Stick or Twist (aka Turn or Burn)
Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent – 23 March 2025 – All Saints Church Kesgrave
Text: …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.’ (Luke 13v4-5)
God give you peace my Sisters and Brothers.
I can hear the disciples now, beginning to learn that Jesus has got it right, yet not having quite sorted out the difference between being righteous and being self-righteous, they sidle up to Jesus and say, ‘Did you hear about those Galileans Jesus. We always knew them people from ‘Up North’ were a rum sort. Forget about the sacrifices they brought to the Temple, God must have had it in for them all the time. What do you say Jesus? Surely they got their just desserts?’
But Jesus, playing His cards in unexpected ways, turns their blame game around and talks about local trades people who died while working on the same Temple. God might have a downer on the Galileans but surely God will protect those doing God’s work building the pinnacles of the Temple? God might have it in for those Ersatz Jews[1] but surely not our local boys?
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He then turns to those following Him and gives the Good News’ to them straight from the hip.
…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.’ (Luke 13v4-5)
Gulp!
In the modern era it was Rabbi Harold Kushner who asked the age-old question ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ This led to, and his work still provokes, much discussion about God being God. If God is loving and caring and all-powerful, surely God’s people will always be protected? But as Jesus points out this has never been the case.
A better statement might be, and those following my daily reflections on the book, ‘Mister God, this is Anna’ will hear an echo of Anna’s thoughts in this statement, ‘Bad things happen, whether people are good or bad’.
After all was there any difference between the Galileans massacred in the Temple in Jerusalem and Thomas à Beckett murdered in the quire of Canterbury Cathedral at the very end of the year 1170?
Dare we say that those who died when the Tower of Siloam fell on them were culpable for their own deaths but the 2 603 killed in the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 11 September 2001 were not?
I have two responses to any such presumption. ‘No’ and ‘Never’!
The words of Jesus do, however, challenge both His listeners and us in three fundamental ways:
- Bad stuff happens to good people even if they are doing holy things. It matters not if they are Galileans or the Archbishop of Canterbury, those building a tower or those going to work in towers built by others.
- Don’t presume that being around holy things makes you holy and provides fire insurance against disaster – natural or otherwise.
- Like the unfruitful Fig tree (one symbol of Israel) being a waste of space in a vineyard (another symbol of Israel) we cannot presume on the inheritance of our faith to get us into heaven.
What makes us holy is not going to church but repentance and bearing fruit.
Sadly being baptised is not a vaccination against sin nor is it a Golden Ticket to Paradise. If it were us vicars would be making a mint every Sunday afternoon at the font!
To avoid the threat of being dug up and turfed out of heaven what does Jesus require of us?
As I frequently say to Godparents when explaining the meaning of the promises they make on behalf of their godchild, it’s not that difficult;
- Stop doing the bad stuff.
- Start doing the good stuff.
- Give away the fruit of our penitence.
(We do not join the ‘God Squad’ for our benefit alone.)
Pope Francis has this to say:
Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves.
Living for others is a rule of nature.
We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is…
Life is good when you are happy; but much better when others are happy because of you. (Pope Francis)
Dammed rivers become stagnant.
Windfall fruit rots the roots of trees.
Floral fragrance unshared will not attract bees for pollination.
Next Sunday we will be halfway through our Lenten journey towards Jerusalem.
Do we stick or twist?
Do we stick with the same old, same old?
Or
Do we say ‘twist’, the word in the Bible for ‘repentance’ means turning over, moving away from the familiar, and instead looking for the joy Jesus has set before us, walk the way of obedience with Him?
This time of Lent, and the repentance that comes with it, is not for our benefit alone but that others also may ‘may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 5v16). What shall we do for these remaining few weeks?
How about digging around the soil of our souls? There are plenty of tools in the tool shed. Our Lent Course on the movie ‘The Kings Speech’ is proving very helpful, or read the Daily reflections from ‘Mister God, this is Anna’ on our Social Media pages, or simply decide to read one book of the Bible prayerfully and slowly. (BTW if you haven’t got a Bible at home please do take one of the church bibles home with you).
What if we could become a sweet fragrance instead of a rotting odour? Could we change one thing in our lives that would make it more comfortable for others to be around us? (For me that’s going to be trying to not have the last word in every single conversation – please call me out if you catch me doing that).
Then, doing what comes naturally to rivers and trees, the sun and flowers, we will discover all over again that ‘Life is good… but much better when others are happy because of us’.
[This blog ‘Stick or Twist (aka Turn or Burn)’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.]
oooOOOooo
Repent or Perish
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.’
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?”
8 ‘“Sir,” the man replied, “leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig round it and fertilise it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.”’ (Luke 13v1-8)
[1] The ersatz version of something is an inferior substitute or imitation. You might speak in an ersatz French accent, but you won’t fool the Parisian who runs the local French bakery. After the return from the second exile Jewish people in the North of the country where not seen as being ‘proper’ as they were thought to have been corrupted whilst away from the Land of Promise.
Suffolk Vicar 