"Spreading Manure "

Luke 13: 1-9

March 7, 2010
   

While William Sloan Coffin was pastor of Riverside Church in New York City, his son Alex died in an automobile accident. The accident occurred in Boston during a driving rain storm. Alex lost control of his car and fell into the Boston Harbor. His son’s death devastated Coffin who received words of encouragement from his congregation. But he also became angered when a well-meaning comforter suggested that Alex’s death was the will of God.
Coffin understood that Alex had a bad windshield wiper and that he was probably driving too fast in the storm. There were no street lights along that stretch of road and no guard rails. But Coffin responded to the suggestion that it was God’s will that we never know enough to say that. “My own consolation,” said Coffin, “lies in knowing that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God’s heart was the first of all our hearts to break.” (1)
We have experienced a number of tragedies in recent years. Recently, we have seen more than 222,000 people die in an earthquake in Haiti. Another earthquake and a tsunami rocked Chili only a few days after the earthquake in Haiti....and then another in Taiwan. We wonder if the tremors will ever end. The after affects of Hurricane Katrina are still evident on America’s southern coastline. The memories remain vivid of a gunman shooting people at random at Fort Hood Texas last year. Images of students shooting their classmates at Colorado’s Columbine High School seem fresh. None of us have forgotten the lasting impressions of 9-11 as the twin towers crumbled, a plane crashed into the Pentagon and another went down in Pennsylvania. We still live in the aftermath of that day. And we live each day knowing that more than 30,000 children die from hunger. With each event and hurtful memory we seek answers, often questioning the presence of God, or asking why an all-powerful God would allow such tragedies. Some even suggest, as with the AIDS epidemic, that these are God’s acts of judgement.
We want to understand why human suffering persists. Each tragic event moves us further from our deepest human need, to feel in control of life.
Connecting God to human misfortune has roots in scripture. The Hebrew story of Job suggests a connection between suffering and sin. Job, a wealthy man, is tested by Satan, losing his wealth and family. His suffering brings questions from this man of faith. Why has this happened to me? One of Job’s friends suggests his suffering is a result of his sin. What is it you have done wrong, Job? His question emerges from an understanding that faithfulness is rewarded with wealth and sin is punished by suffering.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is walking with his disciples when they see a blind man. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9: 2 NRSV)
Scriptures reveal a cultural understanding that faithfulness is rewarded by God, and sin is punished by suffering. Such an understanding of reward and punishment can still be found today.
Jesus rejected any relationship between sin and suffering. His argument is formulated around two specific examples. Referring to the murder of some Galileans in a synagogue by Pilate’s men Jesus asks, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.” (Luke 13: 2-3 NRSV) Secondly, Jesus referred to the death of eighteen people when the tower of Siloam fell on them. “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” (vs. 4-5)
Jesus refused to connect the suffering of these people with sin. He did, though, use the illustrations to encourage repentance.
These words of judgment are difficult to hear. We prefer the kinder and gentler Jesus, the one who heals people, who raises the dead, who calls children to his side and who preaches love. Hearing Jesus call us to repentance is difficult.
Repentance is a significant theme of the gospels. Each of the synoptic gospels precede Jesus’ ministry with references to John the Baptist. Some believed John to be the Messiah, but he pointed them to one coming in the future who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3: 16-17 NRSV) John’s image of the Messiah to come is one who will bring judgment.
Jesus, himself, hinted as to his role in judement. “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 3: 32 NRSV) Repentance is a significant theme of the gospels and we know that repentance means to ‘turn around.’
While we know the definition of repentance, we may not be sure how Jesus’ call to repentance applies to us. Examining some of the scripture references to repentance may help us to unpack its application to us.
Our text is the main reference to repentance in the Gospel of Luke, but there are others. In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus speaks of the joy of the one sheep who is returned to the flock. “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15: 7 NRSV).
