- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: Luke 13:1-9

As people were leaving the Lenten services in a church in Miassillion,

Ohio, one of the faithful members of the church somehow fell down the

outside flight of steps and broke her hip. We can only imagine the

anxiety of the whole church over her injury. But, to make matters

worse, she did not recover from the hip surgery and died in a few

short days.

Pastor Mourice "Mo" White, a very large and vibrant man, ministered to

the family during this tragedy. He stood with the bereaved husband by

the casket the night before the funeral.

Many people came to offer their sympathies. All gave their best

advice and words of comfort to the husband, and the pastor overheard

them all.

"God must have had a plan for this, so accept it," said one.

"It was God's will, and we must live by it," said another.

"God planned this to test your faith, so be strong."

"There is a silver lining in every cloud, you will find God's reason

behind this eventually."

"There will be a greater good come out of this, so look for it."

Pastor White left that funeral home filled with a very strong emotion

of anger at the "babbling", as he put it, he heard that evening. He

went to the study and rewrote the beginning of his funeral sermon.

The next day, Pastor White began his funeral sermon with this phrase:

"My God does not push old ladies down church steps!!!" Then he

proceeded to explain that God cannot be blamed or accused for all the

brokenness of this world. (This story told by Pastor Tim Zingale,

PRCL March 5, 2007)

In our text from Luke, some people came to Jesus with a similar

situation. They asked, "Have you heard about the massacre in the holy

place? Pilate slaughtered Galileans there as they worshiped, mingling

their blood with the blood of their sacrifices."

The text does not fill in all the blanks, but we can imagine the

advice given to these families and the questions asked.

"If people are not safe from the hated Romans when they are

worshipping and offering their sacrifices to God, where can they be

safe?"

"Why would God let something happen to these faithful people when they

were at the Temple?"

"Where was God when this was happening?"

"How long is God going to let the barbarian Romans rule over God's own people?"

Jesus seemed to know what they were thinking. He anticipated one of

their questions by asking, "Do you think that because these Galileans

suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other

Galileans?" He knew that there was a connection in the minds of the

people between sin and tragedy. If they experienced something so

tragic, then it was surely a result of their sin.

We wish that Jesus had taken the opportunity to explain the problem of

evil to us. He could have explained why God allows such evil to

occur. But no, Jesus did not give a philosophical discourse on

theodicy.

But he did make one thing clear that we all need to hear. Were these

people who were killed worse sinners than others? Did this happen to

them because of their own sin? Jesus replied clearly, "No, I tell

you…"

But then he adds a puzzling addendum, "But unless you repent, you will

all perish just as they did." We will come back to this statement

after he says it the second time.

Next, Jesus brings up his own problem of providence, "Or 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? No, I tell you…"

So now we have two situations, one caused by humans and one by chance.

The first example was clearly caused by the armies of Pilate. Humans

had caused the injustice that occurred. But this time, we have the

clearer question of God's involvement.

In the second, a tower fell, killing eighteen people! We are left

guessing why the tower fell. Was it the result of a strong wind or an

earthquake? Did it fall as a result of shoddy construction? Was it

an issue of proper building codes? Or was it merely chance?

Both situations cry for an answer. Why does suffering happen in this

world? Why sickness? Why storms? Why tsunamis? Why hurricanes?

Why accidents? Why?

It is a question asked a hundred different ways in response to

hundreds of different circumstances. "If there is a God, why would

God permit this to happen?" "If God is loving, why wasn't something

done to prevent this?" "If God is powerful, why wasn't that power put

to use in my case?" "If God doesn't protect the faithful, why pray?"

Jesus focuses on the question of the relation of the tragedy to sin.

Were their deaths the judgment of God on their sins?

And once again, Jesus makes very clear that such tragedies are NOT the

result of their sin. He says, "No, I tell you…" Jesus makes clear

that suffering does not come because people are bad or sinful.

Suffering is part of this world. Suffering does not come from an

angry God, but from an unredeemed world around us. God is not the

angry Judge, judging each deed, then giving out punishment such as

sickness, death or tragedy. Jesus breaks the simplistic link between

suffering and sin. Not all suffering comes from sin.

Jesus refused to get caught in the political or philosophical

questions; he refused any theological armchair quarterbacking.

But once again, he adds that puzzling line, "But unless you repent,

you will all perish just as they did." Rather than philosophical

debates, Jesus asks, "What about you? Will you repent or perish?"

