| July 15, 2001 | Bruce Miller | |
| Isaiah 55:1-9; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9 | Tragedy... WHY? |
Have you ever wondered why Jesus came to us as a baby? Could it be because God was sending you a message say that Jesus is if fact our greatest teacher? But next in line after him is a child. Ask a child why they did something: how do they first usually respond? The word is CAUSE. Cause? Cause!! I am going to ask that you just remember that response for now, for we will come back to it.
I am not particular qualified by profession or formal education to stand here in front of you today to preach a sermon or to provide advice to you. But what I do know is that we all have asked this question at one time or another, WHY? This is a question of Life, "Why?" In fact it is probably a question that each and every one of you has asked more than once. A question that has probably been asked by everyone who has ever walked this earth. In fact your father asked this question himself.
You know the old spiritual is right: "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen." We see it every day on the faces of the critically ill, or the parents of a child fighting against cancer. We see it each time a drunk driver kills an innocent motorist or an accident at work claims another life. We saw it in Oklahoma with the bombing of the federal building and the fireman walking away from the scene holding that one year old child in his arms breathless. And each time, the question is the same, "Why, ...why did this happen?" "Doesn't God care?" "Why doesn't God do something?" Jesus himself asked that same question: "MY GOD, MY GOD, Why did you abandon me?!"
Never have words carried so much hurt. Never has one being been so lonely. God and Jesus had been one. And now they are two. Jesus is abandoned. It is more than Jesus can take. He withstood beatings, remained strong at mock trials. He remained silent as those he loved ran away. MY GOD, Out of the sky comes the words screamed by all who walk in the loneliness of this earth WHY?! WHY? WHY DID YOU ABANDON ME? That one three-letter word is here in this air we breathe right now. WHY?
The same question we ask, "why?". When the questions come, I am often silent. There is nothing to say. I know that preachers are paid to say something, parents are expected to say something, and spouse is expected to say something, aunts and uncles. I have wrestled with this question, when asked by my children regarding events they see in the news, events that happened to them, when their uncle dies of a brain tumor as his one-year-old daughter is climbing on him in his bed.
These questions do not demand answers. Jesus was not answered. They are not really questions for clarification. They are the deep anguish cries of the heart asking the only thing that really matters: Does anyone really care? In those tragic moments, trite words of worn out wisdom are not enough. Cliches will not suffice. This is a time for each and every one of us to be a pastor, to wrap supportive arms around grieving spirits, and to be the embodiment of God's love.
Yet in more sober moments the questions keep coming back. When the shock is over, and the sharp edges of pain grow dull, people still want to know: Why do good people suffer? Why do young people die before their time? Where is simple justice in a chaotic world? These questions are not new. They are the same questions people bring to Jesus in today's Gospel lesson. People ask our Lord, "How about those Galileans whom Pilate put to the sword at the temple?" Their throats were slit before the very altar of God? Why did they have to die? They were in God's house, doing God's work. They were like the worshipers at that United Methodist Church that was destroyed several years ago by a tornado on Palm Sunday morning. As the little children in their pretty Easter outfits gave their program, the collapsing walls of the church crushed them. "Why Jesus?" the people cried out. "Why did God allow this to happen?"
Or "How about those eighteen people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them?" the people ask. They were just walking down the street, going about their daily lives, no better and no worse than anyone else. Why were they singled out for death? That pretty well covers the waterfront. The Galileans were outsiders. The Jerusalemites were insiders. The government killed the Galileans. The Jerusalemites were killed by a natural disaster. Why did this happen, Jesus? Why? You see, events like we see today have been part of God's plan for a long time
At other places in the Gospels, Jesus gives a partial lesson. At one point he says, "God makes the sun to shine on the good and the bad; his rain to fall on the just and the unjust." He implies there is no correlation between behavior and blessings. The same good things and the same bad things happen to everyone. Paul says the same thing in when he writes, "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone."
Yet that answer is not enough. It doesn't satisfy our need for justice. Even the disciples asked Jesus in the presence of a blind man, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" They wanted to blame someone. They had to find fault somewhere.
We do the same thing today when things go wrong. People are quick to sue for minor injuries and aggravations. Some cases border on the absurd. Drunk driver with no license strikes telephone booth where a man is placing a call. Who gets sued? The well-insured telephone company. We have to blame someone!
