Temptation
is all around us; from advertisers who tempt us to spend money we don’t have to
our place of privilege that tempts us to ignore abuses and discrimination of
the Other. Lent reminds us of this fact
every day and, when we do fall into temptation and sin, it is our duty to
repent and return to the Lord.
This
aspect of Lent – repentance – is on display for us today in the gospel
reading. Luke relates two events: one in
which Pilate kills several Jewish worshipers; and one in which a tower fell on
18 people, killing them. And like Luke
tells these two stories, there are two things I want to address.
The
first is causality spirituality. Then,
as now, people often need reasons for actions because they can’t cope with the
idea of randomness. People ask, “What
did I do to deserve this?” Or they say,
“She must have done something awful for God to punish her like that.” Or they hope for payback against a person’s
bad behavior. This is causality
spirituality, and Jesus is telling people that’s not how it works.
Bad
things do not happen to people because they sinned. Sometimes bad things happen to people because
they had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes bad things happen to people because
they left three minutes late or early, or changed seats or refused to change
seats. Do you think those people who
were murdered and crushed were worse sinners than any of you? No, they weren’t; but unless you repent, you
will perish just as they did. Notice that
Jesus doesn’t equate sins with punishment or damnation; he equates repentance
with life.
One
of the things Jesus attempts to drive home is this idea of life. There are too many passages to quote, but
just think about how often Jesus calls us to life through him, or the Father,
or bread or living water. There are a
bunch of them. In God there is life.
One
aspect to gaining life is repentance.
From various parts of our liturgy:
Almighty God, who desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they
may turn from their wickedness and live, pardons and absolves all those who
truly repent. Almighty God have mercy
upon you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen
you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal
life. In him, you have brought us out of
error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life. Over and over we hear that repentance leads
to life.
With
the stories of the murders by Pilate and the victims of the falling tower,
Jesus makes it very clear that we are not punished in that way for sins
committed, but that if we repent of sins committed we will have life.
The
second thing I want to touch on is that tower.
Eighteen people died when the tower of Siloam fell on them. This event could be classified as ‘natural
evil,’ like that of tsunamis, earthquakes or mechanical failures on
planes. Sometimes things just happen,
and even if we know why, they still result in people dying because they were in
the wrong place at the wrong time. It is
the ultimate random act for which we have no control.
And
yet . . . that tower was built by someone, or several someones. There was some reason the tower fell. Whether it was poorly designed, suffered from
non-professional or shoddy workmanship, had its base eroded by water seepage
from the nearby pool of Siloam, or was just a matter of nothing man-made
lasting forever, the tower eventually failed.
Those reasons for failure may or may not have been able to be addressed
during construction. Someone could have
double checked the plans. Someone could
have chosen to not cut corners during construction. Someone could have checked the water
table. Maybe those things happened. Maybe not.
But in a theological context, the fall of the tower is an important
event.
We
are, in this passage in particular and in the gospels as a whole, called to
repentance. John the Baptist preached a
baptism of repentance. Jesus tells us to
repent, for the kingdom of God is near.
And today he tells us to repent so that we may not perish.
We
are in Lent, where sin and repentance are front and center. This is the season of penitence and
fasting. We are called to the observance
of a holy Lent through self-examination and repentance.
On
Ash Wednesday we recited Psalm 51, the greatest psalm of sin and repentance we
have. On Ash Wednesday we also prayed
the Litany of Penitence. We repented for
the wrongs we have done: for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our
indifference to injustice and cruelty.
We repented for all false judgments, uncharitable thoughts and for our
prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us.
The
tower of Siloam represents those towers we build in our own lives. Towers we build to show how important we
are. Towers we build to draw attention
to ourselves. Towers we build to prove
to others how holy we are. And towers we
build to accentuate our beliefs.
But
if we build our towers improperly, or with a poor design, or on a weak
foundation, it is likely to fall and, more than likely, harm others. And when it does, do we recognize the
suffering we have caused? Are we
indifferent to those we harm? Do we lie
to ourselves and others about the reason for its collapse? Do we blame others for being in the wrong
place at the wrong time instead of taking responsibility for our part in its
collapse?
We
are called to the observance of a holy Lent through self-examination and
repentance. Examine your lives and
repent. Repent of those sins that draw you
away from God. Repent of those actions,
those towers, that cause harm to others.
Repent so that you may not perish, but live.
Amen.
2 comments:
It is so interesting to compare sermons from different priests on the same subject. Our rector today spoke of second chances - the fig tree in the Gospel, the possibility that the Isaelites would reject God's promise to lead them out of Egypt.
My dad always said you can't ask "Why me when something bad happens,unless you ask the same thing when something good happens."
That's the nice thing about the Lectionary --- there's so much to choose from.
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