Tragedy at the Tree

Ukraine…

Israel and Gaza...

Sudan...

Syria...

Why God? Why?

Between us we could then begin to tell a tale of tragedy which would take in disaster and disease alike. This tale is one that is told afresh daily in places where the media spotlight shine, but also in homes next to yours but unseen or unnoticed until it is too late. Why God? Why?

But senseless slaying and tragedy are nothing new - what of those Galileans that Pontius Pilate slaughtered? What of those 18 who died in Jerusalem when the tower fell? Why God? Why?

And Jesus is confronted with the finger pointing, chest-prodding, lip curling, head shaking awfulness of it...

For Jesus, there is no causal link between suffering and sin. There’s no divine reward scheme for living well, no Godly loyalty points. Conversely there’s no, ‘you get what you deserve.’ Now He is swimming against the cultural and religious stream here, but also the moral one too. When tragedy strikes, we want an explanation. Investigations happen. Post mortem’s take place. Reports are written. Lessons are learned.

Those ‘Why God? Why?’ questions go right to the heart of our humanity. They always have and always will. In those situations we are humbled by our finitude and crushed by our mortality - despite our achievements. We look for someone to blame - and in those moments it is so easy to solve life’s equation like this: God is love. If He is love He just could not allow such heart-wrenching awfulness. There is suffering. Therefore there is no loving God. QED.

Jesus doesn’t comment on the awfulness of death and tragedy here. He will save ultimate comment on that in action in Jerusalem when He confronts both head on. Here Jesus reminds us of what we already all know deep down - life is unfair. It is full of random events in which people are cut down in their prime through no fault of their own. But bearing that in mind, that we could be snuffed out at any moment, shouldn’t we take any opportunity we can to discover how to live the time we have right?

The story of the fig tree takes this further. I am no gardener as I’yve said before, but even I understand this parable. If you’ve invested in a fruit tree, you want it to fruit. Simple! If it does not produce - it is worthless. We had an apple tree in the garden just like that - it was taking up space, it produced next to no fruit - we cut it down.

What is striking about this story is the patience of the caretaker of the vineyard. Give the tree another chance. Give it all the opportunity it needs - tend it, fertilize it, water it, care for it and wait to see. If it still doesn’t produce then yes, let’s get the axe. If it does not fruit - it is failing to be a fruit tree.

That patient offer to be tended and cared for, to see our lives reorientated through repentance, is available to all people whether we feel we deserve it or not, says God through the prophet Isaiah - whether we are rich or poor, young or old. This is not God offering a spiritual benefit to the socially excluded and downtrodden because somehow more deserving. Come and receive the mercy, the love, the forgiveness, the grace of God which He gives freely to all. It costs us nothing, and costs Him everything and through it, rediscover what people are meant to be.

Where is the loving God in the face of tragedy? He is patiently waiting. He will intervene in the randomness of life... but ultimately in judgement. Now this is where we can get jittery again... How can a loving God judge us? That’s not fair! It’s simple though - have we bourn fruit? A fruit tree that fails to fruit isn some senses is not a fruit tree. Similarly if we have not been loving, forgiving, giving - and not fed others with that fruit, then in some senses we are not people. It is on those standards Jesus indicates that we will be judged.

Jesus calls His hearers to repent. To literally see our lives turned round and oriented towards and shaped by the love of God. To allow our lives to tended and nurtured by His love. To be given another chance... This is not a vindictive God using tragedy to prod us into faith, but a loving Father, waiting to see how we will use the time we have - whether we will love as we meant to, as ultimately we would want to. Because He loves us...

Where is the loving God in the face of the tragic randomness of life? He is not absent but at the tree - as He was in Eden and again on Golgotha and is again in the New Jerusalem. He is always waiting... Waiting to see what we will grow, what fruit we will bear and how it feeds oth
ers... Amen.

Blessed Are The Chrises

 

When I was an undergraduate in Bristol , there was a homeless chap who sat on the pavement outside Sainsburys begging. I initially ignored him but after passing Chris, that was his name, on a few occasions, I always made sure I bought him some food and something to drink which I gave to him on the way out.

