C Lent 3. 2010                                                                         Christ Church , York

The questions are almost as old as humankind itself. Regardless of culture, race, creed or nationality, whether asked by an individual or by a nation, these are the questions that have confronted humans since they first walked upon the earth and faced the difficulties of life. Why is there evil in this world? What do we make of this seemingly senseless violence that plagues the nations of the world? What do we make of the fact that earthquakes strike without warning, randomly leaving some dead but others amazingly and without reason, alive? How do we understand the violence that takes the lives of so many on the streets in our cities, the accidents that kill good and honest men and women, the illness that strike at the heart of our families, sometimes taking our loved ones away from us in an untimely manner? Suffering and tragedy, illness and disease, pain and suffering assail us at every turn and we ask why! Why do such things happen especially when they seem so undeserved and the innocent seem to suffer along with the guilty?

It is with such questions on their minds that some come to Jesus this morning, asking Him to help them make sense of a few terrible things that had happened to their people. For men of Galilee had been killed, well actually massacred, by Pilate’s imperial troops as they engaged in the sacrificial rites. And Jesus adds to their questions by giving an example of His own – what about that tower which collapsed, killing 18 bystanders. But then Jesus compounds the issue by asking a yet more difficult question – where these worse sinners than everybody else?” To our ears the question seems to come out of left field, but for many in that time and even for many today, that question still makes sense. For when tragedy strikes, or illness comes, or violence occurs, it is easy to ask the cause and effect question – did sin, either of the individual or a nation, cause this suffering and is all suffering therefore the result of sin? When faced with the effect of senseless suffering we seek to make some sense out of it by trying to find a cause. That man died of lung cancer only because he smoked. That woman was killed in her car accident because she was drunk. That person had a heart attack because of their unhealthy life style and poor diet. The cause is explained because of the effect.

But we all know that so many situations in life cannot be explained in this way. From our own lives we know that the good have been taken from us by illness and death; that that beautiful mother of three was killed in a random car accident; that a Lutheran seminarian engaged in the good work of teaching in Haiti, died in the earthquake while his wife and cousin escaped uninjured; that there is no way to explain why the randomness that is illness, suffering and death assail some but not others.

Jesus acknowledges this reality and does not try to explain away the events with some cause and effect relationship; in fact Jesus does not deny that those who were killed were anything less than innocent victims whose suffering was undeserved and was not a direct retribution for their actions, sinful or otherwise. But if there is no cause and effect, what do we make of this suffering which seems so random? Why do some among us get cancer, others suffer from heart problems, others die tragically in accidents, or others live in constant pain? Why are little children struck down by terrible sickness and why do those who do good seem to be afflicted with terrible disease? The questions go on and on!

But having asked the question, Jesus does not answer it. For Jesus knows that there is no explanation concerning why God bestows gifts on some men and women but not on others; nor is there any explanation as to why God seems to withdraw such gifts from some and not from others. Indeed Jesus knows that there is simply not an answer to such questions. When Pilate swings the sword, the closest person gets cut; when the earth heaves and the tower falls, whether in Haiti or in Chile , anyone underneath it, good or bad, perishes. To ask why therefore is to ask the wrong question, for Jesus knows that there is a certain unfairness in life and that bad things will sometimes happen to good people.

So instead of answering the question, Jesus asks them to consider the matter another way, from a different perspective, calling upon them to interpret the calamities of life as warning signs. “No I tell you. Unless you all repent you will perish as they did!” The people came to Jesus to ask about life’s fairness. But Jesus calls His listeners to examine how they stand before God. Jesus discounts the understanding that God causes the deaths of these people in the Gospel story, or the fact that they died because they were worse sinners than other Jews. Instead Jesus calls all to repentance…everyone…even pious Jews living in Jerusalem …even pious Lutherans living in York . And the call to repent is urgent because we live in our sins and destruction will come upon us if we fail to repent. The question then is not about fairness but rather about where we stand in our relationship with God.

And that’s what the story of the fig tree is all about – repentance. The tree has not produced any fruit and so it is time to cut it down. But at the insistence of the gardener, the tree is given a little more time to show that it can produce the fruit it needs. In other words, the tree needs to change it life, its mode of operation and return to doing that which is made to do – become a fruit bearing tree! In the moral of such parables this then is a cry to repentance, a call to the complacent saying that just because you have not been struck down by suffering and tragedy, does not mean that you are better than those who suffer. Rather this parable tells us that if judgment does not strike us immediately, then such is a sign of God’s mercy, not His approval.

The problem with we humans is that we don’t really want God; instead we want answers – answers to all the difficult questions of life, answers to all the why questions, answers as to why some suffer and others do not. And we expect that the answers we seek from God will not too confusing or too frightening, for if they are we will simply look somewhere else. We would rather have a God who gives us answers than a God who calls us to repentance! But that is not what God calls us to! The question then is not one of fairness but rather one of repentance. The question is not why do I suffer, but rather when I suffer or experience tragedy, as we all most certainly will, where is God in the midst of my suffering. The question is how, faced with the pain and the difficulties of life, how will I survive tragedy with my faith intact. The question is can I trust God in the midst of both my joy and my pain. The question is whether I can let God be God on His terms rather than on mine. The question is can I love God without linking that love to the bad cards that life deals me. For God’s love carries no promises about good or evil, save for the promise that He will not allow anything worse to happen to us than that which happened to His Son.

So in this Lenten season, in the year of Our Lord 2010, we hear the words of the Gospel this morning not as a chance to ask yet more questions but rather as a call to repentance and radical obedience, a call to take a hard look at our lives and ask how we stand before God. Suffering and tragedy will almost certainly come into our lives at some point, some to a greater or lesser degree. But when it comes we ought not get sidetracked by asking the questions or how or why or wherefore for these are the wrong questions. Instead the story of the fig tree reminds us that life is to be lived on God’s terms and that calls for us to hoe the ground around our hearts in the expectation that it will produce good fruit. In doing so our lives will then be seen as good and full and productive, even in the midst of suffering and tragedy. Indeed with repentance and turning again to God life can be viewed as abundant, enlivened and empowered. For through faith and obedience, all things are possible with God and even dead fig trees can bloom again. Amen