"Are You Ready"

     Dear Friends in Christ,  

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Brothers and sisters we are in the midst of a difficult time of year, we’re here in Lent.  I’ve often thought there are reasons so few observe Lent anymore…well even know what Lent is.  I assume that this is because Lent can be so difficult.  The great temptation is to just avoid it and jump right to Easter...to not give up on our Alleluias, but keep on singing the praises of God.  Lent is a time of discipline and spiritual hunger and fasting…oh how we desire to just jump to the Easter feast.  I’m confident that many of us are tempted to just jump directly to the “Jesus loves me” answers without having to hear the difficult questions concerning just what type of person you are and just how well have you followed God’s commands.  Yes, Lent can be a time of difficult questions that are put before us.  And today, on this third Sunday in Lent, it is no different. 

            Difficult questions…that is exactly what Jesus has been discussing with His disciples in the chapters and verses leading up to our Gospel lesson today.  And its just not His disciples gathered with Him.  Luke gives us the idea that Jesus is there teaching His disciples but literally thousands of on-lookers are pressing in around them to hear the discussion.  And the bulk of Jesus’ teaching in chapter twelve of Luke’s gospel is that judgment is coming.  He tells the parable of the rich fool who is all concerned about storing up earthly wealth to the point that he needs to keep building bigger and bigger buildings, all the while he never taking the time to be concerned about tending his spiritual barn – so when the Day of Judgment came for him, that is, when he died, he lost everything including his soul.  Jesus is consistently asking those there who hear His word “are you ready?”…reminding them and us to have our lamps trimmed and burning and filled with oil, because the Master, the Messiah, is coming soon and if you’re not ready…if you’re asleep, if you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss Him…and the Savior and the salvation that He brings is not something you want to miss.  Later on, towards the end of the chapter and immediately preceding our Gospel text today, Jesus chastises the people for being good meteorologists, being able to read the signs of the earth and knowing what the weather is going to do, but unable to read the signs that they have been witnessing which should tell them that the Messiah is in their midst…that He is here to usher in the end times, the last days, and thus divine judgment would be coming soon.  Essentially he asks them, “Are you ready?”

            In the midst of all of this talk about God’s judgment on sinners, someone in the crowd pipes up about a horrible situation that it seems had just happened in Jerusalem.  You know Pontius Pilate?  Well, despite how some may see him as the poor guy that was thrust into a horrible situation by the chief priests and who did what he did to Jesus only because he needed to prevent an insurrection, he was a very violent and ruthless governor.  What it appears happened in this instance is that some Jewish folks from the region of Galilee, whom Pilate must have suspected of wanting to overthrow his rule, had come to the Temple in Jerusalem to sacrifice their Passover lamb and as they are doing so, Pilate’s soldiers come in and slaughter them instead…their blood ran with the blood of that lamb.    Again, we don’t know a whole lot about this situation, this is the only spot it is mentioned in Scripture.  However, what we do know is how this horrible situation would have been interpreted by the Jewish people of the day.  For these poor Galileans to suffer such a fate, especially while making a sacrifice to God, must have been very, very wicked sinners.  They must have really ticked God off that He would cause their death in the Temple of all places.  And most everyone in that culture would have been like, “yeah, that makes sense to me.”

            We can relate to that, right?  Do we not hear the same things in our day and age?  I mean have you seen Bourbon Street…its like a little bit of Sodom right there in the heart of New Orleans.  It’s because of all that wild, godless living that God sent Hurricane Katrina to decimate New Orleans, it’s because of their blatant sin that we have to travel down there in a few months and help clean up the mess. Right? Or even a bit more recent…look at Haiti.  Haven’t we heard recently from prominent people that it is because of a so-called pact with the devil that Haiti was struck with a massive earthquake and that hundreds of thousands of people perished under the rubble…many of whom were children and infants?  When we see that kind of destruction, it can be so easy to say, “Man, they brought that on themselves.  Look at how they were living…look at their sins.”  We chime in right with the Jews of Jesus’ day and say, “Boy, they must have really ticked God off.”  But even more, “Thank goodness my life is not as sinful as theirs.  Look, I know I’m not a perfect guy…sure, I’ve done some things wrong in my life…but it isn’t that bad…I’m still here…God hasn’t struck me done yet…no massive plagues against my life…I must be a pretty good guy.  The good in me far outweighs the bad…and God knows that.  I’m not nearly as bad as those in New Orleans, those in Haiti, or even as bad as some of those sitting around me who have suffered greatly and so must be pretty bad sinners themselves.”

