The Gospel reading for today comes from Luke 13:1-9.  Some people told Jesus about some Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  The gist of the conversation seems to have been, what could these people have done to deserve such suffering? Jesus asked his listeners, do you think they were worse than anybody else? He reminded them of 18 people killed when a tower collapsed in Siloam. Did his listeners really believe those people had done something wrong to deserve that? Jesus told them, unless you repent, something much worse will happen to you!

Jesus was not threatening to cause anyone's blood to be mingled with sacrifices. He wasn't warning about falling towers. He was warning that fates much worse than even ritually unclean death and sacrifice, something worse than tragic, sudden death, could follow if people ignore the real stakes in their lives.  He told them the parable of the barren fig tree: the parable illustrates that they were created and tended for a purpose, and they risk their own destruction, their own alienation from God if they ignore that purpose and fail to do what they were created to do.  This was the necessity for their repentance.

The Old Testament reading for today comes from Ecclus. 43:1-22. The writer reminds us of how God created the heavens and the world: the implication is that he created us, too, and that he did so for a purpose.   The New Testament reading comes from Rev. 14:14-15:8. It reminds us that our purpose is not some static state: we are part of a moving story, one that has an end just as it had a beginning.  We are moving now toward that end, and may we all be mindful of our purpose and do what we were created to do--in other words, may we all continually repent and move with salvation history toward the end that God has created us to serve.