23 March 2025 - Lent 3, Year C

 

Theme

This week’s readings carry a prophetic call for people to repent and turn to God for salvation. Isaiah clearly makes this call to his listeners. Paul calls the Corinthian church to seek the living water in Christ and Jesus calls his listeners to repent and turn to God, regardless of whether they are worse sinners than anyone else. The Psalm is a good example of someone who seems to have accepted and is resting in God’s salvation.

Scriptures

Isaiah 55:1-9 - A call for people to seek God, repent and accept God’s salvation. 

Psalm 63:1-8 - A Psalm of praise, expressing a deep longing for God. 

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 - Paul encourages the Corinthian church to learn from the Israelite’s past mistakes. He encourages them to stay strong in the face of temptation and not put God to the test. We experience many of the same temptations as God’s ancient people did, but we also have access to the same living water that they did to guide us and save us.

Luke 13:1-9 - Jesus uses dark metaphors of people perishing to encourage people to repent and turn to God. Jesus then tells a strange story of a barren fig tree. After not producing fruit for three years, the owner tells the gardener to cut down the tree. The gardener urges the owner to wait one more year in which the gardener will nurture the tree and if it has not produced fruit by then, it can be cut down.

Personal Application

There is a real risk that comes with choosing to follow our own desires when making decisions in this world. And the consequences of our selfish actions usually effect the most vulnerable members of our society. Just by observing recent events in the world, we can see the harmful effects that wars, unjust policies, climate change, and gender-based violence have on innocent victims and bystanders. If we try to rely on wealth, power and status to survive in this world, we will not only be damaging our neighbours and the earth itself, but we will be damaging our own souls as well. When left to their own devices, our greed, lust and selfish tendencies lead to some of the world’s greatest evils - patriarchy, racism, homophobia and violence. 

It is clear that our world and many of her people (and even much of the Church) needs an intervention. We need to repent from our evil ways, seek God and accept God’s salvation. We then need to begin to bear the spiritual fruits that come with being a people of God - becoming good stewards of all of God’s creation - resources, people, animals and nature.

How can we, as individuals, repent from our selfish tendencies, turn to God and live a transformed life that bears healthy spiritual fruit?

Communal Application

Unfortunately, the Church has often been at fault for many of the world’s evils. Instead of being agents of transformation and justice, many churches have a tendency to serve their own needs and desires at the expense of others. This is antithetical to Jesus’ call to love our neighbours and Micah’s call to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. Therefore, I believe that this week’s call to repent and seek God is as much for the institution of the Church as it is for individuals. Until the Church can adequately love all people and fight for issues of justice without worrying about pandering to the desires of the wealthy elite, it will not be able to truly be an image of God’s kingdom in a world that so desperately needs it. 

How can we, as churches and institutions, repent from our selfish tendencies, turn to God and become agents of transformation in a world that so desperately needs it?