February 28 – Luke 13:1-9
Luke 13:1-9
Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Lent at the Movies 2: Time is Grace
Second Sunday in Lent – February 28, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
For fans of the original Star Wars films, it’s been a long wait for the new one.
38 and a half years, or something like that.
I was 10 when the first one came out in 1977.
And it’s been over 10 years since the last film in the franchise was released.
It was worth the wait.
The new film, The Force Awakens, is very entertaining, and
it takes the template of the original film and, while sticking very closely to the
plot of that original film, injects it with new life and energy and humour.
It’s sort of a re-make, and yet original enough that it does indeed continue the original story.
Luke Skywalker has disappeared and must be found –
characters old and new allied with the Resistance must work together to find him and
thwart the plans of the First Order to destroy them by
destroying a bigger Death Star.
Familiar, but like I say, worth the wait, especially since the 3 three previous films in the
franchise were not universally loved by fans or critics.
One critic went to see the new film with his son, and asked his Dad,
“What was the point of that movie?”
The question wasn’t asked in a negative way; he just knew there was more going on in the
film than he could take in at his age.
The critic concludes that the movie is about redemption.
As he and many critics have felt, this film has redeemed the whole franchise from
what they perceive to be the lacklustre previous three films.
It has brought back some of the charm and joy and verve of the originals.
But redemption takes time.
It’s been a long wait – 10 years!
But it’s been worth it.
Jesus tells us a story about redemption this morning.
A fig tree in a vineyard is not producing figs, which is what, after all, a fig tree is for.
The owner comes and tells the gardener to cut it down – it’s taking up
valuable space in the vineyard that could be used for a more productive tree.
But the gardener pleads with the owner to give the tree more time.
Give it another year, says the gardener.
Let me continue to take care of it, and nurture it, and be good to it.
And let’s see what happens.
Let’s give it time.
Jesus tells the story in response to people who come tell him about some awful, tragic events.
Pilate has murdered some Galileans in Jerusalem.
A stone tower has fallen and killed 18 innocent victims.
People want to know if all those killed were being punished by God for
something bad they had done, for their sinfulness.
But Jesus just doesn’t think that that is the way God works.
God does not punish sinfulness in Jesus’ view:
God does not punish the Galileans, or the 18;
God is not the impatient vineyard owner who wants to cut down the fig tree.
God is the gardener, patiently awaiting and nurturing change.
God is the expectant, waiting, longing father in Luke’s Gospel, waiting for his sons,
scanning the horizon and waiting for one son to return and
waiting for the one at home to let go of his anger.
We all need to change, to repent, says Jesus, to become the loving people intends us to be.
It’s not just the Galileans or the 18 – it’s everyone that needs to change their ways he says.
The Galileans didn’t die because of God’s punishment, but because of Pilate’s sinfulness.
The 18 didn’t die because of God’s punishment, but perhaps because of a fraudulent contractor.
Yes: if we don’t change, we will die.
Not because God is punishing, but because our sinfulness is damaging to ourselves and
damaging to one another.
God grieves the sinfulness we inflict on one another.
And so God extends us time to change.
God waits.
And God believes it is worth the wait.
In Jesus’ view, time is grace.
In Jesus’s view, grace is expressed in the gift of time God extends to us to change.
And in Jesus’ view, grace is expressed in the gift of time we extend to one another,
like a father who waits and waits and waits for his sons to change,
like a father whose love and grace is expressed in the gift of time, in waiting,
in not wanting to make this worse, but waiting for things to get better.
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it is not just the franchise itself that has been redeemed by
the gift of time.
Many characters in the film are extended that gift of time by one another.
This was true even in the original.
Han Solo was extended the gift of time by Princess Leia to change from a
selfish self-serving smuggler to a person motivated by serving the welfare of others.
In the new film, a new character, Finn, is extended the gift of time to also become loyal to
The Resistance – as a former Stormtrooper it takes him some time to work through
the change from Stormtrooper, to knowing he must leave that life,
to eventually granting his allegiance to a task no less risky but
more worthy of his life.
But he is granted that grace of time and eventually becomes a hero in the film.
Then too, our old friend R2-D2 must be extended the grace of time –
poor R2 has been in shut down mode since Luke Skywalker disappeared
all those years ago, disconsolate and still.
But rather than be dismantled for parts, R2 is extended the gift of time to grieve and
eventually wakens to a new hope of finding Luke, a hope in which he has a part to play.
And then there is Kylo Ren, the son of Leia and Han Solo, who has turned to the dark side,
and who is powerful in the dark side of the force.
Leia and Han hope and long for his return home and for his return to the Light.
When Han encounters him and has a chance of killing him he instead extends to him
the grace of time and offers to bring him home.
But that grace of time is squandered as Kylo Ren takes the lightsabre offered him by Han,
and kills his own father.
The outcomes of grace are not pre-ordained.
There is the chance that grace will be squandered.
There is the chance that redemption will not occur,
that the tree will not bear fruit and will be cut down instead,
but there is a chance for change,
and extending the gift of grace expressed in time is the best chance,
and so Jesus encourages us to go for it.
Jesus himself extends that gift, of course.
And extends it to us again this morning.
And invites us to extend it to one another and to those we love.
We may think we are unredeemable –
but giving ourselves the grace of time to heal and change is what God longs for,
and is what God extends to us.
We may think others are unredeemable –
but giving others the grace of time to heal and change is what God longs for,
and is what God extends to us.
In Luke, Jesus waits and waits and extends everyone the grace of time to change.
To his blockheaded disciples and the indifferent rich and scoundrel tax collectors and
impatient foreigners and colluding priests and the Roman occupiers.
And on the cross, rather than calling down legions of warrior angels to punish,
Jesus again extends everyone the grace of time, the grace of time to change.
Jesus waits. And just says, “Forgive them, Father. Forgive them everything.”
It’s our only chance. Our only hope. Jesus waiting for us to bear the fruits of love.
The child had asked his father what the point of the movie was.
“Redemption, son. The story is about redemption,” writes the critic at the end of his review.
About fans waiting for the redemption of a beloved franchise.
About characters waiting for one another to be redeemed.
The story is about grace expressed in the gift of time.
For there is a grace in time that God extends to us and that we extend to one another
that is mysterious and powerful.
God’s love is expressed best in the biblical story in extending the grace of time –
and sometimes so is our love for one another.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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