Sermon for March 11th 2007

– Lent 3 –

After church, if you head over to the coffee shop and pick up a take out coffee you will read on the lid the warning – “Caution contents are Hot …” There have been law suits over the lack of such labels, and many of us scoff at the thought that you need a label at all to tell you, “when you order a take out coffee – that is will be hot …” I’d be more likely to sue if my coffee was served cold … Coffee and Hot kind of roll together …

If we go into most public buildings at this time of year we will pass little yellow signs that warn us – “caution, slippery when wet” … I’ve seen playground equipment that warn parents and children that they could get hurt if they fall … if we took some time we could probably come up with quite the list of warning labels and signs that are out around us … What continually strikes me is that so many of those signs are just simple common sense … Coffee is hot … wet floors are slippery … steep stairs are potentially dangerous … and playground equipment poses a risk BECAUSE it is fun …

The question that arises for me is – How do we live our lives in a way that we are not defined by the warnings??

So much of our world is hemmed in by the warnings – the “don’t do this …” and the “thou shalt not’s …” that we’ve lost our perspective on the possibilities and potentials of other signs that lay along the way – the signs that encourage us … If we are guided only by the negative warnings signs, what kind of faith journey will we have?

So from time to time it is worth pausing consider what story do we chose to use as we define our world?? What signs mark our journey?

Is our story one of “thou shalt not …” and “don’t” and “oh be careful …” and the limitations that that embodies – or is the story of our lives and faith to be one of opening up possibilities and potential?? And being open in the fullest sense, to the living presence of God in our world??

The Gospel reading has Jesus being asked a question about the demise of an unknown number of Galileans at the hands of Pilate … The underlying question being lobbed at Jesus is – did they deserve to die?? Jesus then points to the ruins of the Tower of Siloam and asks if the 18 who died when it fell were worthy of death, and deserved to die?

Now, there is an interesting twist in this story … We can from the texts posit the story in an actual place in the ancient city of Jerusalem … The foundations of the ruined tower of Siloam have been found and scholars are able to surmise that Jesus was likely standing very near to the site when he uttered the words …

The tower was just south of the Temple mount where a few short weeks or months earlier Pilate had ordered the deaths of hundreds of Galilean nations who had gathered on the temple mount …

Jewish historian Josephus reports that the Galileans came to protest the Roman occupation and heavy taxation and to demand from Pilate some relief and possibly independence. Pilate ordered the crowds to be dealt with – the soldiers marched on the protests with swords drawn, having been ordered to start swinging. Instead of running away in fear and panic – the expected course of action, the Galileans instead sat down on the pavement and exposed their necks to the Roman soldiers swords and DARED them to slaughter them … There are no accurate numbers of casualties, but Josephus reports that the heart nosed Pilate had relented and set the majority of captives free …

So, Jesus is speaking in a very specific context addressing a politically loaded question – “did these people deserve to die?”

It would be akin to human rights groups standing in Afghanistan or Iraq and asking – “did these civilians deserve to die??”

Or voices like Romeo Dallaire asking – “did these Rwandans deserve to die?”

It’s akin to assuming by our complacency that the poor among us simply deserve to be poor, or our farmers deserve to be struggling, or our workers are not entitled to appreciation and appropriate wages …

Jesus’ comments have HUGE political implications. He is standing in the shadow of the Temple, challenging the authorities and saying with great courage that it’s about living a faith-filled life … Even the question about the Galileans is a loaded question – the person asking is no doubt wanting to know if Jesus’ heart lies with those rabble rousers who had come from the North and tried to rock the boat – or did his heart lie with the status quo?

Instead of directly answering THAT question and revealing that his heart may well lie with the sentiments of his fellow Galileans, Jesus tells the story about the fig tree … In the story, the man, the land owner is impatient and unknowledgable, he is concerned about the fruit – he wants it in his hand RIGHT NOW, he’s not willing to wait for the fruit in due season, he’s not willing to do the work necessary for the fruit to be produced, and he’s not willing to trust the tree and nature …

Time, patience and fertilizer … and there should be fruit … but even then there are no guarantees. The gist of the parable of the fig tree is – the need for us to trust in God and God’s time frame … the need for us to be open – not to what our ego believes is right – but what God offers to us as a gift …

This week I was reminded of a funeral I presided at some years ago for a woman who died in her late 50’s.

I gathered with the family – her parents, her brother and sister in law, and her grown nieces. I began as I usually begin by asking them to tell me about their daughter, sister, and auntie …

There was something different happening – I couldn’t get my finger on it … then the brother admitted that his sister had Down’s Syndrome and was unable to function …

She had never learned to talk, and was like a child … So, I changed my tact and asked them to tell me what she liked to do … Then it came …

She liked chocolate … she liked presents … she liked Christmas and Birthdays … She liked balloons … she liked flowers – OH, my gawd said the mother, it took hours to go through flower gardens, and it would take all day to get through the formal gardens in Stanley Park because she HAD to smell EVER SINGLE flower … and the nieces said – “she liked colouring …”

She really liked colouring … her now 20-something year old nieces began to laugh and cry as they recalled having to sit at the kitchen table with Auntie and colour … “you had to stay inside the lines …” observed one … “and you had to share the crayon with her …” said the other … and they laughed at the recollection of how many hours they had spent colouring with their auntie …

When I presided at the funeral a few days later I ended the meditation asking the question – “couldn’t the world be a better, kinder, gentler place if we ALL took more time like she did?? What would the world be like if we gave more presents, spent more time smelling flowers and enjoying balloons? What could the world be like if we enjoyed more chocolate and cake? And how different would the world be if we each took time to sit and colour more often, even if we didn’t stay inside the lines?”

I quoted from French author Morris West who called Down’s Syndrome children – “les petite bouffonnes du bon Dieu” – Little clowns of God when he writes of their place in the world where in one of his novels, a small group of people have gathered as the Third World War is about to begin, and the one they’ve FINALLY recognized as Christ sits among them and offers them communion as the meal they’ve just shared ends:

Jesus lifts a mentally handicapped child out of her high chair, kisses her and sits her on his knee. He dips a crust of bread in wine and feeds it to her, morsel by morsel. As he does so, Jesus says:“I know what you are thinking. You need a sign. What better one could I give than to make this little one whole and new? I could do it; but I will not. I am the Lord and not a conjuror. I gave this mite a gift I denied all of you—eternal innocence. To you she looks imperfect—but to me she is flawless. She will never offend me, as all of you have done. She will never pervert or destroy the work of [my] hands. She is necessary to you.She will evoke the kindness that will keep you human. Her infirmity will prompt you to gratitude for your own good fortune, and more! She will remind you that every day that I am who I am, that my ways are not your ways, and that the smallest dust mote whirled in the darkest space does not fall out of my hand . . . I have chosen you. You have not chosen me. This little one is my sign to you. Treasure her!”

God will and does – work on God’s time … God will break through where we least expect it … and God will provide us with more than we need and much more than we deserve, if we are open to those possibilities …

Isaiah knew this when we spoke with such JOY of what God offers … Jesus knew this when he stood in the shadow of the temple and taunted the authorities … and Paul knew this when he warned the Corinthians to learn from their history …

Today is a new day spiritually … the day spreads before us … our challenge is to enter into the day knowing that God is with us, and that the vision Isaiah laid out is there – if we can only open our eyes and our hearts and our souls to the fullness of it …

God’s way is not about warnings and labels and limitations … God’s way is about openness, potential, care, compassion and possibility …
Do we dare to live our lives that way ??

When we do – God will show us a bold new way of living our lives and sharing our faith … all it requires of us is openness, patience, time and caring …
May it be so … thanks be to God …