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The Rev. Frank Logue King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
The Grace of Manure Bad stuff happens. Bad suff is a fact of life. Truth be told, the main reason some people are not Christians is life. In a world with drive by shootings and hurricanes, the lottery of life seems stacked against some people. For no good reason bad stuff comes crashing in on good lives. Somewhere in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, a discontent brews. Then in New York and New Jersey thousands of families morn for their loved ones lives cut short as the World Trade Center towers come crashing down in a cruel collapse of steel and concrete crushing flesh and bone. And in Southeast Asia an underwater earthquake sends a mountain of water to drown thousands in a terrifying tsunami. Who lives and who dies seems so random? Purposeless. Pointless. Painfully tragic. How do we make sense out of the carnage? In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is asked to make sense out of tragedy. Luke tells us that a crowd was gathered round. In fact, he says, “the crowd gathered by the thousands, so that they trampled one another.” And Jesus teaches them many things and is telling them about judgment in very harsh terms. Just prior to our reading, Jesus said, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be required.” Jesus goes on to preach, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” He sounds more here like John the Baptist than Jesus. But it is our Jesus who is preaching judgment with words that would make a fire and brimstone preacher melt, much less an easy going Episcopalian like me. And in the midst of his talk on judgment we are told, “At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices.” This is a worst case scenario of human violence. Pilate has killed some people in the very act of worshipping. It is like someone coming into our worship and killing us as we gather round the altar. Jesus first counters the common wisdom of the day, which thought that when you saw someone suffer in this life, it was a sign of God’s judgment. He asks the crowd if they thought the particular Galileans who Pilate killed were the worst sinners in Galilee. And before anyone could reply the obvious answer of “no,” Jesus adds an example of his own, referring to some people crushed when a tower fell on them. So Jesus adds an accident to human-instigated violence. Then once again he asks if those caused in the accidental tower collapse were the worst sinners in Jerusalem. Jesus says, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Here is where I ask the question I often ask of scripture. Instead of looking at what Jesus is saying, I ask, “What is Jesus doing?” What is he trying to accomplish with his teaching. First, Jesus is staying on track. He was talking about judgment and he still is. Now he makes it clear that neither Pilate’s vindictive violence nor the accidental deaths are God’s judgment. They are the result of Pilate’s rage and an architect or builders miscalculation, to be sure. But neither of these cases of death are God’s judgment. What Jesus does is to use these two cases to show that life is uncertain and that one should always be ready for the judgment to come. For if you do not repent, you never know, the end of times could be now. That’s why I showed the video clip that ran before the Gospel reading [the video called Luggage from the Nooma series (click here to see more about this) talked about forgiveness and ended with a woman driving a car being hit hard by a truck that came out of no where] because that video is trying to accomplish what Jesus’ teaching is trying to accomplish. Both are trying to talk about forgiveness, while making it clear that none of us know what will happen next. Now if I get this sermon wrong, I could now sink us all into horrible guilt and lay on the harsh words of judgment until we all feel pursued by the hounds of Hell. But that would be wrong, because it is not what Jesus does. Jesus moves into words about the grace of manure. I’m not kidding. He’s talking compost here. Good earthy soil fueled by animal wastes. But he calls it manure and he likes the uncleanness of the word. You see Jesus has been discussing the religious leaders who he sees as bearing no fruit. Now he proposes what they need is richer soil, but he plays to the rural crowd, who well understand farming and he suggests digging around the fig trees roots and adding manure. Humor of the solution aside, Jesus is offering grace, God’s free, undeserved gifts of love. Jesus moves from judgment, to the uncertainty of life, to a parable that tells of God allowing time to repent. To repent is to make changes in your life. To repent is to turn from doing the things you do that you know are wrong. The fig tree should have produced fruit. The man who owns the fig tree feels like the tree is a waste of soil. But Jesus sees the unproductive tree as one that just the right conditions. This is Jesus way of teaching that he wants to give you the time you need to put your life in order. Life may be harsh, but he does want you to have the time you need to bear fruit, which means to show outward signs of living a godly life. Now if I get this sermon wrong the other direction, you’ll forget all about the harsh realities of life and figure that Jesus has just given you a Holy Reprieve. You don’t have to produce any fruit, just keep wasting the soil. But Luke is striving for a balance between the hard edges of judgment and the endless possibilities of grace and so will I. Jesus wanted the crowd pressing him in to hear him to know that life does include cruel folks like Pilate and tragic disasters like the tower falling. And while these tragedies are not part of God’s judgment, for those who die, they will then have to face God. Jesus wants you to be ready at all times for the kingdom to come. In fact, he wants you to experience the grace of manure, the grace of having extra enrichment to prepare you to bare fruit. Where can you enrich your own spiritual soil? Well in the disciplines common to Lent, which should be part of your daily life. You can enhance your spiritual nature through regular worship like you are doing today as well as through reading the Bible and through prayer. These are the ways you can dig around your own spiritual roots and amend the soil metaphorically speaking as you amend your life. As the video said, the hard work of repentance and forgiveness is not just for God or for those you forgive. Forgiveness and repentance are good for you as well. So knowing that Jesus has given us fair warning that life can be harsh and that is not all God’s doing. Use the time God has given you to make the changes that will improve your life. It won’t just be good for eternity. It will pay dividends in the here and now as you life bears the fruit of one who has found peace in God. Amen.
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