On the 29th of September 2006 I had - what some people would call - a near death experience.
I had taken a friend to drop his wife off at the airport in
All I knew was that we were driving along - passing a long flatbed truck when I noticed what looked like a piece of tyre flying through the air - next thing I knew there was a huge hole in my windscreen, my arm was sore and I was spitting out bits of (shatterproof) glass - it felt like sand in my mouth.
We made our way home - a bit shattered - slowly - through rush hour traffic - I hadn't yet seen the bolt that came through the windscreen.
* * *
When we got home, and found the bolt we realised - frighteningly - how close to an absolute disaster we had come.
If the bolt had come straight through the windscreen - and not hit the frame before coming through, it would have done some serious damage - to me rather than my car.
I realised that Ananias - my travelling companion, and I might easily have been killed on the freeway that day.
But we weren't.
* * *
When these things happen - we ask questions.
Why was I spared?
Why, sometimes, are people killed?
What do these things tell us about God? Creation? Us? The World in Which we live?
* * *
In the gospel, Jesus is confronted by people with this sort of question on their mind… what makes bad things happen, and he gives an answer - .
In Jesus day (as is the case in most ancient cultures) - the accepted answer was that the people to whom bad things happened had sinned - and they were being punished… (They brought it on themselves).
Think of the question in John 9:2 - Jesus sees a man who was born blind; the disciples ask a valid question in their minds: "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
It is assumed - if someone has come into misfortune that they are being punished. The same went in Jesus day for those who were poor - their poverty meant that God had rejected them -
* * *
In the gospel we read today people tell Jesus that Pilate (The Roman Governor of Judaea) had killed some Galileans while they were offering sacrifices at the temple… they waited for Jesus response…
Maybe they thought he would tell them the gossip - the bad things that these people had done to deserve the fate which they met.
But Jesus - as he dealt with the question about the blind man - quickly debunks the theory that when bad things happen it is a punishment from God:
He asks a question: "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than the other Galileans?"
And gives the answer, and "I tell you NO!"
He also mentions another disaster: The 18 who died when a tower fell on them… "NO!"
* * *
So that settles that - Jesus answer to the question: When bad things happen is it a punishment from God - "No it isn't."
I want you to remember that - because there are people who believe that suffering is a punishment from God, the witness of Jesus in the gospels tells us it isn't.
AIDS is not a punishment from God. Cancer is not a punishment from God. Accidents are not a punishment from God. Disasters - are not a punishment from GOD!
Some people disagree with me on this one - but I choose to stand with Jesus and I think I'm in good company.
No, suffering is not a punishment from God.
# # #
That's the good news. The bad news is Jesus warning which accompanies his answer: "If you do not turn from your sins, you will all die as they did…"
* * *
Jesus extracts a message from the disasters that happened and the pain which they cause: In a way the horrors of life - speak to us.
They tell us that the world in which we live is quite simply not the world for which we were made... Pain / discomfort / disaster communicate a message to us that things are not as they should be.
* * *
We allow ourselves - too easily - to become numbed to the horror around us - car crashes, violent robberies, broken relationships, poverty - things that should disturb and upset us become the order of the day. We have forgotten (too easily) how to feel.
Philip Yancey in his book Where is God when it hurts? speaks about pain as a kind of gift. He looks at leprosy, the disease which takes away one's sense of pain and shows how not feeling pain causes further injury.
A leper will wear shoes that don't fit right and those shoes will do horrible damage to their feet - all because they can't feel it.
A leper will take a hot potato out of burning coals - injuring their hand - without knowing it.
Pain sends a message to the body that things aren't the way they're supposed to be - and when we get that message, we change our behaviour accordingly.
But too often we become leprous to the world around us… we don't feel the pain, and we don't change our ways.
* * *
We forget to feel the pain that we cause each other when we speak harshly.
We forget to feel the pain of guilt that we ought to feel when we act dishonestly.
We forget to feel the pain messages which our body sends us when we work too hard, when we don't sleep enough, when we worry too much, when we don't let ourselves love and be loved enough...
We forget to feel the pain that a community feels when one of its members is suffering.
Or that we should feel when a community is divided.
Our whole lifestyle is built around avoiding pain.
We have learnt too well to subdue pain, pain that sends us messages - we keep pain killers in our bathroom cupboards, and I guess in the secret cupboards of our hearts…
We have forgotten how to listen to the messages which the world sends us.
* * *
The disasters about which Jesus speaks in the gospel are not a punishment from God. But they are a wake up call to people… a call to repent, to change the way you live…
Hurricane Katrina, floods in Mozambique, Tsunami Disasters - HIV and AIDS - Global Warming, a Bolt through my windscreen - not a punishment sent by God, but a wake up call to humanity - a reminder that life is fragile and we need to respect it.
They are a signal (like pain is) - that not everything is as it should be and we need to respond.
* * *
Having warned the people about their need to repent, Jesus goes on to tell them a parable about a fig tree that doesn't bear fruit.
Lk 13:6b-9: "The owner went looking for figs on it but found none. 7So he said to his gardener, 'Look, for three years I have been coming here looking for figs on this fig tree, and I haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it go on using up the soil?' 8But the gardener answered, 'Leave it alone, sir, just one more year; I will dig round it and put in some manure. 9Then if the tree bears figs next year, so much the better; if not, then you can have it cut down.' "
* * *
The parable tells us about God's mercy - although we seldom listen to the warning signs - we don't change our ways and bear fruit that is evidence of that change.
The gardener continues to defend the fig tree - telling the owner to come back next year.
Jesus' doesn't say how the story ends - I have a feeling - if he went on it wouldn't end… the owner will come back again. The tree will have borne no fruit, the gardener will defend it - the owner will go away - and come back again next year… and on and on.
* * *
How great will that day be when the owner returns to the tree - looks into the branches, and finds some fruit.
That fruit will come when we learn (as a community) to respond to the world around us:
To feel the pain that we cause when we forget how to love, and then to learn to love.
To feel the pain of those who suffer, and then to learn how to help them.
To feel the pain that we cause ourselves and those around us when we continue to sin, and learn (with the help of the gardener - who faithfully digs around us) to stop sinning.
* * *
I believe, that when we learn to respond to the world - as Jesus has called us to do - we will begin to see the
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