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March 7, 2010 Lent 3 /A. MLC, Ocean View NJ, Hartmut Fege, Pr.

Is. 55:1-9, I Cor. 10:1-13, Lk. 13:1-9

 

First Haiti and now Chile.

First the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and now one not so poor.

When Haiti was hit there were questions about a curse. I haven’t heard that about Chile.

Insurance companies refer to earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural disasters as acts of God. Shame on them… I consider that as an example of breaking the 2^nd commandment… taking God's name in vain. Especially in light of today’s Gospel.

I do not believe that an earthquake that kills thousands of people is an act of God… it is an act of nature. Nature is morally blind, God is not. And then there are other examples of suffering…like children born with incurable disease. Some live, many die.

Harold Kushner whose own son Aaron was born with Progeria, a rare aging disease that usually ends the life of its victim in their early or late teens, wrote a best seller “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” to grapple with these questions.

In the end the Rabbi does not have an answer. He writes about becoming more sensitive and revising his theology. He even quotes portions from the book of Job, which does not blame God for suffering but leaves the question unanswered as well.

Mr. Kushner ends up saying that some calamities are caused by bad luck, some by bad people and others are a consequence of being human… living in a world of inflexible natural laws. Why do bad things happen?

In part the answer depends on whom you ask. In a recent OP ED column George Will said that there has been a tendency in our society to classify behavior not as a moral issue but as a mental disorder.

Having worked in the mental health field and the moral health field most of my life I think I am qualified to address both …

Mr. Will points out that the DSM categorizes oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) as a pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures. Symptoms include often loses temper, often argues with others or is often touchy.

He notes that the DSM omits that often this person is in his or her teens. The article’s main point is captured in the column's title “Only in a sick society are character flaws considered a disorder”.

You and I may not be as smart as George Will, but having just made public confession that we are sinners, we at least are willing to admit that, character flaws or not.

None of us are without guilt or to use a word from the DSM – without character flaw. George is right of course… but his conclusion is wrong.

Let me give you an example.

In her little book Holy the Firm, Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Dillard points out that:

            A blur of romance clings to our notions of “publicans,” “sinners,” “the poor,” these people (in the Bible – my words), as though of course God should reveal Himself if at all, to these simple people. Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one to send, or a clean hand or a pure heart on the face of the earth. But only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that our innocent fathers are all dead – as if innocence had ever been. And our children are all busy and troubled, and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made false starts. But there are none but us. There never has been…

She is right of course and George is right… they both expose the tension that we, who call ourselves Christian; we who follow Jesus – live with.

 “Only in a sick society are character flaws considered a disorder and not a moral defect… That of course is the problem…

So this sermon has moved from earthquakes to “why bad things happen to good people” to George Will. 

Let’s take another look at today’s Gospel.

Jesus tells us that there were some people who where massacred by Pilate on their way to the temple. “Their blood was mixed with their offering.”

And then he asks, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than the others. Were their “character flaws” more deviant?  No way!

Or how about those eighteen who where killed when the tower fell on them. Were they worse sinners than the rest of Jerusalem’s population? No I tell you, but unless you repent you will be as dead as they.

Jesus tells a story called a parable to illustrate his point.

The story revolves around the action of a landowner, a gardener, and a fig tree.

If you live in SC or Georgia it could be a peach tree. The tree was three years old.

The owner had been checking it out every year and noticed that it had no fruit.

 “Cut it down” but the gardener asked for more time. “Sir, let it alone for one more year. I'll loosen up the soil, put some manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, all well and good, but if not, cut it down.”

There are two lessons to be learned from these readings from Scripture.

First suffering, be it from natural disasters, illness, or of our own making is the way the world is. The Garden of Eden is but a distant memory.

Second, there is a tension which we all live with…

It is called sin.

Its antidote is repentance and forgiveness, to use two old-fashioned Bible words.

That is what the manure and asking for more time is about.

First Haiti and now Chile – between the two, there is more human misery than any of us can either know or imagine. 

Pain and suffering is part of what it means to be who we are.

Jesus, in his call for repentance, is addressing something at the heart of the human condition and you will not find it in a reference book on mental disorders.

It is called sin.

Sin is what lies behind all human behavior, good or bad.

The DSM can describe human behavior and even offer a treatment modality – be that talk therapy or pharmacological.

What it cannot do, is offer forgiveness. 

It comes with a slow and difficult repentance. The children’s ditty has it right:

Kushner, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” 1981

Dillard, “Holy the Firm” 1977

G. Will, The Washington Post. 3.2010