Stashed away on a shelf somewhere in my office are old beat-up and dogeared copies of Lillian Hellman’s books. When I was in college, I had a professor who introduced me to Lillian Hellman. In those days I especially liked to read plays and Lillian Hellman ’s plays were intriguing and absorbing.
      But it was her memoirs that caught and held my attention. Especially these words from her memoirs are, for me, her most significant:

     Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento, pentimento, because the painter "repented," changed his [or her] mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again… the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again.(i)
     According to Jesus, most of us are not nearly as perceptive as this writer about repentance. “You haven’t a clue,” Jesus said, about repentance.” “If you’re going to come to me and ask if violence and suffering are someone’s just desserts or God’s divine recompense, then you haven’t been listening and you haven’t a clue about the Kingdom of God.
     You see, some in the crowd had pushed forward eager to ask questions. How about that terrible confrontation in the temple, Jesus? The one where Pilate’s police slaughtered innocent worshipers from Galilee? The Galileans must have been dreadful sinners if they were slaughtered in such a way.(ii)
     “Do you really think that because these Galileans suffered this way they were worse sinners than all the other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish. And the tragic case where the tower of Siloam collapsed, killing 18 people, Jesus added. Do you think the dead were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish.”
     Then to clarify their vision and ours, Jesus tells a parable. If you were here
in the sanctuary this past Wednesday evening, you will have witnessed dozens of
our middle schoolers from Middle School Connection, and a handful of senior
highs, present the musical Once Upon a Parable. The cast included no less than 5
Jesus’, a bunch of shepherds, 4 Pharisees, a smattering of disciples, 5 narrators, a
priest, a farmer, a couple of pigs, a crowd, a cheerleader and many more.
     Through songs and characters, the cast told about Jesus the parable giver who taught through stories. In this case five parables including the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, and the Parable of the Vineyard. Here’s what the Middle School Connection sang:
     We’ve go a lot of stories to tell,stories that will change you if you live them well, stories and surprises that’ll twist and turn, stories that will teach you if you care to learn, stories from the Author of Eternity, the One who wrote the story that is you and me.(iii)
     To clarify our vision, Jesus tells a parable. It’s a parable that will twist and turn; it will change you if you live it well, and it will teach you if you care to learn.
     “ A man had a fig tree and that fig tree was planted in his vineyard; and the man came to the tree expecting to find fruit, figs, but there wasn’t any fruit. The tree was fruitless. So he said to his gardener,‘ What is going on here? For three years I have come looking for fruit on this tree, and still I find none. Chop it down! It’s wasting good soil?’Then the gardener said,‘ Let’s give it one more year. I’ll dig around it. I’ll tend to it and nourish it. If it bears fruit next year, that’s great; but if not, then chop it down. Right now, let’s give it another chance.’ ”
     No threats. No tantrum. No bullying. Just the gracious and patient hand that reaches out to halt the ax, the merciful gesture that won’t give up on the barren, the broken, the fruitless; the compassionate voice that says, "Let’s give this hopeless case another chance.(iv)
     Jesus stops this crowd from demonizing those who were victims of violence by flipping the story so that it can be applied to the living rather than to the dead.(v) " So then," says Jesus, "unless you yourselves repent, turn around, and bear fruit, you will also perish." Turn, turn, and turn again to the God who loves and redeems. Change your minds, replace an old conception, by a new choice; see and then to see again.
     Jesus’ word is straight-forward. His call is clear, his admonition simple.“ Repent! Turn around! Change your mind!” That's what the word literally means – to repent is to change your mind, your heart, your life.
     Frederick Buechner says it this way: To repent is to come to your senses. It is not so much something you do as something that happens by the One who does the turning. By no means can we ourselves bring about the Kingdom of God. It is God alone who brings about God’s Kingdom. Even with our best motivations in the world and out of our noblest impulses, we can’t do that. But Jesus says there is something we can do and must do and that is repent...To individuals and to nations both, Jesus says the same thing: Turn away from madness, cruelty, shallowness, blindness. Turn toward the very things we have inside ourselves when we are at our
best: acceptance, sanity, hope, justice.(vi)
     When people come to Jesus and want to know if violence and suffering are their just desserts and God’s divine recompense, Jesus rejects this as nonsense, not only because such attempts for answers are calculating and futile, but also because they deflect attention from the primary issue: the call to every person to live in penitence and trust before God, and that penitence and trust are not to be linked to life’s sorrows or joys. Life in the Kingdom is not an elevated game of gaining favors and avoiding losses.(vii)
     To repent is to come to our senses: about our priorities; about the things that we allow to draw us away from worship and the work of the Gospel; to come to our senses about our own personal history; to make amends and to ask forgiveness. To repent is to come to our senses and to change. And the ultimate sign of our change is the action of our life. Not words. Not sentiment. Action: the bearing of fruit; service for the world.
     Think of your own life. Are you fruitful? Are you fruitless? What needs to be freed up inside? How is your life turning or better yet, how are you being turned by God? How is your heart, your mind, being changed?
     “ Repent. Come to your senses. Bear fruit.”(viii)
     And when you feel like the church, or someone else, or you, are unturnable, unchangeable, hopeless, fruitless, a waste of soil…listen to what our advocate gardener says,
     “ Let’s not give up yet.I’ll break through hardened soil. I’ll set you free at the root. I’ll nourish you. Give it another year. Give it another year.”

Endnotes
i Lillian Hellman. Pentimento: A Book of Portraits. New York: Little, Brown&Company, 1973, Introduction.
ii Thomas G. Long. “Breaking and Entering.” The Christian Century. Chicago, IL: The Christian Century Foundation. March 7, 2001, 11.
iii Tom S. Long and Allen Pote. Once Upon a Parable: A Musical for Young Voices. Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Co., 2000, 7-8, adapted. Directed for Nassau Presbyterian Church by Noel Werner, Sue Ellen Page and Marti Reed Hazelrigg.
iv Thomas G. Long. “Breaking and Entering.” The Christian Century. Chicago, IL: The Christian Century Foundation. March 7, 2001, 11.
v Dan Clendenin. “Clarifying Moments of Warning and Invitation” in Journey with Jesus. Palo Alto: CA. Sunday March 11, 2007, Lent 3.
vi Frederick Buechner. Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons. New York: HarperCollins, 2006, 160, adapted. As cited James B. Lemler’s “Changing Your Mind, Bearing Fruit” (Luke 13:1-9). Day1. Atlanta, Georgia: Alliance for Christian Media. March 11, 2007, Lent 3.
vii Fred B Craddock. Luke. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990, 168-169.
viii James B. Lemler. “Changing Your Mind, Bearing Fruit” (Luke 13:1-9). Day1. Atlanta, Georgia: Alliance for Christian Media. March 11, 2007, Lent 3.

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