3rd Sunday of Lent 2025 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we celebrated the third Sunday of Lent accompanied by Alison.
The Bishop’s Lent Appeal this year is Refuweegee. A small Glasgow charity, based in St George’s Square, which welcomes refugees to Glasgow.
You can give via a donation bowl at coffee or online via the Diocesan website.
https://www.glasgow.anglican.org/bishops-lent-appeal-2025-refuweegee/<https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.glasgow.anglican.org%2Fbishops-lent-appeal-2025-refuweegee%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7C083937a1a2d148fb68ba08dd67052651%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638779994000666161%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3SfWBtC0MjqHsZO%2BQavBrgHLb5gnvsy2dgiTGlI9ETY%3D&reserved=0
This Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room
2pm – Lent Course, All Saints Small Hall
Wednesday 2.30pm – Book Group Helen’s
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House.
The Lent group continues every Tuesday in the small hall at All Saints. We are reading ‘Wild Bright Hope’ – all welcome.
You can also join the online Ignatius Spirituality Centre Lent Course. Steve Parratt has kindly given us copies in book form to accompany the online course. Please let me know if you would like one.
Readings for next Sunday – Fourth Sunday of Lent – Mothering Sunday – Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-end Luke 15:1-3,11b-end
Today’s readings – Isaiah 55 1-9, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9
For several years we have kept a potted Fraser Fir in the garden. Every year at Christmas Fraser, as he is affectionately known in our family, is brought in to be decorated and adorned. For the initial few years, he flourished looking quite healthy but over time he deteriorated, his branches becoming very bare and spindly, he was a sorry state, each year we suspected would be his last, but we were fond of him so we always gave him one more year….and then much to our amazement he started sprouting new growth, needles appeared on his branches, he began to bloom. At Christmas he presented in the house like a new tree…he had been given a second chance.
But so often in life things don’t work out first time. They go wrong and we must keep persevering. Today’s ’s scripture is all about God being there for us when things go wrong.
And scripture is full of people who get it wrong. Moses got it wrong when he killed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Exodus 2:12
The disciples often got it wrong many times – often slow to understand the significance of Christ and to recognise him as the Messiah.
“Who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him” they say. Mark 4:41
And then James and John giving themselves earthly positions of power “Lord, grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory” Mark 10:37
And at the passion Peter slips up three times. Mark 14:72 And they all fall asleep at Gethsemane. Mark 14:39
St. Paul states in the epistle that “our fathers” all shared the same deliverance from slavery, all ate the same manna in the wilderness and drank the same “spiritual drink”. And yet “with most of them God was not pleased” 1 Corinthians 10:5
Even Paul himself admits that he too is challenged as he states in his letter to the Romans “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do “ Romans 7:19
The point here is we have all “messed up” as people like to say these days. We all need to “return to the Lord”. To repent.
In the gospel we are told the Galileans whose blood Pilate had shed and the 18 who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell were no better or worse and deserved their fate, nor more or less than anyone else. Again, Jesus’ reaction shocked the crowds when told of these stories. No words of sympathy for the victims or outrage for the perpetrators. Instead, the tables are turned against the messengers: “Unless you repent, you will all perish.” Luke 13:5
Jesus then tells the crowds a parable to explain himself more clearly. Jesus often in the gospels follows a teaching up with a parable and he does so here. In this parable even the fig tree gets it wrong by not producing fruit. But this is a parable about second chances. A fig tree normally takes three years to reach maturity, If it is not fruiting by this stage, it is unlikely to fruit at all.
But this fig tree was given a second chance. Through his forgiveness it is always Jesus’ way to give us another chance. Peter and Paul both experienced this. God is infinitely kind to those who fall and rise again.
So, we mustn’t be discouraged.
Like the gardener digging round and feeding the fig tree we need to feed our souls with God’s love and forgiveness, with his word and the fruits of his spirit, to pray for the gift of perseverance
In the meantime, as we continue to journey through Lent, we can trust that God is always there for us, when things go well and when things go wrong or don’t seem to be working out as we would hope.
As Paul says in the epistle:
“God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength. But with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” 1 Cor 10:13
Amen