Reading the Signs

Job 12:7-10; Luke 13:1-9

A sermon by Kathy Toivanen at EMUC, 3/11/2007

Today’s reading from Luke’s gospel opens with a gathering of people who are trying to make sense of two tragic events. In the first of these events, some Galileans were murdered by Pilate as they were making their religious sacrifices. In the second event, a tower fell on 18 victims, killing them all.

The group in Luke’s gospel who are attempting to analyze the events are leaning toward the conclusion that in each case the unfortunate victims must have done something bad; in order to deserve such a fate, they must have been worse sinners than those who have been spared.

But Jesus doesn’t buy their argument. He tells them that those killed by Pilate and those killed by the falling tower were no worse offenders than the group talking about it. The disasters that befell them were not a result of their behaviour; they didn’t necessarily bring these events upon themselves.

And Jesus says, that those who have been spared these tragedies are not better people; in fact, Jesus says, unless they repent, they too will perish.

You know, it is human nature to want to know why things happen. Whatever befalls us or the world, we like to find a cause and we like to be able to assign blame. It gives us some sense of security to know that things happen for a reason. Even when bad things happen; it gives us a certain amount of comfort if we can discern a certain order and predictability to the universe. When we find someone or something to blame, then we can rationalize the bad things and hopefully deflect anything bad happening to us in the future.

Sometimes we assign blame to certain individuals or groups of people or certain nations.

The reason I am unemployed because all of those new immigrants are taking away the jobs of Canadians who have been born and raised here. If we had a more rigid immigration policy, I would be employed.

The reason that that teenager turned out the way that he did is because his father is an alcoholic. As long as we live good lives, our teenagers will turn out ok.

The reason that those poor folks perished in the Tsunami or in Hurricane Katrina is because they built their homes on flood plains or too close to the coast line. As long as I live on high ground away from bodies of water, I will escape disasters like this.

Sometimes we put the blame on God - we make God the reason for tragic events. In fact we often talk about disasters as an ‘act of God’.

I remember being a funeral of a young woman who had died of cancer, leaving a husband and a 3 year-old daughter. At the funeral service, the presider kept trying to reassure the grieving congregation by rationalizing that the woman died because God needed another angel in heaven.

To those of us who are convinced that God neatly packages out all of the joy and all of the suffering in the world; to those of us who are eager rationalize the tragic things in life by assigning blame to others; Jesus offers a word of warning. In effect, Jesus says, you are no less mortal that those who have experienced disaster or death; you are no better than they and unless you repent, you too will perish.

What? Did we hear correctly? What happened to Jesus, the embodiment of God’s good news? What happened to the love of God that Jesus came to communicate? Where are the words of comfort and hope we long to hear?

Well, before we get all bent out of shape; let’s stop and take a look at what it means to repent. The word repent has a bad reputation - for most of us it reminds us of being scolded; it reminds us of doom and gloom evangelists who want to squeeze all of the joy and pleasure out of life. We have often interpreted repentance to mean wallowing in our guilt and our ‘worm-like status’ before God.

‘Metanoia’ is the Greek word for repent, literally meaning to turn around. To repent is to change direction; it is to change your mind; it is to change your life.

In calling us to repent, Jesus is calling us to change our mind about the way the world operates and about the way in which God is active in the world. He is calling us to change the direction of our priorities and the way in which we live their lives. In calling us to repent, Jesus is not talking about squeezing the joy and goodness out of life; he’s not talking about wallowing in guilt and waiting for the appropriate punishment; Jesus is talking about repentance as the action of turning our hearts and minds to embrace the wisdom and way of God.

And when we turn our hearts and minds to embrace the wisdom and the way of God, we come to see that God’s priority is not about laying blame and dishing out punishment; God’s priority is all about helping life to grow and flourish.

Jesus tells a parable to help us understand. He tells a parable about a land owner who is fed up with a fig tree which is bearing no fruit. The landowner tells his gardener to dig up the fig tree and burn it. But the gardener intervenes on behalf of the tree. He offers to dig around its roots, add some manure, and see if it can’t bear fruit next year.

