Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from Luke 13:1-13

Proclaimed on March 14, 2004

Some time back the Sojourners magazine had within it this interesting little story. It was about a man in California traveling home on a busy turnpike, when he was pulled over by a State Trooper. As the trooper got out of his patrol car and approached the man’s car, the man suddenly burst from his vehicle shouting obscenities. He then proceeded to rip out a device from his dashboard, throwing it to the ground, and then stomping on it repeatedly until nothing was left of it but pieces of plastic and metal scattered across the road. “I can’t believe it,” the driver screamed angrily. “I paid almost $500 for this state-of-the-art radar detector, and it DIDN’T WORK!” The officer then informed the irate driver that he had not been stopped for speeding. He was pulled over because his front license plate was missing.

What we have in this story is an angry person who made a rush to judgment. It is not such an uncommon occurrence. Indeed, it is something that most of us do regularly. Such rushes to judgment became the focus of Jesus in our Gospel reading today. In this story Jesus is visiting Jerusalem for one last time. During this visit some Galileans had been killed in the Temple while offering up some sacrifices. This is truly something that we would not think would happen to us when we come to Church to worship. Down the road a piece eighteen other people were killed when a stone tower they were constructing collapsed and fell upon them. Each of these was a tragic event. They were certainly more serious in nature than a man being pulled over by a State Trooper. What these events do have in common is that the people bringing these questions to Jesus were making the same sort of rushes to judgment. But unlike the man being pulled over on the turnpike blaming an assumed defective radar detector, these people were blaming God for these tragedies. Jesus’ response to these beliefs, however, was not to entertain their theological explanations, but rather find ways of living through these events. He stated this when he asked and answered, “Were these victims any worse than the rest? Of course not!!!”

Now this is an interesting pronouncement, for on further investigation one might come to a different conclusion. The Galileans who died in the Temple were probably Jewish revolutionaries who were out to overthrow the Roman government, but who made the foolish mistake of coming to Jerusalem to worship in the Temple; worship which would take place under the very nose of the government they were trying to destroy. Did they think they were invincible? Or, what were the circumstances of the eighteen workers who died when a tower fell on them? They were probably working on the aqueduct that Pilot was building in order to bring water into Jerusalem. However, in order to finance this huge project Pilot was using money that he had confiscated from the Temple treasury. As a result, various Jewish groups were going about doing things to sabotage the various construction sites, which might have brought about the death of these eighteen laborers. Now if this were a matter of God’s judgment, then God wasn’t making much sense, since each of the groups involved in these tragedies were on opposite political sides. Were these people involved in wrongdoing? A good case could be made for either side, but not good enough to explain God’s judgment. None of the persons involved in these events were necessarily any more evil than the rest of the population; the most that could be said of them was that they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Rather then deal with the tragedies, and God’s possible role in them, Jesus dealt instead with the people’s rush to judgment. He did this through the parable of the fig tree that followed. In the Hebrew Scriptures the fig tree was a common symbol for the Hebrew nation. This story of the fig tree revealed God’s hesitation to rush to judgment, revealing in its place a God of great patience. How did God reveal Divine patience? Like the gardener in the story, God adds a little manure where it counts with the hope of encouraging growth and fruitfulness. Now did the gardener create the manure? No, as the folk of AA are given to say, “manure happens!” God, like the gardener, takes what is available and then makes the best possible use of it.

The same can be said of human sin and evil (whether it be our own or that of others), God simply makes the best use of it. God is in no rush to judge us. God will use whatever is available to bring us into a relationship with God’s self. Therefore, Jesus’ suggestion for how to deal with tragedy or evil is to repent. No, this does not mean to assume the guilt for the event, for it may have little to do with us. Rather, it is simply to remove any obstacles within us that may separate us from God, so that we may be comforted, nourished, and made better persons because of these circumstances.

During the time of Jesus the people did not heed his teachings, nor did they repent. Rather in a few days after Jesus had said these things they would have him hanging from a cross, dying for no sin of his own. Now anyone seeing Jesus dying on that cross might assume that Jesus had done something wrong or that God was punishing him. However, those who knew Jesus best would know that this was a rush to judgment. What is interesting to note is that God lived out the words of Jesus: God would be patient with those who killed Jesus. God instead made the best of the circumstances by taking the manure of their evil deeds and transforming it into good. God did this first by raising Jesus from the dead. God did not rush to judgment. Nor did God move to destroy the Hebrew nation. God was patient. Eventually, the evil of the nation destroyed itself. It took forty years for their sin to destroy the nation, during which time God would build up the Church.

The question for us today is, however, are we much different than the people who confronted Jesus? Perhaps it is safe to say that we are at least like the man who in being pulled over by the State Trooper made a wrong rush to judgment. But in of our rushes to judgment the words of Jesus continue to be delivered to us through the mouths of today’s prophets. Dr. M. Scott Peck, in his book The Road Less Traveled, begins by saying, “Life is difficult.” Later, he profoundly adds, “Once we understand that life is difficult, we transcend it. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult, it no longer matters.” In other words, evil, grief, and difficult times are simply facts of life. For all of us the norm for life is a series of obstacles, confrontations, and tragedies. Ascribing blame does not help the problem. Accepting our problems allows us to deal with them more effectively, as well as grow wiser and stronger because of it.

C. S. Lewis adds to our understanding by saying, “Pain is not only immediately recognizable evil, but evil impossible to ignore. Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. No doubt Pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity for amendment.”

In essence, evil and its accompanying pain are always around us. Like that man in California traveling down that busy turnpike, we never know when we will be pulled over by a trooper. It may, or may not be, something we can readily understand. Rather than simply being like that one driver who burst from his car smashing his new radar detector to pieces; who in his rush to judgment defined that which could not be adequately defined, but was merely assigning blame; it is far more helpful for us to stop in the midst of our pain and listen to the explanation of the trooper, or in our case, the voice of God. For in this manner we not only invite the presence of God, but also are transformed in God’s presence. It is as simple as the Holy Eucharist that we are about to celebrate. In it we relive the pain of Christ, the evil of his death that eludes any reasonable explanation. But instead of receiving Divine blame, we experience a Divinity willing to suffer with us, a Divinity which embraces us in those loving arms stretched out upon the hard wood of the cross. Here we are transformed in the midst of the evil by a patient and loving God. We will not be able understand it, but it is God’s answer to the problem of evil; it is the mystery of a patient love that gently conquers and transforms, but never rushes to judgment.