suffering: a call to repentance and action, 11.3.13

Luke 13:1-9

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.’”

John 9:1-7

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ⁴We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, ⁷saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

Luke 3:1-11

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; ⁶and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

⁷John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ⁹Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” ¹⁰And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” ¹¹In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”

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            We spent the last two weeks talking about Job’s story. We talked about Job’s courage in suffering holding faith and honesty together. We also talked about being a good friend for people who are suffering. Today’s sermon builds on that as we look at suffering as a call to repentance and a call to action. Our reading from John reminds us that repentance has to lead to action, so the call to action and the call to repentance are tied together.

In the first passage Jesus is told about Pontius Pilate murdering worshipers at the temple in Jerusalem. It’s a shocking story and we might expect Jesus to offer some explanation, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus uses this event and an even more random news item: a tower collapsing and killing 18 people, as examples of how unpredictable life is. He rejects the idea that the people Pilate killed or the folks who died in the tower collapse were killed because they were particularly sinful. Jesus says that everyone is sinful, and we all need to repent. We all need to change our lives. And we need to do it now, because today could be our last.

            There are lots of times we don’t understand suffering and death. In this passage Jesus doesn’t even bother to speculate about the cause of suffering. He just reminds the crowd that life is uncertain, so we should change our lives for the better now. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, so now is the time to repent.

Any time we delay getting our life right with God we are rolling the dice. The same is true with leaving love unspoken or conflict with friends and family unresolved. If you die before the day is over, what would you truly regret? What crucial words have you not said? What is your conscience uneasy about? Do something to change that situation before the sun goes down today.

           

            Our passage from John takes things in a different direction. The disciples ask Jesus how sin is related to suffering. They assume that suffering is a result of sin, but they’re not sure if it was the man or his parents’ sin that lead to his blindness.

            Jesus says sin has nothing to do with it. The man isn’t suffering because of his sin; instead, his suffering is an opportunity to show God’s power. People don’t necessarily suffer because of sin, and it’s not really our role to try to assign blame for suffering anyway. Instead, suffering is a chance to show God’s love.

Again, Jesus mentions that the time available to us might be short; it certainly was for him. That means now is the time to do good. We often don’t know the reason for suffering, but we can figure out some ways to help. If someone is hungry, we can share a meal with them. If someone is lonely, we can spend time with them. If someone is afraid, we can show them they are not alone.

            Why did Superstorm Sandy devastate the New Jersey and New York coasts? We could say something about it from a meterological perspective: something about low pressure system hitting a high pressure region in just the right way to cause a particular storm. Some people might say something about climate change. We can talk about building codes and suburban sprawl and urban crowding.

            But more than that, more than answers or speculation, God calls us to respond to suffering by putting our love in action. Our calling isn’t to assign blame; it’s to roll up our sleeves and help. That’s what our wider church is doing through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and that’s what members of our church and our presbytery did through a recent mission trip to New Jersey.

            We’ve seen a few pictures and there will be more to come. We’ve heard some stories, and I’ll bet members of our team would love to share more at coffee hour. When people are hurting, it means the world to know that someone cares. It means so much for homeowners to see regular Christians showing up at their house to help. It reminds them that they are not alone. It reminds them that even though the world dissolved into chaos for them last year, God hasn’t forgotten them.

            We never know what God is going to do with our help. There are times we feel helpless because our efforts seem so small against the enormous suffering of the world. We can sweep debris and hang new drywall, but there are other houses still in ruins. We can tutor a child, but there are still hundreds more who are falling further behind each day.

There is always more to do, but God can do amazing things even with our smallest efforts. Maybe the neighbor of your homeowner in New Jersey had a bad experience in church that left her bitter about Christianity. Maybe now she has a new image of what Christians are like. Maybe next year she will wander into a church and hear a message that will move her to faith.

Maybe the spouse of one of the people on the mission trip felt stifled in his faith because he has never seen a connection between the Bible and his work. Maybe his wife’s story of transformation through the trip will lead him to ask deeper questions about his career. Maybe that will lead him to change his focus in a way that opens up a new world of faith and vocation.

Maybe Jesus’ death and resurrection never made sense to you before. Maybe you thought it was a bloody tragedy you wanted nothing to do with or a fairy tale ending made up by people two thousand years ago. Maybe one of the pictures of devastation and recovery catches your eye in a way that troubles your heart. Maybe you’ll be stuck with that image this afternoon in a way you can’t quite put your finger on. Maybe you’ll have your mind on something else entirely Tuesday morning when a voice inside you whispers that death has to come before resurrection and that new life can appear where you least expect it.

Friends of mine gave me a toolbox for my 21^st birthday. That toolbox is in my closet at home like it’s been in the closet of each of the eight places I’ve lived since college. When they gave me the box they put a poem in it that is still there now. It was written by R.L. Sharpe in 1890 and it’s a great fit today:

Each is given a bag of tools, A shapeless mass, A book of rules;

And each must make, Ere life is flown, A stumbling block Or a stepping stone.