I got to know him better as I started to volunteer at the local night shelter. He had been a bank manager, nice house, happily married. After a couple of wrong choices he found himself in financial trouble which led to him losing his home and his marriage. He didn’t like being homeless but I remember two other things that I learned from him:

1. Once, in my early days of getting to know him, he asked me for money and I refused and told him I would rather buy him food fearful of what he might do with the money. He became furious with me, 'How dare you judge me! Being poor and on the streets is bloody hard - if I choose to spend money given me to help me survive by drinking to blot out memories of being kicked and beaten by passers by at night or to cope with the cold I will! How dare you moralise over me! How would you cope?' He was of course right - how would I cope? I could not blame him

2. As I befriended him I realised Chris also had a kind of care-free lightness to him and the way he lived in the world. He hated being homeless but was also so pleased to be free of life and its trappings. One winter I turned up at the night shelter and serving him soup he said to me how he wished he had a winter coat. I had an old overcoat that was a bit tatty. It had belonged to my grandfather. I didn’t need it. I had another one. In the morning I gave it to him. I still remember him walking around the dorm pleased as punch because he would be warm.

Jesus says blessed are the Chris’ of the world. Blessed. Happy. This isn’t Matthew’s Jesus blessing those who acknowledge their spiritual poverty - their need of God being the gate way to the kingdom. Luke’s Jesus recognises that the good news for a hungry person isn’t spiritual wisdom - it’s bread. Luke’s beatitudes always bring me up short because I know who the poor are, who the hungry are, who the poor are and so do you.

Luke’s account of Jesus’ early life and ministry is almost breathtaking. In the previous chapters, Jesus is constantly showing God’s love to the outsider - people with unclean spirits, the lepper, the paralytic, to Levi the tax collector, the man with the withered hand and many others - restoring them to health but also to their communities. Outsiders become insiders in God’s coming Kingdom. Even in the synagogue, a few chapters previously, Jesus makes it clear that his ministry is fulfilling that of the prophet Isaiah;  to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ 

Jesus said, '...Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven...'

Earlier this year, the director of the World Food Programme said that some of the most deprived areas in the world had now reached a tipping point of having “zero” harvests left, as extreme weather was pushing already degraded land beyond use. He said that as a result, parts of Africa, the Middle East and Latin America were now so poor they were dependent on humanitarian aid.

Many news outlets talk every day about the poor… the poor quality of our roads; the poor quality of our water; the poorly funded healthcare being offered by much of the NHS; only occasionally they will talk about people pushed into poverty by climate change, war or lack of meaningful work.

But why Lord are the poor blessed? Or the hungry or the weeping for that matter? Conversely, why do you seemingly condemn the rich, the full and the laughing?

The poor rely on others for support and care. The hungry rely on others for food. Those weeping rely on others for comfort and consolation. And they know it. They are a sign and symbol of the life of faithfulness to God because their entire existence relies on the provision of others. They know how to ask. Their lives are open in supplication. 

Similarly the rich, the full and the laughing need not necessarily rely on anyone. The poor, the hungry and the weeping are a sign and symbol of a call to the life of faithfulness to God to the rich, because they have resources and do not know how to ask. They have no need. They need to learn to live lives open in gratitude.

Blessedness is nothing to do with what we possess. It is to do with what is our greatest possession. Jesus is not against wealth and satisfaction, but Jesus’ point is that God does need to be. And Jesus’ woes warn us of some of the barriers to living a blessed life - a life where God is at the centre.

So how do we live a blessed life? The prophet Jeremiah in our first reading points to being rooted in the Lord. To be rooted in the Lord is described as being like ‘a tree by water’ (v.8). We are blessed when we are rooted in Christ. This stems from a deep desire to know him and to have him in every part of our lives. It means we surrender and submit to God. God is the one who keeps us settled and grounded.

Paul writes to the Corinthians, as our second reading, that we worship Christ who ‘is proclaimed as raised from the dead’. We are rooted in the one who not only is alive, but also the one who gives life. When we recognise that we are the blessed people of God, we not only live a life that is blessed, we become a blessing to others. It is impossible to keep God’s blessing to ourselves – we desire to live and to give of ourselves with real generosity, that others may know God and his blessing. The challenge for us today is to live in the overflow of God’s blessing.