	Thought of the week
	Faith story
	Special events

About Us	\| What We Do	\| What's On	\| Services	\| Sermons	\| Links	\| Photos	\| Contact Us	\| Home

March 7, 2010 Sermon

Lent III: The Root of the Matter (Isaiah 55: 1-3a, 6-12; Luke 13: 1-9)

Rev. Sally Harris

O Holy One, come now to this place.
Make your presence known.
Give to us eyes to see your mystery.
Ears to hear your Word.
And a heart to follow you.
Send our roots rain. Amen

I don't know about you, but I don’t like messy situations. Situations that are complex - uncertain. I don't like unanswered questions, the limbo of confusing thoughts and perplexing concepts. Who does not long for simplicity? Simple questions - simple answers. Straightforward and decisive thinking – crisp conclusions. Relationships with clear boundaries and definitions. Words and concepts that when spoken denote clarity for all. Imagine all that could be accomplished if only things and people and God were uncomplicated and easy to understand. But no, that's not how it is or ever will be. But that does not stop us from seeking certainty even if it means blaming the victims.

Our gospel writer must have understood that… Luke tells of how people came to Jesus and spoke of a massacre of Galileans while they were offering sacrifices to God. The assumption is that they must have done something wrong to deserve that. The certainty principle at work, “Bad things happen to bad people” Jesus’ response is to deny that the Galileans were, in some way, deserving of the massacre. Then Jesus sites the tragedy of the collapse of the Tower of Siloam just outside Jerusalem as another case for consideration. Were the eighteen people who were killed in that tragedy worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? Jesus is again denying the certainty principle. The principle that states bad things happened to bad people and good people only received blessing upon blessing. So tragic accidents, massacres and any other suffering had to have been caused, in some way by the people who suffered in the event. They must have drawn it to themselves! Some lesson had to be learned; some sin needed to be atoned.

We have recently seen the Christian Fundamentalist certainty principle at work through the words of televangelist Pat Roberston when he spoke on the earthquake in Haiti that destroyed the capital and killed tens of thousands of people, Jan. 13, 2010. Robertson said: “It may be a blessing in disguise. … Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. Haitians were originally under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal. Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”

Blame the victims is what this kind of thinking is. It is the same mentality that says women who get raped must have deserved it! It is a shocking line of argument but it feeds the need to always explain what cannot be explained – the need for certainty; the need to blame someone – if not the victim then God.

I love philosopher Sam Keen’s saying, “Seek simplicity but respect complexity” The mysteries of life and death, tragedy and blessing, demand that respect.

Jesus, in both case studies, offers his absolution of the victims from any guilt in the disaster, by calling the audience, to repent or else they will perish in the same way.

Now there is a mysterious statement if there ever was one!

But as preacher and theologian, Barbara Brown Taylor writes: There is no sense spending too much time trying to decipher this piece of good news. As far as I can tell, it is meant not to aid reason but to disarm it. In an intervention aimed NOT at his listeners’ heads, but hearts, Jesus touches the panic they have inside of them about all the awful things that are happening around them. Those things terrify them. They have lain awake at night making lists of what could have caused such tragedies and what can protect them from such catastrophes. What they have come up with is to cling even harder to the belief that if only they do things the right way they will be safe and only the bad people or those that need to learn a hard lesson or those that don’t believe in the right God or the right rules or…

While Jesus does not honor their illusion that they can protect themselves in this way, he does seem to honor the vulnerability that their fright has opened up in them. It is not a bad thing for them to feel the full fragility of their lives. It is not a bad thing for them to count their breaths in the dark -- not if it makes them turn toward the light.

It is that turning he wants for them. Don’t worry about Pilate and all the other things that can come crashing down on your heads, he tells them. Terrible things happen and so much of life is uncontrollable but don’t let that stop you from getting to the root of the matter. You see that torn place your fear has opened up inside of you is a holy place. Look around while you are there. Pay attention to what you feel. It may hurt you to stay there and it may hurt you to see, but it is not the kind of hurt that leads to death. It is the kind that leads to life.

Depending on what you want from God, this may not sound like good news. But for those of us who have discovered that we cannot make life safe nor God tame, it is gospel enough. What we can do is turn our faces to the light. That way, whatever befalls us, we will fall the right way – right into the arms of a loving gardener. Thanks be to God! [resources: Peter Woods and Barbara Brown Taylor]

Print/Download this in Word.doc

All are Welcome!