The Third Sunday of Lent

March 7, 2010
The Ven. Richard I Cluett

There’s this guy. He lives down there in Virginia Beach. He is a preacher who has a TV program. He fancies himself God’s voice, God’s truth. He believes that he has a unique insight into the mind, heart, will, intentions and actions of God.

One time he said that he prayed to God that a storm would be diverted from Virginia Beach and God did it and sent the storm to some other less righteous place. Another time he said that the devastation of New Orleans in the hurricane and storm surge of Katrina was God’s judgment on the modern day Sodom and Gomorrah that is New Orleans. Recently he said that God destroyed Haiti with the earthquake because more than 100 years ago the people of Haiti had made a pact with the devil when they founded their country.

What do you think?

Jesus said, there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?... Or 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? No, I tell you…

We human beings are always looking to see what or who is to blame for the bad stuff that happens. “Whose fault is it? What did they do to bring this on?” A mother blames herself because her child is born with some condition or is afflicted later with some disease. She says, “It must be my fault?”

But, it just is. It just happened. Towers fall, buildings fall down, earthquakes shatter, storms hit, disease strikes and people die. Sometimes it just happens.

It is not surprising to me that in the midst of crisis or chaos, when our resources are low and we are running on empty, that we begin to search around, flail around, for some reason, some cause, some purpose, someone or something to blame. It is human nature. We want to know why. “Why?! Why did this happen? I don’t understand! Tell me why? What did I do? What did they do to deserve this?”

In the midst of things we cannot control, we crave control over the chaos of our lives.

The answer to the questions is most often “Nothing”. They did nothing. No one did anything. It just happened. Towers fall, buildings crash down, earthquakes shatter, storms hit, disease strikes and people die.

But we all know, too, that some people do do bad things. People do suffer at the hands of others, because of the decisions of others, because of the willful violence of others, because of the politics of others, because of the policies of others, because of the power needs of others – people do suffer, through no fault of their own. Indeed some suffer horribly at the hands of others.

As but one example, think of our brothers and sisters and the church in Southern Sudan; what they have suffered in the last 50 years at the hands of the government of Sudan: rape, war, pillage, destruction, death and exile. They deserved none of it.

As one commentator said, eventually we have to come to the point “where we have to recognize bastardry for what it is and stop attributing everything to God.” People do bad things that do harm to others.

In the fig tree example Jesus reminds us that there are consequences for our actions, for our behavior. If we break the law, eventually we will be caught and punished according to the law. If we abuse our bodies, if we don’t care for our bodies, our health, disease and death are more likely to happen sooner rather than later. There are consequences for our behavior.

For those of us in a relationship with God in Christ, it is not enough just to be, just to exist, simply to loll around, to take up space, we are called to do something.

In the lesson from Exodus, we hear that God is with us; that God is concerned about and involved in life and in the lives that God has created. It is the promise that is at the heart of our relationship with God. That God is with us and will be with us always and ever, now and forever.

We hear God’s words spoken to Moses, and through Moses to all of Israel and to us their descendants, “I have seen the misery of my people; I have heard their cry. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them… Moses, I am sending you to my people.”

God with… God was with Abraham, God was with Isaac. God was with Jacob. All of history testifies to the presence of God with the people even when we don’t know it, even when we can’t see it, even when we don’t feel it, in all circumstances of our lives… God knows, God sees, God hears, God comes to be with us, often embodied in another human being.

A friend tells about a friend, a single mother and her small daughter. “Late one night their city was in flames. In the midst of it all a little girl was in her bed trying to go to sleep, but the noises out¬side her home — shouts, flashing lights, gunfire, po¬lice cars, fire engines — kept her awake. She was afraid and she was crying. ‘Hush, child, God is with you,’ her mother called from the bedroom across the hall. The frightened little girl answered in her small voice, ‘I know he is, but could you come and get into bed with me. I need someone with skin.’”

If our response is one of compassion, then the presence of God will be revealed in the chaos or misery, in the midst of people’s lives whatever their circumstances. God's people will be comforted and we will live in a community of faith, witness, and ministry that is an image of the loving, compassion¬ate, powerful presence of God in the here-and-now. It will be like it is in heaven and is meant to be here on earth.

When Jesus teaches, he almost always says "The kingdom of heaven is like...the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, like a pearl; like a net full of fish.

Well, The kingdom of heaven is like – you and me, whenever we soothe, feed, build, clothe, advocate for, pray for, be with one another. Whenever we become indignant on behalf of the poor and suffering; whenever we bring resources to help make the world more just, whenever we hear someone's cry, and we go to them, and we be with them.

We stand on holy ground, in the presence of the Living God who has “seen the misery of the people; has heard their cry; who knows their sufferings, and has come to deliver them.” and who sends us to be his compassionate, comforting presence in the world; and who will come to judge us, not on our rate of suc¬cess, but on our faithfulness. This is the God who calls us.