Third Sunday in Lent

To what do you cling? Psalm 63 invites us to reflect on where we find security and sustenance when we are desperate, disillusioned, or in danger. Yes, we need food, water, and shelter. Yes, we need community that protects us when we feel threatened and alone. Yet underneath these basic needs is something even more necessary: God. As you listen to U2’s “Light of Home,” consider: “When you are surrounded by chaos and turmoil, how do you find security, confidence, and home in God?”

Luke 13:1-9

Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices. 2He replied, “Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans? 3No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did. 4What about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you, but unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.”6Jesus told this parable: “A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7He said to his gardener, ‘Look, I’ve come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I’ve never found any. Cut it down! Why should it continue depleting the soil’s nutrients?’ 8The gardener responded, ‘Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around it and give it fertilizer. 9Maybe it will produce fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down.’”