Words of Welcome

  Luke 13:1-9 This morning we’ve heard the prophet known as Second Isaiah invite us to “seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.”  As we seek the Lord, Isaiah calls on us to forsake wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts and return to God who will have mercy on us  ( Isa. 55:6-7 ).  This word from Second Isaiah is an appropriate one for today because the Lenten season invites us to look inward so we can discern where we fall short of God’s expectations for our lives. You might call this a time of testing that involves repentance and an offer of divine pardon. The reading from Second Isaiah goes well with the reading from the Gospel of Luke, which also speaks of sin and repentance. Here in Luke’s Gospel Jesus responds to news that Pontius Pilate had a group of Galilean pilgrims murdered who had gone to the Temple to offer sacrifices. Jesus asked the people who brought this news whether this group of Galileans were greater sinners than o...

Luke 13:1-9 I’m not a gardener.  I do try my best to keep the flowers blooming, the grass growing, the hedges trimmed, and the weeds at bay, but, I’m not gifted with a green thumb.  But, whatever my deficiencies as a gardener, I do know that if you plant a fruit tree, you expect it to eventually bear fruit.  So, if it doesn’t bear fruit, shouldn’t you pull it up and replace it?     Jesus told a parable about a fig tree that was three years old.  Since it hadn’t produced any fruit, the impatient land owner told the gardener to replace it.  He was tired of waiting for his fruit.     This parable follows after a conversation about sin and repentance.   I realize that these aren’t topics that we enjoy discussing, but they’re part of the biblical story.  Jesus is talking to a group about whether the end is near.  Just like today, people were quite sure that the world is so corrupt that God might as well blow t...

Luke 13:1-9 I’m not a gardener. In fact, I have what they call a brown thumb. I wouldn’t know when to prune a bush or to fertilize the flowers. I water the lawn when I remember, but too often I forget. So, I can’t comment on Jesus’ parable of the fig tree from a gardener’s perspective. But, it’s the conversation that happens before the parable that catches my eye. It’s human nature to try to figure out why things happen to people. There’s got to be a reason, or, so we think. When Katrina hit, certain preachers, blamed the residents of the region for their moral laxity. The same thing happened on 9-11 – Our nation was reaping what it had sown. For some reason there’s a tendency to think that suffering is God’s punishment for our sins. That’s the message Job’s friends brought him when things went bad. When Jesus heard that Pilate massacred a group of Galileans worshiping peacefully in Jerusalem, he raised the question of why. Were they worse sinners any other Galileans? And, what about t...