Jesus' response is personally frustrating to me because of what he

does not say. What he says is good. He makes very clear that we must

not assume that tragedy is a fault of the victims. But I wish he had

taken the time to expound a bit more on the problem.

You see, there is a deep need in each of us to make sense of life. We

want to know what kind of behaviors brings good to us. It is the age

old question of the philosophers, "What is the good life?"

But we want a mathematical certainty. We simply want life to be as

simple as mathematics. 1 + 1=2 2+3=5 4+7=11 There is a real

comfort in knowing that some things add up the same way every time.

Our problem is that we want that same certainty in the circumstances

of life. Attending Sunday School plus reading the Bible equals God's

blessings. Serving as a deacon plus helping with a Habitat Build

equals no divorce. Collecting coins for Week of Compassion plus

chaperoning the Youth lock-in equals no cancer. It all sounds like a

fair deal to us. But we all know there are no such mathematical

certainties in life.

And we complain to God when life doesn't add up. Why does Pharaoh

have plenty of food and the children of Israel are hungry in the

wilderness? Why do the evil prosper and the good get struck down with

illness?

Those are the questions I wanted Jesus to answer in our text! But no,

instead he adds this message of judgment sounding like hell-fire and

damnation for those of us who question. "Unless you repent, you will

all perish just as they did." What sense can we make of that?

Obviously, Jesus refused to enter the philosophical debate. I suspect

that there simply are no pat answers to life's mathematical equations.

Some questions can't be answered. Life really does involve chance

and free will. Not everything that happens can be laid at the feet of

God. If we insist on pat mathematical formulas for life, we will get

bogged down in that pursuit forever.

Jesus knew the important question is not "Why?" but "What now?" There

is no good answer to why things happen, but we all are responsible for

what happens now. Jesus wants us to be the kind of Christian that has

faith when life is good and has faith when life is bad. God wanted

the Israelites to be in covenant when the plagues escaped them and

fell on the Egyptians and when they were thirsty in the wilderness.

Jesus wanted his disciples to stay with him when he was preaching to

the thousands in the Sermon on the Mount and when he was being

crucified on the hill of Calvary. God wants us to have faith when our

son wins the lottery and when our brother dies in a plane crash.

I think Jesus knew that if we only have faith because we have a

mathematical deal with God, then we don't have much faith. Jesus was

very critical of the people who enjoyed the meal at the feeding of the

5,000 and only followed him because they were hoping for another free

meal. The easiest verse in the Bible to remember, and the most

disturbing, is John 6:66, "Because of this many of his disciples

turned back and no longer went about with him."

Jesus is saying to us, "Your mathematical equations, your

philosophical questioning, and your faith during the good times only,

doesn't get you very far. Instead of asking all these unanswerable

questions about the fate of others, you need to repent and make sure

that you have a right relationship with God, or you too will perish.

Repent or perish." It is a sobering message.

This reminds me of the passage in John 21:21 where Peter asked about

the "beloved disciple." Jesus replied, "If it is my will that he

remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" Like Peter, we

ask philosophical questions about others when we should be

concentrating on following Jesus ourselves.

But then Jesus adds a note of grace in the parable that follows. He

tells the story of a farmer who planted a fig tree, and waited the

normal three years to look for figs. There were none to be found.

Any no-nonsense kind of farmer would know this is just a bad tree,

wasting soil, so it should be cut down. But the gardener asks for one

more chance. He offers to fertilize the tree and nurture it another

year in hopes that it will produce fruit. The farmer gives the tree a

second chance.

Jesus does not avoid a message of stern judgment, "Repent or perish."

But he tempers that judgment with grace, God will give us another

chance. From beginning to end, the Bible depicts God as a God who is

quick to give mercy and slow to give judgment. Moses was given a

second chance after he had murdered a man. David was given a second

chance after his failure regarding Bathsheba and her husband. Simon

Peter was given a second chance after he denied Christ three times.

Saul was given a second chance after he persecuted Christians. And we

are given a second chance as well.

Annie Lamott's has a story about going to see her best friend in the

hospital dying of cancer. At some point Annie chatted on and said to

Pammy without thinking, "Do you think I will look fat in the dress?"

Her friend said, "Annie, you don't have that kind of time."

I think Jesus is saying, "If you're sitting here today, it is by the

mercy of God. The time you have, the life you live: It is not under

the judgment of God but under the mercy. Use it."