031107

Luke 13:1-9

Blaming others

Last week we prayed for the family of a 52 year old Penfield man who died very suddenly.

On Tuesday, a woman shared in our journey group about her ignoring a persistent thought to call an old friend, only to find out she died two days later.

On Friday, my dad and I were reflecting on my brother’s tragic death at 5 years old.

In today’s reading, Jesus responds to two more stories of sudden and premature death.

Life is short. And by no means certain.

All of us are living on borrowed time. Stuff happens.

Why, why, why, we ask. And in seeking answers to that, we fall into temptation.

And life and death and the why’s lead us into the temptation to believe in a theology, or belief about God, of retribution. I must have done something bad, (or like in the Sound of Music, I must have done something good), or maybe this is a punishment for….

Why me?

As we’ve discovered in our series, temptations are strong, and attractive, otherwise they wouldn’t be temptations! And this one is attractive because it’s a way of explaining human nastiness, like Pilate, or natural disasters, like the Siloam tower falling, or sudden death or illness. And we like things explained.

A related temptation is to believe there’s a direct correlation between sin and suffering. We’ve heard this from fundamentalist media preachers about tsunamis, about HIV/AIDS, even about Hurricane Katrina.

It’s attractive for similar reasons: we think we NEED calculation and logical explanations for everything, that anything without scientific explanation is suspect.

But what kind of God does that suggest? Certainly a God who is in control of everything, and that is comforting: we like to think SOMEONE’s in control when chaos happens and we’re not.

So we hear, it must have been God’s will. But this theology comes at a cost. We must then believe in an arbitrary, accounting God, who keeps a list of our good and bad and weighs them and metes out punishment. "Just you wait, God’ll get ya". We must belief in a God who is small enough to fit into what we know.

I think this is attractive and tempting because it reflects our world, instead of reflecting God. We live in a reward-punishment society, from childhood on up. Get good grades and you’ll get a prize, pass your drivers test and you can borrow the car, graduate college and I’ll buy you a car, get a good job and you get a nice house.

And so it works in our theology: believe this and you’ll get into heaven-do this and you’ll end up in hell. That was pretty core Christianity while I was growing up, and still basically is.

But that too has a cost. It’s a short step from there to blaming. We blame ourselves, or we blame the victim, or we blame God.

And it’s a short step from there to judging…to believing we’re better than another.

Now, it’s tempting, and it’s attractive, because it can make me feel good about myself in comparison, but it demonizes my neighbor.

When chaos happens, it stirs up fear, discomfort, suspicion, even hostility, and we lose some of our security, so keeping ourselves looking good is tempting and offers a sense of stability.

And that leads to another temptation: the temptation to validate one’s own status quo—to remain unthinking, to refuse to challenge comfortable beliefs and even church doctrines. To keep everything just as it is, without question.

It’s an attractive temptation—after all, most of us have enough to worry about just getting by in our busy lives, right?

I don’t have time to think, to question, to take a class or attend a self discovery workshop. Anyway, if I did, I might find out I’d have to change something about my life.

We trot out creeds and hymns and prayers without much thought. Our confirmation class last week had some fun with the Lord’s Prayer when we were forced to really look at it!

But, not to put too fine a point on it, it’s lazy theology, although one of our Friday class said she had been struggling with the meaning of Jesus’ death for a long time, so she was certainly not lazy.

Another belief temptation that’s highlighted by sudden or premature death, as Jesus forces us to look at it, is the temptation to believe that living a long life means living a fruitful life, that those who die young have not led meaningful lives and those who live a long time necessarily have.

And this is an attractive belief; it gives us an excuse for putting off a variety of things – we can think about our theology when we’re retired, or we can get involved in church once the kids are grown, or I can have that conversation with my children later.

But the 52 year old may have been more purposeful, borne more fruit as it were, than many a 95 year old. Just because someone dies young doesn’t mean they haven’t lived a faithful life.

That’s the lesson of the fig tree. Bear fruit while you can.

So going back to the beginning. If why, why, why, tends to lead us into temptation to believe all sorts of unhealthy stuff, perhaps ‘why’ is the wrong question.

Jesus is pointing out here that faith, our beliefs, our theology, is a tool for the living, not a facile explanation of dying.

Being saved and getting into heaven isn’t the point of faith..

Understanding and explaining isn’t the point

Deciding who can be blamed isn’t the point

Our behavior here and now is. Whether we bear fruit is.

Now I don’t know what ‘bearing fruit’ might mean specifically in your life. It depends on your giftedness and your call from God.

I know it’s not about getting rich and having a fine house and a good family

I know it IS about living a life that brings myself and others, and therefore the world, into a closer relationship with God. But the specifics each of us, and all of us as a congregation, have to decide.

And Jesus challenges us in his fig tree story, to do just that. Now. While we have time. That’s what repent means. Stop what you’re doing that keeps you from God, and turn around.

Author Fred Craddock says that repentance is a turning from sin (that which separates us from God, including lousy theology) as well as a reformation of attitude and action.

But, Margaret, what’s this about repent or you too will perish? If we’re going to perish anyway, surely we can’t change it if we repent. So why bother?

When Jesus follows that statement up with the fig tree story, there’s more to this word ‘perish’ than end-of-life death

• without fruit the tree isn’t living its full potential
• it is failing to be all God intended it to be
• it’s essentially life-less.

Am I, are we, living to our full potential, or are we failing to be all God created us to be?

The first part of this fig tree story creates in us a difficult challenge—to face the fact that bad stuff happens, and that God has hopes and dreams for the privileged fig tree in a privileged vineyard. The joy of this story is that grace also happens, the one who is deeply caring of our wellbeing wants to keep working with us to lead us into life, full life, abundant life. Now, not just later, not just after death. Now.

As our first hymn says, there’s a wideness to God’s mercy. God is not sitting with a balance sheet, waiting to get you. That’s humanity. God is waiting for us to take advantage of what we have been given, and to fulfill our potential.

Lent is an ideal time for self-reflection. Most of us could use some close self-examination. Yes, it will cost us some time, some energy, even some anxiety.

Start this week to ask yourself questions about what you believe. Start with the hymns and the creeds and the prayers we say.

Avoid the temptation to stay safe in untested or unhealthy beliefs.

Let grace happen, even as chaos is happening.

Life is short. Life is uncertain. Don’t wait.

Make your life bear fruit while you can…because you can.