What about you?

Read: Luke 13:1-9

 

Third Sunday of Lent - March 3, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

It was a little lady of mature years who always had a twinkle in her eye who many years ago first told me the now familiar illustration that when I point my finger at someone, three fingers are pointing back at me.

The courts are full of people who are very willing to talk about someone else –it's all their fault-- and they should pay,  a lot!

One of my favorite cartoons has the a wickedly grinning church member standing in the doorway to the pastor's study and the church secretary leaning over the desk to whisper to the pastor “He's here to confess his neighbor's sin.”

 

It is disconcerting, unsettling, and downright scary when Jesus cuts through all of our excuses and pretensions,

when he sees through all of our attempts to manipulate him,

and brings the discussion from “them” right back to you and me.

 

Some folks come to Jesus with an atrocity story.

We don't know if it was true or not: in a violent and angry time such as First century Israel, it doesn't really matter...a well-told rumor is just as effective as the truth in stirring up people, to make them angry enough for violence.

 

So this story about Pilate killing some Galileans at worship in the temple, whether true or not, is brought to Jesus.

What will he say?

It is a trick, and a trap:

If he sympathizes with those who are killed, then some sneak will go and denounce Jesus to the authorities as a rabble-rouser and dangerous person who ought to be jailed.

If he takes Pilate's side, then he will be accused of being an unpatriotic Jew and a collaborator with the hated Romans.

Jesus sidesteps the trap completely by turning the question back to the ones who brought it.

He says: “ I tell you, unless you repent, you will  also likewise perish!”

That's blunt!

 

Then to compound the offense, Jesus reminds them of another incident, when 18 were killed when a stone tower fell on them.

“Oooo, what was their sin?” everyone wanted to know.

Jesus replied, ”I tell you, unless you repent, you will likewise perish.

The two incidents cover human tragedy:

       Galileans  –  outsiders  ----     killed by the government

       Jerusalemites ---insiders  ---   killed by natural disaster

 

Notice that Jesus does not give a little feel-good answer at this or at any other time!

Remember that once he said “God makes his sun to shine on the good and the bad; God makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”[Mt.5:45]

How many times has it happened that a tearful family member will say of a person who has died unexpectedly, ”But she was such a good person – why did this happen?”

And then we are tempted to make inane comments like “It's just bad luck, so get used to it.”

or even “Well here is a list of all of the dumb things which I know that she did, so she deserved it.”

But we notice that Jesus does not say horrid things like that.

He does not make excuses for God; nor does he blame the other person.

Instead, he talks directly to and about you and me!

“Unless you repent, you die.” he says.

 

You see, those Galileans aren't here, neither are those killed by that tower.

There is no sense talking about them.

What is important, says Jesus, is that you and I are here, and he is talking with us.

What is our reaction when we are confronted with the justice of God?

Do we start out with excuses and explanations?

-            I had a deprived childhood.

-            I just followed what I was told.

-           The devil made me do it.

When confronted by the justice of God, no excuse is enough, no reason is sufficient.

We have failed, and the only response can be silence.....and then “Lord, have mercy.”

 

And there is mercy.

That is the point of the third story in the Gospel lesson today.

We have been unfruitful.

God knows how many things that we have missed.

I know that I am constantly dismayed that even with all of my rushing around, how few things actually get done.

But that is not the end of the story.

Jesus has promised to tend us, to dig around us and make us fruitful in ways that we cannot manage on our own.

But it is going to be on his terms, not ours.

He will measure the success of our lives, not we,

and our lives may have elements of harshness where blaming someone just doesn't work.

 

In the Fifth century, St. Augustine wrote about the sacking and burning of Rome, when Christians and pagans alike suffered.

“Christians differ from pagans, not in the ills which befall them but in what they do with the ills that befall them.”

The Christian faith does not give us a way around tragedy, but a way through it.

 

A true story [from Dr. William Willimon] of a man in North Carolina who was left a paraplegic in an auto accident – depressed, suicidal, ready to pull the trigger.

He prayed for the first time in years:

“God, I can't go on like this.

God, I'll make a deal with you.

I am willing to go on living for the sake of the family if you do two things for me: give me some relief from the pain and help me control my bladder.”

Shortly afterward he sensed a thunderous reply: “No deal. NO deal.

You either take life as it is, or die.”

It scared him.

It wasn't what he expected to hear from God at all!

He put away the gun and got on with living for many fruitful years.

We are reminded that the notion that only good things happen to good people was put to rest when they hung Jesus on the cross.

God's love carries no promises about good or bad except for the promise that God will not allow anything worse to happen to us than happened to his own Son.

So we come today not to receive the easy feel-good answers but the broken body and blood of Christ Jesus and his word of promise.

What about us?

Remember the words from Ash Wed. that we used: Dust you are, dust redeemed by the cross of Christ.

And that merciful word of God is enough.  Amen.