03/20/22 - Love in the Time of War - Westminster Presbyterian Church Westminster Presbyterian Church | Serving God and others with open mind, hands and heart - 03/20/22

03/20/22 – Love in the Time of War

LOVE IN THE TIME OF WAR

March 20, 2022
3^rd Sunday in Lent
Isa. 55:1-9; Ps. 63:1-8; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Lk. 13:1-9
Rev. Denise Clark-Jones

No audio sermon available this week.

Daily, in the media, we are seeing the suffering and death of innocent civilians due to one merciless, power-hungry man. In our gospel reading today, Jesus was asked by a crowd if suffering and death were caused by the victims’ sins. The crowd is, essentially asking the age-old theodicy question: Why do terrible things happen to people, even though we can see no reason that can be explained by the victims’ actions? We like to think about life in terms of simplistic cause and effect. It gives us a feeling of control.

In our gospel reading today the crowd presents Jesus with two examples of suffering and death. They want to know if these events occurred because God was punishing the victims for their sins. The first is an example of suffering and death caused by human evil. The crowd was asking Jesus about a recent incident in which Jews worshipping in the temple were murdered by Roman soldiers. The Jewish historian of that time, Josephus, reported that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, appropriated Temple funds to build an aqueduct into Jerusalem. Many Jews protested. As we see with authoritarian governments today, Pilate vigilantly watched when people who opposed his actions congregated. He especially feared the Galilean Jews, in case they started a rebellion. The possibility always simmered because the Jews were exploited by the Roman political system and the Jewish elites who cooperated with Rome.

One day, when some Jews were in the temple to present their sacrifices at the altar, some of Pilate’s soldiers entered, dressed in civilian clothes, under which they had concealed clubs. These soldiers murdered the worshipping Jews and ritually defiled them when their blood mixed with the blood of animals. This is what we would call a tragedy caused by human evil. Today, we would ascribe this human evil to Russia’s Putin. Although the Russian advisors and generals who did not try to dissuade Putin are also to blame, we can put the ultimate blame on this one man, who is using his power to destroy Ukrainian cities, murder thousands of civilians, deport Ukrainians to Russia, and create over three million refugees.

The second example that members of the crowd presented to Jesus was a case of what we might refer to as natural evil – a terrible, unintended accident. The tower of Siloam is believed to have been a tower that guarded the aqueduct which brought water to the north-eastern section of Jerusalem. Eighteen workers were killed when the tower collapsed. We hear about these kinds of accidents frequently. Some can be blamed on human negligence, such as cutting corners on construction to save money or the foolish behavior which causes some driving fatalities; but the tragic loss of life is not intentional.

Jesus tells the crowd that the construction disaster at Siloam was not a judgment on eighteen especially sinful people. Neither were the Galileans who were murdered in the temple. They were victims of a brutal and powerful regime. The world is a perilous place in which bad things happen – some as a result of selfish human decisions, while others are inexplicable.

Remember Job? This wisdom fable from the Hebrew bible has God acting as the source of Job’s pain and suffering; but it was a test, set up by Satan, of Job’s faithfulness. There was no judgment. Remember how Job’s three friends sat Shiva with him, sitting on the ground with him and not speaking for 7 days, being present with him in his grief? It wasn’t until after the 7 days when they started trying to “fix” Job by offering suggestions for the cause of and cure for his grief, that they made Job’s suffering worse. In our pride that humanity can fix every problem, we have taken on the task of rationalizing suffering, when what God has asked of us is to walk alongside our brothers and sisters in the midst of their pain. This is how we love our neighbors when they are suffering from pain or grief. We see the ultimate demonstration of this love when Jesus took on the sin and suffering of the world on the cross. Here we see God’s response to human suffering: ‘I will suffer with you and for you.’ This is God’s perfect love.

Jesus contradicts the idea that God kills or causes natural disasters for people who are low scorers on a faithfulness or morality test. God is in charge and God has purposes, which shall be fulfilled. Yet within this ultimate reality, there is much opportunity for human freedom. Much occurs in this intricately designed world that we cannot casually attribute to a simple cause and effect of sin and divine retribution. Jesus said God ‘makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.’ (Matt. 5:45) God revealed Godself in Jesus to be One who pays his workers who arrive at the end of the day the same as those who worked all day, who forgives criminals and hangs out with adulterers and tax collectors but shames religious leaders. God does not follow our rules or expectations.

Jesus turns the discussion away from assigning blame for suffering and death to the need for repentance. Instead of worrying about why others suffer or die before they are old, Jesus tells the crowd they need to be concerned about their own sins before it is too late for them to repent and atone.

Jesus then softens his message when he tells the crowd a parable – the parable of the fig tree that did not bear fruit. In Matthew and Mark’s gospels, the fig tree is cut down, but in Luke’s gospel, the fig tree is given another year. The vineyard owner decides the non-producing fig tree needs to be destroyed, but his gardener convinces him to give it one more year. Then the gardener does all that he can to help that non-producing fig tree to bear fruit. Here Jesus is telling the crowd that God’s steadfast love is so great, his mercy so wide and indiscriminate, that he will give us opportunities to start anew and empower us to grow and bear fruit for God’s kingdom.

Jesus turns the crowd’s focus from judgment and punishment to our lives with God and our neighbors now. When intentional human evil creates suffering and death, we can work to alleviate the pain and make life more just for others. When natural evil causes pain and death, such as pandemics, illness and disability, earthquakes, fire, and floods, we can demonstrate our love by being present with them and offering whatever balm we can provide.

In these past three weeks, we have heard stories of the remarkable generosity of the Polish government and its people. Sadly, we have also heard about non-white refugees being stalled and treated with hostility at Poland’s borders. Some of these Middle Easterners are refugees from warfare in Syria four years ago. Others are students from Middle Eastern and African countries and India, who were welcomed to Ukraine to study with low tuition costs. The open-armed welcome given to Ukrainian refugees in Europe has been quite different from the resistance Syrian refugees encountered four years ago, though their numbers were far smaller.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus explained to the Pharisees, who questioned him as to what was the greatest commandment, that it was one two-fold commandment: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.’ He didn’t say love your neighbor who looks like you or calls God by the same name. He explained further with the parable of The Good Samaritan. In this parable, a Samaritan, an enemy of the Jewish people, gave aid and comfort to a man beaten and robbed while three members of the Jewish clergy walked on the other side of the road to avoid the injured victim. Jesus asked his audience: “Who was a neighbor to the man?” Of course, they responded, ‘the one who helped.’

Jesus told the crowd to stop trying to explain calamities or pass judgment on the victims and focus on their own response, or lack thereof, to evil. Jesus didn’t respond to suffering and death with theological explanations, he responded by being a healing presence. He put his faith in God’s steadfast love and trusted that God’s love would defeat all manners of evil, including death. Matthew’s gospel tells us that on the cross, the one who had not succumbed to any temptation to sin cried out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” There appeared to be no answer that afternoon. But as God spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts [cf. Isaiah 55: 9]. In God’s own way and in God’s own time, Easter came.

Thanks be to God!

My Story

“I believe in Westminster’s missions of service to others and I like how biblical scholarship is integrated with scripture, providing more insight into understanding what Christ says is important. These have only helped me to strengthen my faith.”