THE MIDDLETOWN REFORMED CHURCH
Rev. Eltje J. Brunemeyer, Interim Minister
3RD SUNDAY IN LENT MARCH 7, 2010, 10:30 A.M.
GREETINGS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Perhaps you’ve read the novel, The Kite Runner. I read it sometime ago. The book written, beautifully written by Khaled Hosseini, traces the story of a man born in Afghanistan, and it’s a tragedy. His mother died giving him birth. His father wants him to be an athlete, but he has no athletic ability. His father is a courageous man, but the young boy is a coward. He witnesses a rape but never tells anyone, and lives with guilt his whole life through. He born of great wealth, but because of the civil war in Afghanistan, he and his father have to leave their country. They make it to America, but the father soon dies. The man marries, but he and his wife can’t conceive children. And all of this takes place in the first half of the book. It seems like one sad turn after another.
It led me to ask myself, “How come I’m so blessed?” I haven’t had to suffer great deprivations. I had both and mother and father who raised me. I’m married, and have children, and grand children. And I ask myself, “How come God has blessed me so?” And, I really don’t have an answer. I don’t believe it’s because I’m lucky. I don’t believe in luck. I believe in God. I don’t think it’s because I’m good. There are many other people much better than I am, and some of them have suffered terribly. I don’t think because God is playing favorites. I don’t think God operates that way. I really don’t know how come I’m so blessed.
But I do know the following three things:
· My blessings have come from God.
· I need to use my blessings so that I can be a blessing to others.
· I am obligated to thank God for my blessings.
I don’t know why God has blessed me so. I don’t know why God has blessed you so. But among the blessings that I number is that when I gather with God’s people for worship I am blessed to have the privilege of greeting you in the name of Jesus Christ with God’s grace, God’s mercy, and God’s peace.
SERMON “Tough Love”
Text: Luke 13:5
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
Prayer: from Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
It’s a terrible thing what happened last Saturday in Chile, a devastating earthquake compounded by a destructive tsunami. Hundreds of people lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. As it that isn’t bad enough deprivation and hunger has led to lawlessness, looting and pillaging. This is terrible all by itself, but it follows on the heels of an earthquake in Haiti which has left the whole country devastated. When something so awful happens everyone asks questions. We ask practical questions. What could have been done to have minimized the loss of life? What can we do now to help the people in Haiti or in Chile?
But there are other questions, theological questions.
Why did it happen at all? Why do innocent people have to suffer so much? Why did God let this happen? Is God punishing somebody? As a pastor I get these kinds of questions all the time. I visit someone in the hospital and I’m asked, “Why is God doing this to me?” There’s a conversation regarding starvation in Darfur, and someone turns to me and asks, “Is it that God can’t do something about this, or is it that God doesn’t want to do something about this?
Sometimes people get into a political or historical discussion and turn to me and ask, “Why did God give Adolf Hitler such great power, so that he could kill millions of Jews and hundreds of thousands of Gypsies? Why does God allow madmen to wreak mayhem and havoc?
And I’ve got to confess that I don’t have answers. Just like I don’t know why I seem to be so blessed, by the same token I don’t know why some people are hit with so much pain and suffering. I don’t have the answers.
Jesus was asked a lot of questions. This gospel reading seems to be a response to some kind of question. People had come to Jesus to tell him about an awfully cruel thing that Pontius Pilate had done. (This, by the way, is the only mention of Pontius Pilate in the gospels apart from the arrest and trial of Jesus.) Pilate ruled with an iron fist. We see him in the gospels as a philosophical cynic. He asks of Jesus at his trial, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Furthermore he asks the question, “What is truth?” as if he were a professor of philosophy. But don’t kid yourself. Pontius Pilate was a cruel man. He did order Jesus to be crucified. He murdered many people. As a matter of fact Pontius Pilate was recalled and removed from office because his cruelty was even too much for his superiors back in Rome.
But the discussion on the day in question was the murder of some Galileans. Everybody must have been talking about it, just like we are talking about those innocents who died in Haiti and in Chile. Just like we ask, “What did they do to deserve this?” the people around Jesus must have been asking, “What did those poor Galileans do to deserve being butchered by Pontius Pilate? Were they such bad people? Were they worse sinners than others?”
And they came to Jesus with their questions.
There had also been another tragedy. A building had collapsed, the tower at Siloam. And when the building came down eighteen people were killed. What a tragedy! And just like we talked about all the people who were killed when the twin towers came down in New York, so the people around Jesus were talking and asking questions. Why did some people make it out of the Worlds’ Trade Center and why did others have to perish? Was God favoring some and cursing others? And Jesus was asked the questions. “You’re a rabbi. Certainly you must have some opinions about this. You have studied the Torah, certainly there must be an answer in scripture. Tell us. We want to know.
I want Jesus to answer the questions. I want to see how Jesus handles this situation. I know I usually don’t handle it very well. But then again, I don’t have the answers. But strangely Jesus doesn’t answer the questions either. Jesus doesn’t get involved in their discussion about responsibility, or blame, or sin, or guilt. Jesus does not try to lay blame. Jesus does not criticize Pontius Pilate. Jesus does not pity the poor people who were killed when the tower fell on them. Jesus does not get drawn into our questions, our judgment upon the unfairness and injustice of the world.
Jesus refuses to get involved in the discussion. He stands outside of the concerns that are brought to him, and looks at it from a completely different perspective. He says something that seems out of place, “Unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.” And, then Jesus tells a parable about an unproductive fig tree, presumably as a story about repentance. To those who speculate about other people’s pain Jesus says, “Repent!” To those who speculate about God’s judgment Jesus says, “Repent!” To those wish to judge other people’s just deserts Jesus says, “Repent!”
In other words, Jesus becomes brutally honest with those who want to speculate about God, and other people, and judgment, and fairness, and injustice Jesus is honest with them, and asks them to be honest with themselves. “Repent!” Jesus says. “Turn around,” Jesus says, “and look in the mirror. Look at yourself. Don’t concern yourself about judging others. Don’t concern yourself about how God is judging others. Look at yourself honestly, and put yourself right with God.”
And then Jesus tells the story, the story about the fig tree. A man planted a fig tree in his vineyard and was waiting for it to bear fruit. Year after year the man came to his tree, but it bore no figs. Finally he said to his gardener, “Cut it down!” But the gardener argues with the farmer. “Give it some more time. Give it another year. I’ll take good care of it. I’ll dig around it. I’ll fertilize it. See it won’t bear fruit by next year. If not. Then you can cut it down.”
I’m assuming that Jesus is the gardener, and that he argues with his father to give us some more time, to repent, to put ourselves right with God, and to bear fruit that befits repentance, fruits such as mercy, gentleness, forbearance, charity.
Jesus doesn’t give answers in this instance, but he does tell us what to do, and he does love us, he loves us with a tough love.
· He tells us to look to ourselves, to look honestly at ourselves.
· He tells us to put ourselves right with God.
· He tells us that we are to be fruitful children.
And finally Jesus tells us that God is patient. He will not capriciously or precipitously destroy us or cut us down. He’ll give us time, time to repent, time to put ourselves right with God, time to bear fruit.
Thanks be to God for mercy shown us. Thanks be to God for time allotted us. Thanks be to God for the Savior who intercedes for us.