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P I R I T U A L F O R M A T I O N |
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CHILDREN'S EDUCATION |
SERMONS The
Third Sunday in Lent The world grieves today for the two hundred people who were killed Thursday in the train bombings in Madrid. People around the world joined together to express their shock, dismay, and grief, to show their sympathy for the injured and the families of those touched by this tragedy. And people around the world are asking why. Why should such a thing happen to these particular people? What did they do to deserve this? Why were others spared? There is an uncertainty to life that disturbs us. There is a sense of randomness-a sense of injustice-to the events of life. And we don't like it. We don't like it at all. One day some people came to Jesus and told him of an atrocity that had occurred. A group of Galileans had been protesting against the Roman authorities. And Pilate, the Roman governor, had had them killed. Now Luke doesn't tell us why they brought this information to Jesus. Perhaps to warn him. Perhaps seeking some explanation as to why such a thing might occur. Perhaps hoping that he would share in their sorrow over the deaths. We don't know why. But it certainly seems appropriate that Jesus would express some sense of regret or be able to give some reason that such a thing might happen. You would expect that from someone as caring and compassionate as Jesus. Yet his response is surprising, shocking almost. He expresses no regret. He offers no explanation, no comfort. Rather he says, "Do you think that because these Galilean suffered in this way that they were worse sinners than all other Galilean? No, I tell you; but unless you repent you will perish as they did." Jesus is not interested in why questions. He recognizes them for what they are: distractions. Why questions are one way we attempt to shield ourselves from the suffering of others, and even from our own suffering. Jesus will have none of that. He doesn't really care. THE question for Jesus is, "What is your relationship to God?" The novelist Reynolds Price tells a story of a friend of his, a psychiatrist. The man had been in an automobile accident that left him paralyzed, helpless, dependent, and suicidal. One day shortly after he was released from the hospital he wheeled himself into his bedroom and locked the door. Holding a revolver in his hand, he prayed for the first time in many years. "God," he said, "I can't go on like this. I will make a deal with you. I am willing to go on living, for the sake of my family, if you will give me some relief for my pain." The psychiatrist said that he waited and, a few moments after finishing his prayer, it was as if he heard a thunderous reply: "No deal. You either take life as it is or die." He went on to say, "That scared me half to death. It wasn't what I expected to hear from God at all. I put away the revolver and never considered suicide again." Life is not fair. Bad things happen. Bad things happen to bad people; and bad things happen to good people. People suffer, frequently for no good reason. The why questions are ultimately unanswerable. It doesn't make sense. The notion that only good things can happen to good people was put to rest when they hung Jesus on the cross. God's love carries no promises about good or bad; save the promise that God will not allow anything worse to happen to us than happened to his own Son. And the promise that whatever happens, he will be with us. And the promise that pain and suffering and death are not the final word. So on Sunday, when we come to the Lord's table, we are given no answers. Rather we are given the Body and Blood of Christ. This is the way that God responds to our questions-not with answers to flatter us or to make the world seem simpler than it really is-but with his life given for us. And, in the end, that is the only answer that really matters. David
Christian Exodus
3.1-15
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Chapel
of the Cross · 674 Mannsdale Road · Madison, Mississippi
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