Psalm 63:1-8, Isaiah 55:1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9
When something bad happens to someone we often hear comments like, “Well, he/she had it coming”. Or “that’s Karma”; or “What goes around comes around.”
Why do we say this?
Is it true?
It often seems like when a person does something bad, sooner or later something bad will happen to that person. But is that really how life works?
If it works for bad stuff it works for good stuff too. Cf: pay it forward. Eg: when you’re driving in Belmont and you want to get onto Lake Road and the traffic is bumper to bumper, someone will let you in. Are you then more or less likely to let someone else in?
Where is God in all this? Is God watching the bad guys and waiting for a chance to hit them? Is that what Jesus was saying when he talked about the two lots of people who were killed? He asked why those particular people? Was it because they were very bad guys, worse than anyone else? Jesus said not. He didn’t actually say why it was those people and not others. He did imply that it wasn’t very good for those ones because they hadn’t got sorted with God before they died.
Jesus told his audience that if they didn’t repent of their sin and get forgiven by God they would all die as the others had. By “You will all die as they did.” Jesus didn’t mean you’d be shot by soldiers or have a building fall on you or be run over by a bus. It means you’d die without God’s forgiveness.
What is the point of the fig tree story and why does it follow the story of the men who die and a call to repentance? Jesus’ point is that God is not waiting to kill the bad guys like I’d wait to swat a fly. Jesus said we’re all as bad as each other. Rather God is looking for all people to repent and be forgiven. Repent means to turn away from what we’re doing wrong and do what is right instead.
The fact that God is willing to forgive is what we call God’s grace. And, like the fig tree story tells us, it’s all about second chances. Every time we mess up – do something wrong – and get forgiven we get another chance to get it right.
Do you need a second chance? I do – every day!
Think of a time when somebody has given you a second chance.
Think about what that felt like?
Recall what you did with it?
We often need to make changes in our lives. We get into all kinds of bad habits. Bad thoughts – stinkin’ thinkin’, bad attitudes, bad words – swearing is a bad habit – and bad actions. We can change any of them but sometimes it can be mighty hard work.
To change a habit
Have you ever tried to quit a bad habit but it was too hard and you went right back to it? That’s called a relapse. Let’s say you’re quitting caffeine, then a bleary day hits and you have that one cup of coffee, only to go right back to the old habit. It’s almost as though that first slip-up lets go the flood. We tend to be all or nothing about this sort of thing. We think that once we’ve stopped we have to stay stopped no matter how hard that is.
Bill Lokey is a Clinical Psychologist who knows a great deal about habits, how they form and how we can change them. He knows a lot about how and why people change. Bill says that when he works with somebody to help them change a habit, relapse is part of the program.
That’s right, relapse is part of the program.
He said when somebody tries to quit smoking, they normally relapse three to four times before they finally quit. He also mentioned that it is important for people to have some grace toward themselves about behaviour change. The idea is to keep moving forward, but when we slip up, simply plant our feet and keep moving, slowly, but further than the place where we slipped up before. Forgive yourself and go again.
I find this helpful, not only with changing habits, but in life in general. An all-or-nothing mentality is common in a church community where we are aware of our sin and don’t want to do the wrong thing at all. Churches seem to have lots of rules, and there is often lots of judgment and lots of shame and lots of hiding our mistakes. Which is terribly unhealthy for creating, well, health. St. Margaret’s is not that kind of church. Here we apply grace, we forgive and encourage each other to have another try.
God offers grace
But God offers forgiveness and a fresh start every time we stuff up and then repent. We have little children in our house these days. I’m noticing again what you’ve probably seen too, that adults generally treat children with a lot of grace. We don’t hold it against them when they make a mistake, or fail, or do something that would be wrong for an older person. We forgive and give them another go at whatever they’re doing. I think it is significant that God calls us his children. We are in relation to God much as children are in relation to their parents. God knows it will take us a lifetime to learn much of life’s lessons and he forgives our mistakes along the way. Just as we teach our children to say sorry when they do something they know they shouldn’t, so we too need to say sorry to God when we do something we shouldn’t.
It’s important that when God forgives us we also forgive ourselves. When God is gracious to us we need to accept his forgiveness and not beat ourselves up. It can be hard, especially when we think other people think we’re bad. But we must stand tall because a lack of grace toward ourselves actually hurts us if we are trying to make progress in any area of our lives. The key to growth and change seems to be to intentionally move forward with full effort, but quickly shake off and forgive slip-ups.
What would it look like for you?
What would it look like to allow yourself to be perfectly human?
What would change in your life if you let go of an all-or-nothing mentality and you stopped shaming yourself for the occasional slip up, while you still attempted to move forward in life and in character?
Is there anything in your life toward which you need to have a little more grace?
I invite you to think about the following questions:
1. If you had one more year, what would you need to help you turn your life around? or
2. What sort of fruit would you like your life to be producing by this time next year?
3. What help will you need to realise this dream?
Depending on what help you need, you can more than likely get it from people here at this church. You just have to ask.