Lent 3C, God is abundant love, 3.4.13
M. Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
3.4.13
Lent 3C (Ex. 3:1-15;
Ps. 63:1-8; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9)
Some of you may know that I
am an alumna of Vassar College, and some of you may have noticed on the news
that Westboro Baptist Church was there this past Thursday. Their concept is that Vassar, in including
all types of people, be they diverse in ethnic or racial identity, or be they
diverse in disability or ability, or in sexual expression or identity, what
have you, has sinned. That Vassar is a
den of sin. And the response from Vassar
alumnae, students, staff, administration and faculty has been amazing. The acting president wrote a very meaningful
letter to all describing why Vassar feels it must stand up for its values of
inclusion and celebration of diversity.
And alumnae took this opportunity to respond with love, raising tens of
thousands of dollars for the Trevor Project, a suicide hotline for gay teens. One friend of mine, Carlotta, called it “turning
lemons into champagne.” Not only was
Westboro Baptist’s message of hate thwarted, but it was done so in a big
display of love. I am so proud!
But I also couldn’t help
but feel just a bit sad. After all, this
counter-protest was essentially mobilized against an entity calling itself a
church. Now, most people in their right
minds will agree that Westboro Baptist, with its picketing of soldier’s
funerals, is actually no church, no fellowship of Christian love, but a hate
group. And yet, I also know that too
many people who have been hurt by the church see the actions of folks like
Westboro Baptist as somehow a more heinous representation of the hate that they
fear that other churches might have underlying their sweet Christian veneer.
So I cannot tell you how
pleased I was, checking out Facebook on Thursday evening, to see a picture
posted of two young priests, a woman and a man, perhaps Episcopalian, one of
them holding up a sign with a quote from 1 John, “If anyone says I LOVE GOD,
but hates their neighbor, he is a LIAR (1 John 4:20).” My friend Christine tagged the picture
saying, “Our side can quote the Bible too!”)
Looking through all the pictures, I saw love, community, and acceptance. So my very secular college stuck to the
gospel I know and love, showing that God is love. Can I get an AMEN?
Now, those of you tuned
into the news anytime in the past ten years know that, at least in part due to
our crazy global warming, we have had some mega storms, some very damaging
storms that have destroyed property and lives.
And in response to basically every one of these, Westboro Baptist has
said, “Yay God,” you are showing those people how sinful they are.
But look carefully at what
Jesus says in this gospel. He is asked
first about one disaster—a bunch of people killed by Pilate and whose blood was
then mixed with animal blood, perhaps to further subjugate the non-Romans under
the Romans. And then he brings up a
group that died near Siloam in Jerusalem when a tower fell. One disaster was man-made, brought on by
Pilate, and another was an “act of God.”
Now, in both instances folks are wondering if these folks had something
bad happen because they were such notorious sinners. And Jesus says no. One might read between the lines here that sometimes
there are consequences to human freedom but it isn’t punishment. [1]
So the focus isn’t on
avoiding sin so that you can avoid having bad things happen. Sometimes bad things happen and there are no
easy answers. However, the lesson here
is you can die at any time. Are you
right with your maker? If not, repent
and draw closer to God. Work on what you
can control, because you sure can’t prevent bad things from happening to those
you love or to you, but you can control your side of your relationship with
God.
So it would be easy to just
point fingers at places like Westboro Baptist Church listening to this gospel
and saying, “We got it, we’re on the right side of biblical
interpretation. We have it all
together.” But I think the challenge of
today’s readings goes quite a bit deeper than my first smug response might take
me.
Paul, speaking to the
Corinthians in today’s reading from 1st Corinthians is talking about avoiding a
lot of activities, using the ancient Israelites as an example. And we might at first say “we’re not doing
that stuff”—we’re not doing strange things with our food or practicing sexual
immorality or prostitution. But if you
read between the lines, this passage is not about just avoiding certain
activities for their own sake. Again,
it’s not about avoiding sin just to avoid a punishment. The topic here is table fellowship and not
eating food sacrificed to idols, not because it’s about personal purity[2]—remember
the whole bit about whether the disciples wash their hands or not? But because it is about fellowship—supporting
your brother/sister in Christ, not being a stumbling block. If your brother or sister is trying really
hard to be a vegetarian but they love bacon, and you spend all day eating bacon
in front of them, you might need to re-think.
Likewise, if there is meat sacrificed to idols and it’s all there is to
eat, and you feel that you aren’t going to be tempted to worship idols and not
God, Paul says it’s okay to eat. But if
your brother or sister is new in the faith and feels confused or tempted to
turn to idols because that’s where it looks like his or her meat comes from,
re-think it a bit. Find some pita
bread.
So today, we’re not worried
about food sacrificed to idols, but perhaps it is about other things, and not
just the silly example I provided a moment ago.
At seminary, we were trying to educate everyone on avoiding alcoholism,
an addiction that is unnervingly common in clergy, and so every other week at
our community dinner we would have an alcohol free “happy hour” before we ate. Etc.
Point is, repentance is about getting closer to God, but since we
Christians are always in community, it’s also about helping others get closer
to God, not putting up a stumbling block.
Because God is about us
living the best life, the most abundant one possible. And we can help each other live this
way.
Looking at the end of
today’s gospel, you might think God is the one about to cut the fig tree
down. But another opinion is that God is
the gardener, nurturing the plant, intervening on its behalf, just like God
cares for each and every one of us.
James Alison says it this way: “Joel 1:12 tells of a barren fig tree and
a demand for the people’s repentance.
But in Joel 2:22, the fig tree gives its full yield. What God wants all along is for people to
receive the abundance, and he begs us to allow him to train our imaginations
away from fear, scarcity and the violence that is their sacred mantle.” [3]
We too, have so much
abundance, if we care to claim it. If we
focus on supporting our friends in Christ and not being stumbling blocks, we
may find that the Spirit can move in and through each of us, bringing every day
more abundance, more of the luscious love of God.
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