Sermon preached on March 3, 2013 (8.00 and 11.15) at St. David’s
Episcopal Church, Washington, DC
Third Sunday in Lent: Exodus
3:1-15, Psalm 63, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9
Do you remember what
happened to you as a child when you did something wrong, when you didn’t do as you
were told, when you broke something you were not supposed to play with, when –
by accident of course (at least that was my excuse) – you managed to hurt your little
brother or sister? I got told off; in some way my parents, mostly my mother,
showed her displeasure and if it was particularly bad then I was also ‘punished.’
Sometimes I was sent to my room for a time-out or some sort of privilege was withdrawn.
On the other hand if I was very good, either at school or at home, then I received
a reward: perhaps a treat like a trip to the cinema, or some extra pocket
money. This is all part of our education and formation: how we are taught right
behavior.
This ‘training’ does
not stop when we grow up, does it? High performers are rewarded: with a bonus,
a promotion, a bigger office, a company car…. And conversely for those who do
not ‘perform’ some sort of punishment follows – in the most extreme cases it
can include the loss of their job. So it is not surprising that since time
immemorial people have turned this experience of reward and punishment around: If
something really bad happens to a person, or to a group of people, then clearly
they must have done something very wrong to deserve it. While if something good
happens to a person or group of people, then it must be a reward for good
behavior, not from a parent in this case, but from the gods or from God. As the
Book of Proverbs (3:33) puts it: “the Lord’s curse is on the house of the
wicked, but he blesses the abode of the righteous.”
This seems to be the attitude
of those people who, in today’s gospel passage, have come to see Jesus to tell him
what had happened recently to some Galileans at the Temple in Jerusalem. ‘Hey Jesus, did you hear about the Galileans Pilate
had killed in the Temple? They must have been really bad to get punished like
this. Oh and by the way – which part of the country did you say you came from?’
Let us not forget that at this stage in Luke’s Gospel Jesus, the man from
Galilee, is on his way to Jerusalem. And we know of course that Jesus will have
his own deadly encounter with the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate.
So I think there is
also some irony in Jesus’ reply: “Do you think that because these Galileans
suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No I
tell you.” When Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee suffers on the cross it is
certainly not because he was a worse sinner, just the opposite! So the first point
Jesus makes, one that he goes on to emphasize with his own example of the
eighteen people killed when the tower of Siloam (part of the city walls of
Jerusalem) fell on them, is that these events were not a sign of judgment on or
some kind of divine punishment for sinners.
This teaching was not new,
even in Jesus’ day. Of course there are plenty of passages in the Bible that
support the idea of there being a direct connection between our behavior and
our treatment on earth, but we also find evidence of a “dissenting opinion.” Just
think of the story of Job who suffers despite being “blameless and upright, one
who feared God and turned away from evil.” (Job 1:1) In fact one could argue
that it was because he was blameless that he was punished – as a test! The
author of Ecclesiastes, that’s the book the group the Byrds made famous with their song “Turn, Turn, Turn,” also negates any direct connection between our behavior
and divine reward.
Unfortunately the other
idea of there being a direct connection between human behavior and divine
reward or punishment is still alive today. Just think of those preachers who claimed,
or still claim, that AIDS was God’s punishment for gay people or those who see
natural catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina as divine retribution. I do wish
they would take Jesus’ teaching in today’s passage to heart. As is so often the
case Jesus’ answers are surprising. The whole passage is indeed about
judgment, but it is not the Galileans or the eighteen killed in Jerusalem who
are being judged, it is those who assumed they were better, those who were
complacent, and those who wanted to put themselves in God’s place as a judge. This
is the message we already find earlier in Luke (6:45) in the parable of the man
with a log in his eye who points out the small speck in another’s. It ends with
the words: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.”
Unless you repent, you
will all perish just as they did, Jesus goes on to tell his listeners. What do
we mean by repent – such an important word in this season of Lent? The dictionary[1]
offers the following definition:
1.
To feel remorse, contrition, or
self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do.
2.
To feel such regret for past
conduct as to change one's mind regarding it.
3.
To make a change for the better
as a result.
Or to put it in
biblical terms, repentance consists of both a change of mind (metanoia) and of direction: the Hebrew
word (teshuva) literally means to
turn 180° to face God again (which here has me facing the altar). Repentance is
not required to earn a reward or to avoid punishment. But it is required to set
our relationship right and as an expression of our faith in and our response to
the love of God. It’s not that we do not know what we can and should do to
further God’s purposes and to help bring about God’s reign or kingdom. To quote
from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams: “God’s purpose is the
formation of unrestricted community … the destruction of barriers between
hostile or indifferent groups of people, and the challenging of all the ways in
which human beings enshrine separation from each other and superiority to each
other.”[2] So
the very act of human judgment, of distinguishing between sinners and the
supposed sinless is an example of the behavior that stands in the way of God’s
purpose because it enshrines separation and superiority. No wonder Jesus
condemns it so strongly!
It is of course not
easy to change our ways, the neighbor we are supposed to love as ourselves does
not always seem that loveable, and very often other things seem more important
than the God we are called to love with all our heart and mind and soul. We tend
to assume that it’s not so urgent and that we still have plenty of time to
change ourselves or the society we are part of.
But as Jesus makes
clear, using the drastic examples of the two tragedies, we do not have
plenty of time. The time is now, not later today or tomorrow. Acting rightly
and justly is always urgent and does not brook any delay. In the parable of the
fig tree we find a similar sense of urgency. After three years a fig tree is
mature and should be bearing fruit, otherwise it is just wasting space and
stealing nourishment from the other plants. It has had enough time to do what
it is supposed to do. So understandably the owner wants to cut it down and
start again.
Thankfully God is not
like the owner in the parable. Instead God is like the gardener who is willing
to invest time and effort to help the fig tree do what it is intended to do. Rather
than just time and effort, God invested God’s own Son to tell us, no to show us,
who we are supposed to be and what we are supposed to do. Out of love God gives
us much more than one chance and much more than one year to bear fruit. But
that does not make the need for repentance and change any less urgent.
The job of a preacher
is to find and proclaim the good news in the Scripture assigned for the day. On
first sight it is difficult to see the good news in the two stories of violence
and tragedy we heard this morning, just as it is even more difficult to see the
good news when we experience violence and tragedy in real life. But it is
there. The good news is that God does not give us what we deserve. God gives us
much more than that. Instead of a love that is conditional on our behavior, God
promises unconditional love and unlimited forgiveness if we want and ask for
it. This is the same good news that came out of another violent death, the
death of Jesus on the cross. Repentance, a change of mind and of direction, is
our response to this promise, not its pre-condition. Now while this should by
no means be limited to Lent, this is the season for self-examination and is therefore
a good time to take stock. So let us take the time to think about where, when
and how we have not lived up to who
we are supposed to be and like the fig tree have not borne fruit. How can we
make a change for the better? How can we make that change now? How can God in
Christ help us do it?
Amen
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