3rd Week of Lent

Why Me Lord?
By Rev. Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY
Exodus 3:1-15; Luke 13:1-9 3/7/2010

Today’s Gospel reading seems so appropriate when one thinks about some of the most current disasters over the past couple of months. When we read this story out of Luke we could change some of the locations and it could read like this: At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about some pilgrims worshipping in Baghdad who were killed by a few insurgents. Jesus asked them, “Do you think that because these Pilgrims suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Iraqi’s? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those 700 who were killed when the earthquake happened in Santiago – do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Chile? No, I tell you;”
The question that Jesus was addressing comes as a response to the general belief of “prosperity” religion. As is commonly believed by many Christians and preached in many pulpits today, the Hebrew’s tended to believe that there was a direct correlation to ones blessings and ones troubles to that of one’s relationship to God. If I am a good boy and am kind to my neighbor, and I go to church every week and I follow all of the ritual laws, and I give 10% of my income to the church, then God will reward me and I will have a great spouse, my children will be many, and most of all, I will hold high position within the community and have a very large investment portfolio! If however, I do not follow the “right” God and all of his teachings, then I will be poor, and might develop cancer and my children will all be in jail because they can’t get a job and earn enough money to pay their bills. This is prosperity religion.
What Jesus was trying to relate to those asking these questions, is that neither your wealth nor your poverty, your excellent health or all the bad things that can happen to anyone of us is directly related to God blessing us or cursing us. Jesus is saying that it doesn’t matter who you are or how good you have been or how bad you have been, life is going to bring its rewards and its chaos, its joys and its sorrows. Pat Robertson of the 700 Club was very vocal in condemning the folks in Haiti when their country was decimated with an earthquake last month, saying it was punishment for their leaders making a pack with the devil. One of our friends wrote Paul after the earthquake in Chile saying he couldn’t wait to hear what Robertson was going to blame Chile with as a way of explaining this act of violence by Mother Nature.
In effect the message that Jesus is telling us is this: no matter who you are or how good of a person you try to be, just because you believe in God and do all the “correct” things that you think God wishes you to be doing, doesn’t mean that bad things will not come your way. The terrible thing about believing in “Prosperity Christianity” is that when something horrific does happen in our life, too often we lose our trust in God. “Why me Lord?” “What did I do to deserve this?” More times than not, I did nothing to deserve “this”, it just is something that happened. People don’t deserve to die in earthquakes; people don’t deserve to die in car accidents; people don’t deserve to die of cancer; people don’t deserve to die of AIDS, these things just happen and depending on your theology, your view of what God is and is not responsible for, will have a direct effect in how well you will handle the tough times that will come your way. If you think God is there to protect you and when that doesn’t happen, you may very well lose your trust in God. If you think that God is there walking beside you, then when something terrible happens in your life, the odds are greater that you will not lose that trust in God and your faith will most likely continue to grow.
There is a poem that became very popular many years ago that deals in a positive way in which to think about ones walk through life and the relationship in which one has with God. There is much disagreement as to who and where this poem originates. Some suggest that the source of this poem is the opening paragraph of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's 1880 sermon The Education of the Sons of God.[2] While others suggest that its origins lie in Mary B. C. Slade's 1871 hymn "Footsteps of Jesus". Wikipedia Let me refresh your memories with this poem, this version is attributed to Mary Stevenson, written 1936:
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”
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Jesus concludes this story with a parable about a fig tree that had not been producing fruit for the past three years and said that the owner was wanting to have it cut down as it was wasting the soil that it was living in. The gardener asks for one more year so that he can fertilize the tree to see if it will produce at that point. Jesus uses this story as a way of saying what will happen should we not repent. The idea of repent here corresponds with the concept that as repentant people our lives will be productive and not wasted. Jesus also said, “Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did, (meaning those killed in the first part of the story.)”
Jesus’ use of the word “perish” then holds a deeper meaning about our relationship with God. He didn’t use the word “die” if we don’t repent. In truth, Jesus was saying, everyone will die, even Jesus was on his way toward the cross to die as well. What is meant by perish is to be “no more” to be none productive, giving nothing that will last to the world beyond the time you die.
Death is something that none of us has any control over, even Jesus died a physical death. But what we do have control over is what we leave behind, the life that we currently live has all sorts of possibilities. It is up to us, as to what we do with our lives; do we ignore our personal relationship with God and ultimately perish because we did not nurture our Spirits, or do we chose to allow the gardener to feed our Spirit and enrich our relationship with God, so there will be fruit that is produced; fruit that will feed others so that they might also have the opportunity not to perish.
As we come to the communion table this morning, let us be thankful for each day, for this allows us to nurture our relationship with God. This allows us another day in which we can help the world to be a brighter and better place in which to live. It may come through the tiniest things such as a smile to a stranger or it may come through volunteer work down at places such as Broadway Bargains or the hospital or the prison; it might come through raising your grandchildren because of some problem with their parents not being able to do this task; it may be in teaching Sunday school or singing in the choir or doing committee work. All of these activities are “fruit” from your relationship with God. Sometimes we are tired and we do these things out of duty, but other times there is a fire within us that pushes us to reach out beyond ourselves. Either way, this table is the representation of not just God’s love for us, but also a reminder that we are called to partake in the act of living life, living life with God at our side, walking with us through all the good times and carrying us through the bad times. Amen