Today’s gospel gets at the heart of the human question — what’s the point? What’s the point of this life? I mean, come on ….half a million people have died in our country alone…over 2 and a half million worldwide in the past year from this pandemic. Millions more are still battling its long term effects. Why did this happen to them? Did they deserve it? Were they any worse than anyone else? Hardly. In fact, some were the folks who had selflessly cared for the sick in hospitals…while many of those who went on as if life was normal didn’t suffer at all. Is that fair? Of course not. Life is not fair. Death comes to those who are faithful and good just as surely as it does to those who are self serving and evil. So…what’s the point?
Why are some born into the terrors and despair of life in Syria or Afghanistan, the Congo or Guatemala…while other are born into comfort in the US or Canada or Japan? Sometimes the news of the world…the news of our lives…seems so dire…we wonder. What’s the point? Why are we here? Everything seems so random, so unfair…so out of control….What makes life worth living?
And is a world that has always been filled with sickness and death, violence and injustice….this isn’t exactly a new question. So many things have changed to be almost unrecognizable from the time of Jesus — with our industry and mechanization, our technology and scientific discoveries — we flip a switch for light and heat — we watch entertainment on screens that was in our homes filled with gadgets and comforts of all kinds…we can talk to people on the other side of the planet..and even see them…and we can climb into a pile of metal and travel to the other side of the plane in less than a day. The information of the world…and misinformation…is at our fingertips…we just google it. This is a radically wildly different world we live in. Yet the basics have not changed. There is still corruption. There is still greed. There is still disease. Storms still rage and people still suffer…while all to often those lucky enough to have comfort pat themselves on the back and take credit for it themselves. No… Humans have not changed. And so, like others from the dawn of time…we wonder, what’s the point?
And that’s exactly what I think Jesus is getting at in what we read today. We humans desperately want to believe in a world where good is rewarded and evil punished….we want karma, honestly. We want people to get what they deserve. And yet, we know it doesn’t work that way. We get glimmers of justice…but are then overwhelmed by the innocent suffering of so many. The tower of Siloam falls and crushes the workers underneath the rubble…a horrible accident killing hardworking laborers just trying to support their families. Pilate executes and defiles Jewish prisoners…smearing their blood onto their temple sacrifices…proving how twisted and evil people can be. It makes me think of the sick things our own military has done to Muslim prisoners. And do you really think these people deserved it? That they were worse than anyone else? Of course not. This is the problem of evil. The argument that so many have for not believing in God. How could God allow evil to persist…how could God let half a million people just die…what of our prayers? I read an article just this week…that Covid-19 proves that the Christian God does not exist…because people’s prayers have not been answered.
And this morning….Jesus responds. Jesus responds to the human question…of what’s the point? And he responds with a story about a fig tree..a fig tree that wasn’t doing what it was intended to do. That isn’t being what it was created to be. It wasn’t bearing fruit, and the owner was ready to chop it down. But the gardener says…give it another year. Let me care for it tenderly a little longer…give it the fertilizer it needs…let me give it another chance.
This, my friends, is God’s answer to all the wrong in the world. To keep nurturing, to keep loving, to keep giving us another chance to come back from the dead. This is who Jesus is…why Jesus is — he comes to nurture, to heal and to love and to give us another chance to come back from the dead.
I cannot fathom the why of Covid or the why of hurricanes or horrific accidents or cancer. I cannot fathom the why of the evil we humans visit upon one another. I don’t have answers. And, like the author of the article I read, I get impatient with Biblical promises that seem to say if we pray hard enough or have enough faith, our prayers will be answered. And the Biblical stories of God who executes judgment by killing people — like the plagues and the Egyptian army swept away in the sea, the Caananites killed by the Israelites, the Flood….they don’t help. Surely God isn’t killing people willy nilly to satisfy some sort of revenge. My confirmands write worship notes when they are going through confirmation….and more than one has raised the question after reading one of those Bible stories in church — are we really ok with the fact that God just killed a whole bunch of people here?
So…what’s the point? Where is God? Is God really as capricious or uncaring as some of the Bible stories suggest?
For me, this story today is one of the reasons I am a Christian. It’s because I believe Jesus is God’s true reflection in this world and all it’s mess. More true than all the rest of Scripture. And Jesus’ response to our struggle and question and despair is simply…don’t give up. Don’t give up on yourself…don’t give up on others…don’t give up on life. Jesus’ response…is an aching love…that longs to gather all those who are hurting, yes…but also all those who hurt others…all those who are broken and messed up…under his wings…to nurture…to protect…to keep them safe. Jesus speaks to Jerusalem…who kills prophets…who does so much wrong in the world..and says, I just want you to let yourself be loved, but too often you will not. Jesus’ response…to our ugliness….is love that persists. For everyone. For me. For the people who suffer. For the people who cause suffering. For the people I hate. Nailed to his own cross, he said “Forgive them…they don’t know what they’re doing”.
We don’t know what we’re doing. We humans…we mess things up over and over again…and drive wedges and build walls….we live in a world that has suffering beyond what we can truly grasp. And by some miracle, we are born…we live and breathe and love and question and muddle our way through…and then, by some miracle, we die. And what is the point?
I believe in Jesus…because I think Jesus is the only one who makes sense of it all. Because, in Jesus I see clearly that the point is…we love, in spite of it all. We do our best to stand on the side of love and forgiveness, goodness and healing, life and joy. We stand against hate and resentment and pride and arrogance and exclusion and ignorance. We love. And we trust that love wins. That God is in the love…God is in the healing. That is what …who ..God is. God is life that is deeper than birth and death. God is the source of all that is. I have always said that I simply do not have enough faith to be an atheist….to believe that all this …that you and I and the universe somehow came to be through pure chance. That is beyond me. So I believe in God…source of life…source of meaning…source of beauty and love and wonder and birth. And I believe that the goodness of God cannot be overwhelmed by the pain or despair around us. Because God’s goodness persists in the midst of pain and despair with a stubbornness that is stunning. Because it rises from the ashes again and again in our lives…hope out of hopelessness….new beginnings after heartbreak and loss. I believe in God…revealed in Jesus…who ultimately assures us that our limits of life and death are not God’s limits. Our limits of forgiveness…our limits of justice…our limits of time…are not God’s limits. God is goodness. God Is Love. And love never ends. And someday…we will all understand that. We’ll all recognize the ones who come in the name of the Lord….we’ll all bless the ones who come in the name of the Lord…instead of rejecting the ones who seek only to love…who seek to gather us all under the wings of God’s care.
And in the meantime…for now….God does not give up on us. God tenderly nurtures us again…even when we stubbornly refuse to be the people we were created to be. God never gives up on us. God never gives up on you. God never gives up.
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