March 3, 2013
© 2013
I.
Over 7 years have passed since Pat Robertson and others declared
Hurricane Katrina was God’s judgment on the decadence of New Orleans. Westboro
Baptist Church still gets news coverage when their pickets assert that tragedies
are God’s wrath on the immorality of the United States. Do you ever think God
sends so many tornados to Oklahoma to punish us for some unrecognized sin? Was
this week’s blizzard God’s reprimand of the people northwest of us and the rain
God’s approval for us here to the south and east of the freeze line? Could this
week’s earthquake right here in Midwest City have been God’s slap on the wrist for
being spiritually lazy?
A.
Whether you are grimacing or smiling, you have certainly had occasion
to ask why something particularly bad has happened to you or to someone you
know. We’ve all said, “They didn’t deserve that,” or asked, “What did I do to
deserve that?” When my friend Wes Kennedy was going through all the procedures
following a cancer diagnosis, intending sympathy, his doctor asked, “Do you
ever wonder, why me?” To which Wes responded, “Why not me? I don’t expect to be
exempt from the realities of life.”
B.
Candy’s Mother credited her bout with tuberculosis with bringing her
back to a close relationship with God. I don’t think God specifically steered
some TB bacteria her way. Her less wayward sisters also contracted tuberculosis.
Rather, I would suggest that God had been graciously calling to her all along,
and during her recovery in the sanitarium she was ready and quiet enough to
listen.
C.
In the spaces that bad things open up in our lives, we may be ready to
listen attentively for God’s call to renewal.
II.
As I’ve already said, during Lent we are journeying with Jesus to the
cross. In Luke 11-12, Jesus’ teaching to the people on his path had become increasingly
confrontational. In Luke 13:1-9 he was not yet in Jerusalem, but it was on his
mind as he headed there and was brought gossip from Jerusalem.
At that very time there were some present
who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices.2He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans
suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?3No, I
tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.4Or
those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you
think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I
tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
6Then he
told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came
looking for fruit on it and found none.7So he
said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit
on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting
the soil?’ 8He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig
around it and put manure on it.9If it
bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
A.
The first thing to notice is that Jesus asserted that the tragedies
were not punishment or even natural consequences for the behavior of their
victims. We can’t be sure of the specific events Jesus was speaking about, but
some things did happen that could have connected.
1.
Galileans
were not too welcome in Jerusalem. Many rebel movements started in Galilee, so
the Romans were suspicious that Galileans in Jerusalem were fomenting
insurrection. Their fellow Jews considered them to be uncouth and impious, not
really worthy of bringing a pure sacrifice to the Temple. On more than one
occasion Pilate was known to send soldiers into the Temple to assassinate any
he thought might be using piety as a cover for conspiracy. The Jerusalem Jews
might suggest that because the Galileans were ritually impure, God allowed the Romans
to kill them before they got to the altar. Maybe these deserved it.
2.
Pilate
wanted to build a Roman style water works in Jerusalem, and he confiscated some
of the Temple offerings to pay for it. The Jews he hired to build it were
considered wicked traitors. We don’t know if the tower that fell was part of
that project or if those killed were working on it, but the Pool of Siloam was
a water source for Pilate’s project. Gossip may have been that God purposely pushed
the tower on them.
B.
While
Jesus specified that neither Pilate’s human cruelty nor the accidental collapse
of the tower were God’s punishment, he said they were God’s urgent invitation
to repent – recognize that life is uncertain, and God is calling. Don’t miss
your opportunity to reply to God.
C.
That
is the point of the parable of the fig tree. Like the gardener, God is giving
you an opportunity to be fruitful, but it is limited. The time will come for
the ax and saw, and the opportunity may be missed. I doubt Jesus had this in
mind, but the gardener’s cultivating and spreading of manure can also be a
parable for us about life’s difficult times. These spaces stir up our lives and
dump stink on us, but those may be the triggers for our spiritual vigor.
III. Scholars debate exactly how, who and when the book of
Isaiah came to be what we know. Exploring that could be a fun Bible study, but
they all agree that Isaiah 55 comes from the section written for Judah when
they were in Exile in Babylon. It is God’s word of hope in the darkest space of
their history.
A.
In vv. 2-3, God
calls, “Listen to me, and I will lead you to joyful, vivacious bounty. The dark
space is temporary.”
B.
In vv. 6-7, God
calls, “This is the time of opportunity. I am near right now. Turn to me and
receive my mercy.”
C.
In vv. 1-2, 4-5,
God calls, “I want you to flourish, to be so conspicuously inviting that you attract
all people to me.”
IV. In the ancient examples of Israel’s history, 1 Corinthians
10 weaves these same themes together for us: listen for God’s voice, turn to
God, be nourished by God. In the spaces that bad things open up in our lives, we may be ready to
listen attentively for God’s call to renewal.
A.
I hope you are not tempted to think of my time with you as your interim
pastor as God’s punishment. I know that the interim between pastors is a time
of uncertainty. As you already heard from Jason, it is often a time of
financial anxiety in which seeing God’s bounty can be difficult. As an act of
faith, I encourage you to pray and step up your giving, building hope and
expectation for the ministry bounty God has waiting. Holding back on your giving,
your energy, your enthusiasm with a “wait and see” attitude, is to spend for
that which does not satisfy. Instead, use God’s resources to buy into God’s
bounty.
B.
Lent reminds us that our journey with Jesus is not always a level,
smooth path. Ignatius of Loyola imagined it as a rhythm of consolations and
desolations. (Spiritual Exercises, 313-327) Of the 150 Psalms, ⅔ are laments or complaints. Passing
through the dark spaces does not mean we have lost our way. 1 Corinthians 10:12
warns us of the danger of thinking that we stand. When we know we are vulnerable,
we are more inclined to listen for the voice of God and depend on the mercy of
Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Whether the challenge is health,
career, family, financial or relational, listen for the voice of God.
C.
The recent
political posturing around “sequestration” reminds us that many things over
which we have no personal control can plunge us into uncertain spaces. Though
not nearly as extreme as Judah’s Exile in Babylon, the prescription is the
same. Informed by Scripture and attuned to the Holy Spirit, listen for the
voice of God. That will not be what to do about external circumstances but
about responding to God’s invitation to spiritual renewal for you and your
church. It means flourishing as a community of hope that is so attractive,
people trapped in their dark spaces with flock to Jesus because you embody God’s
bounty.
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