God gave you time to repent!

My toy does not light up or make sounds anymore. I have pressed the on/off switch over and over, but that does not help. I do not have the patience to try more things to make this toy work, so I am going to throw it away.

When things go wrong, we often lack the patience needed to understand the full picture. With a seemingly broken toy, it might be that the batteries need to be changed. Two other examples of things that have gone wrong are the 1,600 and climbing number of victims from the massive earthquake in Thailand and Burma last week, and the many Christians in Syria killed over the last month. A lack of patience to properly assess these situations can lead to false conclusions like those who died were worse people than those who survived, or that God did not care enough about them to save them. Jesus addressed similar tragedies and false conclusions in our Gospel reading from Luke 13,

1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

The few in the crowd who brought up the tragic deaths of some Galileans were responding to Jesus claim that they did not understand how to interpret the times in which they lived. Jesus listened to them, added another tragic example and repeated himself teaching that suffering and death do not always come because someone was a bad person or did some bad thing. Instead, any tragedy, suffering or death is properly understood as a call to repent.

A look at our own mortality ought to occur when things go wrong for others. When a tragic event happens to someone else, all kinds of thoughts and questions run through our minds. From our place of relative comfort, we find making judgments about other situations easy to do. Jesus shakes us awake from our apathetic snap judgments, calling us to understand how fragile our lives are. When tragedy strikes, it preaches a sermon to us that we ought to be prepared for the moment we face suffering and death. The reason we all face mortality is because we are all sinful and guilty. As Christians, our eyes of faith must always be open to the possibility of perishing forever in hell away from God. Impatience is a quality of our sinful nature that robs us of understanding what we need from God. Impatience is ironically content in finding its own solution for a problem without consulting God. But without God we will perish without a solution to suffering, death, sin and guilt.

Patience is one of God’s qualities. God’s patience with us gives us time to repent. And Jesus cultivates a healthy desire in us to repent through his parable about a fig tree in our Gospel reading from Luke 13,

6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

A fig tree in a vineyard would have received far better care than a wild tree, so the lack of fruit after three years clearly indicated that something is very wrong with the tree. So, the owner of the vineyard is well within reason to call for its removal. Plus, most of us would call three years of waiting being patient, not impatient. Yet, Jesus concluded his parable saying,

8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Jesus wanted to prove the loving quality of God’s patience for us. God’s patience with us is not always reasonable and often seems unfair, but Jesus wants you to see it as gracious. Twice before Jesus tells this parable, he said, “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Jesus calls us to repent so that we do not perish; he calls us to repent because he is always there to forgive and save us. We also heard about God’s patient desire to rescue his people in our Old Testament reading from Exodus 3,

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

God waited patiently until with loving concern, he came with his power to rescue his people from Egypt. And he did rescue them through Moses bringing them to the land flowing with milk and honey, which is like saying it is the land of ice cream, something sweet mixed with milk, or Greek yogurt with honey or cheese with honey drizzled on top. These are still good things today, and a reason why those essentials are in the back of the grocery store, so the other things happen to fall into your cart as you walk by them. Suffering, death, sin and guilt distract us as we make our way to heaven, but God calls you to repentance so that you reach that heavenly land of milk and honey. Suffering, death, sin and guilt were put on Jesus at the cross to rescue you.

You will not perish because God sent his one and only son to save you. Living in salvation means living in repentance. We do not waste our time growing comfortable in sin or our own superior righteousness. God has opened our eyes to understand the times in which we live as those that make it so easy to fall way from God. As a warning to us, the Bible offers examples from the past of those who fell into unrepentance, turned away from God and perished. Our New Testament reading from 1 Corinthians 10 warns us against suffering the same fate,

11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

This is an honest warning to us. These words affirm what Jesus taught. We must understand that suffering and death come for all of us at different times, God is the one who came down to rescue us through Jesus and God continues to be with us providing a way out of temptation. Spend time with God everyday reading his Word and he will bring you to repentance with the assurance of his faithful patient grace, forgiveness and power to endure against temptation.

I am going to throw this toy away because it doesn’t work. When things do not go our way, we quickly become impatient, but a toy that runs out of power ought to remind you of God’s patience. Just like Jesus’ parable about a man who took care of a vineyard with a fig tree that had not produced fruit for three years. When the owner wanted it cut down, the man asked that it be spared one more year hoping that with more patient care and attention it would bear fruit. You are not a toy or fig tree. You are a child of God. Sin threatens to leave you broken, fruitless and destined to be cut down, but God wants you to have life. Forgiveness and life are yours through Jesus who died for your lack of fruit and sins. Suffering and death affect all people, but they do not mean you will perish because God gave you time to repent. Amen.