parables of Jesus because it deals with those very questions. It goes like this:
A certain guy has a fig tree planted in the middle of his vineyard. Being a lover of figs, this man goes out to the tree every day to see if there’s any fruit. But there never is. A year goes by. No fruit. Two years go by. Still no fruit. Three years pass. Not a fig to be found. Then, in disgust, he says to his gardener, “Cut that tree down, so I can plant something else. It’s just taking up valuable space.”
But the gardener replies, “Sir,
let’s give it a little time, and let me throw some manure on it. Maybe it will
give fruit next year.”
And that’s it! That’s the parable! The whole shebang! And I love it because it has a kind of funny but very redemptive message. You see, the barren fig tree represents people – you, me, Betty, the man in the painting – the world - in all of our fruitless humanity. In our sin. And our selfishness. And our weakness. And our propensity for hurting each other, and letting each other down. The barren fig tree is us in our inability to be what God needs and wants us to be.
And some would like to just go ahead and chop us down. The vineyard owner, who wants to clear us out of the way because we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do, is – well, I like to think he’s like that televangelist you see on TV who rants and raves about all us barren fig trees who fall short of the glory of God. And there’s almost a sense of delight in his eyes as he tells us that God is going to pull us up like so much chaff, and throw us into the lake that burns with fire. He sneers as he quotes scripture and cites real-life illustrations about how God has already chopped others down, and that God is going to chop us down, too, because we are such spiritual zeros. Do you know the kind of person I’m talking about? Have you ever experienced a church like that? The vineyard owner is the personification of those who are enthralled with the idea of God’s judgment. They’re willing to simply discard those who don’t measure up. And the vineyard owner not only represents those who think WE should be chopped down in our sin, but he is also US when others sin against us. Aren’t there some people in your life you’d like to whack with an axe? And maybe there are some to whom you’ve already given the axe!
But along comes the gardener. Now
the gardener stands for God in all God’s graciousness! As the world
looks at you and me – at all us lost sinners - and calls for judgment to come
down on us so the world will be a better place, God the gardener comes along
and says, “Wait a minute! I think I know what we can do to help these people
become the kind of people I created them to be.”
And then God the gardener shares
his bright new idea: “Let’s give them some time, and a little more manure!”
That’s what it says!
Now, you’ve got to love a God who thinks this way, don’t you? I know that there are many here in the sanctuary today who are well aware they are not all they should be - as spouses - as parents - as children - as neighbors - as Christians. And perhaps you’ve been told that God’s attitude toward you is one of burning anger, ready to uproot you and throw you away. This message of God’s impending judgment is one of the most pervasive and popular messages coming from pulpits today. And it’s wrong. It’s wrong because Jesus shows us this is not God’s attitude toward his children, no matter how ugly we may be. What is God’s attitude toward us, fallen people that we are?
Let’s give them some time, and a little more manure. Maybe they’ll come around!
And I know that even among us sinners there are some here today who are quick to judge others. Are you one of them? Some of the people in our lives don’t live up to our standards, let alone to God’s. Some of them are our own family members - our own neighbors. Some of them are people who are clearly going down the wrong road. And there is something in our hearts that makes us want to write these people off, and have nothing to do with them. But wait! God says there’s a better way to deal with this kind of person in your life.
“Give them some time, and a
little more manure. Maybe they’ll come around!”
But what does it mean – to be given time, and a little more manure?
One of the best gifts you can give yourself and others is the gift of “time” – time to reflect, time to think, time to experience life, time to grow, time to change. You see, what God knows about you and me and others is that, when all is said and done, we will not be the same people we are today. Time and life will change us.
Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were a little kid? Chances are it’s not what you became. I thank God every day I did not become the cowboy I wanted to be when I was five. It took some time – some growth – some education – some experience – and some maturity to eventually settle in on the right career path. Although in my own mind at age five I WAS a cowboy, by the time I was twelve I was an astronaut!
Betty thought she was a lost sinner. And maybe she was - that day. But what about tomorrow – or next week – or next year? Given time, people change! Not one of us will be at 20 the person we were at eight. At 50 we will not be the person we were at 30. At the end of our lives we will not be the same person we were at the beginning of our lives. Time CHANGES us all.
But healthy change requires fertilization.
I think that’s why the lost man in Piasecki’s painting is welcome at the table of the Lord. Jesus knows what’s going on in his life – how he has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But still, he is welcomed!
Belonging to a community that opens its arms to accept people as they are fertilizes growth and change. Being forgiven by the person you have sinned against fertilizes repentance and reconciliation. Being loved when everybody else hates your guts fertilizes hope for a better future.
Your words can be nutrients to the souls of others. Friendship, and affirmation, and love are all fertilizers that can bring about change over time.
There was once a man named John who lived in a community like ours. One day, out on the golf course, John met a new resident. They enjoyed the round of golf and afterwards went to the clubhouse to relax. Over an ice cold beer, they shared their stories about careers, families and other interests. As they parted that day, John said to his new friend, “Hey, I go to the Community Church. Would you like to come as my guest this Sunday?”
Well, the new fellow kind of avoided the question, hopped in his car, and drove way. Over the next several weeks, the same thing happened over and over again. John invited him to church. And he didn’t answer. But finally, one day, the fellow said, “Look, John. I appreciate you inviting me to church. But you may as well know, I don’t go to church. I don’t believe in God.”
John thought for a moment and then said, “That’s okay. There’s lots of people at the Community Church who don’t believe in God!”
“You don’t have to believe in God to go to the Community Church?” the man asked.
“No,” said John. “Our church is more like a motel for imperfect people than a hotel for saints. Besides, I think you’d like the music!”
Well, the next Sunday, John was ushering. To his great surprise, the new fellow came through the door. John greeted him. The man said, “I’m only here for the music!”
John felt pretty good about that. He and his wife went away on a three-week vacation and when they got back, he was anxious to see his new friend in church. But the man was nowhere to be seen.
Until John looked up into the choir loft! Right there, smack dab in the middle of the baritones was his new friend, sporting a big red choir robe.
After the service, John sought him out. “What happened?” he asked with a smile.
“Oh,” said the new guy, “After the service last week, I went up to tell the choir director how much I enjoyed the music. He asked me if I’d like to join the choir! I told him I didn’t believe in God. He said, ‘That’s okay, there’s lots of people in the choir who don’t believe in God!’ I said, ‘They don’t believe in God?’ ‘No, but they love to sing!’ So I joined the choir.”
Well, it was the custom of this church that on Easter Sunday an invitation was given for people to come forward and profess their faith. And that Easter morning, when the invitation was given, among others who went forward was the new guy. He got up from his seat in the baritone section, and made his way down from the loft and to the altar where he knelt and gave his heart to the Lord.
John found him afterwards.
“Wow!” John said. “Yeah, wow!” the new man answered.
“I thought you didn’t believe in God,” John said.
“I didn’t,” the man replied. “But that was before I heard the music. That was before I was welcomed by the choir. That was before I heard the Gospel preached as it is here…”
And after a long pause, the new man said, “And that was before…I had a friend like you.”
“Let’s give it some time,” said the gardener, “and a little more manure. Who knows what might happen by next year.”