Lent 3C, God is abundant love, 3.4.13

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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.

[1] John Dominic Crossan, The Greatest Prayer (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 99.
[2] L. William Countryman, Dirt, Greed & Sex (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 98.
[3] James Alison, “Reflections on the Lectionary,” Christian Century (February 20, 2013), 21.

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