The Downtown Presbyterian Church

Sermons

The Life & Ministry of Jesus Christ, Part III:

Repent or Be Barren

Isaiah 55:1-2, 6-7; Luke 13:1-9

Rev. Kenneth M. Locke

The Downtown Presbyterian Church

March 14, 2004

If you read the paper or watched the news this weekend you know about all those people in Madrid dying in the terrorist bombings: just ordinary people, no better and no worse than anyone else in Spain or even in this sanctuary. Just everyday people going to work, going to school, going on a trip – dying suddenly, for no good reason, without ever saying goodbye to friends and family. What a tragedy.

Of course, we don’t have to go to Madrid to find tragedy. Practically every day we read of someone going out for a drive, just an average person, not particularly good or particularly bad, and never coming home. They go a little fast and start skidding on a bad curve, another car comes out of nowhere blind-siding them, a drunk driver crossing the median hitting them head on. And they end up dying surrounded by hot metal and asphalt, never reconciling with family, never saying the things they always wanted to say. A real tragedy.

It’s important to remember God is not causing these catastrophes. They happen. They are horrible. But God is not sitting up in heaven pulling puppet strings and making them happen. These are not God’s punishments for our sins.

But God knows there is something even more tragic than dying this way. And horribly people are doing it, even choosing to do it, all the time. Let me give you an example. This might seem strange but bear with me.

My friend Doug Menckle tells a story about being a young pastor. He was in his study in the church one day when a parishioner came in. “Pastor, are you busy for the next hour or two?” “Nothing earth shattering. What’s up?” “Come with me, then. I’m going to buy you a new suit.”

Doug said his first reaction was “why, what’s wrong with my suit?” His next reaction was ”what’s he trying to tell me? Is he saying I’m a really good pastor? Is he saying I’m a really bad pastor? Why is he doing this?”

Doug finally realized the parishioner wasn’t saying or implying anything. All he wanted to do was buy his pastor a suit. It was an act of grace that had nothing to do with what kind of person Doug was or what kind of pastor he was. It was an act of grace Doug was free to accept or reject.

God is constantly coming to us saying, “Are you busy? I’d like to give you something. I’d like to give you the priceless bread of my love. I’d like to give you the life giving water of my grace. I’d like to prune your sorrows and fertilize you with my joy. It’s a gift, pure grace, no strings attached. It has nothing to do with what kind of person you are. It’s simply grace, yours to accept or reject.”

Friends, the most tragic thing in the world that can ever happen to us, more tragic than dying senselessly in a bomb blast, more tragic than dying in a car accident just a mile from home, the most tragic thing that can ever happen to us is dying without ever experiencing the grace of God’s priceless love.

There’s this popular concept in society that God is some kind of brutal landowner and we’re all plants in the divine garden. Everyone laid out with military precision, all of us trimmed just so, bearing our right amount of fruit right on schedule. And if we don’t live right, if we’re not doing the things we’re supposed to be doing and thinking the thoughts we’re supposed to be thinking and bearing the fruit we’re supposed to be bearing God’s going to chop us down. Not just a little pruning here and there. Oh no, the axe will be laid to the roots and down we’ll go without a sound.

But that’s not the God we see in Jesus who is constantly reaching out to the poor who don’t have enough bread, to the sick who are blind and diseased and can’t work, to the powerless who can’t stand up to the Romans and tax-collectors and powerful religious hypocrites making their lives miserable. That’s not the God we see in Isaiah offering us eternal water and bread so good Provence and The Atlanta Bread Company pale in comparison.

God is not laying the axe to our roots. That’s not what God wants. God is fertilizing, weeding, watering, helping us know the joy of bearing God’s fruit, of living in God’s love.

When I was a boy growing up one of the questions I was sure to hear at every revival and every time I went to church camp was “If you died tonight, do you know if you would go to heaven or to hell?” “If you died tonight, would you go to heaven and glory or to hell and burn for all eternity?” I can’t tell you how many times I heard that question.

Maybe it’s a good question. Maybe we ought to ask it. Perhaps someday we will. But right now I want to say if you died tonight it would undoubtedly be a catastrophe for your family and friends. I would weep if any of you died tonight. But by far the greater tragedy would be living all our days and dying without ever drinking from the living waters. The real tragedy would be living life without ever feasting on the priceless bread. Living and dying without ever knowing God’s grace is by far the worst tragedy that could ever happen to anyone.

We are good at working for our bread. And we are good at convincing ourselves that the dry, hard bread of success tastes good, that the crumbly bread of riches is delicious, that the moldy bread of praise and social approval fills us up. But we know it doesn’t.

Lent is a time for stepping back and looking at our selves. It’s a time for asking if we are working for bad bread. Are we refusing to bear fruit? Are we tragically spurning the greatest gift of all – God’s grace?

Make no mistake eventually the axe will fall on all of us. We are mortal and we will all die. Most of us will die without doing everything we want to do, saying all the things we want to say. Our deaths will be sad. Perhaps even tragic. But will we suffer the most tragic death of all? Will we die without ever knowing the joy of bearing fruit? Will we live and die without ever tasting the priceless bread of God’s grace?

Friends, rest assured God does not want us to suffer catastrophe. God is not bringing tragedy on us. God is not out to get us. God is freely offering us the bread of life. God is a grace full gardener.

Now, before it is too late, during this season of Lent, let us seek the Lord and rejoice in God’s grace. Amen.