The familiar story of the rich man Lazarus is found in the sixteenth chapter of Luke. His fortunes changed in the after-life as Abraham, the man who begged for crumbs from the table of Lazarus on earth, was living lavishly on the far side of a chasm. Lazarus lamented and thought of his five brothers who remained on earth. He asked they might be warned so they could forgo his torment. Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets, they should listen to them.” (Luke 16: 29) Lazarus replied, “If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” (vs. 30)
In chapter 17, Jesus instructs his disciples on how to deal with a sinner. “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.” (Luke 17: 3-4)
Luke concludes his gospel with words about repentance. In fact, as the gospel concludes and Jesus is ascending into heaven, he leaves his disciples with these words, that “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” (Luke 24: 47) His whole ministry had been about repentance.....and forgiveness.
To understand what Jesus meant when he called us to repentance, we must reflect upon his entire ministry. Jesus came to bring life in its fullest. He lived to change lives and to change the world. He came to make a difference and that is what he calls us to do. Unlike Lazarus who failed to produce fruit, we are called to teach and heal as Jesus did. We are called to respond to the physical and spiritual needs of people, even in the face of opposition, as Jesus did. We are called to work for justice such as preventing the senseless killing of the worshiping Galileans, and to heal those who do suffer. Jesus’ call to repentance is a call to reveal the presence of God to those who suffer.
Jesus illustrates his call to repentance with a parable about a fig tree. A vineyard owner was ready to cut down a fig tree which had not produced fruit for three years. The gardener, though, pleaded for the tree. “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” (Luke 13: 8-9) The story centers on the need for God’s mercy, and for nurture represented by tilling the soil and providing nutrients. It reveals God’s grace, while understanding that one must produce fruit at some point.
A young lad finished dressing for church before the rest of his family. It was a rainy day and young Tommy was drawn outside to the closest mud puddle. He came back inside with mud from head to toe, and facing an angry mother. “Mom, I’m sorry I got into the mud,” said Tommy. “Okay,” she said, “go jump in the bathtub and change clothes!” The boy looked at her and said, “No.” “What do you mean, no” she said. “Mom, I don’t want to be clean, I just want to be forgiven.”
All of us crave forgiveness to assuage our guilt. But we also need to understand that repentance does involve being clean, whipping away our past.
When Jesus wanted to wash the feet of his disciples Peter hesitated. “You will never wash my feet,” said Peter. Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13: 8-9)
Repentance does mean turning around. It means forgetting the past. It also means bearing fruit, transforming other lives to reveal the presence of God.
Jesus makes it clear that suffering is not a result of sin, but I am convinced that those who suffer are led to a unique openness to God. Those who suffer have a deeper understanding of God.
BBC reporter Jeremy Vine conducted a survey some years ago. He asked more than 10,000 people around the world one question, “Does suffering in the world make it harder for you to believe in God?” The results startled Vine.
The result from his countrymen in Great Britain was “Yes,” suffering does make it difficult to believe in God. But the result in countries with a high level of poverty and suffering such as Nigeria or India was quite different. Comparatively few people in those countries found suffering a challenge to their faith in God.
While tragedy has no direct relationship to sin, God’s grace in the midst of our suffering often brings us closer to God. Tommy Dorsey found that to be true.
The words to Dorsey’s song “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” (# 474 in the United Methodist Hymnal) came from Dorsey’s experience of loss. Just as he was ready to take the stage for a 1932 concert in Saint Louis, he received word from his home in Chicago that his wife, Nettie, had died during childbirth. When he returned home he discovered that the child had also died. His grief led Dorsey to seclude himself and struggle with why this had happened to him, a faithful man and the son of a minister. Where was God in the midst of his grief?
Days later, as he had the courage to sit at his piano it was as if the Holy Spirit was directing his fingers to plunk out the tune to “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” “Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light: Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.”
Tommy Dorsey wanted to understand his plight. We all want to understand, and often turn to blaming others, and blaming God for our suffering. In the end, the peace we crave is found in our turning around, and discovering that God offers us grace every step of our journey. Sharing God’s presence is the fruit Jesus calls for. It is the repentance and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospels.

(1) A sermon “Could This Be The Year for Figs?” by the Reverend Dr. Barbara K. Lundblad, March 18, 2001.