Lent 3 Year C 2025: Luke 13:1-9

We watch a lot of Sesame Street in my house. I have a two-year-old who is all about putting her coat on “the Elmo way” and a five-year-old who is personally offended by litterbugs. Sesame Street’s method of teaching the three R’s - reduce, reuse, recycle - calls upon the help of Redusa the Recycling Fairy, who helps everyone on Sesame Street transform their trash into something new to help keep the earth green and beautiful - much to the chagrin of Oscar the Grouch, who sees his beloved trash vanishing. Redusa repairs her relationship with Oscar by turning a broken ice cream maker into a mud maker so Oscar can make mud pies.

We have our own three R’s in the Church - remorse, repentance, and reconciliation. Jesus calls us to repentance in a bit of a roundabout way. Jesus recalls two instances of suffering: the Galileans whose blood Pilate mixed with their sacrifices and the people killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Jesus’ reflection on both of these events flies in the face of a common cause-and-effect theology - Jesus says that bad things happening are not always cases of divine retribution. He directly says that none of the victims in either one of these cases are worse than any other person in their communities. That sometimes bad things just happen, and sometimes those things are precipitated or made worse by our sin, and that it isn’t always easy to tell which is the precipitating factor.

Jesus is honest in his call. He easily could have said “look at all these sinners, this happened to them because of their sin.” But he didn’t. He allowed both to be true at the same time: sometimes bad things just happen and are out of our control. And sometimes bad things happen as a result of our sinful choices and we need to repent and return to the Lord.

My colleague Father Stephen spends a lot of time on the topic of remorse - in seminary, he wrote a thesis on the topic. He drew a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled “offender repents”. The second, “victim forgives”. And a small area where the repentance and forgiveness overlap in the middle that just said, “as lovely as it is rare”. He could have labelled the overlap “reconciliation”. And at the bottom of the diagram he wrote, “God is present everywhere”. 

We can forgive without receiving repentance. As Father Stephen noted, more often than not, that’s how it goes. We see forgiveness demonstrated by Jesus throughout our texts, whether Jesus is proclaiming the forgiveness of sins during his preaching, teaching, and healing, his forgiveness of those responsible for his crucifixion from the cross, or the post-resurrection forgiveness of the disciples who abandoned him during his trial and death. Jesus’ commandment that we love one another as he loved us includes the way in which he continually forgives us.

In the TV show Ted Lasso, forgiveness and redemption is a major theme. Footballer Jamie, who is on his own redemptive journey himself, is struggling with what role his father has to play in his future. Jamie’s anger toward his abusive father has been a major motivating factor in his life and career, and it is losing its motivating power. At which point coach Ted says to Jamie, “You know, Jamie, if hating your Pops ain't motivating you like it used to, it might be time to try something different. Just forgive him." Jamie responds "Nah. (Fuck that.) I ain't giving him that." To which Ted replies, "You ain't giving him anything. When you choose to do that, you're giving that to yourself.” As Christians, we don’t forgive others because of who they are or what they deserve, we forgive because of who we are.

But as Christians, we hear about forgiveness so often - especially with such an example to look to as Christ - that we sometimes forget about repentance or we give it a second place role in what we are called to do as Christians. While forgiving can be hard, so too can requesting forgiveness. Father Stephen's diagram of repentance and forgiveness had equal sized circles - he wasn’t making the statement that the world is full of forgiveness and if the other side would just repent then we could reconcile, easy peasy. Repentance is hard and as important as forgiveness. Repentance requires more of us than to just feel bad or guilty - feeling bad or guilty is remorse. Repentance requires change. For early Christians, repentance was not merely an emotional response but a decisive turning point in one's life. It was a call to abandon former ways and embrace a new life in Christ. Repentance involves a recognition of wrongdoing, a sincere remorse, and a commitment to change one's behavior and align with God's will.

It’s easy to get stuck in remorse. Remorse can become self-indulgent. One can spend all of their energy on how they personally are feeling without putting any energy in making things right. 

One can fall so deep into the remorse hole that they decide that what they have done is the worst thing ever, and God won't forgive it - whatever it is, which is an example of idolatry of self because, when you dig a little deeper on that, it is suggesting that their sin and self-condemnation is more powerful than God. It…it isn’t. And once they begin to ask for God’s forgiveness and start repenting, they are building a ladder of repentance to get out of the remorse hole.

The apostle Paul writes of repentance in 2 Corinthians when he writes, “I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief…for godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter.” The actions of repentance from the church in Corinth - their “godly grief”, grief that accords with God’s will and results in repentance, has wiped away their guilt and left them vindicated.

More often than not, we know what is required of us to repent and begin to work towards a reconciliation. But the work is difficult. It can be embarrassing. It can require us to admit we were wrong, let alone that our actions hurt someone else or our relationship with God. I was at a football game last year where things were getting a little dicey towards the end of the game. And the guy in front of me kept telling his friend, over and over again, how we were going to throw the game away. And by the end of that game, I wasn’t sure what that guy wanted more: for us to pull it off and win the game or for us to lose, because then he would be right. And that’s just a football game. Now think of something that matters. Admitting a mistake at work. Repairing a relationship with a friend or a loved one. 

I’ve heard this saying that I like, which is, “people say they’d die for their kids all the time, but will you live for them? Your children don’t need a martyr—they need a role model.” A lot of people would die for their kids, but won’t go to therapy for them. We won’t do the hard work - and it is hard work - of repenting for the past and working towards a reconciled future.

We are called to do the hard work. As we promise in our baptismal covenant, we will persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord, with God’s help. We are not alone, we have God’s help, but we have to do the dirty work of repentance. But on the other side we have the opportunity for reconciliation and a right relationship with our God. Amen.