Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Lent – 20th March 2022: Isiah 55,, 1-9; Luke 13, 1-9; Corinthian 10, 1-13

Deacon Christine Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

 

May I speak in the name of the Living Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit AMEN

To quote Mark Twain ‘Some people are troubled by the things in the bible they can’t understand. The things that trouble me are the things I can understand.’ I know what he means. It is when we think we have grasped the meaning of scripture and life but do not swerve from that interpretation that we are in trouble. The difficulties we face on a global, European and personal level are unprecedented in most of our lives and bring to mind other troubling times. Our cry is where is God in the midst of suffering?

The passages that are set for today’s lectionary readings on this the third Sunday of Lent are encountered once every three years.  It would be easy to pass up on the gospel passage and wring one’s hands of it as many commentaries and books I own do and concentrate only on Isaiah but we will endeavour to look at all the readings and see how they interconnect, why they were set for today and what they may mean for us then and now.

 

On the face of it, these readings from the prophet Isaiah and Corinthians could hardly provide a greater contrast. Isaiah is lyrical, full of assurance, whereas Paul’s tone in his epistle is particularly gloomy and hectoring.

Let us start with Isaiah: for all kinds of reasons, including the style of writing and the varied references to the historical situation, scholars are now generally agreed that the book of Isaiah is actually is made up of the writings of three authors, from different periods. They have all kinds of themes in common, so that it makes good sense to bring them together under one heading and the name of the first author.

Isaiah 55 is the last chapter of the second section of the book summing up many of the themes and issues of chapter 40-55. In the heart of this comforting chapter is God’s extravagant invitation to the banquet. A place at THE table. There is no cost, all are welcome. Does it sound too good to be true?

Running parallel is the theme of forgiveness and Lent is all about leading up to the forgiveness of the cross. That is also part of God’s abundance that we hardly dare believe, or often during Lent we try to give something up rather than righting our relationship and realigning our lives with God.

Here in Isaiah there are still those who are trying to buy food or wine, although they can see or smell the riches spread out on God’s banqueting table in plain sight for all to see. It is a personal invitation. But it is almost that they are afraid to believe in the lavish provision of God. Surely there must be some catch, they ask and we echo? But there are no hidden clauses Isaiah assures us. Turn to God. The invitation is for all God’s people without exception, and through them for the whole world.

Now we turn to what Paul has to say to the church in Corinth – he exhorts them to trust God as he has delivered his people in the past and not to put him to the test. At the heart of this difficult passage is verse 12: ‘ If you think that you are standing watch that you do not fall.’ A sobering thought. The Corinthians obviously believe they are still standing, indeed that they know most of the answers and have entered into God’s promises. Paul holds up for them the salutary picture who also believed themselves so secure that they no longer bothered to attend to the character of God.

Perhaps then there is not so much difference between Isaiah and Paul. Isaiah reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways and Paul is just repeating that reminder in a sterner tone. Turning to God is a lifetime’s discipline, learning his nature and his will patiently and humbly, over and over again and not just a discipline for Lent. The great temptation is to short cuts that lead to instant gratification. But as Isaiah asks, ‘Why spend your money on that which is not bread? We would add spend your life on Christ the Bread of Life and he will take care of your other needs in the midst of despair and turmoil.

The passage from Luke holds both the other passages together in productive tension. This strange, little and obscure passage appears only in Luke and it is about both repentance and mercy echoing the different emphases in Isaiah and Paul but bringing them together. Again Luke produces a pair of stories deliberately set together and we need to try to fathom out why. The material seems to pull in different directions. The people who told Jesus about the Galileans at the hands of Pilate seem to be doing it to provoke some kind of reaction or judgment in Jesus. If so, they are going to be disappointed big time. Instead Jesus points out that they shouldn’t compare themselves to others and should examine their own lives and mortality. And he warns them to do it without delay, in other words to convert their lives while they can. Turn to God again, repent.

 

Suffering raises questions and causes us to challenge what we believe about how life works. It is part of our human nature to want to see a pattern and we desire to know the reason why this happened. We want there to be a simple cause and effect, so we can avoid disasters striking us. However, as we find out life is rarely like that.

Were the Galileans killed in the temple just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time? The same goes for the Siloans who died when a tower fell, echoes of the Grenfell tower disaster here maybe.  The questioners want to know what both groups did to ‘deserve’ this? Were these preventable deaths? In his reply, Jesus is quite stark but I think he wants to make sure his followers know what is what and confront their own mortality there and then. He wants to turn our attention from gloating over others, comparing ourselves to them while looking to our own state. God offers grace and mercy alongside judgment. Grace is not cheap it was won by the cross. There but for the grace of God is a phrase oft heard and thought today.

Alongside this is planted the story of the fig tree and vineyard and the contrast between the image of the vineyard as the faithful people of God and the later introduction of a fruitless fig tree presumably representing the Gentiles. What does the fig tree deserve? Where do we see God in all this?

The gardener can be seen as an image of God and here we see how he is willing to give the tree another chance to fruit and to tend it carefully and lovingly to ensure it does. This lifts our hearts and hopes for ourselves, living our best life as God intended. Again I take it to mean that we cannot compare or judge the other we need individually to turn back to God basking in and responding to his careful attention. Then we need to build community. The vineyard and the fig tree living and flourishing side by side with each other however different they are.

Life is difficult now, who would have expected war hard on the heels of the pandemic? Circumstances change and so does life but God remains the same Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are the ones who need to recalibrate and it is never too late for that- to live our lives just like sunflowers lifting their heads up to the sun singly and collectively.

Stephen Cottrell in his book Dear England Finding Hope, Taking Heart and Changing the World, written in the form of a letter in response to a chance meeting says this about the Christian community: ‘You need others and you need God. My own good can only be secured by the common good.’ To do this we need to worship together, pray together and spend time in fellowship over coffee together. This Lent we invite you to services, bible study, reflections, prayer groups both local and Diocesan and a prayer station .

On all levels, we pray for transformation and repentance. Now is our moment. Now is our time to be still before God, joining together constantly in prayer. He will help us to break out of rigid mindedness that separate us as we reflect His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

How can we the Church, while we pray and reflect on peace and the state of our planet and peoples, also encourage and breathe the hope of the wind of the Holy Spirit? We need unity for this not division and to lay strife aside. To quote psalm 63, set for today, this Lent especially ‘Our souls thirst for God as in a dry and weary land.’

AMEN