The Third Sunday in Lent - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr
Luke 13:1-9
One thing about being a priest is
that you get to sit with people and hear their stories. Stories about themselves,
their families of origin, and their relationship with their church. We hear stories
of tragedy and triumph, pain and prosperity, sorrow and rejoicing. In these
times, we often hear about the presence of the Holy Spirit and the gift of
God’s grace, forgiveness, and mercy. How, because of this grace and forgiveness
people have turned more toward God and been transformed to work tirelessly to
live into who God wants them to be. But there are also sometimes stories of
unworthiness to God’s grace and love. “God only uses the good.” “My mess is too
much for God to work on.” “I don’t know if God even hears me.”
There is a very popular hymn in our
hymnal that I learned a little bit about this week when preparing for my
sermon, and it speaks about these very things. It was written in 1779 by John
Newton, an Anglican minister. John wasn’t always a minister; that was his
second career. His family was involved in the transatlantic slave trade, so he
grew up on the sea. When he was older, he followed the family trade and
continued sailing, transporting enslaved Africans from West Africa to the West
Indies. After years on the sea, Newton became a ship’s captain. He was known
for his rude, unruly, and immoral behavior, and he often ridiculed
Christianity.
One day, Newton’s ship hit a violent
storm, and Newton feared that the ship was about to sink. In desperation, he
called out for God’s mercy. He prayed for God to save him and his ship. When
the storm subsided, the ship was intact, and no lives were lost. This was a
turning point for Newton – a step towards repentance. I say “a step” because
his change was gradual. It came over some time. He continued with his career as
a captain.
Still, as he did, he spent time on
repentance, and gradually, his faith grew and became more deeply rooted in his
life. Eventually, he left his career on the ship, began studying theology, and
became a pastor, where he actively fought against slavery. Newton underwent a
profound transformation of heart and life. He turned away from his former life
of injustice and reoriented himself towards God’s purpose. This is what it
means to repent.
In my younger years, I remember
thinking that “to repent” meant to confess my sins, feel bad for what I had
done, and simply try harder to be good. I grew up in the Episcopal church and
remember praying the Confession of Sin on Sundays. We say, “We are truly sorry,
and we humbly repent.” I thought I had it. Repent meant to confess and try not
to commit that sin again.
Repentance is more than that. It’s
not about behavior management. It’s not about fear or shame. Repentance is
about turning away from our sin and brokenness. But the second half of that is
that in our turning away, we have to reorient ourselves toward God’s mercy,
truth, and purpose for our lives. Sometimes we forget that. Repentance is a
second chance. It’s God’s gift of grace. It also takes work. It takes
nurturing. It takes transformation. It takes time. It is a continuous and daily
practice in our lives.
We hear about this transformative
work in today’s Gospel. The vineyard owner did not want the dying and
unproductive fig tree taking up space and using up the resources the trees that
were producing fruit could use. He wanted it to be gone. The gardener begged
the owner to give the tree a second chance. But the tree wouldn’t bear fruit
simply because he wanted it to. It was going to take work. The gardener would
have to get on his hands and knees and remove all the old dirt away from the
tree and its roots. He would replace the dirt with manure and soil with
nutrients needed for plant growth. It would be hard work, but it was worth it
to bear the fruit the vineyard owner wanted. Work that wouldn’t make things
change overnight. The gardener asked for time. The gardener was going to tend
to and be patient with this fig tree so that it would bear fruit. He gave it a
chance to be fruitful again.
The gardener shows how Jesus gives
us hope to grow and live good, fruitful lives. The gardener is crucial to the
tree-bearing fruit. God sent Jesus to earth for the salvation and flourishing
of God’s people. Repentance is not just about turning away from sin. Repentance
is our second, third, and fourth chance to bear fruit.
New Testament scholar N.T. Wright
writes that repentance is “a serious turning away from patterns of life which
deface and distort our genuine humanness. It isn’t just a matter of feeling
sorry for particular failings, though that will often be true as well. It is
the recognition that the living God has made us humans to reflect his image
into his world and that we haven’t done so. Repentance involves reshaping our
lives to reflect the values of God’s Kingdom.”[1]
Repentance must bear fruit.
For John Newton, the former ship’s
captain, it was now time to bear fruit. The time between his brush with death
on his ship and the time between his abandoning the slave trade was a time of
slow repentance – gradual change. He became deeply convicted of his evil. When
he left the slave trade, he began actively fighting against slavery.
He wrote a public confession of his
past job and the horrors of slavery called Thoughts upon the African Slave
Trade. Newton became a voice for justice. In 1772, he wrote the lyrics to
Hymn #671, which you’ll find in our blue hymnal, “Amazing Grace.” It’s a hymn
sung by abolitionists in America and Britain in the 1800s and by Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. as he marched in Selma, Alabama.
“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.” A line of confession and praise for the grace
that rescued him. “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I
see,” spoke of Newton’s own personal transformation – a transformation that led
to his bearing tangible fruit. “’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and
grace my fears relieved.” God’s grace opened his eyes to the truth of his sin,
and that same grace brought him comfort because God’s grace is not filled with
shame. “Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come; ’Tis grace
hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” Newton didn’t just
repent once and move on. He kept walking in grace, even through struggles.
Repentance is about recognizing what
is wrong in our lives, feeling the weight of it, and changing direction in our
thoughts, behavior, priorities, and relationships. Just like the fig tree, God
gives us time and space to change.
Repentance isn’t about guilt—it’s
about grace. It’s not just turning away from what’s wrong but turning toward
the life God longs for us to live. Like the fig tree in Jesus’ parable, we’re
given time, patience, and care—not because we’ve earned it, but because Christ
sees our potential to bear fruit. And when we repent—not just once, but day by
day—we step more fully into the Kingdom life: a life marked by love, justice,
mercy, and transformation.
God’s grace is not just a second
chance. It’s a whole new way of being. We have been given time to grow, bear
fruit, and to become a living witness of God’s grace. When we say, “We are
truly sorry, and we humbly repent” we are saying, “This is what I’ve turned
from. This is where I’m still being shaped. This is how grace doesn’t just
comfort me. This is how grace changes me.”
Amen
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