Have you heard the story of a man who volunteered to paint the church steeple? With great difficulty, he hoisted himself up onto the steeple with a can of paint and a bottle of water. After painting half the steeple, he found that he was running out of paint, so he added some of the water to the paint can. He was almost at the top when he realised he needed more paint to finish, so he added more water to the paint, mumbling 'No one will ever know.' When he finished painting, he began to lower himself off the steeple. Just then, the skies darkened, a loud clap of thunder was heard, and a deep voice from above said, 'Repaint, repaint, and thin no more!'
Joking apart, the subject of repentance is not a comfortable one. Perhaps it might get us squirming in the old Priory chairs - last chance to do so before the padded new ones arrive next week! And yet, when you stop to think about it, repentance was at the heart of the life-changing message of Jesus. Take, for example, His first recorded words in Mark's Gospel: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news" (Mark 1: 15). Or, again, in today's Gospel reading from Luke: "Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did" (Lk 13: 5).
Jesus had just been told of a terrible atrocity committed by Pontius Pilate, who had ordered the slaughter of pilgrims from Galilee in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem. A holy place desecrated by violence. Innocent lives destroyed.
Questions, questions. Why them? Where is God in all of this?
What is going to happen to us? Age-old questions raised by human suffering. Questions that continue to be asked today, whether the suffering is caused by an earthquake disaster, suicide bomb attack, global climate change or brutal state repression. And such questions can either be a spur to faith, or else a barrier to it.
In today's Gospel, Jesus warned His listeners that, unless they heeded His Kingdom call and changed direction, then they too would be destroyed: "Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did" (Luke 13: 3, 5). And, later in his Gospel, Luke tells us how the prospect of Jerusalem's fate was one which moved Jesus to tears: "As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, 'If you, even you, had only recognised … the things that make for peace! … the days will come upon you, when your enemies will … crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognise the time of your visitation from God" (Luke 19: 41-44). About forty years later - in AD 70 - the Jewish rebellion against Rome was indeed brutally crushed, and the towers and walls of Jerusalem were brought crashing down. Just as the warning of Jesus had been ignored or rejected, so now His words were fulfilled.
The parable of the fig tree in the vineyard that Jesus told underlined His stark message. Those who refuse to heed God's warning, those whose lives do not bear the fruit of repentance, will face the consequences, sooner or later. While every chance to repent will be given, there will come a time when refusal means doom and destruction.
Last Tuesday, Mary and I made the most of a bright March day to venture into the garden. One of the tasks we faced was to cut down a once-evergreen dead tree by the garage. Over the past couple of years, we had given it every chance, pruned it back, and cleared the ground around it. But it was clearly not going to revive, and so out came the saw, and down came the tree. More firewood for next winter!
"Unless you repent … unless you repent." That warning of Jesus echoes down the ages, and across the world. It is an urgent message that is addressed to every individual, to every community, and to all the nations of the world. If heeded and acted upon, then such repentance will involve a radical transformation - of mind and heart, will and affections, values and priorities, behaviour and lifestyle. Then, by the power of the Spirit, this will enable us to grow more like Jesus, and to bear the fruit of God's Kingdom.
But who is listening to Jesus? It would seem that the Church in Corinth had real problems in hearing the call to repent. And so in today's Epistle Paul warned them to pay heed to the lessons of history, especially the history of God's people Israel. Privilege has to be matched by responsibility, or else privilege can be lost. The story of Israel in the wilderness was a warning against seeking after things which don't honour God. The Christians of Corinth had received all the spiritual privileges God gives His people in Jesus Christ. But they - like the Israelites in the wilderness centuries before - were now being tested. Would they too "desire evil", those things which don't honour God and which hurt His children? For example, would they "become idolaters", "indulge in sexual immorality", "put Christ to the test", or "complain" just as their spiritual forbears had done? And if they did, then there would be consequences.
Just as there continue to be for us all. Like those first followers of Christ in Corinth, you and I find ourselves living in the period of history between Christ's first coming, and His return in glory at the end of the age. Reflecting on this in his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Tom Wright the Bishop of Durham points out that "living in this overlap period has its dangers, not least that the 'freedom' which comes within the now-appearing new age can be confused with the 'licence' that drags you back into the old. This produces times of testing, in which there is no room for pride. .. As the old age and the new grind against one another like two tectonic plates, those who think they are standing firm one minute may find a moral earthquake happening all around them, and if they're not careful they'll end up flat on their faces" (Paul for Everyone 1 Corinthians p 129 SPCK 2003).
There seem to be several moral earthquakes happening at the moment. Earthquakes that are shaking our nation and world, and which can leave us feeling bewildered, anxious, or confused. And everyone is affected - we all face tests of one kind or another. As Paul reminded the Corinthians, "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone" (1 Corinthians 10: 13). We're all trying to stand on the same shaking ground. So we're not alone. And God has not deserted us, or this world. Perhaps we need to carve these three words from today's Epistle onto our heart and minds: "God is faithful" (1 Corinthians 10: 13). God is faithful. Yes, there is testing. But God is there, and as we turn - and return - to the Lord, so we discover more of what it means to say that God is faithful. Whatever test you and I might find ourselves facing at this time, God provides us with a way through, if we seek to do God's will. The question which confronts us in the increasingly pagan atmosphere of our contemporary world is this: will we remain faithful to God?
As we continue to journey through this season of Lent, it is an especially good time for you and I to reflect upon the testing we face, and to consider in what areas of our life - individual or corporate - the Lord is calling us to repent. Why? Because, as the first part of today's Eucharistic Prayer reminds us, testing and repentance are opportunities for spiritual growth. And because God is faithful, we are assured that it is the Lord Himself who seeks to lead us through every time of testing, and to help us grow in grace. Our heavenly Father leads us into the desert of repentance, that through a pilgrimage of prayer and discipline, we may grow in grace and learn to be His people once again.
John Barr
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