Luke 13:1-9

Year C - Lent³ or Conviction³

February 23, 2016

Luke 13:1-9

Following the trail of temptations we have moved from the first three (Comfort, Power, Privilege) to a fourth last week (Fear the doing of public good). This week we have a temptation to Miscategorize and thus control memes and judgment.

Do you think that those who were killed for political purposes or as part of natural law such as gravity were less able to resist temptation and were thus caught out? Isn’t it easier to see things in terms of sin rather than temptation. It makes it so much easier to make snap judgments.

Regarding the fig tree, we have the wrong glasses on if we are so caught up with profit that we lose a sense of timing. Isn’t it easier to be tempted to pare things down to one one principle (profit) rather than see the complex pattern of life that connects water and nutrients with sun and time to produce seed to propagate the plant (fruit’s use by us is a byproduct, not its primary function). This is the same temptation we have to monoculture produce and lose track of the heritage seeds that had learned to live with “pests”.

It is worth a week’s work to reflect on judgments and to imagine other ways of responding than the lowest common denominator of cultural norms. This has the possibility of opening our eyes again to a time before the stories of Jesus temptations—a time of seeing belovedness even before it is revealed in action.