Ex 3:1-15          http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=40805786

Lk 13:1-9           http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=40805822

Today’s lessons provoke 3 questions & a postscript:

            Is this faith real?  Does it work?  Can I be part of it?

1)                   Is it real?  If so, why do bad things happen?

a.       Slaughter of Galileans

b.       Accident at Siloam

c.       The loss of human life in the tsunami, at Columbine Hight School, in hurricane Katrina, in this week’s plane crash…

Jesus rejects a “what goes around comes around” theology.

He also repudiates “blame the victim,” “you create your own destiny,” and “everything that happens TO you is caused BY you,” variations on the theme.  He rejects our primitive cause-&-effect sense of the world, and the picture of the vindictive, angry God…

No, his focus is on faith and repentance. We’re called to admit the fear that “it could have been me!” and release that fear to God.  Move past the fear of life – to find the God of life, at Jesus’ invitation.  Personal righteousness (relationship w/ God) is NOT a magical force-field.  We have a communal responsibility to each other & to all God’s children, to hold each other in a community of faith and repentance..

St Augustine said:  “Hope has 2 beautiful daughters – anger & courage.  Anger at the way things are; courage to see that they don’t remain that way.”

We are to take seriously the parable of the fig tree, to use it as an examination of life, to find the God-connection.  The judgment implied is a lack of relationship with the environment, with what is around it – not taking in the water & nurture...  Perhaps the tree just needs a little help…

2)                   Does it work?                     

A little movie called Star Wars came out in 1976.  Some of you may have heard of it.  It’s about Luke, and ordinary boy caught up in extraordinary adventure.  His mentor is Obi-Wan, a strange hermit who teaches strange ways…  Obi-Wan has discovered a power in the universe and in himself – The Force!

            And we say “Yes!”  It’s just what we crave.  And so the film is a spiritual journey toward this power!  I understand that in a recent poll on religious preference taken in England, 4% of those responding listed “Jedi” as their faith…

Alas, Force is not God.  That’s too simple.  Because prayer doesn’t control, it sets events in motion & shapes the pray-er’s understanding of God’s ways.  It doesn’t manipulate, it brings one into deeper relationship with the Creator

Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple once said, “When I pray, coincidences happen.  When I don’t, they don’t.”  Obi-Wan controls Force in ways we cannot control God.  BUT – the story points to our longing for something more

Remember the question asked by Moses:  “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah?”  God’s answer is  “I will be with you.”  The Divine Presence is our promise & our power.

3)       Is there a place for me?

The burning bush is unconsumed.  And Moses is unprepared.  Not unlike many of us, I suspect.  The message is:  “God is near.”                          “Tell them Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh sent you”  I AM who I AM.  I AM becoming who I AM becoming.  I have been who I have been…

            God’s name is a verb! 

            To speak of existing is to say God’s name!

“I AM” breaks into history & communes w/ Moses, a murderer.  Just so we don’t imagine that Moses started out as higher and mightier than any of us…

            God continues to break in to life, to invite each of us to a different way.  The commandments given to Moses are a starting place,  the Law, to those who have wandered.  They create a  structure for loving God and each other.  Jesus refines the commandments – “love God and your neighbor” AND he gives us a new commandment:  “love each other as I have loved you.”

Yes, it’s real, it works, and there’s a place for you.  And when you “get it,” share it.

PS.  What about the tree? 

            When we hear a story we often place ourselves in the story.  I think this is true of the parable today.  Do you see yourself as the tree?  Your focus is on judgment – measuring up, making good.  Do you see yourself as the gardener?  Then the theme is compassion – reaching out to make a difference.

One of the journeys of Lent is to move from a self-absorbed focus on judgment to a place of informed compassion.  The world is quick to condemn those who “deserve what’s coming to them.”  Doing so denies fear, “It could have been me.”

You must find the vinedresser within the story and within yourself, within the Body of Christ.  And so say to God, “Let me intervene, give me a chance to help.  I think I can make a difference.”

Let us pray:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as the way to peace.  Taking as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.  Amen.

                                                            ~ Rienhold Niebuhr