"Setting Sail For A New Horizons of…Second Chances"
Isaiah 55, Luke 13: 1-9
March 11. 2007

The gardener in the parable asks the owner to give a second chance to this tree that has not yet produced any fruit. The gardener knows things are not right with the tree and that it needs a change of conditions.

Don’t’ you….need a change of conditions? It needs some room to take root, some wiggle room, some nurture and food in order to flourish…don’t you?

Doesn’t your spirit call out for some space so you can take root in new ways and try on some new ways of being. We all long for nurture and sustenance cause so far life hasn’t bloomed for us quite the way we want it to. Don’t you want a second chance, too?

While there is no guarantee the tree will become productive, the gardener wants to do everything possible to help it. God, it seems, has a green thumb…and we are green thumb believers! God can revive what others count as dead. Tippe Church is living, on-going proof of this! And, so are you!

God coaxes us to go beyond the surface level of daily life and let our roots go deep so we can survive the day and turn our lives around, so we can have abundant life. God provides water for the thirsty, food that has no price, the replacement of the work of our lives that brings no satisfaction…in exchange for a life that does…if you will come to the waters.

That’s all God asks….come.

God provides if you will take responsibility for the life you have and respond. God wants to bless abundantly. Will you receive it? Will you make a break from your old ways? Do you see the need to break away? Different boats…same horizon.

You see, we are still a lot like those who asked Jesus why bad things happen to good people….at some level, they must be bad….right?

We’d like to think that by being "good" we will avoid bad things.
We still like to think our sins are not as bad as the sins of others.
We still like to blame God or the past for the lives we have today. It is a way of protecting ourselves from accountability.

Suffering and sinning do not have a one on one correlation…cause and effect. Bad stuff happens. Everyone sins. The two are not necessarily connected.

Therefore, no matter how good you are trying to be or how good things have gone for you so far, there is still a place within you that knows you too have some things to turn around in your life: repent.

Conversely, just because something terrible happens to you or happens somewhere else to someone else…even if you struggle not understanding the "why", don’t use this as an excuse to stop believing God cares and is present….make this an excuse not to do what you know you are to be doing: repenting. Turn your life around.

The world may operate on a system of rewards and punishments. God does not! God loves the sinner and God loves the goody two shoes as well…you know, that’s the one who does all the right stuff on the outside but inside may be empty or broken or cursing under their breath, or manipulating for a certain result.

You see there is no hierarchy of love or sins. Now of course, murdering someone vs telling a lie are in two different categories, but don’t let yourself off the hook too easily because both do damage. It is not our place to judge the sinfulness of others, rather we are to use good judgment ourselves.

Thank God, God’s ways are not our ways! We don’t have to be little Gods with it all figured out.
Our work is not to figure out what we don’t understand, but to live into what we do understand.

This is a lifetime’s worth of work!

Sin doesn’t have much to do with being naughty….sin has much more to do with ignoring or suppressing the spirit within us that is telling us we are avoiding some fundamental realities.

We are not going to have our life really together until we sort this out. Until we face up to it and deal with it.

I wonder...how do you know if you are sinning? …gee, feeling "guilt" or "edgy" or "uncomfortable with others" about something…it may mean there is unfinished business, or you’ve taken on something that is not yours, or you have not been fully honest with yourself or another… a sin…because it diminishes YOU! God summons us to repentance not to humiliate or punish us, but so we can come closer to the kind of life we would love to have.

To repent, you have to be self-aware….the first horizon toward which we sailed last week. And now our second horizon…second chances…God gives second chances! A Do Over, Green Thumb God!

God is whispering deep inside you, "There is something wrong here. Don’t just keep avoiding it. Deal with it….step right into it…I am with you." You know when you have sinned or are being tempted to sin…turn away and turn toward what has integrity and is life giving and freedom making!

I know you know what you are called to do!
Seek the help to do it!
That’s part of what I’m here for…and you are here for too…to help each other stay in the boat...and set sail together!

Jesus never makes anyone feel guilty.
He never is judgmental.
He names things the way they are and invites people to focus inward and claim the life God is offering.
He offers people, in the name of God, a second chance!

He doesn’t push them into the boat, either! He…Jesus, God, Sophia, Spirit….goes with them…with you….and sets sail for horizons of second chances with you…not because you are so good or so bad….but because God is so merciful and gracious and loves you that much.

Look over your life.
~How has God been turning over the soil to loosen your tangled roots?
~How is God watering and feeding you?
~Are you seeing or sensing any new possibilities for how life can be?
~How have the hard things that have happened to you, you know…those times when you’ve been covered with manure!
~...how have they enriched you and turned you around? You did let them, turn you around….right?

God does not leave us thirsty.
God invites us to come to the waters.

During the moments we feel close to God, when God is near, this is exactly when we can lean into new strength and wisdom and reattach our roots to a new way of being.

God does not leave us hollow, empty,
a cut off stump.

God fills us up, grows us up,
and never gives up….on you!

So, let us set sail for a new horizon
of second chances…..with our God.

You O God, are life and light and love,

the hope that fills my sails.

I lift anchor with You!

I gladly give You me to feed and fill,
So I don’t go ‘round hungering and empty!

Thank you, Holy One, for helping me
get in the boat again today
….to sail for new horizons surrounded
by all these here today
…taking you up on Your offer of second chances
… I start to row….row…row my boat
gently down the stream…… Amen!