Suffering can be a huge stumbling block for our faith. We wonder why such terrible things happen. We can’t figure out how a loving God allows such tragedy. That question can stall our faith. It can trip us up and keep us from reaching out to God. Or it can be an opportunity for us to reach out to our suffering neighbor with love, remembering that Jesus reached out to those who were suffering.

Suffering reminds us that life is uncertain and that the material things we collect in this world will not last. It invites us to examine our lives, and turn to God. John’s forceful preaching reminds us that repentance isn’t just a spiritual exercise; it’s got to bear fruit our lives visibly. The main way we change our lives is by reaching out to someone else to make their suffering more bearable.

We aren’t going to have all the answers we want, but we have the tools we need for our first step. So please, don’t wait. Make peace. Reach out to your neighbor. Tell your sister you love her. Feed someone who is hungry. Repent and believe the good news that God is love. Make that love your mission in the world. Now is the time.

Thanks be to God.

streams of water, 2.5.12

Psalm 119:41-50

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.

⁴²Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me, for I trust in your word. ⁴³Do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your ordinances. ⁴⁴I will keep your law continually, forever and ever. ⁴⁵I shall walk at liberty, for I have sought your precepts. ⁴⁶I will also speak of your decrees before kings, and shall not be put to shame;

⁴⁷I find my delight in your commandments, because I love them. ⁴⁸I revere your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. ⁴⁹Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. ⁵⁰This is my comfort in my distress, that your promise gives me life.

Psalm 1

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; ²but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. ³They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

⁴The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. ⁵Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; ⁶for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

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            This a very familiar Psalm to me but I missed half of what it was trying to say until a conversation with my dad over Christmas revealed a new side of the Psalm. I had focused on the image of the believer as a strong tree, but not thought much about the stream. My dad helped me see that the stream is God’s word, God’s law.

            The righteous person who makes God’s word his or her delight and meditates on it day and night is like a tree growing by a clear, flowing stream. The stream of God’s word strengthens and refreshes the tree constantly, making it grow strong and produce abundant fruit.

            There are a couple of ways this Psalm is especially helpful for us. The first is that with a tree there is an expectation of growth and change. There’s no such thing as a tree that doesn’t change: it is either growing, putting out leaves, producing fruit, and then pulling back its leaves for the winter or it is withering, dying and decaying.

            Too often we think of our lives as disciples and as a church in terms of maintenance: the goal is to stay the same. We think of children learning and growing, but once we “grow up” we don’t always expect to grow in our faith and knowledge from year to year. We all have ups and downs in our life, but overall, we should be stronger disciples with a fuller knowledge of scripture and a deeper commitment to Jesus next year than we are now.

            We grow as believers because we are rooted in faith and community and nourished by scripture. The scripture we read in worship together isn’t enough water to grow very much. The Psalmist talks about the believer meditating lovingly on the word day and night; that’s a stream of water. The scripture we read in worship is more like carefully placed water from a watering can. It can nourish particular parts of the tree but it’s not enough water on its own.

I’m a little nervous about this image, but maybe the sermon is like fertilizer around the roots of the tree: it speeds up the tree’s growth but without enough water it’s not going to do much. Please don’t let the scripture we read together be the only scripture you read; you really can’t grow to your potential that way.

There are lots of reasons we don’t pick up the Bible on a daily basis, but it’s never too late to change. For one thing, the Bible is big and it can be intimidating. Maybe we’ve started reading the Bible before but stalled out because we didn’t know where to start or got bogged down in details.

Like a stream, the Bible’s different parts flow differently. Some parts, like Mark’s Gospel, flow quickly and offer an exciting ride. Other parts flow very slowly. Right now I’m just getting through the first half of First Chronicles in my own reading and I’ve had to row pretty hard to get through it. I know soon enough the pace will pick up again, but it’s easy to get bogged down when the pace slows. Some of the Bible is boring, but even those parts have something to offer. As a last resort, if you really can’t plow through something at a particular time it’s OK to skip that part and move on with the story.

Also like a river, the first time through the Bible we can get slowed down because we don’t know what to expect. When we hit a slow patch this voice inside our head tells us that the Bible is boring and we’re just going to get stuck. If we’ve read the Bible before we know the slow patches pass and we get back to good stories before long.

In addition to slow parts of the stream, there are rocks that can be dangerous. Lots of believers have been thrown off course or even shipwrecked by rocks like, “Wives obey your husbands.” Or, “Slaves, obey your masters.” The rocks are part of the river, but we have to be careful how we maneuver around them. There are parts of the Bible that still drive me nuts, but the whole stream together is nourishing.

There are other parts of scripture that confuse us, where we don’t understand what’s going on. Sometimes a study aid can help; other times simply reading a hard passage a few times over will bring some clarity. You can also always send me an email or give me a call to ask for help with something you’re having trouble understanding. I love the Bible and I’ll study or talk with you about it as much as you want.