Readings:
Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15
Psalm 103: 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 11.
1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12
Luke 13:1-9

“Swatting”.  It’s a relatively new slang term.  It means that a person calls in an anonymous threat to a school in order to force the SWAT team to show up. This usually is a bomb threat or an imminent active shooter. The SWAT, armed to the teeth, forcefully enters the school to neutralize the threat and clears the building. And, afterwards, everyone discovers that the threat was a hoax. The point of “swatting” is to terrorize the students, faculty, and staff through a sick prank.  On Ash Wednesday, this happened at my eldest son’s high school.  Luckily, everyone was physically safe and accounted for.  But the anger I feel as a father is overwhelming.  It’s of a high intensity when your flesh and blood is terrorized, especially for no known reason.  It perhaps can be called a “holy anger”.

So, this week’s reading from Luke’s Gospel makes sense to me. There is something important going on in Jesus’ fiery teaching on repentance. As a parent, I get it.

Oftentimes, we hear the impassioned words of Jesus, or the prophets and we shudder.  Why so harsh?  Why so angry?  Why so immediate? The answer is simple.  It comes from a place of love.  Like the love of a parent. A love that suffers greatly when harm is done. And a love that cannot rest until there is justice, repair, and a better future for everyone.

When speaking of the massacred Galileans and the victims of the disaster at Siloam, Jesus separates “receiving” harm from “deserving” to receive harm.  For Jesus, harm has been a mournful social fact.  It has happened and nothing can undo that.  As people understandably ask “why” such catastrophes could happen, they often fall back on the trope of “the victims must have done something to deserve it”— they sinned, or their parents sinned.  Jesus does not deny that people sin; but he does alter the framework of the question.  In effect, he says “of course they sinned. And of course they did not deserve the harm that happened to them.”  He then tells his hearers to repent so that they, too, do not perish.

“Repent, says the Lord; the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Repent means to turn around and walk a different path.  This call to repent is not because God desires punishment.  And it’s not because God is a God of wrathful vengeance.  No, it’s because God sees what we don’t: the far-reaching consequences of actions that cause harm.

Theologically, this is what we call sin. Because there is a kind of cause and effect in social life.  The harm we cause ripples throughout society, gains momentum, and leads to greater harm for more people as it becomes habituated into social norms.  God can see all of the possibilities and configurations in how this occurs.  We cannot.  So, a prophet accepts a difficult call by carrying God’s heart and seeing with God’s eyes for a season.  Then, they speak to prevent further harm and disaster by calling the people to repent, now!  To change, now!  To make better choices, now!  To break bad habits, now!  The “kingdom of heaven”—God’s presence and just social order—is already here. We just need to recognize it, believe it is possible, and choose to live into it.  Because the choices that we make as individuals, as well as the social norms that influence these choices, have consequences far beyond what we can see.  Repentance is a chance to break the cycle of wrongdoing and harm.  It is a chance at repair and restoration.

Repentance also means recognizing that deep place in our soul where God whispers to us “You are My Beloved”.  God invites us back to that first experience, like Moses with the burning bush, and by extension we who receive the story of Moses and that of the divine liberation of the Israelites from enslavement.  As we remember we are loved without condition and without limit, we are empowered to leave our habits of sinning and causing harm.  There is a reason why Jesus later says “Father, forgive them because they know not what they do”.  Because often, we do not understand the full implications of our actions.  And only God can forgive the most severe offenses and make a way out of no way.

There are few emotions as raw as that of a parent whose child is threatened with harm. Especially when the harm is a cowardly act of anonymous aggression that mimics larger social illnesses that our nation perpetually fails to acknowledge. Why, as a society, have we chosen to fail our children and young people so horribly that the terrorism of gun violence is “normal”?  In a time of nefarious political absurdity, there is no consensus response to that question that can lead to concrete action for the common good. Until there is, what endures is a holy anger. And a concurrent call to repentance away from serving violence and towards serving God’s work of justice, repair, and reconciliation.

These are the days we are living in. We adults must do better. We must repent for enabling many harmful social norms. We must believe we indeed are God’s Beloved and humbly live into the Way of Jesus. Our children and young people ask it of us. God asks it of us. Let us pray for a the courage, honesty, and self-awareness to do so.

Amen.

Kevin P. Considine, PhD