Here in the sanctuary, this past week we had a children’s chapel with the nursery school. I lead chapel for them every month. This month I decided to show on our lovely screens, a video of a children’s book. A woman read the book, showed the pictures and recorded it into youTube. A little boy kept looking around. He heard a woman’s voice, but he never saw her. So he came up to me as they are leaving and asked, “Pastor Jonette, was that God talking to us?” The voice from the sky.

For centuries, even millennia people have tried to make cause and effect fit into our understanding of tragedies, accidents and horrors. We try to makes sense of every good and every evil. In our efforts, we often put words into God’s mouth that God never said.

Today our gospel is dealing with the why’s of tragedies. Both the evil done at the hands of the Empire, with Pilate in charge. And the tragedy of a tower falling and killing people.

Some who were there and witnessed these events told Jesus about it and he said, “Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans? NO!!…” He continues, “And what about the 18 who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them? Do you think they were worse offenders than all other people living in Jerusalem? NO …”

Whether one suffers from the evil intent of others or from a tragic accident, we try to make sense of it by calling it God’s will. We want God’s words to tell us the cause and effect. Jesus refuses to do just that.

In the 70’s and 80’s William Sloan Coffin was a pastor of Riverside Church in NYC. During that time his son, Alex, was killed in a tragic car accident. Alex was driving in a horrific storm and lost control of his car and it crashed into the Boston Harbor. The following Sunday Rev. Coffin preached about it. He thanked those who gave food and cards of condolences. Then he raged about well-meaning folks calling it God’s will.

Then he went on:
“Do you think it was God’s will that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper…that he was probably driving too fast in such a storm, that he probably had a couple of ‘frosties’ too many? Do you think it was God’s will that there are no street lights along that stretch of the road and no guard rail separating the road and Boston Harbor? The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is, ‘It is the will of God.’ Never do we know enough to say that. My own consolation lies in knowing that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God’s heart was the first of all our hearts to break.”
As much as we want to hear God’s audible voice, or read a bible verse and say this is God, we do not get an answer to why bad things happen. The gospel we read today, could have been written on September 11, 2001. A tower of Siloam fell on 18 people and they died. Jesus asked if the people thought they were worse sinners than those who did not have a tower fall on them. NO. Is his emphatic answer. Many tried to blame it on someone they saw as sinning in 2001.
Whether we suffer at the hands of Pilate, or a deranged oligarch, or a tropical storm, this is not done by God or because God is punishing them, whoever “them” may be.
Some of the followers of Jesus were there. They witnessed the horror of Pilate killing Galileans and adding insult to injury mixing their blood with the blood of the animal sacrifices they were in the midst of sacrificing for God. You think they were worse sinners than you because this was done to them and not to you? NO. You think a tower falling was due to a same sex marriage or an abortion. NO. Emphatic No. You want to hear God’s voice. NO. Is the response to trying to blame someone. Trying to find the cause and the effect as though God is punishing those people. A young man careening into a river and dying, God’s will. NO.
Did they cause it? No. Was God punishing them NO. As you heard, though, Jesus doesn’t stop there. But, unless you repent you will perish as they did. Jesus uses the conversation, the tragedy to remind us life is short. We too will die. So repent now. Change your heart and mind to follow God now. You do not know when you will die. Either at the hands of an evil oligarch, or by some tragic accident. Repent now. Change your mind now. Change your heart now. Use the frailty of life as a wake up call to make that change.
Jesus tells a parable. A fig tree is planted and the owner comes and looks for figs for 3 years, none, no fruit. So, he says to his gardener, cut it down. Why should it continue to deplete the soils nutrients?
This fig tree is not efficient. We will cut it out, throw it away. It is not a benefit to the owner. Hmmm, created a department of government efficiency. Cut down the fig tree not producing. It takes us back to John the Baptist message of repentance. Remember John the Baptist said, “Even now,” he said, “the ax is lying at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
But the parable doesn’t stop there. The gardener asks for one more year. He will dig around it, and put fertilizer on it and see if it bears fruit.
I am so pleased to see daffodils blooming at the parsonage and on the road between the church and Barren road. Many of you are gardeners and you know it helps if you add nutrients or good soil and water and sunlight and all that it needs to bloom.
We often do not think of the nurture needed to tend our souls. It is not our place to put God’s words on a tragedy to explain away the events and the suffering of others. It is our place during this Lenten season to remember life is short and we too will die, therefore let us not delay attention to our souls. Let us repent now. Let us change our hearts now. Let us look to God and God’s way of seeing and being in the world to live a fruitful life.
There is an intentional number in the parable. The fig tree did not produce for 3 years. Jesus was in ministry for 3 years. The gardener wants to nurture the tree for one more year. This reminds me of the resurrected Jesus being mistaken as a gardener by Mary at the tomb on Easter morning. Jesus died and rose again on the third day.
Jesus, the gardener isn’t giving up on us. There is urgency yes. But it is not about looking around and trying to see the cause and effect of someone else. It is to look within. And maybe, this is the year. Maybe this is the year of the fig. Maybe this is year the fruit will produce. May it be so. AMEN.