            Jesus jumps into the conversation here and He says to the thousands gathered there and those of us here, “If that’s what you’re thinking…then you are dead wrong.  The point here is not that they’re terrible sinners, but that you are and that you need to repent.”  He goes on with an example of his own.  A horrible construction accident happened in the small Jerusalem suburb of Siloam…a tower fell and killed 18 people.  Are we supposed to look upon this tragedy and conclude that they must be worse sinners than all of those in Siloam?”  No, His message for them and us is the same as before…His question is the same… “Are you ready?  Judgment is coming.  ‘I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’” 

            All…that is pretty inclusive isn’t it…unless we repent, we will all perish.  Notice in the first half of the pericope this morning, Jesus’ emphasis on “all”.  “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Four times in four verses…Jesus is making a point here…leading to the question, “Are you ready?”

            Jesus goes on in this discussion using a parable.  He comes and he says, “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, 'Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?' And he answered him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”  So that the point is not missed, what Jesus is saying here is that you are the fig tree.  You are His and on the day of your baptism He claimed you as His own and He planted you in His vineyard.  But He hasn’t just planted you, He’s tended to you, He’s taken care of you, He’s nourished you.  He’s fed you, strengthened you, with the Holy Spirit, through the His Word and through His Sacraments.  He prunes you…cutting off the bad parts, always trying to shape and mold you into the perfect ‘tree’…all with the expectation that He’s going to see something happen…to see the righteousness that He gave you at your baptism become active in the way you live your life.  And He’s patient…He waits…and He waits…and He waits.  And what does He see after all of this waiting?  Now I’m not talking about what He might have seen a year ago, a month ago, yesterday, but today?  If God came back to His vineyard today, is He going to see you producing fruit, in light of  the love He has given you…will he see the fruit of repentance?  Are you ready?  Are you ready for Him to come?  Because when He comes, His judgment comes and those who do not have fruit to show, will be cut down and thrown outside the vineyard. 

Are we ready?  Careful before you say yes, because there is a distinct difference between a tree that looks good, that looks healthy…that has beautiful limbs, fully leafed, provides great shade and a tree that is all of things but is also producing fruit.  And my brothers and sisters…too often we appear as the former…we look good, we think we are pretty good Christians…I mean, look at us this morning, we’re here in God’s house, we’re listening to God’s Word on the radio…God’s really tended us and taken care of us and it shows…but what have you and I done with that?  You see it is so easy to think that God is very pleased with us because we haven’t ended up like all those others who must have been horrible sinners, but when you and I look closely at our lives the notches of sin are as present in our lives too, and even more…too often we have no fruit to show.  We gladly receive God’s love and His grace and His forgiveness, but what do we do with it? 

            Are you ready?  As you ponder the parable before you this morning and as you ponder exactly how you sinful you are and how you have not always had fruit to show…in the end all of us have to cry out just like the exiled Judeans in our Old Testament lesson, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?”  Are you ready? 

            No, on your own you are not.  In your sinfulness, you are no different than anyone else and as it stands you will perish eternally for those sins.  But as St. Paul says this day in our Epistle lesson, “God is faithful…He will also provide the way of escape.”  Thanks be to God that we have a God who lovingly announces that He has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.”  That is why, my brothers and sisters, that God the Father sends His Son, Jesus Christ…He intervened on your behalf and even today He is at the right hand of the Father interceding on your behalf.  Too often our trees, our lives appear healthy but bear nothing, but it is only through the dead tree that was raised on the hill outside Jerusalem…the cross upon which your Savior, Jesus Christ died…that bears the life-giving fruit that is able to save you from being cut down and thrown outside the vineyard.  It is through Jesus Christ, who died for you, that you die—to sin.  And it is through Jesus Christ who was made alive, that you who were dead to sin are now alive in God.    

            Jesus Himself does everything possible so that baptized believers like you and me may bear fruit, the fruit of repentance, and live.  He gets his hands dirty, he digs deep beneath your topsoil and exposes the root of your sin.  Through the proclamation of the Law from the Scriptures and the pulpit, He lays bare your innermost soul so that He can apply the divine fertilizer of His Gospel—the Word of Life that alone is able to produce fruit that is acceptable to God. 

 Sacrament, bearing the fruit of repentance that trusts in Jesus alone for salvation…yes, yes you are.

      Amen.