The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Lent 3C
Our Gospel reading and our reading from 1 Corinthians sit uneasily next to each other. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians that we should be careful and faithful, lest we experience one of the catastrophes that happened to our ancestors. We should be careful lest we blaspheme and get bitten by snakes, build a golden calf to worship and be cut down. Paul is counseling us to be stay on the path, because the path is safe.
And the words of Jesus today put a caveat on that. Terrible things happen to people, yes – but why focus on figuring out what their sins are? Are we trying to figure out what sinful thing they must have done to deserve their suffering? That’s a terrible thing to do. Were they worse than us – do we think we sit secure because, well, at least my sins aren’t that bad?
You know how Jesus feels about judging others. When we judge others, we are focusing our attention on condemning them, not helping them. When we judge others, we leave an opening for our soul’s sense of justice to rot into vengeance and cruelty. Jesus counsels us repeatedly to be on the lookout for that temptation to judge.
So, then, what do we do with what Paul says in 1st Corinthians?
Maybe you struggle with how it seems like God is quick to strike down people for their misdeeds. I struggle with it, at least. Don’t do this, or you’ll get killed. Don’t do that, or God’ll get you for it. That sounds fearful and exhausting! I don’t want to end up a bad example for generations to come!
Perhaps instead of focusing on an image of “God’ll get you for that!”, maybe we need to let ourselves think of the natural consequences for what we do; what happens as a result? When the Israelites start complaining and whining, they’re grumbling, murmuring: “This food’s terrible, I’m bored, Moses is a terrible leader, or maybe God dragged us into the desert to die.” St Benedict’s Rule points out that grumbling and murmuring are some of the most serious sins in the monastery. Grumbling and murmuring are in the top five sins that can be committed by a monk. Why is that?
We should be grateful, sure. But Benedict’s worry isn’t that we should shut our mouths and be grateful for the pound of bread, the cooked vegetables, time daily to read, and the daily wine ration; no, Benedict worries far, far more about how the grumbling and murmuring tear at the community itself. It starts off as an annoyance at a thing, at someone’s behavior, and then it slowly escalates. Some gather together to share their grumbles, and more and more grumbling gets piled on top. Soon the grumblers decree that nothing is good, that everything is terrible, and that one person in the community is irredeemably annoying, irredeemably incompetent, irredeemably terrible. Instead of finding a solution, or finding a way to live with it, the grumbling just tears at the community’s life together.
The message isn’t “be grateful or God’ll get ya!” but rather how grumbling and murmuring eat away at relationships.
Paul wants us to be watchful, to be careful. “If you’re standing, make sure you don’t fall down. Everyone goes through this. Even as terrible things happen, God makes us stronger than we think, and God keeps working in us and through us.”
But we should remember that this doesn’t mean that everything turns out all well and good in the short-term. We might not live to see it become better.
Paul gets executed for proclaiming the faith – and still he trusted and hoped in God, and Christians throughout the ages have been fed by his preaching. He scattered seeds that took root and grew. Paul’s life was not easy – he knew grumbling and he knew persecution (both committing it and being victim to it). Paul kept moving forward in hope because God is good, and God is loving, and God can figure out something better than we can.
So what seeds might we be scattering?
Or, if we don’t think we scatter any seeds, perhaps because we’re not feeling particularly good about ourselves today, then maybe Jesus’ parable at the end of today’s reading is the image we need to take to heart. The gardener doesn’t scatter seeds around the tree – he scatters manure, and either it will make the tree healthier so it can grow fruit, or it’ll fertilize the soil for what comes next.
God is faithful, God is good, and while we may not see the tree bear fruit, at least we are a blessing for the tree and a blessing for the soil. So whether we are good seeds or good …. Let us be good as God is good, and do what we can to be an example of blessing for ages to come. Amen.