In today's Gospel lesson Jesus turns the tables. The people have come to him with one question, and he asks them an entirely different question. His answer sounds harsh, and immediately you sense this is not a pastoral moment. I cannot imagine saying to a grieving family who just lost a loved one, "I tell you unless you repent you will all likewise perish." That is not the right answer in that situation. But in the cold analytical setting of a classroom, surrounded by critics and accusers, Jesus turns the issue back on the people. He doesn't give them an answer for pain and suffering because there isn't one. When a soldier swings a sword, the closest person gets cut. When the earth heaves and a tower falls, anyone underneath, good or bad, perishes. There is certain randomness to life.
The real question, the one that matters, is how do we stand before God? How is it with our soul? That's what Jesus wants to discuss with the crowds and that's the proper question for us this morning.
The people came to Jesus wanting to talk about the results of sin. Did those people deserve to die? Did they violate some divine moral equation? Did trouble seek them out for a reason? But that's not the question Jesus answers. Jesus turns the whole matter around. He wants to talk about the source of sin. He wants to talk about the human heart. He wants to call people to repentance.
He says it is not important to understand why bad things happened. The question that needs to concern us is, "What is going to ultimately happen to you?" Not tomorrow, or next week, or next year, but what is ultimately going to happen to you? How is it with your soul? Where will you spend eternity?
Jesus ultimately died on a cross. He didn't deserve to die. He was too young to die. He was God's own son, but died anyway. And the cross shatters forever our neat Christian notions that the good prosper and the bad are punished. Of course we believe also Christ won the final victory three days later on Easter morning. We believe in the resurrection. But that doesn't change the fact that Jesus faced the same troubles you and I face. He did not run from it. God did not protect him from pain. But neither did God allow him to be defeated by it. There are no deals. No deal! You take life as it is.
Our God is a Living God whose ways are not always our ways and whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts. God doesn't help us avoid tragedy. God is the one who stands by us in it and shows us the way through it. Jesus, his son, knows what and how we feel. He lived it just as you are living with it.
Some day someone will conduct a funeral for every one of you, or you will one day be here for mine. That's simply the way life is. Sooner or later we all feel our faith challenged by dreadful events we cannot control. The critical question is not how to avoid the inevitable, but how to belong to the eternal. It takes a lot of faith to trust God when life turns against you. God's love carries no guarantees except the promise that God will not allow anything worse to happen to us than happened to his own Son.
If GOD had to choose between your early safety or eternal comfort - which do you think He would pick? If you had to make the same choice, which would you make? When tragedy occurs our heart open to those who are experiencing the tragedy, we pray for them, go to their aid, open our hearts to them. This is how God would like us to live our lives each day with that same heart open to each other. So I guess the real "why" is Why are we reluctant to open our heart to share God's love? Why does it take tragedy for us to feel this love, faith, and spirit? The answer to these questions YOU CONTROL!!
Lets remember that no man ever said on his deathbed, I wish I spent more time in the office. But on this bed they do begin to talk to GOD. Why did I not spend more time with my family? Why did I not spend more time in sharing my heart with you? It is inevitable. We have one clear destiny. Father, Father - Take me Home, Yes take me home, As Jesus went home to his Father, we too will go to our Father. When Jesus called out "WHY, WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED ME?" there was silence. This is the clear indication that this is the answer to this question, the next time that three letter words cross your thoughts and or lips as to Why. How is it with your soul, your heart, and your faith?
That is why we come to the Lord's Table. We are given, not answers, but bread and wine. They are our Lord's broken body and spilled blood. This is the way God answers our questions about evil, pain, and suffering. This is what God says when some one dies, to what we believe is before their time or we hear an old friend has cancer. God shares with us a Holy Communion. God shows us the cross. God points to the future. And God makes us a promise: If you love me, if things are right with your soul, we are going to get through all of life's troubles together. We walk with faith, not by sight. Why? Cause. Cause that is God's Plan.
Let Us Pray:
God, 'Why' is a very powerful word. Jesus taught us that that one lonely night when he called out WHY. The real question, the one that matters, is how do we stand before YOU? How is it with our soul? That's what Jesus taught us. You are a caring and loving God. Please share your blessings upon us forever so that we may find and know our soul here now.
Amen.