Complacency (3rd Sunday of Lent)

Third Sunday of Lent

Exodus 3:1-8 ; 1 Cor 10:1-12 ; Luke 13:1-9

WE BESEECH thee, almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants: and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty; to be our defence against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

 

COMPLACENCY

Let us approach our readings today with reverence and holy fear! – And particularly this week because they speak to us of a very great spiritual problem that I think we suffer in our own time and in this part of the world. The problem that our readings today address, I suggest, is the problem of complacency. I suggest to you that Christians especially in Western Europe are generally far too complacent – and what God's Word says to us in the readings today, is that complacency can lead to downfall – spiritual ruin. They come as a strong warning!

One of the reasons that we have allowed all this to happen is because inside we have allowed our faith to be dulled. We don't like it when our faith makes us feel uncomfortable, when it stirs us up, when it challenges us. We don't like it. We like a faith that makes us feel comfortable. We like a faith that settles our disturbing feelings. What we want is just peace, an absence of conflict, within – that's all!

Brothers and sisters let me tell you today: that is NOT what God wants for you or for me! God expects you and I to bear fruit in our lives, good fruit (not okay, moderate fruit). God is who He is, but He is also a God who acts! He abhors complacency! He spits out of His mouth the luke-warm! He does not want luke-warm followers! It is all or nothing! In the parable of the fig tree in the vineyard, He says, through the words of the gardener, about the fig tree that is not producing fruit, “leave it one year and give me time to dig round it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.” Yes He has mercy and gives it one more year! But there could come a time when He will say, “Cut it down.”

St Paul referring to the lesson that we ought to learn from the Israelites who perished in the wilderness, and never reached the Promised Land, says, “All this happened as a warning... The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall!”

We think God is a good chap, He won't really judge us, He is a God of love, and love means He will not give us a hard time. That is not true! Love actually means He WILL give us a hard time if we are complacent. Love means He is saddened and angered by our sins! He is angered because our sins disfigure us, and distort the image of God within us. His anger is actually good news for us because it means He really cares about us! Does a mother or father show their love for their children if they let their children continue in sinful, destructive behaviour? Of course not! They are angry with their children's sinfulness! Love makes them angry! They really care! God loves us more than we can imagine – but that also means that in this way God is angered by our sins.

And complacency is a great sin of omission. We like to think it is a little sin – but it is not. For evil to triumph it requires only that good men do nothing. Not doing what we could have done. It is being lukewarm about our faith – it is about avoiding anything that disturbs us, anything that offends, anything that brings conflict. Being lukewarm is being happy with a modicum of contentment and avoiding anything that disturbs that. Being lukewarm about our faith means we will avoid letting people know our beliefs, especially the beliefs that offend others! Being lukewarm means we hide our faith under a bushel. We only get it out on certain occasions; otherwise we carry on as if everything is okay - that we are nice and inoffensive people!

Unless we become Catholics who are not complacent, but who have ardour for our faith, Catholicism and Christianity will continue to decline in Europe. There is a battle going on, and our complacency means what we want to do is avoid conflict, avoid showing that we object to what is going on, avoid showing others what our faith means. Complacency means we tend to drop our weapons: we tend to not persevere in prayer when it becomes difficult, it means we tend not to grow in knowledge of Scripture lest we hear God speak an uncomfortable word to us, it means we do not have a care to increase our knowledge of our faith because then it will present us with too many challenges and require too much time and energy of us. Complacency therefore means we surrender our weapons! And of course without weapons we are bound to try to avoid conflict!

Let us approach the readings today with holy fear! Let us listen to St Paul saying that the Exodus is a warning to us all. God heard the cry of His people in oppression in Egypt. He extended His arm against the Egyptians with mighty wonders, and through Moses led His people through the waters of the Red Sea to the Exodus. There He instructed them on how to live their lives. But time and time again they rebelled, they were disobedient, they were wayward, they did their own thing as soon as Moses' back was turned! And St Paul tells us that we should see this as a warning for us all, that many of them perished before they reached the Promised Land! We need to hear the words of our Lord today, “unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”

If there is only one tendency to sin that we do something about this Lent, brothers and sisters, may we deal with any complacency we might have!           

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.