First Presbyterian Church
Harm to Good People
Sermon for March 14, 2004
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Children's time: Psalm 63

Invite the children to act out Psalm 63.

A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
O God, you are my God, I seek you, (look)
my soul thirsts for you; (clutch neck)
my flesh faints for you, (fall down)
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (stay down.)
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. (look) Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. (hold lips)
So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. (lift hands, say God, God, God.)
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, (rub stomach)
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips (hold lips)
when I think of you on my bed, and med itate on you in the watches of the night; (lay down)
for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. (Lalalalala)
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. (sit on large paper right hand.)

Doesn't that sound good?

The rest of the psalm says this:

9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword, they shall be prey for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

It sounds mean, doesn't it? This is supposed to be the prayer of King David, who is really mad at the people who are trying to hurt him. What do you think God thinks about that?

Pray with children.

Let us pray: Blessed God, who cause all holy scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our reading from the prophets is on page 685. The prophet Isaiah writes to the exiles in Babylon. There were probably some lean years for these Jewish transients in Babylon. Traditionally, kings celebrated the beginning of their reign with a great banquet for their people. Isaiah calls the exiles to accept God's restoration. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Isaiah 55:1-13.

1 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your moneyfor that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

12 For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

This ends our reading from Isaiah. Our gospel reading is found on page 76. Listen for the word of God as it is found in 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. 2 He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4 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 ? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

6 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. 7 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?'

8 He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

This ends our reading.

Anthem

Jesus has been teaching the crowd, Stick together, help one another, mediate between yourselves; don't worry about defending yourselves if you are brought before the authorities; the holy spirit will be with you, and teach you what to say. Don't store up treasures for yourselves, nations do that. Consider ravens- God feeds them; consider lilies – God clothes them. Strive for the realm of God; don't be afraid; be ready.

So when he warns the crowd and his disciples to repent, I think he's referring to all the warnings he's given so far. I'm guessing they have to repent from preoccupation with possessions. Don't let fear of Roman law make you greedy; be generous with grace. Don't squabble among yourselves and expect the courts to offer judgment. You know what is right.

If human beings die by the sword, by accident, or by natural disaster, it isn't because God has arbitrarily chosen to punish them for their sins while saving others. (1)

Where does the idea that those who suffer calamity are cursed come from? One place is Deuteronomy 28: if you obey the lord, you will be blessed with children, crops, bread, and battle victories; if you don't, you will be cursed, you will have no crops and be forced to eat your children, and all your enemies will defeat you.

Those words would make you think that anyone who suffers deserves to do so. After all, look what's going to happen to the fig tree—it's going to be cut down.

When a disaster happens, we want to assess and affix blame. We want to prevent problems. Tiny mistakes we all make--overcorrecting the steering wheel, grabbing a carving knife before it falls to the floor, walking on uneven pavement, trusting an unreliable person with a confidence, skipping a homework assignment, oversleeping, mislabeling a container, leaving a door ajar-- most of the time don't have severe consequences. But sometimes they do, and we look for someone to blame. Sometimes we blame ourselves, sometimes we blame a person in charge. In the Galileans' case, it was a government leader, Herod, at fault.

But Christ doesn't talk about who is to blame here; he concentrates on what the people are able to do. Repent. Is repentance enough, without bearing fruit?

Sometimes repentance is the fruit we are asked to bear. A British pastor wrote: “repentance does not merely mean giving up a bad habit. What it is concerned with is the mind; get a new mind. What mind? The mind of Christ—our standard of reference; learn to look at the world in His way. To repent is to adopt God's viewpoint in place of your own. There need not be any sorrow about it. In itself, far from being sorrowful, it is the most joyful thing of truth itself, and you are in fellowship with God. It means a complete reevaluation of all things we are inclined to think good. The world, as we live in it, is like a shop window in which some mischievous person has got overnight and shifted all the price-labels round so that the cheap things have the high price labels on them, and really precious things are priced low. We let ourselves be taken in. Repentance means getting those price-labels back in the right place.” (2) William Temple wrote that seventy-three years ago. Christians have been learning how to follow Christ much longer than that.

In our gospel lesson, Christ tells us to repent with some urgency. The time is short, repent now. Start living a life in God now. Who knows when you won't have that chance any more.

If we look closely at the story of the fig tree, we see it's really being given another chance. The gardener is going to fertilize it and loosen the soil. With a little tender loving care, it may produce. One theologian said, “What may give courage to those of us who wonder whether our repentance is adequate is the role of the gardener. The tree must bear fruit, but it does not labor alone. The gardener promises to tend it and to watch over it, reminding us that repentance and reformation do not occur apart from the watchful care of God.” (3)

And Isaiah says “let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts ; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

God's mercy, God's banquet has nothing to do with whether we deserve it, but whether we desire it. Do we “thirst for God” as the psalmist said? Do we know how much we need the water of life?

How can we buy milk without price? The cost is just showing up. Have you ever prepared a meal or planned an event and worried no one would come? That all your efforts at hospitality be for nothing? I wonder if that's how God feels. I remember at the first Soup Supper this month, someone came who few of us knew. A member had invited her, and had told she would be welcomed. She came, and she was. We were so glad to have her. It's wonderful when people believe our invitation, and come. I expect that is the feeling Isaiah is attributing to God—A host who wants us to come.

The choir sang “Come ye sinners, poor and needy.” Once we have come, once we have known God's mercy, what then? How does God's mercy affect us? It makes us faithful, even in the face of great harm.

Chris Abbott is the twelve-year-old son of a United Methodist missionary couple based in Madrid, Spain. [Last Thursday,] March 11 he was on the train on his way to school at the time the four commuter trains were bombed in coordinated attacks during the morning rush. Nearly 200 people were killed and more than 1,400 injured.

Chris Abbott did not feel or hear the bomb blast when his train pulled into the Santa Eugenia station one or two minutes later, according to his father. “However, his car pulled in right next to the affected train…He saw the demolished car, dead bodies, severely injured people.” A man who rides the same train every day gave Chris a cell phone to allow him to call his parents. A classmate found him, and her parents drove them both to school.

Chris' father, Mark Abbott, is a Bible professor at a seminary in Spain. He asked for prayers for the victims, their families, and even those behind the terror. Investigators are considering both Basque separatists, who have fought against the Spanish government for years, and Islamic terrorists as possible instigators for the attacks.

He wrote, “When God confronted such evil in the person of Jesus, God did not respond with an air raid or land the marines or send a plague. God confronted inhumane and demonic evil with the Cross and thus broke the cycle of violence, hatred and revenge. May God give us the grace to walk the way of the Cross rather than the road of the Crusades.” (4)

May all of us continue to learn the way of the cross this Lent. Amen.

(1) Interpreter's Bible, IX, p. 271

(2) Journal for Preachers, Advent 2002, p. 27, quoting William Temple Christian Faith and Life, (1931, reprint London:SCM Press, 1963) 73-74.

(3) Charles A. Cousar, et al. Texts for Preaching Year C., p. 218.

(4) Bloom, Linda. “Missionaries' son narrowly escapes Madrid bomb blasts,” United Methodist News Service, March 12, 2004.