Luke 13:1-9

We've had a rash of people behaving badly lately. I think this last spate of blatant naughtiness began with Mel Gibsons unfortunate stop for drunk driving. We're used to seeing our movie and sports idols over-imbibing, which is in itself bad enough, but it was Gibson's nasty anti-semitic diatribe that got him into trouble and then into rehab. Then it was Michael Richards the quirky sidekick of Seinfeld fame who lost it and got nasty taking on a heckler in his comedy routine, apologized and went into rehab. Then turmoil in the Grey's anatomy cast when one star Isaiah Washington slurred another star T.R. Knight with unkind epitaphs. He apologized and went into rehab. We won't even talk about Brittany whose self destructive behavior is more to pitied than censored All Hollywood we say, but then the church too was rocked with scandal. Ted Haggards improprieties, his confession and rehab. And then this week Newt Gingrich confessed to Jimmy Falwell his marital infidelity, rehab? Or testing the waters for a presidential run. What is it that tempts us to look at "those people" AND PASS JUDGEMENT? What is it in us that entices us to read about the failures of others and take a strange delight in seeing them squirm their way out of it. Is it something in us that wants to say, See how bad the other guy is , I'm not like that! Or maybe something in us that says "See fame and money don't make you any better than anybody else.

In Jesus day there was a powerful theological understanding that your outward circumstances were an indication of your inward goodness. Good righteous people were blessed with wealth and wisdom but if you were sick or poor or something tragic happened it was because you had done something terrible to deserve it. So, as in our lessons today, some people come to Jesus with the latest torture and murder story out of Jerusalem and wonder, What had those poor victims of Pontius Pilates rage done to deserve what they had gotten.

Jesus is particularly harsh in this scene. Though he speaks truth it is not in the gentle meek and mild shepherd kind of way. In his impatience Jesus flashes back, "What do you think---those people were worse than you? Undeterred he charges on citing another story from the day. What about those people who were killed when the tower fell on them, were they worse than you?

We might expect Jesus to answer the question about God that we have in our heads from this story and that is "Why do bad things happen to good people? But that's our question not the one Jesus answers.

No Jesus charges ahead with the bad news truth that they were sinners and you are all sinners and all of you stand under the same indictment. It's not that those people who suffered were worse than you--its that you're all rotten to the core--hopelessly abjectly lost. You don't have a good leg to stand on and you better repent right this minute.

Wow I don't know about you but I'm taken aback by that. That's not the Jesus I want to cozy up to.. Jesus is really harsh in his words here. I know I have spoken truth brashly and even cruelly a few time in my life and I know what happens to people when you do that. Can't you just see the people who innocently brought the news report to Jesus just kind of shriveling before our eyes. Wow what did we do to deserve that diatribe? How do we get out of this uncomfortable situation--where can we go to crawl under a rock since we're such worthless vermin.

Maybe Jesus saw how his words were received because in the next sentence he markedly changes tone. He tells them a parable. Jesus takes a deep breath and starts a story--a story about an unproductive fig tree and a generous gardener who is all about special care and second chances and more time.

There are some very basic important Christian truths contained in this lesson. Christianity answers the age old philosophical debate are people basically good or intrinsically evil. by saying we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. Secular culture may look at us church goers and call us hypocrites and goody two shoes but honestly where else in all our culture do people get together on a weekly basis and before God and each other admit that we have blown it, we've failed. In what we've done and in what we haven't done we're less than God wants us to be. Maybe some weeks that confession slips trippingly off our tongues but because we're so consistent every once in while it hits home that these words I am speaking are true--I have hurt other people, I have been selfish in my wordly dealings and careless of my environment.

It's hard to be honest but this confession calls us to account. Seems to me that a big part of what all these people trip off to rehab to do, break down their defensiveness and be honest.

But Christian confession is different. We are not inspired by fear of reprisal or punishment -there's not much true confession on that basis--then we're just fleeing from the wrath to come--No Christian confession is different. Now listen to this carefully because this is the heart of it. "We don't so much confess in order to be forgiven; rather, we confess because we are forgiven! We are not honest about our sin in order that God will love us. Rather, knowing in Christ that God loves us we can be honest.

Having experienced the sure, certain , persevering love of God in Jesus Christ, we are able to be honest. We know that nothing, even our sin, can separate us from the love of God in Christ. After all in just a few weeks, we are going to read the story about how we did our very worst to the son of God when we hung him on a cross. Yet even from the cross he looked down upon us and prayed, "Father forgive them." Even more after his horrible death, when he was raised, he came back to us, back to US, the very people who had betrayed him and deserted him.

So we can be honest. Our honesty arises not out of who we are but out of who God in Christ is. It takes a secure person to be honest and in Christ, we have seen the amazing security of God's love for us.

I know a lot of churches say this confession stuff is a big downer and we should really do away with it but there's a great freedom in this honesty we call confession. Not to have to wear the masks and act with pretense is a gift. Not to be forced to lie about our flaws, our shortcomings, our problems. This is good news. This is great joy.

Furthermore not only do Christians believe that love is the precondition for honesty but also that honesty is the precondition for change. We are free to change because the first step toward being new people is to be able to admit who we are. We are not the people God wants us to be. We are not better than those we would point our finger at. We are not even the people we want to be. We long to be more, to be better. The first step is admission of who we failed to be.

Let me now just remind you of what you have said today:

Repeat confession and absolution.

HOME