The Sermon Text —LUKE 13:1-9

At that very time 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? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 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; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’

Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?" He replied, "Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down." ’

The question of suffering is older than the Book of Job. Why do people suffer? Is suffering the way God has of punishing people for their sins? Two thousand years ago a group of people raised the question with Jesus. It seems that the Roman governor had massacred a number of Galileans. Though we don’t know the nature of the occasion it appears that they were killed in the midst of a religious celebration, perhaps as they were making a sacrifice to God—thus mingling their blood with the sacrifice.

In the Gospel of John Jesus is asked a similar question about a man who was born blind–"Who sinned, this man or his parents?" The answer of Jesus was–neither. We are not punished for our sins.

In this story He reminded them of a recent construction accident when a tower fell on eighteen workers. God was not picking them out to punish them. They were no worse sinners than the rest of the population.

A few years ago Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People," to respond to all the comments he had received about the sickness of his son who had a rapid aging disease. He looked like a little old man when he was a child. Kushner heard too many people suggest that it was the will of God, or that God needed his son more that the good rabbi did. Kushner asked, "What kind of a God is that?" Kushner’s answer to the question about suffering was that God has taken a hands off policy in regard to human suffering. In order not to violate human freedom God allows life to continue without his intervention. In other words Kushner was agreeing with Woody Allen who once wrote, "God isn’t dead. He just doesn’t want to get involved." Kushner suggested that God can and does provide comfort and solace but he doesn’t jump in and bail us out.

The book was a best seller and a number of people found it helpful. I was not among them. When we deal with the issue of suffering we are dealing with a mystery. We just don’t know why some suffer or even why some are cured and others are not. There are amazing things that happen that no one can explain. It appears to me that we just have to live with the mystery.

Some people, however, attribute some tragedies to God or to mystery which aren’t mysterious at all. A young man drives 80 miles an hour down a country road. He has been drinking. His car goes out of control, hits a tree or an embankment, and he is killed. His friends say, "I guess we just don’t understand why God allows such things to happen." One doesn’t want to be crass, but this is not a mystery. Bad things happen when you mix gas, speed and alcohol. The question is not, "Why did God allow this," but "Why did his friends allow this?" or "Why did he allow this?"

In Peter DeVries’ novel, "The Blood of the Lamb," the main character struggles over the meaning of God and suffering. How can a loving God allow suffering to exist. The man goes to the hospital where a caring doctor talks to him about the illness of his young daughter. As he leaves the doctor says, "God bless you." The man replies, "You believe in God?" The doctor replies, "And in humans, which is a whole lot harder. Still there are times when we can, for which one is glad." Amen!

A few years ago the talk of the death of God was misplaced. We were really talking about the death of man, or humans. Humans planned Auschwitz. Humans sent people to the gulags in Russia. It was humans killing other humans in Rwanda and Uganda. It is a human agenda that has Sunnis blowing up Shiite pilgrims on the way to worship. We are the ones who pollute, bomb and starve others.

In the midst of the "God is dead," controversy years ago I was on the campus of Iowa State University where I saw a sign that said: "God is Dead –Nietzsche." Under it someone had written, "Nietzsche is dead."–God. When we hear about the great sins of the world we wonder whether the human race is dying.

My conclusion is that we are not punished for our sins; but we are punished by our sins. Drink excessively and you will pay a price. Drive in an unsafe manner and it is bound to catch up with you. It isn’t God who punishes you; your sins punish you. It is true whether the sins are personal ones – pride, gluttony, sloth, envy—or whether they are communal such as war and pollution.

In the past decades we have watched oppressive societies rot from the inside. It happened to South Africa, and most of the Eastern bloc countries. When the wall fell so did their form of government. I’m but an amateur historian, but I wouldn’t be surprised that one find the same pattern in all oppressive societies.

A remarkable new film, Amazing Grace, tells the story of an English nobleman, William Wilberforce who lived at the end of the 18^th and the beginning of the 19^th Century. Wilberforce was elected to the House of Commons in his late twenties, and soon after had a deep religious experience. Wilberforce struggled with whether he ought to be in public service, or the service of God. A group of abolitionists approached him and proposed that he could do both. They were seeking a spokesman who would lead England to abolish the slave trade. Wilberforce accepted the challenge and made it his life’s work. Twenty years after he first introduced his bill in the House of Commons it was finally passed. Twenty years of agony and hard work. Twenty years of facing tremendous opposition from those who benefited from the slave trade. The slave trade was huge – 30,000 to 50,000 Africans were captured each year. Two thirds of those captured died in transit, confined in chains in a space the size of a telephone booth—with no toilets.

In addition to the abolitionists Wilberforce was mentored by John Newton, a former slave ship captain, who after his conversion, repented of his past and became a pastor. Newton is best remembered for writing the hymn, Amazing Grace. He, of course, was the wretch in the first line of that great hymn: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."

Newton was not punished for his sins of transporting twenty thousand slaves from Africa to the new world, but he was punished by them. He lived with twenty thousand ghosts, twenty thousand images of the people he transported in chains from freedom to slavery, twenty thousand men and women he treated as animals, not as humans. In the end, according to the film, he was literally blind, but after repentance and conversion and grace, he could see.

There are many powerful scenes in this movie. One that remains with me is a scene where a number of wealthy English have just finished a cruise around a harbor entertained by a string ensemble. They pull up next to a large ship and suddenly Wilberforce appears on the deck above them. This is the slave ship, The Madagascar, he told them. Suddenly they are overcome by the stench that came from the ship. Wilberforce explained that what they smelled was the stench of death. All sin has a smell, and slavery a very potent smell. He knew that until people had a personal encounter with the slave trade it wouldn’t be real to them. For twenty years he did everything he could to help his countrymen see it, touch it or smell it. When enough did the slave trade ended.

We are still paying the price for slavery in the United States 150 plus years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery destroyed homes, and families and self esteem. How long will it take to rebuild?

This past week it is becoming clear that we are paying the price for government supported gambling. There are millions of dollars to be made off gambling, and that means people who wish to promote gambling are spreading their money around on politicians. A Kenosha businessman, who would have a part ownership in a Casino, found a way to give $500,000 in the governor’s race. Certainly, it was given with the assumption that it was buying support from those who received it.

A huge majority rejected the extension of gambling in Dane County a few years ago, but attempts to revisit it are underway. We will not be punished for gambling, but we will be punished by gambling. It is rotten at the core.

Name your sin – and you will soon find how it changes your life in a negative way.

And what do we do with all of this? Jesus is quite clear. Repent. Change. Confess our sins, because Jesus is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and will cleanse us – that is right – cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is our goal in Lent. Confession, absolution and cleansing. Amen.

© 2007