e-vo for week of March 3

Dearest e-votees-

This week are walking through the 11th-16th days of Lent. We are about a third of the way through Lent. Are you able to stay focused? Are your disciplines of prayer or service or almsgiving helping you prepare for Holy Week and for Jesus' coming again whenever that might be?

This week has some hard words from Jesus about not missing the call and the opportunity to repent. Will we let God turn us this day?

Peace,

Karl

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1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." 6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' 8 He replied, "Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.' "

Luke 13:1-9, NRSV

Whenever great tragedies strike people want to find ways to blame the victim. It goes way back to the trials of Job. Supposed friends say things like "Well, these kinds of things don't just happen. Surely you must have done something for God to allow this to happen." People offer "helpful" insights to assault victims like "you really can't go walking there at that time wearing those clothes and expect to be left alone". Televangelists have had a field day blaming libertine New Orleans for Katrina; devil-worshipping Haiti for the devastating earthquake; and who knows what Chile did to invite their cataclysmic quake. Jesus rebuffs this kind of thinking when he hears of Pilate mingling the blood of Galileans with their sacrifices and when he talks of the tragedy of the tower of Siloam crushing eighteen people to death.

Jesus suggests that these tragedies that happen ought to remind all of us that we deserve punishments at least that severe. There is a time and need for repentance. Jesus tells his hearers that time is now. Our liturgical rhythms remind us that time is now.

Rather than justifying why others deserved the things that came their way we all would do well to reflect on our own failings and our desperate need for God's forgiveness.

The good news is that God has done what we cannot. As Pastor Craig said in his sermon this past week. "Grace and the law came together a long time ago in Jerusalem--and grace won." As we repent we allow God to turn our hearts to places that we have shunned. In facing our failings true healing can begin. In facing the cross true healing can begin.



God, spare us from devastating tragedies. Use us to minister to those who were not spared. Help us not judge others in their pain but rather love them. If we forget what that looks like then please turn our thoughts to Jesus on the cross breathing forgiveness, restoration and hope until his last breath. Amen.