STUFF happens!
Luke 13:1-5
We are starting the third week of the season of Lent. Lint is a season of life review where we ask the Spirit to lead us toward personal repentance for some of our choices, words and actions.
It is a time when we examine the Good the Bad and the Ugly in our daily walk with Christ. It is a season where we look to shed the burdens of the sin that we allow to build up on our soul which weighs us down or at least separates us from growing in our relationship with God.
The kinds of sins that I am led to consider are not the big things that are obvious and clear.
I worry about not dealing with the “smaller” things. I think that all too often we stop worrying about the little white lies, the opportunities refused, the gossip spoken and the selfish choices.
What happens is that either they don’t bother us because everyone is doing IT…or we get over the feeling of gilt or conviction because it seems to be there all the time.
-- Lent is a season when we take a stick and stir up the trash pile of our past.
What happens when we stir up an old trash pile? … Normally we experience a bad aroma…more specifically it stinks.
The idea is not to experience the stink for stink sake or guilt for guilt sake but to make sure we have dealt with past or accumulated issues.
We will be taking our scripture in segments today.
In this Gospel Jesus has been in Jerusalem teaching the crowds. He has been speaking about the coming of the kingdom of God. He has connected how everyone knows how to predict the weather based on wind direction and yet they don’t see the signs of God’s coming and respond accordingly.
-- Some of the people start tossing a situation out to see what Jesus has to say about it.
Our reading comes from Luke 13:1-5 and we will start with 1-3
“Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
We don’t have any direct historical connection to the event that the people were referring to however, the Jewish historian Josephus documents at least 5 occasions when Pilate’s soldiers’ killed people in the temple.
It seems that this event is fresh. And the people killed were from Galilee.
That’s what happens today when the news channel tells us about events that claim lives. We talk about them. The TV is filled with special reports and updates. We have advanced to where we can see actual images of destruction while the fires are still burning.
Typically people ask questions like where was God, this is especially true the closer the event is to our lives.
Jesus asks a rhetorical question, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners that other Galileans?”
That leads me to ask a question, where were the people from that were having the discussion?
Let’s read the next block – Vs. 4-5 and look for a suggestion: Jesus continues, “Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."”
Jesus refers to an accident that must also be recent. The tower of Siloam was a defensive position in the wall around the city. It was a visible sign of vigilance and protection to those living in the city. However, it collapsed and 18 Jerusalemites were killed.
The Jerusalem News must be filled with bad news and has everyone talking.
Jesus addition of another event seems to broaden the scope of his response.
First death was not limited to the Galileans this second event involved local people.
That seems to hint to me that the conversation started with some Jerusalemites.
Jesus is balancing one tragedy against another to broaden the real results of the event.
I think that Jesus was challenging the hearer’s perspective of the event. They seem to be looking to Jesus to explain Why this kind of thing happens.
The common view of the day was suffering in life was connected to sin while prosperity was proportional to piety…to righteousness.
Or more simply stated bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people.
--- Are we much different today?
After the initial shock of seeing a tragedy on the news we start to look for who to blame. We want to know why the accident happened. (Pilot error or mechanical failure) We want the police to catch the attackers and bring them to justice.
But when something seems random or caused by a natural disaster we still want to assign blame. Insurance list these natural things as being a Act of God. But as Christians we have a fear and respect for God that makes us hesitate to say that out loud. So we are stuck looking to assign blame.
So what happens is that we often put the responsibility on the victims.
Looking to the news of recent weeks I read things written by Christians about the Earthquake in Haiti. That tragic event happened because of all the VOO DOO that is down there. Or years ago with Hurricane Katrina Christians spoke of God’s judgment because of the sin of the city of New Orleans.
-- Assigning blame helps us to feel a little better.
However, Jesus response to both situations an act of terror and an accident , He challenges and rejects our normal assumptions. “I tell you no!”
The events are not based on the individual’s sins.
He is very specific. He clearly is saying that God is not pronouncing a judgment based on Good and bad of the individuals in these events.
-- I really want to fill in the gaps a little but I can only suggest that if it is not punishment it falls to something simpler.
STUFF HAPPENS!!!
Stuff happens because we are in a sinful world.
