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Today’s gospel lesson gives us a heck of a choice this morning: repent or perish. There’s not much more to it than that. Jesus says it twice when talking to his followers, “I tell you, unless you repent, you will all perish.” Now, I’m a big fan of the Bible, but I also think that sometimes the Bible uses fancy church words that we don’t always get the entire meaning of. I mean, how many of us really use the word “repent” on a regular basis outside of church? Or even know what the word really means? “Perish” isn’t much better. Its not too often you hear that my grandma perished last week. Or if you’re playing a video game, “Wow, I just made that guy perish.” Nah, I think it makes so much more sense when you actually put it into words that we use instead of words like repent or perish. Let’s look at the word repent first. The Greek word behind this is “metanoia”, which is also where we get the word metamorphosis. Metanoia actually means to change. So really, repent is just a fancy church word for CHANGE. And we all know what perish means, even if we don’t use it all the time. So taking this into account this morning, we are given a heck of a choice by Jesus in this story: Change or Die. Straight from the lips of our Lord. How on earth can this be good news, especially for us Lutherans? You know what they always say the 7 last words of any Lutheran congregation are, “We’ve never done it that way before.” Change or die. Jesus gives us this very difficult choice. I’ve only been in the St. Louis area for a little less than 3 years, but in that time, I’ve developed relationships with lots of different pastors and people from different churches. One of the things I always enjoy listening to is the history of congregations and how they came to be where and who they are. Here’s the story of two congregations that I’m somewhat familiar with and many of you may be also. Some of you may have even come from or been members of these congregations at some point in time. Both congregations are located in north St. Louis county, probably less than 20 minutes from each other. Both congregations thrived in the Golden Age of suburban churches in the 50s, 60s, but by the 1970s, the neighborhoods began to change. With the advent of the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans were more successful than ever before and were finally able to move out into the suburbs. Well, this caused the neighborhoods in north county to begin changing demographically. They went from being predominantly white to being predominantly African-American. One congregation decided to change with the times. They put a lot of effort into reaching out into the surrounding neighborhoods and people, and changed their culture to match who they were now surrounded by. This congregation is Zion Lutheran in Ferguson and they remain a very healthy congregation and they do a lot of really good ministry. The other congregation didn’t decide to make this concerted effort to adapt to their changing surroundings. They pretty much kept doing what they were doing and I guess tried to ignore the fact that the people around them had changed. This congregation was Christ the King Lutheran in Florissant and they closed their doors about a year and a half ago. But its also the story of Faith Lutheran in Cool Valley or Mizpah Lutheran or any number of ELCA Lutheran churches that have shut down in the last 10 years because they refused to change. Jesus wasn’t lying when he said change or die. This isn’t just something that we have to deal with as congregations, but also as individuals. We all have habits or behaviors that are destructive or could become destructive if we let them get out of control. There are the obvious ones of alcoholism, drug abuse, reckless driving. Of course, these things could lead to death if we don’t change. But there are also lots of smaller, more inconspicuous behaviors that can also lead to death…things like having a negative attitude, offering unwanted criticism, destroying other people’s reputations, being selfish by putting our needs before someone else’s, sticking our nose in other people’s business. These kinds of behaviors also lead to death and Jesus says to us, “Change or die!” So where is the good news in this? If you’re like me, I have a lot of Lutheran in my blood and I’m not a huge fan of change. It is certainly uncomfortable and I really hate to change when it is forced on me. In order for us to realize how this is good news for us, we need to first understand change, or repentance from God’s perspective. Robert Jensen, a well-known Lutheran professor says this about repentance, “Repentance cannot be composed of "I can" statements. "I have sinned God. I am sorry God. I can do better." Repentance, rather, must be composed of "I can't" statements. "I have sinned, God. I am sorry. God, I've tried and tried and tried but I just don't produce good fruit. I can't seem to do better. I need your Vinedresser to work on the roots of my life. Give me a new life, God. Give me your life. I can't. You can." The alcoholic hasn’t truly repented until they take the first of the 12 steps, “I admit that I am powerless over alcohol and my life has become unmanageable.” Repentance from God’s eyes means that we come to him saying, “I can’t.” I can’t change on my own. We as a congregation can’t change on our own. And we don’t want to die. Here’s where the good news comes in. Jesus tells this marvelous parable about a barren fig tree. The owner is walking through the vineyard and sees this fig tree that hasn’t produced any fruit in three years. Its just taking up space, sucking resources from the surrounding plants and the owner wants to get rid of it. Cut it down! The tree in this little parable is us – in our fruitlessness, in our changelessness, in our struggles, and in our failures. The barren tree is us saying, “I can’t change, but I don’t want to die either.” So the gardener steps in and says, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” The gardener recognizes the tree’s futility, recognizes that the tree can’t produce the fruit on its own, and rather than just hack the tree down, the gardener pleads for one more chance, one more year to work with and take care of the fig tree. I believe the gardener in this parable is Jesus – the one who comes to us in our problems and helplessness, the one who doesn’t want to give up on us, the one who realizes that we can’t make it on our own. Jesus is the one who can help us change, who can help us produce the fruit. Jesus is the one who gives us the choice – Change or Die – but then helps us make the change if we so choose. He doesn’t want to see us die. He takes no pleasure at all in death. In fact, he came into the world to defeat death, to end it forever. So its no surprise that he pleads for one more year – one more year for us. One more chance that we all get to get it right, one more chance so we don’t have to do it all by ourselves. One more chance with all resources that our gardener has to offer. Please note however, that the time frame isn’t unlimited. We don’t necessarily have all the time in the world to change. Time finally ran out on Christ the King in Florissant. The world is going to change with or without us. We can miss our chances to be fruitful. We can miss our chance to bear fruit out of fear of something different. We can miss our chance to bear fruit out of apathy because we don’t care. We can even miss our chance at fruitfulness because of our own selfishness. We just never know when that extra year is going to be up. So my question for all of you this morning is this, “If you were to do one really great thing for Jesus before you die, what would it be?” Think about this question on your way home today, talk about it over lunch with your family. If you were to do one really great thing for Jesus before you die, what would it be? Dream really big and then ask yourself, “What is keeping me from doing it?” Jesus is giving you this extra year right now, he’s spreading the nutrients around your roots, he’s tending you, and he wants you to produce good fruit. Jesus, our gardener, wants you to do great things. So, as he gives us all this second chance, If you could do one really great thing for Jesus before you die, what would it be? And what is stopping you? Amen.
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