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A wall built with a child’s wooden blocks.

3rd Sunday of Lent (C)

It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills.

Psalm 102(103) Verse: 3

READINGS: Exodus 3:1-8 & 13-15, Psalm 102(103), 1 Corinthians 10:1-6 & 10-12, Luke 13:1-9

Sudden death. No chance to make peace with God. It wasn’t just in Jesus’ time, of course, that people died suddenly, without warning. It happens all the time. Death is something that we can be sure of, and we must prepare for it. And that’s what’s really behind the two incidents in this Sunday’s Gospel. Jesus wasn’t saying that their sudden death had been punishment for sin, but simply that we need to take the opportunity we have to make peace with God. Neither is age a consideration - all of us must take time to nourish our faith, and make efforts to bear fruit.

      The problem is that we’re all tempted to protect ourselves from God. If it stayed only as a temptation we would be OK. But the temptation is too attractive, and so we begin to build a wall between ourselves and God. We can still see over the top of the wall, but God is definitely at a safe distance. We have a bit of protection.

      In some ways this all makes repentance easier. We can all recognise that we’ve built this protective wall, and because we have built it ourselves we can easily take it down again. We can also easily recognise that building the wall in the first place was a ridiculous thing to do. What could we have possibly expected to gain from it? Freedom? No. Freedom is only found in God. To flourish? No. We can never flourish if we’re cut off from God.

‘Look here, for three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’

Luke Chapter 13, Verses 7-9

In Lent particularly, we’re called to put God back at the centre of our lives, rather than at a safe distance. To repent - to turn back to God. Part of that repentance is to make sure that the relationships we have with other people are as good as they can be. We’re called to forgive those who have hurt us, and to make peace with the those we have hurt. Bringing peace to those we meet is evidence of our repentance.

      Jesus compares us to a tree that must bear fruit. Trees don’t bear fruit without water, sunlight and soil. Neither can we bear fruit if we’re separated from God by a wall we have built ourselves. Kick down the wall - it’s absolutely worthless.

Mark Howe

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