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The Rev. Christopher Brdlik
March 11, 2007 - Third Sunday in Lent

Listeners of a certain age will remember these words: “Crest has been shown to be an effective decay-preventive dentifrice that can be of significant value when used in a conscientiously applied program of daily use and regular professional care.” Remember that? If you were watching TV in the 1960’s, you probably could repeat it from memory, without having to look at the box. Crest was the first toothpaste to receive approval from the Council on Dental Therapeutics of the American Dental Association. It was heavily advertised. Suburban moms, like my own, rushed out to buy in great quantities the pale blue toothpaste, replacing the white Colgate that had formerly occupied their medicine cabinets. No other compilation of three and four syllable words ever became as popular in the American lexicon. The announcer sounded so scientific, so authoritative. Among the kids at my school knowing the Crest statement seemed as patriotic as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Some years later I realized that, with a few substitutions, those multi-syllable words could be made to serve a theological purpose, as in a sermon about Lent. Here goes. “Lent has been shown to be an effective sin-preventive spirituality that can be of significant value when used in a conscientiously applied program of daily prayer and regular confessional care.” We have no Council on Spiritual Therapeutics to make that claim — as far as I know, there is no American Theological Association. But we do have the experience of the Church; and centuries of tradition and practice have taught us the annual observance of Lent can help prevent the decay of our souls. 

Why is that? Why would a season of self-examination and repentance make a difference in our spirituality? We live in a feel-good age that likes to pamper and soothe us. The blessings of affluence offer luxury and temptation, saying, “Go ahead. You’re worth it. You’ve earned it. It’s yours.” If material excess is the cultural norm, Lent’s basic claim of the virtues of self-denial seems alien to our experience, and maybe even unwelcome. In the old days of village life, when the end of winter meant the decline of stocks of food and forage anyway, Lent’s deprivation came as a good thing, a way of putting a positive religious spin on what was after all inevitable in a hand-to-mouth existence. Nowadays, Lent is counter-cultural. The need for self-examination and repentance, if indeed true, seems an inconvenient truth. 

And yet, that was exactly what Jesus was speaking of in today’s gospel, the need for repentance. (Luke 13:1-9.) In commenting on two current events known to his disciples but otherwise unrecorded in written history — the cruel act of a despotic leader, and a construction accident — Jesus made a claim on all of us. Those who questioned him wanted the Lord to say that evil falls on those who are sinful, that people get what they deserve, whether at the hands of a dictator or by their own carelessness. This is one supposed answer to the age-old problem of evil, of why bad things happen to people. Jesus did not believe that, and he declined to answer this question. What he said was that God doesn’t rate people on a scale of sinfulness. There’s no bad, worse, and worst of the bunch. We’re all pretty much equal in the sight of the Lord. And it’s to our benefit to recognize this, to understand the commonality of the human condition before God.  

That’s why self-examination and repentance are so necessary to human life. Maybe I could state it better by defining repentance as an honest examination of the truth of ourselves. Honesty and truth are key words for Lent. If we are honest about our souls, the truth is each of us is both a saint and a sinner. There’s something good about us at the core of our being as created in the image of God. Yet admit it, confess it: none of us totally measures up. We all miss the mark to some extent.  

At the beginning of Lent Laurie Matarazzo preached a sermon about self-examination and repentance as like cleaning out a dark closet of our lives, taking the time to rearrange the shelves of our souls, straightening up our spirituality. That’s what Jesus meant here. He put it in the context of making sure we didn’t die unexpectedly and unprepared. But he did say all of us, every one, should look at ourselves in honesty and truth, and recognize how much we need God’s grace and salvation. We need repentance, for truth and honesty bring us to our need of God. 

Now, there’s a second half to this gospel reading, a parable Jesus told, and the story in the parable is about God, not about us. The flip side of our need for repentance is God’s desire for forgiveness. God goes to the greatest lengths to nurture our growth and encourage our fruitfulness. Like the gardener in the parable, God is patient and persistent, waiting for us to bear fruit, giving us plenty of chances. It’s no coincidence that Jesus told this parable right after instructing us on the need for repentance. For as we do our own work of evaluating ourselves truthfully and honestly, God actively promotes our growth. Not always do we recognize grace. Not always do we remember we grow in God’s garden. And like the fig tree we have the chance, again and again, year after year, to produce good fruit abundantly. 

That takes us back to Lent. For this is the season when the fig trees are beginning to blossom again and God the gardener is hard at work tending the roots and fertilizing the soil. Lent has been shown to be an effective spiritual practice. Its significant value is its annual opportunity for us to grow in God and to grow with God. When applied conscientiously Lent prevents decay and encourages healthy Christians. Unlike Crest, however, Lent is purple, not pale blue. 

Correction: After I preached this sermon, Laurie thoughtfully pointed out that the Crest statement was “…program of oral hygiene,” not “daily use.” She remembers it correctly – she says she did a school project on it in the fourth grade. CB.

© copyright 2007, Christopher Brdlik

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