Could it be that Jesus is telling us that God is like that gardener? Could it be that God’s goodness and love, that God’s patient nurturing of life in us and on this planet go far beyond any logical rational limits? Could it be that God is a God of the long shot and lost causes?

Could it be that by our standards, God is extravagantly wasteful in pouring out love and second chances on people and situations that we would have long ago dismissed as hopeless?

Could it be that when we turn to such a God, we are turning away from a mindset and a lifestyle that is prepared to quit and give up on life’s impossible challenges too soon. Could it be that when we turn to such a God, we turn away from despair and death and turn instead to recognize that with God there is another chance for life to blossom and bear fruit.

In the past few weeks, here at EMUC, in worship and study, we’ve been reflecting on our place in the web of life on this planet. With the impacts of pollution and global warming, there is much cause for despair about our future and the future of this earth our home. Like the barren fig tree in the parable, there are plenty of signs in our creation today that would tempt us to give up and declare that we can’t do anything to repair or restore the endangered life on this planet.

The signs from the trees alone paint a bleak picture.

Each year world-wide, we are cutting down enough trees to create a forest the size of Great Britain.

In Canada, our largest forest is the Boreal Forest. It stretches from Alaska clear across Canada to the Atlantic Ocean, and contains over a third of the world’s boreal forest. It holds more freshwater than anywhere else on the planet, and plays an essential role in cleaning the air that we breathe and in fighting climate change. In fact, the boreal is often referred to as the "lungs of the planet", and has a daily rhythm of breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen. In addition to providing us with oxygen, this process makes the boreal forest a storage house for carbon dioxide - the perilous greenhouse gas that is a large contributor to climate change. The Boreal forest is also the homeland for countless creatures whose health and wellbeing depends on the health of the forest. For hundreds of years over 500 First Nations communities have called the Boreal home. It is also habitat to rare species of wolves, bears, and woodland caribou, as well as half of North America's songbirds.

But Canada’s Boreal forest alone, the trees are being logged at a rate of 2 acres a minute. With hotter and drier summers recently, there are more frequent forest fires in Canada, and the total areas being burned have increased.

Global warming has led to other dangers to the trees, like infestations. The survival of pests such as the spruce budworm and the mountain pine beetle increase as our intense cold snaps in winter decline. Over the next ten years, 80% of B.C’s mature pine forest is expected to be lost due to the infestation of the mountain pine beetle.

And of course in other parts of the world, trees are a sign of impending disaster. We have all seen the horrible photos of the Rainforest where there has been burning or clear-cutting of the trees to clear the land for farming or developments. And in Africa, we have seen the barren wasteland of parched soil where all the trees have been cut for fuel or for use in building.

I have been in conversation with others who declare that the problems of the environment are too great; that we have passed the point of no return and that there is nothing we can do but watch the decline and eventual death of this planet we call home.

It would seem to me that Jesus is calling us to a different way of seeing things. In calling us to repent, Jesus is calling into relationship with God who is like a patient gardener of this earth and its peoples - a God who lavishes attention on lost causes. To be in relationship with such a God means that that we too are called to be gardeners; we too are called to lavish attention on what seem to be the lost causes in the world.

That means that we view even the smallest of steps we take toward caring for creation as an important act of faith; a sign of our trust in God’s way among us.

We trust that each small act - decreasing our energy consumption, monitoring our use of water and paper, planting a tree, buying and eating locally grown foods, recycling or composting - is important in the restoration and repair of this broken and torn web of creation. To be sure big actions are essential too; and we need to support organizations, governments and leaders who are prepared to take on these big actions; but we can’t underestimate the regular, daily routine gardening activities that God calls us to be about as we live in this world.

Just to get us started, there is list of 10 suggested actions printed on the handout you received today. For more detailed information, I encourage you to go to David Suzuki’s website.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org

In this Lenten season, may we all respond to Jesus’ call to repent - may we turn to and join with God as we work together in the garden of creation to restore life and bring forth the fruits of love. Amen.