The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

We come to church in Lent to be challenged – don’t we?! Our readings through Lent would certainly suggest so! Despite a sharing in the ‘sacraments’ of their faith, “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them,  and they were struck down in the wilderness. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did,  and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. And do not complain as some of them did,  and were destroyed by the destroyer. So says Paul.  But not only Paul, Jesus declares: ‘Those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them, do you think that they were worse offenders  than everyone else living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will perish as they did’.
Probably most of us here are not engaging in sexual immorality  – though you may tell me later I am wrong in supposing this! But what about complaining, criticising? Do we really take this sin as seriously as Paul does? Living, working, in a critical environment does indeed, destroy lives.
The vicar in his sermon last Sunday reminded us  that the gate is narrow and the way hard.   Salvation is not an easy prospect – and there are those who simply do not want it. We find this uncomfortable –  while we still perceive opposition to the gospel to be ‘out there’,  somewhere away from us in the greed and hedonism of ‘the world’! Yet might there not also be another reality, that it is we ourselves,  we who oppose the gospel?  Oppose the gospel in our refusal to embrace our God-given humanity  – with all the hard work and risk-taking that entails. If you are following the York Lent course  you may have seen this last week  a surprising quotation from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: “It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw  that I sensed within myself the first stirring of good.   Gradually it was disclosed to me  that the line separating Good and Evil passes,  not through nation states, not through different social classes,  not between political parties either,  but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts.” The gate is narrow and the road is hard and few are those who find it. The suggestion that there are those who will never  find the way to salvation, was a rather disturbing thought for some of you. In one sense I hope that would include all of you! However, despite possible first appearances,  that is not what the vicar was saying.  At least I don’t think so?? Though he was using Jesus’ own method  of presenting extreme scenarios to challenge his hearers into action!
If you’ve read the Lent brochure – worth looking at – you will have seen  that the title of this morning’s sermon is ‘Second Chance’. In our readings for the third Sunday of Lent we have again  Paul’ and Jesus’ challenge to our complacency,  our preference for the status quo whatever that might be, be it helpful or inimical to our well-being. The owner of the vineyard  in the parable of the tree which failed to produce fruit,  the owner instructs the gardener:  “Cut the fig down! Why should it waste the soil?” Jesus has a dry wit and a twist in his stories which most often we miss,  not having a deep knowledge of Scripture  or an understanding of Judaic patterns of thinking.  For those ‘in the know’,  it is in fact the owner in the story who has got it wrong! Leviticus instructs that fruit of the first three years is not to be eaten! It is never expected to be fit to eat.  And the fruit of the fourth year,  our year in question, will be the thank-offering to God,  a celebration, of God’s generous provision.   The owner may only have his fruit in the fifth year! Think about the symbolic ramifications of the story now! The gardener who pleads for the fig tree – and of course for us too,  pleads that we might have that second chance, the gardner is right – by law! And by grace too!  Through the prophet Isaiah, God promises to a people who have failed to produce the fruit of justice – and as a result find themselves in exile, God promises  that if they will turn back, draw near to God and heed his word,  God will make with them a new covenant, a covenant of pardon and plenty. If we will but incline our ear and listen, come and receive from God, we too may delight in the fat of the land!   For God’s thinking is not our thinking. God’s thinking is deeper, higher, wider, more, other in every way,  than ours.  We need to be reaching out after God’s thinking,  God’s love, God’s will for our living. Opening our lives to the work of the Holy Spirit  who empowers us to embrace our full humanity. The gardener (who of course represents Christ)  has secured that second chance for us!
But of course, that second chance, will be of no use to us  if we are unwilling to open our lives to God’s blessing. Lent is that time in the Church year when we make particular determination  to come and receive from God pardon and healing. But to do so, as we know, can be painful. We may find strong inner resistancce to our intention  to address and change entrenched habits of thought and doing. Whether you are able to come on Tuesday evening or not,  I would like to encourage you in the practice of silence. Meditation, or mindfulness as it is known today. A spiritual practice now widely recognised in the secular world  as profoundly helpful in gaining self-awareness  and freedom of heart and mind. The practice of silence is simple but it does require commitment. We will need help, and guidance in how to develop our practice  and make the most of it.  Do take one of the Silent Prayer leaflets  at the back of church which has some reading suggestions. Tara Bennett-Goleman’s ‘Emotional Alchemy’ explains  how we can gain awareness of, and so a measure of control over,  deeply rooted ways of being from our childhoods,  patterns we may now be hardly aware of,  patterns which may once have been appropriate to our situations  but which are no longer helpful to us,  indeed, may inhibit our full humanity.  Perhaps appropriately for Lent I first came across this book  when it was recommended as helpful in breaking the habit  of eating too much carbohydrate! The practice of silence enables us to create space  where the Holy Spirit may be at work, space for that work to take root,  leading us forward into becoming the trees which bear that good fruit. The purpose of our readings last week and this,  is to challenge our perhaps all too real, complacency.   God challenges us fiercely precisely because the door is open to that second chance.  And God wills us to take our chance.  Amen.