We connect – BLAME - it all to the choices of Adam and Eve. The earth was released from God’s perfection. Things happen because of decay and weather and geology and most often by peoples choices. Bad choices. Evil choices. Selfish choices.
People choose to sin for all kinds of reasons. The easiest ones to grasp are because we often enjoy something and make a choice for our reasons instead of for the right or righteous reasons.
Jesus is addressing the age old problem of deciding that we are better than someone else based on life problems, accidents, financial or other kinds of negative situations.
I am sure that you are aware that bad things happen to seemingly good and righteous people all the time.
-- But that does not stop us from having a little thought in the back of our minds, I wonder what he or she did to upset God?
The problem with the people that were with Jesus that remains common even today is that we have a perspective that is distorted by the sin in our lives.
We use our logic and a tainted/smelly view of right and wrong, of innocence and guilt to speak of God’s judgment on people and situations.
In this scripture Jesus clearly states that individual tragedies are not sent by God for any reason that we might imagine.
I don’t believe that God sends an earthquake, or crashes a plane or sends an illness as a punishment or a sign of judgment in this life.
According to scripture judgment comes later.
So sudden tragic events are not sent to get our attention…to force a change in the way people act.
However, God will use those opportunities to raise our awareness of needing Him and trusting in Him. I also believe that when events happen God hears prayers and responds on many levels. He will and does intervene and act within our lives.
Of all the sins that we may have in our trash pile, I am afraid that Christians are often guilty of judging people to be worse than ourselves because of attacks, accidents and natural disasters.
For Jesus the important thing to identify when an event like that happens leads to the reminder that repentance is required.
We each should choose to live as if today is our last, we don’t know what may happen. We should be ready or we may also parish!
I guess all of us have received those tracts, little slips of paper that have a picture of a hearse that say are you ready? Or “Do you KNOW where you will be if you wake up tomorrow dead?”
I don’t know how effective those things are. They are normally written for non- believers. But they can be a reminder for believers that the kingdom is coming.
That is what Jesus was saying, the kingdom is almost here and you want to be prepared. According to Jesus, if they had the relationship with God then tragedy was not a total loss.
He was telling his hearers that God does not act like they think he does.
And what they are thinking is a sin because they place sin on a scale where events were judged against their Good compared to the assumed Bad and Ugly of other people.
Lent is a season in the Christians year when Christians with the help of the Holy Spirit root around in our trash piles of our past because we should not take our little sins the common silent judgments and opportunities ignored for granted.
I am not talking about the things that you have already handed over to God and just can’t forgive yourself for. You can keep asking for assistance for those but they are not the problem we are identifying today.
The things I believe that you need to uncover are out of sight and mind not because we have dealt with them but because we have covered them up by justifying our actions –
Everyone does it!
It does not hurt anyone.
Or by deciding that you could not help yourself.
Or you may have just decided to forget and ignore the sin because you know you can’t fix it.
Folks, the problem with unresolved – unforgiven sin in our lives is like ice on an airplane’s wings. It does not have to be very thick before a plane is unable to stay in the air.
And to go one step further, it is like frost on our car windshields. Just because it is there, it changes our perspective when we are driving. We can’t see clearly and it becomes easier for us to drive into a personal disaster for ourselves and all too often we involve other people.
The best news is that no matter how thick the ice or how strong the stink, how hidden and covered the offence we can turn to Jesus and gain complete forgiveness based on the Grace of God.
Here the good news Christ died for US while we were still sinners.
Pray with Me:
Lord Jesus, we invite you renew our hearts to your standards today, and we ask that you root around in the trash that we carry around and identify the things that we need to repent of and change. We ask for your forgiveness of all of our sin and seek your help in forgiving ourselves and releasing the guilt and shame that keeps us from living as your chosen people. We ask that you help us to notice the good things we do in your name and to be encouraged to do and be more based on your will, power and direction.
Please wash away all the sinful tendencies toward evil and replace them with a hunger and thirst for your righteousness. We need your help, Lord God, in living this life in Christ. Please send your Holy Spirit afresh into our lives to help us, heal us, to lead and transform us.
In Jesus Christ we pray, and all God’s people say, “Amen."
All Glory Be to God!
